Chapter 1060: Meeting Royals
After breakfast, the group made their way towards the main hall where Nalem was already waiting. There was a serious look on his face as he spared little in the way of pleasantries.
He was surprised to see Alice but it amounted to nothing more than a slight nod as a greeting. They couldn’t spend too much time talking since the royal family was waiting on the other side of these doors.
Even without entering, Alice could sense what it was like on the other side. It wasn’t crowded.
Far from it.
No nobles, no audience.
Only four figures out in the open and a few... hidden surprises scattered around the room.
As the doors to the hall parted ways, the group was greeted by a pristine hall filled with towering windows, chandeliers adorned with jewellery and pillars of marble that held up the ceiling.
Sat on the main throne was the king. Aleric Extalia.
Like the picture that Lab showed her not long ago, he was a middle aged man with a gentle smile. A pair of sharp eyes that made it hard to maintain eye contact despite his friendly demeanour in this moment.
Six known Sigils and yet...
Alice narrowed her eyes slightly.
The King was Lord level.
Eight Sigils hovered above his head.
Next was his wife. Vivian Extalia. A distinguished lady from the Varyn family, personally selected by the King’s mother. Rarely made a public appearance and was mostly responsible for deals behind closed doors.
She hid the lower half of her face behind a crimson fan while her bright crimson hair contrasted the dark material of the throne behind her.
Her pitch black eyes swept over the party as Elias shivered and kept his eyes focused on the ground.
Eyes devoid of warmth.
As for her Sigils, she only had five Sigils hovering above her head. Though it made sense considering there’s no need for the Queen to fight when the King is a Lord level being, not to mention the guards with him.
Beneath the King and Queen were the Prince and Princess.
One of which she’s met just the other day. Ruri Extalia.
She tried to keep her composure but the moment she saw Alice, she turned her gaze away while sweat rolled down her cheek.
Her avoidance of Alice wasn’t unnoticed as her brother smirked and focused on the split haired girl.
Damien Extalia.
Unlike Lab’s reports, he wasn’t maintaining his appearance of a lazy unmotivated genius. In fact, he was making his caution and aura well known. His presence was on a similar level to his father and it was clear that he was being groomed into the next King.
And most evident of what was the seven Sigils hovering above his head.
Another Lord!
Alice exhaled softly.
The King had Eight Sigils while the Prince had Seven. The Princess was slacking but that’s probably because she had little to no interest in raw power but rather focused on her own hobbies.
Just the King and Prince would have most people on guard however...
There were other figures in this room.
Two guards stood on either side of the royals. One was an elf, shown by the pointed ears poking out from the hair.
She had pale green hair that was closer to white than green. Her hair only reached her shoulders with two clusters around the back reading past her waist.
A pair of emerald eyes and what seemed to be prosthetics attached across her body. She wore a rather revealing white dress and sleeves while silver armour adorned her shoulders, torso, arms and legs.
As for her power...
Though controlled to an absurd degree, Alice could still see it.
The rushing waves of energy hidden within her vessel.
The power that awaited instruction and her calmness despite four Lords in their group.
A peak Lord with nine Sigils!
An elf that stood at the summit of the mortal realm, just below the threshold of Apostles.
But that wasn’t the worst news. It wasn’t just one Peak Lord.
No.
On the opposite side, another peak Lord stood. The upper half of his face was concealed by a black pointed mask. Housed in the centre of that mask was a strange golden face with its eyes closed.
Beneath that mask, long strands of dark hair was allowed to flow freely to his lower back. He wore a smart attire, consisting of a black suit, black shirt and black pants. All adorned with gold accessories and golden buttons.
A furred cloak was draped around his shoulder while a sword hung on his waist.
Alice wasn’t sure if that sword was purely decorative or his actual weapon but it seemed to be a ’regular’ sword with no additional properties.
A strange sight as most Hunters past a certain point would use weapons conjured by their abilities.
Rarely would they find a blacksmith talented enough to create a weapon that won’t be broken easily.
With two Peak Lords guarding the Royals, most would think that this would be sufficient.
And they would be correct except...
Alice noticed a third presence.
Thanks to Cayla, she was able to peer into the strands of energy that permeated this room.
And hidden within the cluster of energy barely released by the Lords, carefully camouflaging itself was a third signature.
A hidden Lord who deliberately entangled their aura with the other two in order to conceal their presence.
Even if other Lord were to try their best, they would be undiscovered. The only exception being the abnormality that was Alice and her eyes that could see energy.
Alice forcefully calmed herself.
That third Signature felt... dangerous.
It wasn’t a case where it was stronger or that it had a creepy outline. Instead, it was her hunch. A gut instinct. Something warned her not to take that third signature lightly.
There was... ’Something’ that made it stand out against the other two Peak Lords.
Something that unnerved Alice to the point she unconsciously clenched her fist.
Then, she felt a hand holding her own and glanced up slightly.
It was Allura.
There was a smile on her face, reassuring her that everything will be fine.
After all, their group weren’t lacking for firepower. Appearance wise, they were outnumbered in terms of Lords but that would be incorrect.
As Alice can quickly upgrade herself to reach the level of one and overturn the battle.
Taking a deep breath to calm her mind, she observed the King.
"It seems like your group has grown quite a bit since I last checked." The King stop first with a smile.
He had heard from his daughter about the clash above the city. Not that he needed her to report after all.
In order to maintain order, he had his retainers deploy a barrier to keep the battle hidden. And if things had gotten too out of hand, he would’ve involved himself instead of letting Allura’s group handle everything.
He had his assumptions but seeing all of them gathered together, his assumptions proved to be true.
"However, I’m sure pleasantries of the court will bore guests such as yourself. So let us discuss the issue at hand without unnecessary formalities." He spoke with a slight laugh while the Queen gave her husband a slight nudge with her elbow.
Nalem took the lead, laying out the conditions that they’ve drafted thus far.
What the Kingdom of Extalia desires in this moment is simple.
First, to destroy the Nightmare spreading across the nation.
A realm like that couldn’t be left to expand at will. Not only that, but granting such power everyone was the quickest method to cause chaos.
When a hooligan could access power rivalling that of Six Sigil hunters, it’s little wonder that even the average civilian are quick to throw themselves into the Nightmare for ’safety’.
But doing so only risks foreign entities from taking over their body.
A sign that the King wished not to see.
The second issue, would be the rebellion led by the Zenia family. It’s clear that the family had discarded their masks and revealed their true intentions.
Ignoring everything else the King might desire, these two were the most pressing matters plaguing Extalia.
The good news for the group is that both objects coincide with what they want to deal with as well.
Namely, Nyer’s connection with everything.
But before they could continue with the agreement, the Queen closed her fan.
"Had things remained the way they were, I’m sure we would have no problems with allowing you knowledge on the secrets we hold within this country. Secrets that may serve well as a weapon towards this threat that we now face." She spoke and the King didn’t stop her.
After all, her concerns were also his own.
There was one glaring issue they haven’t addressed since the start of this discussion.
With the Queen interrupting the meeting, Nalem furrowed his brows.
By his calculations, this meeting should’ve proceeded smoothly as most of the work had already been handled by him before Alice’s group arrived.
"However..." She narrowed her eyes.
"Among you walks a daughter of Zenia. With the Zenia family as our enemy, how can you bring a potential enemy into our midst? I’m sure I needn’t warn you of the contracts that the Zenia family employ within their group. One that makes it extremely difficult to disobey the hierarchy unless you have a method of cancelling the contract."
Turning her gaze to Alice, the Queen lifted her head slightly.
"Alice Zenia, can you prove that you won’t become a weapon against our cause?"
Both of the guards beside the royals started to apply pressure towards Alice while Karya and Gin frowned.
Before any of them could do anything, Allura was the first to act as she stood up and lit a cigarette.
Exhaling a cloud of smoke, she glared at the two Guards. Even without using her energy, Allura’s presence as an Apostle was hard to ignore.
Without losing her smile, she lifted Alice and brought her close to her side.
"I think you’re mistaking something." Allura chuckled, brushing her hair back.
"She walks here not as a daughter of Zenia but as one of Agnelia. Her name is Alice Agnelia so don’t you forget that."
Both Gin and Karya stepped forward as Allura smirked.
"And she’s MY daughter, your highness."
