After settling matters with his advisers, the king beckoned them into the massive throne room, a pair of guards pulling the doors open ahead of them, the hinges silent despite the sheer weight of the metal.
The moment Ethan stepped inside, he was thoroughly mesmerized, taking in the sheer scale and detail of the decor around him. He had a degree in history from his previous life. He had seen photographs of countless throne rooms scattered across Earth, from ancient palaces to modern reconstructions, studied their architecture in academic papers he’d once written himself.
But this place? The beauty of it was almost mind shattering, every surface carved or gilded with a precision that no human hand from his old world could have replicated, columns rising so high their tops vanished into shadow far above the reach of any torchlight.
"Ah, so you’re the troublemakers who approached my city with an army." The king’s voice resounded through the hall, drawing Ethan’s gaze upward toward the throne.
The moment their eyes met, a flash of surprise crossed Ethan’s face as recognition settled in.
This was the same man who had given him the crown for his third summoning ritual back in the storage yard. The king of Bark, standing before him this entire time without Ethan realizing it.
"You know, if not for the flags of the Punishment Hall flying on your ships, I would have ordered them struck down at the twenty-eight kilometer line." He said it while looking toward Arian and the two White Tower representatives standing behind her.
The truth was, the royal family had never particularly trusted White Tower as an institution. Even their so-called headquarters here in the capital amounted to little more than a hollow building staffed by low-ranking bureaucrats, kept up purely for appearances rather than any genuine coordination between crown and organization.
"Anyway, I understand the situation." The king didn’t wait for a response before waving a hand toward the door at the far end of the hall.
Seconds later, six individuals filed into the room in a tight line, coming to stand on the opposite side from where Ethan’s group waited.
"There’s no way I’d allow the old fortune teller’s people to march into the royal capital and start a fight without cause, so I made sure to investigate the matter thoroughly myself first."
"Lady Liana, what is the meaning of this?" The king turned toward the new arrivals, his frown deepening into something far more serious.
This particular dispute had dragged on for decades already, tangled up in daughters born out of wedlock, a bitter falling out between mother and daughter, and an eventual banishment that had never fully healed, the wound reopening every few years whenever Liana grew restless.
However, Liana had proven consistently unreasonable throughout, insisting on keeping the grandchildren while sending her own daughter away entirely, a decision that had scarred the family far deeper than any public scandal ever could. That decision had eventually brought the young woman to his doors seeking justice, and after a lengthy round of negotiations, he had ruled firmly in her favor.
The fact that Liana was now here attempting to reclaim the children regardless amounted to a significant disrespect toward the crown’s earlier ruling.
"Your highness, the ruling at the time stated only that I stay away from them until they were old enough to make their own decisions. From what I understand, they are both grown women now. This falls completely within my rights as their grandmother." Liana spoke with arrogance dripping from every word, her posture unbothered by the tension filling the room.
"It’s within your right to kidnap her?" The king’s hand struck the arm of his chair with enough force that the palace itself shuddered violently around them, dust drifting down from somewhere high above, a low groan of stone echoing through the vast hall.
At that, Ethan’s eyes constricted instinctively, his hand reaching for his blade once more, the same reaction he’d had the first time he’d met this man in the storage yard, muscle memory outpacing conscious thought entirely.
For everyone else in the room, however, the reaction was immediate submission, heads bowing low under an innate, overwhelming fear that pressed down on them like physical weight.
Though visibly angry, the king noticed Ethan’s reaction out of the corner of his eye and frowned briefly, but the glow burning in his eyes vanished almost instantly, replaced by quiet frustration as he looked away.
"Give them back." He said it while waving a dismissive hand toward Liana, the gesture carrying more weariness than authority now.
"I can’t do that, your highness. These two are already betrothed to promising young talents within our household. They need to remain and prepare properly for their weddings. Such is our family’s tradition, one that predates your own throne by generations." Liana spoke with an unmistakable air of pride, chin lifted slightly.
The king held authority over nearly everything within the kingdom, but certain institutions ran older than him, older than Liana herself, older than the throne he currently occupied. The Dracontis family’s internal constitution remained ironclad by long-standing agreement, and openly defying it would be tantamount to declaring war on one of the kingdom’s oldest bloodlines.
Even the king wouldn’t cross that particular line lightly, especially not over a matter in which he held no direct personal stake beyond simple justice, a principle that mattered to him but wasn’t worth plunging the kingdom into internal conflict over.
As she finished speaking, the room fell into an uncomfortable silence, everyone turning to look at her with a distinct chill settling over the hall.
This woman was conniving and vicious in equal measure. She had taken the two young women and immediately arranged betrothals purely to guarantee she could keep them under her control. If that wasn’t vicious calculation, no one present could imagine what would qualify.
"Hahaha, you’re hilarious, old witch. You betrothed them? You haven’t seen either of them in years, yet somehow you’ve already betrothed them off? Quite amusing, honestly."
"Unfortunately for your little scheme, they were already betrothed long before your decision, which makes this arrangement not merely invalid, but directly contrary to Bark’s customary law. You should be sitting in a prison cell, you old wench." To the side, Arian burst into hysterical laughter, pointing directly at Liana, who stood shamelessly unbothered by the accusation.
It was obvious, even to a casual observer, that these two women held no love for one another whatsoever.
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