Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The Royal Family’s Attention
At that thought, Isabella felt her blood start to boil.
As an information broker, she knew better than anyone how much this piece of information was worth.
If she could dig out the secret hidden in Arthur...
Forget the Kingdom of Oran.
Even the whole continent of Elderia would be turned upside down by it!!
Those lofty Archmage Saints, those Archmage Saints, would come charging in like mad wild dogs!!
"No wonder even that old man Alberto was scared and treated this like a great enemy."
"No wonder the Holy Empire’s knight order and the Glacial Empire’s Grand Archmagus rushed to the royal capital overnight."
Sticking out her red tongue, Isabella lightly licked her sexy lips.
She knew this mess ran very deep.
So deep that if she was not careful, even she, the Queen of Shadow Street, could drown in it.
But risk often came with gains beyond measure.
If she could get Arthur’s secret before all those powerful people...
"Ordinary spies can’t even get close to the door of his dorm."
"Those stupid noble students are only fit to be the stones under his feet."
She suddenly turned around and walked toward a full-length mirror in the corner of the room.
In the mirror, her proud figure and stunning mixed-blood face were reflected back at her.
She raised a hand and slowly undid the clasps of her black leather armor.
The armor slid down, showing a large stretch of snow-white skin.
"Looks like this queen will have to do it herself."
A breathtakingly charming smile curled at Isabella’s lips.
"Men, after all."
"No matter how terrifying the magic he controls is."
"In the end, he’s still just a hot-blooded eighteen-year-old boy."
She opened the wardrobe, her fingers brushing over rows of gorgeous clothes.
In the end, she picked out a high-grade Archmagus robe marked with the crest of Lancelot Royal Academy of Magic.
This was a special robe enchanted with an "Advanced Disguise Spell" and "Aura Concealment."
As long as she wore it, she would no longer be the black market queen of Shadow Street.
Instead, she would become a proper, elegant librarian at the academy, full of mature charm.
"Arthur Voss."
She draped the robe over herself, and Isabella’s slender fingers slowly fastened the buttons at the collar.
The woman in the mirror changed completely in an instant.
From a deadly and dangerous female assassin, she became a gentle and refined scholar wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
Only in the depths of those amber eyes did a hunter’s slyness still remain.
"In this world, no one can resist the pull of the unknown."
"You won’t be an exception either."
"I’ll squeeze every last thing out of that brain of yours, little by little."
Pushing up the gold-rimmed glasses on her nose, the most dangerous information broker in the royal capital’s underground world finally locked her greedy gaze completely onto the boy who had just shocked the whole continent.
An invisible net was quietly spreading open in the night.
And at this moment, Arthur was lying on the soft, comfortable bed in Starspire Spire.
Sleeping like a dead pig with no worries at all.
Completely unaware that he had already been targeted by the most troublesome woman in the world.
When the first ray of morning light broke through the thin mist and fell on the highest point of the Kingdom of Oran,
the air inside the solemn Dawn Royal Palace was so cold it felt like ice could form in it.
In the huge round council hall, not a single sound could be heard.
Twelve white marble pillars, carved with the great deeds of past kings, stood in silence, watching the fierce clash between the kingdom’s top officials at the long table.
"Bang!"
A thunderous crash shattered the dead silence.
General Thorne, the Minister of War, slammed his hand hard onto the round table made from century-old ironwood. He had a full beard, a black eyepatch over his left eye, and his face was twisted with rage.
Even without using battle aura, the terrible strength of his body alone made the whole table shake hard.
"Your Majesty!!"
"That kid named Arthur Voss is basically a living human siege beast!!"
General Thorne’s only remaining right eye was wide open. The bloodshot eyeball burned with wild excitement and restless fear.
"According to the spies hiding around the academy, the crater left behind during the awakening ceremony that day was a full five hundred meters wide!!"
"Five hundred meters!!"
"And even now, the soil there is still giving off enough heat to melt refined steel!!"
Thorne suddenly turned around, his thick finger almost jabbing the nose of the minister across from him.
"A monster like that, a final weapon that can wipe out a whole heavy cavalry unit by himself, should be drafted into the army at once!!"
"Hand him over to me!!"
"I’ll personally take him to the camp at Icewind Valley in the North!!"
"As long as our military gets hold of the secret behind that 9th-Level Forbidden Spell, the Holy Empire, the Glacial Empire, all of them will tremble under the iron hooves of the Kingdom of Oran!!"
The moment Thorne finished speaking, a wave of sharp gasps spread through the council hall.
Quite a few war-loving nobles and military officers lit up with excitement, as if they could already see the glorious future of the Kingdom of Oran ruling the whole continent.
"Utterly stupid!!"
A sharp and chilling voice cut through Thorne’s dream of war without the slightest mercy.
The one who spoke was Count Voran, the kingdom’s Justiciar, seated on the other side of the round table.
The old man wore a rich purple silk robe, and his face was so gaunt he looked almost like a dried corpse. He was staring at General Thorne as if he were looking at a complete fool.
"Thorne, is that muscle-packed brain of yours so empty that even the last drop of brain matter has boiled away??"
Lifting the fine porcelain teacup in front of him, Justiciar Voran let out a slow, cold laugh.
"Draft him into the army??"
"On what grounds??"
"With those ordinary soldiers under your command who can’t even block a single burst of fireballs??"
He set the teacup down hard on its tray, making a sharp, piercing clink.
"Do you even know what things look like outside the royal capital right now??"
"The Holy Empire’s youngest Archmage, Saint Rodriguez, has brought a full five hundred Knights of the Holy Order, and they’re less than two hundred kilometers from our border!!"
"And that madman Ivanov from the Glacial Empire has directly sent out an entire squad of wyvern riders. They’re already testing our air defense line like lunatics!!"
His gaze swept across the whole hall, and Justiciar Voran’s voice suddenly rose.
"What are they here for??"
"They’re here for Arthur Voss!!"
"If you try to drag him away by force right now, are you trying to make the entire continent unite and come after us at once?!!"
General Thorne’s old face turned red from holding it in, and the veins on his neck bulged out one by one.
"Then what do you say we do?!!"
"Are we really supposed to just stand there and watch this ultimate weapon sleep all day inside Lancelot Academy??"
"What if spies from other countries buy him off, or those scum from dark factions kidnap him??"
Voran rose to his feet. His thin, bony hands pressed down on the table, and a cruel light like a venomous snake flashed through his eyes.
"So, we need to ’protect’ him."
"In the name of the kingdom’s highest security, we move him at once to the dungeon deep inside the royal palace... no, to the royal underground chamber."
"We cut off all contact between him and the outside world."
"We send the kingdom’s best court mages to watch him day and night without a break."
"Each day, we give him only enough water and food to keep him alive."
"Until he is willing to write down, word for word, the secret of casting a 9th-Level Forbidden Spell with no chant, and offer it to the royal family!!"
Voran’s proposal made the temperature in the whole council hall seem to drop straight to freezing.
This was clearly house arrest and forced confession from start to finish!!
But the tempting future he painted pushed more than half of the officials and nobles present into a strange silence.
Even if they had to carry infamy for all time, if they could get the secret of the Forbidden Spell, then for this small border kingdom, it would still be worth it.
"I support Justiciar Voran’s proposal."
"I support it too. This is for the survival of the kingdom!!"
"We must act at once with thunderous force. Before the other empires react, we need to get him under control first!!"
Listening to the voices of agreement around him, the corner of Justiciar Voran’s mouth lifted into a smug, cold sneer.
However, just as this decision—one that would decide Arthur’s life or death—was about to reach a final agreement,
a huge and terrifying pressure, so overwhelming it made people unable to breathe, suddenly crashed down over the entire council hall like a mountain falling from the sky!!
Crack. Crack...
That round ironwood table, hard beyond belief, actually began to split apart inch by inch under that invisible weight.
Justiciar Voran and General Thorne, who had been yelling nonstop just moments ago, suddenly had their legs give out. They were crushed straight down onto the hard marble floor on their knees.
Every noble and minister in the hall lowered their heads without control. Cold sweat poured from their bodies, and none of them dared take even one loud breath.
Because—
the man on the throne had opened his eyes.
