Chapter 411 C411. An Instant Decision
There were multiple throne rooms in the Emerald Palace, each designed for separate purposes unlike in the case of the Darknar Castle, where a temporary throne room had only just been created recently.
The throne room used for audiences with representatives from other demon nobilities, wasn't too large, so preparing it so that it was adequate for dignitaries took less time than the other throne rooms in their palace.
Doing their best not to keep the emissary from the Darknar family waiting for long, they had gathered the courtiers who were now clothed in ceremonious attire with the use of valuable transportation scrolls and items.
Receiving the emissary was also several members of the court, who were not present in their earlier meetings including the 5th Princess and her guard.
The room was exquisitely decorated with freshly cut flowers and masterful artworks, hung on the walls.
Reynald felt such cheap attempts at impressing the emissary were meaningless at this point, but he didn't think of himself as an adequate judge of what demoness' of his family would like much less the emissary.
As Reynald's mind wandered concerning the decor of the throne room, the door suddenly swung open and the emissary from the Darknar region walked into the room.
As a General from the Darknar family, the seductive beauty had a dark air of allure about her. Her beauty was such that it could almost make them forget that she was a high-ranking official from a family already widely considered the Sixth Great.
Seeing her bewitching smile as she elegantly strode down the hall, he strongly felt like he could understand why that noble would risk everything for her.
'Huh, what the hell am I thinking? I must be going out of my mind.'
Reynald immediately shook those dangerous thoughts off his mind. To have such an effect on even the prince of an ancient family like his, she was truly, a beauty beyond the concepts of the word itself.
This was the Lightning General of the Darknar family, Rain Darknar.
The sound of men who had become instantly love-stricken could be heard throughout the room, the sound they made as they sighed, "Ooooh." The nobles who had made those sounds were also obvious in their enraptured ogles.
Despite her alluring smile that seamlessly entranced the hearts of men, Reynald could sense the air stiffen up a bit by her mere presence. Although he was unable to sense her aura, he could tell, she was not in a friendly mood as she had been in the past.
Unfortunately, it did not seem like anyone else had noticed this as even the demonesses in the room were already entranced by her dress, an outfit that didn't seem quite right for an occasion as serious as this.
To top it off, unlike the last time she was here, the emissary hadn't walked into the throne room alone. Trailing behind her was the petite figure of a girl clad in a rather expensive rogues outfit with a mask covering the lower half of her face.
Despite that, one could easily tell just how pretty she was from the exposed portion of her face, her greenish-black hair was styled in a single bun and her now bright green eyes glistened like glowing tsavorite.
Her figure was the definition of seduction as her outfit clug tightly to her body, revealing the outline of her perfectly proportioned figure. The dangerous aura that seem to leak off her person, only seem to thug on the hidden desires of the nobles to were lustfully entranced by her.
Reynald couldn't recall seeing this lady amongst the emissaries when he had gone to receive them at the gate. Perhaps she was stationed inside the carriages but even after so many interactions with the undead emissaries, he had never once caught a glimpse of her person.
'Could it be she has only just arrived from the Darknar region? If so, how did she get past all our defenses?
Although the capital city did not possess any anti-teleportation or instant transportation spells to protect it from intruders. The city's defenses still include a series of sensory methods to discover when anyone illegally enters the city and expose their locations.
Even for Demon Lords, it was practically impossible for them to appear suddenly in the city without anyone noticing them. Unless they possessed a special pass. This was why they were at a loss for how the new organization Numbers, was transporting goods in and out of the city.
With that said, how was the girl accompanying the emissary able to enter the city undetected?
Is this the true skill of a rogue from the Darknar family? How terrifying, she could end our lives before anyone would even notice.
'Wait, is this also part of their negotiation tactics? Such terrifying brilliance. I can no longer afford to back down.'
Seeing the two ladies walk through the room, Reynald suddenly felt a chill coming from his mother's direction. Shifting his gaze towards her, his eyes widened as he saw his mother's reaction to the emissary's companion.
Reynald's heart sank at the sudden realization. He wondered if his sister had noticed it too and snuck a glance at her but failed to understand her expression.
Was she confused? Did even his genius sister not predict this outcome? That would be a first. Reynald didn't have time to think too deeply about it as the emissary had arrived before his mother.
"It's good to see you again, Lady Rain. It's been a while."
Upon hearing his mother's voice, the nobles who had been enthralled by Rain's beauty and confused by the mysterious rogue, finally snapped back to reality.
"My apologies for not visiting Your Grace for a while now."
Rain replied with a strikingly appealing voice that matched her appearance. Despite this, her back stayed upright and her head remained in a perpendicular position, just like she had done the last time around.
This was in direct contrast to her gentle demeanor, it made clear her belief the Jaxith family was no longer worth her respect.
"You do not appear to have changed much even after such a traumatic event, that is a relief."
"Well thank you, Your Grace. You look to be doing well yourself."
Rain smiled as though she was meeting a close friend despite the uncertainty in the situation.
"There is no need to dance around the issue, so I will be direct, why have you come here today?"
"Indeed. I'm here to discuss the recent incident — that being how one of your nobles in conjunction with a crime syndicate, conspired to drug and kidnap me before coercing me to sign a slave contract."
As she spoke, the rogue beside her, someone whose presence they had almost completely forgotten about if she hadn't moved, despite the fact that they had only taken their eyes off her for only a few seconds already, brought out a holographic crystal from nowhere and displayed images that matched Rain's words as she spoke.
The entire hall was rendered speechless as silence ruled over the throne room for a full minute which felt like hours to most.
This was an unexpected turn of events, one not even Reynald had considered for a second.?It was one thing to lay claim against a noble family as a diplomat, it was another when evidence of such claim was provided in such an official setting and without warning.
"Oh, do pardon the late introduction."
Rain suddenly cut through the silence like a hot knife through butter as she turned to face her companion and continued.
"This is Zelda, one of the Great Demon Lord's personal guard. She was assigned to document the trade talks for future use so excuse me for not introducing her to you sooner. I assumed a family such as the ancient Jaxith family would be easily capable of detecting her presence so I had forgotten to introduce her earlier."
A lie. That was most definitely a lie. There was no way a demoness of her caliber would forget to do anything. Not to mention, the smile on her face had suddenly gotten more genuine, it was as though she was mocking them.
The expressions on the elder's faces immediately sank at the sudden realization, many of the nobles fawning over her beauty now had twisted expressions but were forced to swallow back the words they wanted to say.
In this world, something like the projection of someone's memory was easily accessible to many so there were no legitimate reasons for them to complain about this, the only thing that truly bothered them was the simple fact that they had all completely failed to notice her presence the entire time.
"As you've no doubt guessed, this crystal has recorded evidence of the crimes committed against me and by enlarge, the entire Darknar family, and as such, we've decided to retract our trade offer effective immediately."
Though this was no laughing matter, Rain's smile remained steadfast from before as none of the elders could follow the rapid change in the situation from what they had discussed earlier.
The fact of the matter is, with only that single statement, their family was officially screwed. They didn't have much chance even with the undead soldiers they were getting from the Darknar family much less without them.
With the Great Five most likely pulling the strings of the three families, safe to say their family would seize to exist within the next few months, if they even last that long.
Thinking of that, Reynald could understand why the elders were faced with such complicated expressions.
In contrast, his mother had immediately reacted as she stood up from her throne to say,
"I see, so that's the reason for your sudden request. Then allow me to firstly, apologize for my subject's actions."
His mother lowered her head and bowed deeply. This was the first time anyone here had ever seen the Demon Lord lower her head even in the presence of a Great Demon Lord.
This only goes to show her pride and integrity did not only apply when she was in the right, she would even go so far as to degrade herself if ever she was in the wrong.
However, lowering her head to the emissary when their investigations on their side were yet to be completed and they were yet to test the authenticity of the recorded evidence brought by the emissary was an automatic admission of guilt and there was no going back on that.
Only a while ago, she was saying something about the noble being innocent and this was a ploy of various parties yet here she was, admitting their fault and disregarding the words of the elders.
Reynald didn't know whether to be happy or afraid. He couldn't tell what was going through his mother's mind and didn't know what to expect.
He felt everything had changed the moment his mother laid eyes on the rogue companion of the emissary.
Reynald turned his glace back at the rogue, her aura wasn't weak but it was so well hidden that one could easily disregard it and her presence seems to be fading in and out of reality.?If he blinks even for a second, he would immediately forget she was there.
This was a level of skill not even the finest assassin in their family could hope to achieve, could it be that his mother had failed to notice her presence as well? A Demon Lord failing to notice the presence of a mere servant was unheard of.
"I understand why you would no longer wish to deal with a family responsible for causing you such terrible inconvenience. However, I can assure you, all responsible parties will be dealt with. Hmmm... As an apology, right, how bout I offer you, the Jaxith Family's Great secret, would that be enough."
Time seem to freeze for only a moment before the room exploded into an uproar.
"Huh?... WHATTTT!!!"
"Ohh... I'm listening."
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