Chapter 160 - Wake Up Call (2)

The King's Palace, Randalvine, Braxtein Kingdom.

As one might expect what would happen in times of crisis, the throne room was currently filled with many concerned Nobles. They weren't actually concerned about the safety of the people; they were concerned about the fate of their territory.

They had struggled to earn the piece of land they now governed; they couldn't just let it fall to the hands of those brainless Monsters—Demon.

Sure, when the land was retrieved it would still be theirs, but what about the damage the Monsters had caused?

Rebuilding their territory would take some time, and, of course, an enormous amount of money. Every Nobles were naturally materialistic—they wouldn't have become one, if they hadn't been—they weren't willing to spend their money on that.

Due to this reason, they were concerned. 60,000 Monsters invading one's territory wasn't a matter one could easily shrug off. It wasn't even easy to gather 3 legions consisted of Fifth Circle Mages, let alone 10 legions to fight them!

Braxtein Kingdom's Royal Army was consisted of each 20 legions of chosen Knights and 10 legions of chosen Mages.

Each legions were commanded by either a Sixth Circle Mage or Peak Stage Blue Core Knight. Although not that many, they were the elite amongst elite.

Therefore, all of the people inside the throne room were hoping for the King, Anthony Lionheart Braxtein, to withdraw the 12 legions of Royal Army he had sent to BA-22, and mobilized the other to quickly solve the situation.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Your Majesty Anthony Lionheart Braxtein has arrived!"

At the announcement of the King's counselor, every one of the Nobles straightened their posture, and put two fingers above their heart. When they could already see Anthony entering the room, they bowed their head respectfully.

"Pay respect to Your Majesty Anthony Lionheart Braxtein!"

"We greet Your Majesty!"

Anthony didn't even grunt or show any particular reaction that he heard their greeting. He merely sat down in his throne, and gazed at the crowd of Nobles with his usual arrogant gaze.

"Raise your head," he said brusquely. Annoyance was really evident in his tone.

The crowd raised their head, and one of the Four Dukes was about to step forward, when Anthony raised his hand. "I know what you want to stay, Duke Carlenze."

"Then, my King—"

"Did I give you the permission to talk, William?" Anthony asked coldly.

The white haired, middle-aged man named William Carlenze shut his mouth entirely; due to his worry over his people, he had overstepped his boundary as a subordinate. He quickly took a step back, and joined the crowd once again.

"I know what all of you are eager to say." Anthony started speaking. "Mind you I am aware of the currently occuring disaster—I have many eyes ..." He clicked his tongue. "I understand how worry you are over your people, but everything has procedures."

Anthony's eyes gleamed coldly. He knew all of them but a few only had worry over their territory, not their people. Even if he didn't love his people that much, he still had some sense of responsibility to mind his people.

However, these Nobles in front him ... Their greed and selfishness were really apparent. He didn't even need to peek into their hearts to know that. Therefore, he held contempt over them.

His eyes went to William—the only Duke who really cared about his people. He wasn't that close to William, as the latter was more of a Knight than a Noble, but he respected William for his dedication to his people.

Of course, he also respected William's power. Although not rare, Peak Stage Violet Core wasn't someone to be trifled with. Not even him, a Seventh Circle Mage, was confident on being able to defeat William in a fight.

Moving his eyes back to the crowd, he said, "I will mobilize 4 legions of the currently standing by Royal Army to face the Monsters in Ruttenhale Barony."

Right after he said that, all of the Nobles raised their hands. Of course, the most vocal one was William.

"Your Majesty! There are 60,000 Monsters invading the Barony. We do not doubt the ability of our Royal Army, but to face that many Monsters with that amount of people ... That will be a stretch, in my opinion!"

Silence descended upon the room at William's rather heated speech. Although it wasn't a secret that Anthony somewhat respected William, they just didn't expect William would dare to speak that brazenly at Anthony.

"You said nothing untruthful, William." To everyone's surprise, Anthony agreed easily. "However, you have forgotten about the situation in Raneil Barony ... Furthermore, conquering the Obelisk is our priority."

At that, everyone hummed uncomfortably. Due to their panic, they had really forgotten about that. Every eyes turned to William; they were just sorry that all of the disasters were happening in the territory he governed first.

"Therefore, I will move 8 of the 12 legions of Royal Army stationed in BA-22 to BA-32; they will conquer the Obelisk with the help of some of our best Mages and Knights. The rest will be distributed to Raneil Barony to somewhat ease the situation."

Anthony looked at William. "Do you find my explanation satisfactory?"

"No." The answer was instant. Everyone gasped, but William paid no attention to it. "However, you made a good decision as a King." Looking at Anthony determinedly, William sternly said, "Pardon me, but I will not join the battle."

"I see..." Anthony nodded his head in understanding. "You want to stand by your people's side?" William nodded resolutely. "Very well. You have my permission." Anthony waved his hand.

William bowed his head respectfully, then swiftly left the throne room.

The people looked at the scene quietly for awhile, before some of the Marqueeses and Marchionesses whose territory was under William's governance also left the room; they were the few Nobles who cared about their people.

"Now that is sorted out, I will dismiss myself." Anthony stood up from his throne much to everyone's dismay. "You already have your answer ... You can only do your best to hold on." Then, he left the room.

The room once again descended into silence. All of the Nobles had a bewildered look on their face. They knew Anthony didn't care that much about them, but they couldn't believe Anthony had just dismissed himself.

What about the discussion?!

The purpose of today's meeting was to discuss about the state of the Monsters: their grades, number estimation, and such. However, Anthony didn't discuss anything related to that.

He had just basically said, "I know there is an Outbreak in BA-32. But, there still might be a chance that an Outbreak will occur in BA-22. So, you are on you are on your own," by his decision to still keep some of the Royal Army stationed there.

Even after the delay in making the decision, Anthony Lionheart Braxtein still made a wrong one.

...

Lone Plain, Outer Region (69 kilometers from BA-22)

After two hours of travel and some rest, Iliana, Whitney, and Cray had finally arrived at Lone Plain. Although they didn't take a carriage to go there—it didn't even exist in the very first place—they could still arrive there in a fairly short time.

All of this was due to their exceptional control over their Mana, and their advanced knowledge of Magic—as expected of one of the 200 Best Randalvine Magic Institute students.

"Iliana, are you thinking of what I am thinking?" Whitney asked while riding his [Earth Board]—basically a Mana powered sliding board produced from Earth Magic—beside Iliana.

Iliana quirked her eyebrow, and turned her head to Whitney. "Are you asking me about how stupid you look on your board or about that flare like thing?" She smirked. Although not very high, unlike Whitney, she used Wind Magic to let her fly.

"Bahaha! I think he is asking about both." Cray laughed in humour. Like Iliana, he was also flying using Wind Magic.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Whitney exclaimed, "I'm sorry I'm bad at Wind Magic!" Cray merely laughed again at him.

Iliana smiled, and said, "Jokes aside, it's really happening ... The Outbreak." Cray and Whitney nodded their heads solemnly. "In a different place, that is. Fu-fu-fu." At Iliana's humorous tone, the two blinked their eyes.

"Do you have some 'condition' or something? As far as I'm concerned, that shouldn't be something you should laugh at..." Cray muttered. "But, well ... Since it's hilarious anyway, I can't blame you." Cray shrugged lightly.

Whitney, the sanest of the two, opted to stay silent. He didn't want to be the "party popper" in the two people's bordering psychotic conversation.

The travel continued for another minutes, until they could finally—somehow—see their destination: Death Howl Dungeon. They could already see the endless stream of Demons coming out of the Dungeon.

Iliana cancelled her Spell, and dropped to the ground. Looking ahead with a frown, she said, "Shouldn't Death Howl have no mouth a few days ago?" Turning to Whitney, she quirked her eyebrow. "What is happening?"

Whitney cancelled his Spell, and turned to Iliana. "Do you really expect me to know that?" He asked weirdly. "I think it must have something to do with Basil ... I mean, he has full control over the Dungeon, doesn't he?"

Iliana hummed to herself. "Hmmm... That is the only possible explanation, I guess." Turning her gaze back to the mouth of the Dungeon, she cupped her chin. "Now, where is the other entrance we can enter?"

They couldn't just enter the Dungeon from the same way the Demons were going out, after all.

As she was about to pull her Magic Circles to her eyes to scrutinize the are even further, she felt a hand on her shoulder. "What is it, Whitney?" She turned around, and quirked her eyebrow. "Have you found the entrance?"

Whitney shook his head rigidly. "No ... But, I think I have found the 'thing' we are about to retrieve." He pointed his finger to the west, 300 meters from the mouth of the Dungeon.

There was a tall young man standing in the middle of three large cavities in the ground that were each 100 meters apart from each other. This young man was no other than Basil. He had a sword in his hand, and all of the Demons seemed to avoid him.

No, he looked like he was herding the horde of Demons.