174 Woes of a Royalty (1/2)
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\”You're finally here, Goat.\” The Crown Prince who's wearing a Dragon mask nodded and received Victor's greetings.
His gaze then landed on Raven who politely had his head down on the side, Victor looked up for a bit and saw that his master was looking at the person he brought.
\”Master, this is the child you ask me to invite before. I brought him here since he expressed interest in joining, however he remains uneducated about our purpose.\”
\”Ah! So this is him! You've done well, Goat.\” Balmung praised as he nodded and inspected Raven.
The gaze of the Crown Prince became somewhat enthusiastic as he looked at him. Raven felt a headache, for some reason he felt like he willingly entered a trap. After a close inspection from the eyes of Balmung, he finally stopped and talked to Victor.
\”Leave this child with me. You may go and meet up with Drake, Tiger and Vermillion, they will tell you the purpose of this meeting.\” Balmung said, Victor then lowered his posture once again and said:
\”As you wish, Master.\” But before he left, he sent a voice transmission towards Raven saying: 'I'll leave, don't worry Master won't do anything to you, I could tell that you could already recognize him so you should know this as well.'
He patted Raven's shoulders and retreated from the room, leaving the two free to discuss everything that they have to. Once he left, there was an eerie silence inside the room past the lively chatter of the crowd outside. It was then that Balmung suddenly waved his hand and a peruse energy covered both of them.
Raven became alert but he didn't move. He inspected what changed in his surroundings and found out that the sound of people chattering outside of the room was cut off, he could feel some kind of barrier around them.
\”Cone Silence, a simple formation capable of blocking sounds. Our discussion might be a little too sensitive to be heard by everyone so I activated it.\” Balmung said as he proceed to sit down on his table. \”Relax and make yourself comfortable.\” He added after sitting down, gesturing Raven to sit down in front of him.
Raven nodded and accepted his invitation, he sat down on the chair in front of Balmung's table and remained silent. Suddenly, Balmung moved and removed his mask.
Then his undisguised face was exposed to Raven. Instantly, a wave of reminiscence swept his mind, countless memories resurfaced and reminded Raven just what kind of man Balmung is.
He heard many things about him during his previous life and the current one. Most of them were from Luna's ramblings, saying that he was a benevolent and kind person but also doesn't back down from a challenge. Though they act like kids whenever they were together, Luna always looked up to her big brother. Both of them rarely saw their father since he's always out, looking for ways to strengthen their kingdom. It was Balmung who stepped forward and shouldered great responsibilities ever since.
At first, due to his youth everyone chided him and didn't place any trust in his decisions, specially after considering that fact that he immediately used his authority to impeach several people as soon as he could. But who would've thought that he had been bidding his time and made dozens of movements without anyone noticing. All of the people he arrested were all spies and collaborators of the Black Curtain Guild.
On the first week since he took charge of the kingdom, not only he severely gutted the operations of the Black Curtain Guild but also silenced everyone who were unsatisfied with him.
Nobody, not even Raven, managed to figure out how he did it. All he knew that his dad placed great trust on Balmung's decisions and worked with him on multiple occasions.
\”Not even surprised huh?\” Balmung chuckled after seeing Raven's deadpan expression. Nevertheless, he already expected much from him.
'My Dad and Luna placed great trust on you, there's no reason for me to act suspicious about you.'
'I'll trust you as well. I hope that you're everything they said.' Raven shook his head and rubbed his face.