Mystical Journey

Two days later. Avic actually announced that the ceremony and royal audience were to be delayed.

On the way back to her palace, Tina saw many servants and maids whispering to each other.

She had just come back from the bath and had returned to the main door of her palace hall, but she saw her personal attendant Bottler chatting quietly with a maid in a white dress. The two of them were so focused that they hadn’t noticed Tina coming at all.

"Bottler!"

Bottler gave a shudder and quickly ran towards Tina. The other maid ran away hurriedly as though escaping.

"What were you guys gossipping about!?" Tina’s little face was actually rather stern.

"Your Highness, Princess... No... nothing..." Bottler was so scared her face turned white, and she couldn’t speak clearly.

Tina harrumphed and put her little hands behind her back as she walked into her own palace hall.

The truth was, she did know what these people were talking about.

Thanks to the recent installation of Garen as the new Black Fire Palace Master, the palace defenses were undergoing a huge makeover, and the places once protected by the Royal Guard were mostly protected by the Black Fire Guard now. These Guards were almost like emotionless beasts, they never spoke, or chatted. They only knew how to be loyal and dutiful, listening to nobody’s orders except the Black Fire Palace Master Garen and His Majesty.

And recently there had been some rumors in the palace, saying that the Third Princess’ disappearance had something to do with the newly appointed Earl Garen.

Tina didn’t comment on any of these rumors. But deep inside, she knew perfectly well that her Third Sister’s death was closely related to Garen. She had overheard her Second Sister and First Sister arguing, partly over the investigation results on Earl Garen. The Third Princess did indeed die in the Earl’s mansion.

But more terrifying was the way their father and king, Avic, reacted to the death of the then-beloved Third Princess. When he found out the results, he didn’t make any move at all. He didn’t punish Garen in the slightest, making as though nothing happened, until it all slowly died down.

It was starting from that day, that Tina slowly began to mature, and discovered that Father’s gaze on her grew more and more unnerving.

Staying deep within this heavily-guarded palace, she felt like a canary in a golden cage, who could do nothing and dared to do nothing.

Tina walked into her bedroom, closed the door, and walked up to the window, about to draw the curtains, when she suddenly heard talking from below. She froze instantly.

"...The Second Palace’s Guard Captain, Caesure was sentenced to death..."

"Wasn’t Guard Captain Caesure’s the Second Princess’ most trusted guard captain?"

"Who asked the Captain to offend the Earl? In front of His Majesty..." The voice faded.

But Tina knew that everyone in the palace was always plotting something, these words weren’t something she happened to overhear, but rather the people in her palace were purposely letting her hear them.

They were afraid, scared of the newly appointed Earl Garen. They were afraid she carelessly offended the new Earl, they thought she didn’t understand... but in truth, she understood everything.

This new Palace Master was cruel and ruthless, respectful to the royal sons and daughters on the surface, but unbelievably heartless when he actually made his move. The Guard Captain Caesure and the Second Princess were as close as sisters, and she was still killed with one blow this morning.

Tina’s heart felt waves of cold, this was the premonition of danger approaching. Of the royal bloodline, she and Twelve had the strongest prophetic power, and now, this prophetic power was beginning to warn her, but she couldn’t do anything. She knew that danger was approaching, but she couldn’t avoid it.

Just two days after his promotion, Earl Garen was already organizing a massive clean-up.

With Avic’s full support, the Black Fire Palace’s special guards spread out like a spider web, scattering to every part of the palace, every royal son and daughter had someone from the Black Fire in their palaces, watching them.

With Avic’s palace in the center, all the Black Fire Guards formed an indomitable sealing web.

Tina realized with a shock that some blind spots that strong totem users usually didn’t notice, the ones that she had often used to go outside, were now patched up by the Black Fire Guards, the whole palace becoming more and more like an airtight metal barrel, squeezing all the breath out of her.

Beckstone and the others should be coming over soon, but under these circumstances, there wasn’t only the Garland Sword, Edin, but now there was also the Nine-Headed Dragon Garen.

Tina clenched her teeth.

"I need to think of something!"

**************

The assassination wasn’t brought forward as Garen guessed, but the Aegis Ceremony seemed to have been delayed.

Avic planned to meet the Black Prince himself, splitting up the original plan, the ceremony, and the audience, into two parts.

After becoming the Black Fire Palace Master, Garen hinted to Avic several times that something might go wrong with the Aegis Ceremony. But he didn’t clearly state it was Delouse, he just indicated that he noticed some outside powers might interfere with the Aegis Ceremony.

Avic had always been a suspicious person, and after receiving Garen’s hints, added together with his unusual trust in Garen, Garen was given unspoken permission to organize a large-scale clean-up of the inner palace.

Not hoping to do good, but at least do no wrong. With that kind of attitude, the palace security grew more and more stringent.

Under Garen’s guard, Avic was accompanied by Edin to a secret meeting with the Black Prince five days later, and they achieved a series of understandings.

After the meeting, the Black Prince left the Kingdom quickly.

Although Garen didn’t get to see this one of the three heroes, his interference had undoubtedly changed the original route of history.

The Black Prince no longer bore the sin of assassinating the king, and half of Obscuro’s plans fell apart.

**************

One week later

The king’s study

Avic was sitting opposite Garen and Edin.

The three of them were playing a three-player game called Nala, it was a bit like checkers, the aim being to reach a fixed target point first. In the process, however, the pieces could capture each other. Certain criteria had to be fulfilled for capture, though. Just like how chess pieces had differences in level and position.

Avic was wearing white casual clothes, his expression carefree, smiling as he took the lead.

Garen and Edin, on the other hand, were wearing black coats, only the colors of their hems different, one dark red and the other silver.

Both of them were also playing the game breezily.

Of the three, Avic was far ahead, Garen was second, and Edin third.

Even though he was last, Edin didn’t lose his calm at all, his movements still slow and steady. Compared to the Empire’s genius in his thirties, Garen’s personality was a lot more normal.

The pale white morning sunlight shone in from behind Avic’s back, falling on the edge of the white game board, reflecting the faint white light.

The three of them played with full concentration.

Smack.

Garen put down one of his pieces lightly and glanced at Avic. Now, he truly did respect this Emperor.

As a normal person, he managed to force down both of their playing powers. With a mind like that, no wonder he was the ruler of such a big country as Kovistan.

And after taking over the Black Fire Palace, the more Garen knew, the more he felt that Avic wasn’t as clueless to the danger as he acted. He seemed to be playing a much larger game.

There were many things that even a peak-level totem user like him couldn’t see clearly.

In Nala Chess, neither Garen nor Edin held back. Forget holding back, if they relaxed even a little, their important pieces would be immediately swallowed by Avic.

"Garen, how are you handling things over at the Black Fire Palace? No big problems?" Avic asked calmly as he played.

Garen smiled.

"Since you have given the Black Fire Guard as it is now to me, sire, that is your trust in me. Your trust in my Trejons family. So, even if there are problems, they’re not problems."

The true identity of the Black Fire Guard were actually the results of Vanderman’s research, the Green Vine Spheres.

Under the orders of outsiders, these Guards would only be able to use half of their true power. But under Garen’s orders, the Green Vine Spheres were originally personal Aberrated Totems Vanderman had made specifically for Garen. Or rather they were no longer totems, but a scientific experimental result.

In that case, the Black Fire Guard, the living experiments created through parasitic cores, would naturally be a power only Garen could truly understand.

Add that to the Trejons family’s reputation as famous loyalists, and Avic was finally able to fully let go, handing the Black Fire Guard to Garen. Back when the Black Fire Guard was created, and he realized the specialty of the Green Vine Spheres, Avic had already planned to do this.

The invention of the Black Fire Guard was a brand new power in the Empire’s arsenal, there were no more than two hundred of them, but they were all members of the living dead, having undergone countless surgeries and in possession of elite Form Two power. They had no emotion and were only loyal to the owner of the Green Vine Sphere, Garen.

Before the Research and Development Department discovered a way to remove this loyalty limitation, the only one who could take charge of the Black Fire Palace was Garen, this was the conclusion Avic came up with after many attempts.

"Garen, your father Vanderman died for the royal family, and I’ve always felt guilty about that. But if he saw you now, an integral part of the country, I bet he would be proud of you too. So if anything happens in the palace, you can act with abandon." Avic said calmly, "No matter what, I believe that we will always be on the same side."

Garen’s face twitched.

Of course they were on the same side, the Trejons family had a grudge against the Obscuro Society, and an even bigger one with Terraflor. The only power they could rely on was the royal family.

He glanced at Edin beside him.

Edin, Veska, and those two Grand Dukes, were the only four people he had to be wary of in the Kingdom. Of course, this didn’t include that old monster who could be hiding deep in the palace.

According to Garen’s guesses, these four were all stronger than him, and should have important positions in the three departments. Or perhaps they were already the main people at the very top of the three departments.

"I heard Lord Veska has returned to the Geometry Department, in order to temporarily handle some matters," Edin spoke suddenly and randomly.

"That’s right, after waiting for so long, it’s perhaps time for them to make a move." Avic nodded, and said ambiguously. "After waiting so long, drawing it out even longer will cost them all their efforts."

Garen narrowed his eyes slightly.

"So it seems Your Majesty was long since prepared."

"I didn’t want it to be like this either..." Avic sighed. "But no one could have guessed that the one who betrayed me would be the person I trusted the most."

Garen’s heart gave a jolt, so he did know.

"Your Majesty, what you’re saying is?"

"When the time comes, the safety of the palace is fully in your hands." Avic didn’t say any more, but was evidently ready to make a move. His expression seemed to have a hint of weariness and melancholy. It was obvious that he still found it hard to make a move against the person who had been with him for so many years.

Garen’s thoughts ran a mile a minute.

If Avic knew from the start, how could the assassination have succeeded?

Suddenly, he had an intense interest in Delouse from Obscuro. Unfortunately, Delouse still hadn’t met him after so long.

All of a sudden, he thought of the Eleventh Royal Daughter Tina, as well as Beckstone and company. Maybe, this had something to do with them as well?