Ivan took the permission to meet the Duke, after discussing it with high-ranking officials. The authority which the guild master had in the kingdom was nothing less than a powerful noble.
In a world, power is valued more than anything, Ivan's service and his presence were essential for the kingdom. Normally, a kingdom has at least one or two S-ranked people and SS were rare even in the empire.
All the powerful warriors in the Rapidclaw kingdom were either deployed to the empire's battlefield or the borders because of the major threat from the empire.
"Show me your guild card, Sir Ivan," One of the guards checked him for any weapon and permitted him to enter the house.
It was a fancy mansion with luxury-looking furniture and arts. It clearly showed the wealth of the person living in this mansion.
"Let's go, you guys can inform them about it to the Duke, he will take all the necessary steps against those rebels," Ivan said while walking with them toward the Duke's room.
He was highly respected in the kingdom for his power, so even the most powerful noble knew about him. Ivan was not from a powerful noble house, his father was a low-ranking magician of the kingdom but somehow he was able to rank up with his own efforts and determination.
"Duke Mason, it's me, can I come in?" Ivan asked while knocking on the door.
"Come in,"
Three of them entered the room, Mason was sitting while reading some papers, he looked at Ivan and smiled pleasantly.
"Ivan, It's good to see you after a long time, I heard you have something to inform me, what happened?" Mason questioned him while asking him to sit down.
"It's not about me, it's about these two," When Ivan said that Norman and Hannah showed their faces to him.
"This girl looks a little familiar, Who are they, Ivan?" He questioned Ivan.
"Let me introduce them, he is Norman, the guild master of the Cantrell viscounty and this girl is the daughter of Viscount Cantrell," Ivan introduced them to the Duke.
"Oh! I knew it, that's why she looked familiar, I know Cantrell, I have met him a few times at the parties, how's he now?"
Hannah was on the verge of crying remembering her parents. Ivan felt the atmosphere becoming awkward so he decided to interfere.
"Duke, Cantrell is dead, some kind of a rebel army killed him according to them, these two were somehow able to escape but Viscount and his wife are dead," This information caused Duke to almost choke on his tea.
"Wh-what? A rebel army defeated a noble, that's impossible, what was the viscount army doing until then?" He felt confused and angry at the same time.
"Actually they are not a small rebel army, it was an army led by Davin Keller, and they had almost 500 soldiers and he poisoned the viscount before killing him," Norman was telling him about everything that happened.
Duke felt pity for the viscount's daughter, but he was even more worried about the kingdom. Since they were in the war with Empire, half of their military is deployed now, so the kingdom is unsafe in many ways. A rebellion was the last thing they wanted right now.
Mason was thinking about the whole situation silently. Ivan or Norman didn't disturb him. The silence remained for a few minutes until he decided to discuss things with them.
"This is no simple matter, with the war ongoing, we won't be able to deploy many soldiers but let's discuss with the king and see, I will arrange a meeting as quickly as possible," Mason rang the bell and called a servant, he wrote a letter and asked him to hand it over to the prime minister.
"Do you guys have a place to stay?"Mason questioned Norman and Hannah.
Norman thought for a minute but, he didn't have enough money to afford it since he couldn't bring anything with him and all the things he had, were either sold or damaged.
"Then you two can stay here for today," Mason gave the sign to a maid and she left the room to arrange their rooms.
"Thank you, Duke Mason," Norman thanked him and all of them left the room. It was a big mansion so they had enough space to stay for a day.
It took one whole day for Duke to get a message from the king. Norman and Hannah had the best sleep, they had in a few days.
Since the Duke was invited to explain this letter he took both Ivan and Norman with Jim to the castle. Hannah also had to join because she was one of the major victims of this attack.
They entered the castle which was heavily guarded by soldiers, to Ivan most of them were familiar because he was the well-known guild master.
Duke to the lead because he was the one invited mainly by the king. The throne hall of the kingdom was the symbol of the majesty and richness of their nation.
The huge door opened and they entered the throne hall slowly observing the beautiful scenery. Ivan and Duke Madon were rather familiar with this because they visited it often but for Norman and Hannah, it was a beautiful site.
"Duke Mason hopes to meet the king of the Rapidclaw kingdom, Granbell Rapidclaw II," The messenger shouted implying the arrival of the duke.
Normally they wouldn't meet the king on the throne because it was for special occasions but today, the news of the rebellion had enraged the king to no end because the empire was giving him too many problems.
All of them kneeled in front of the throne showing the authority of the king.
"Rise, Duke Mason I got your message, How didn't we know about this until something like this happened?" The King had a calm and neutral look on the outside but his mind was overflowing with anger remembering all the problems.
"Your highness, this girl here is the daughter of Viscount Cantrell and she was able to inform us about this and for the reason we didn't get any information about rebellion is because the Keller firm used their authority to cover up everything,"
"According to them, Davin Keller was one of the rebels and he was supporting them," Mason explained everything to the king.
"That damn commoner! I didn't give him so much authority to betray our kingdom, Arrest all the workers of the Keller firm," The King gave his orders to everyone.
"Your highness, I ordered troops to do that before but all of their buildings are closed and workers are nowhere to be found, and all the workers who were employed by the capital have been dismissed before this incident happened," Mason's words convinced all the other nobles and the king.
"We should send troops and teach those rebels a lesson,"
"But, do we have troops to send, the war with the empire isn't over yet."
Nobles kept arguing whether or not to send the troops but in the end, the decision was taken by the king.
Granbell had a slight headache thinking about the consequences of this battle but he couldn't just ignore someone who killed a noble from their kingdom.
"We will destroy them, it's true we are in a pinch but we cannot ignore someone rebelling against us," Granbell decided to fight instead of waiting and observing the situation.
"Very well, this campaign will be led by Duke Mason, We will completely annihilate those rebels," Duke bowed his head and agreed to his decision.
"Your highness, can I talk for a minute?" Ivan was the one to talk before Granbell leave the meeting.
"Ivan, How rude! You have no right to talk with the king,"
"This is why commoners are no good, see we believe one commoner for a few years and he also ended up betraying us,"
Nobles kept berating him but Ivan wasn't interested in them.
"What's it, guild master?" Granbell knew Ivan wasn't loyal to him but at the same time, if he removed someone like Ivan from the kingdom, It will cause a huge backlash for him.
"Your highness, Our adventurer guild hopes to help the kingdom in this battle since the kingdom doesn't have enough troops," Ivan said without showing any backing down.
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