Currently, I was standing in front of the king, King Gravos. He had a complicated look on his face as he stared at me. “I understand what happened and that there is also a danger to this kingdom that we do not know how to deal with yet, but I am still stuck in a rough spot. You have killed the heirs of quite a few noble clans, some of which rank as high as marquess. Whether it was by accident or not, it was still you who had trapped them within the barrier.”
“And?” I asked. I could care less about this now. While I do feel bad for what happened, things at the time were out of my control. “You want me to apologize to people who were targeting not only me but my friends? While it is unfortunate that they have died, circumstances also have to be taken into account. If you wish to imprison me, then fine, I will do my time as I am the cause of their deaths, but once I leave the dungeon, I will leave this kingdom altogether. “
“No! I won’t allow it!” Adel yelled out as she suddenly ran and stood in front of me. “Father, I owe Faith my life. She saved the lives of many more nobles than those who had died. If you plan to imprison her, then I will denounce my status and join her in prison.”
I watched as King Gravos held his head and raised his other hand. “Stop! Who said I was going to imprison anyone!? Stop jumping to conclusions! While what happened is truly unfortunate, it was, in the end, an accident that could not be avoided. Not to mention Faith saved many more lives than what was lost. Sometimes the situation needs some sacrifices in order to be able to save many. While they may not have been in harm’s way, it is also the incompetence of those around who could not break Faith’s barrier.
“But the fact still lies with Faith being the one who killed them, which makes this situation tricky. I called you here not only to get a report about what had happened but also to ask if you have any ideas to handle the nobles.” King Gravos explained slowly.
“I see. I do apologize I overreacted.” I had indeed overreacted. I thought he was planning to punish me for what had happened. While I do think I deserve some form of punishment, if I was imprisoned for a certain amount of time, I would have left the kingdom. Well, more of I would have hidden somewhere and watched over everyone from afar.
“It’s fine. I did not explain it clearly at first. So do you have any ideas?” King Gravos asked.
“Since it is not good to just wipe them all out without them doing anything wrong, why don’t we hold a trial? You can place me under house arrest with only the ability to visit the academy during the trial. We have plenty of witnesses that can stand by my side. This might also be able to find out who was behind the instigation of attacking me and those close to me.” Luckily this meeting today was just between Adel, myself, and the king. The Prime Minister was not here, at least I think…
“Hmmm… You do make a good point. And if you are proven innocent, then things will look better on your behalf while making the nobles who wish to make a fuss lose some credibility. This means I can even lower some of the higher status houses down a notch. ” I could see that King Gravos’s brain was turning.
After a few moments, he began to speak again. “If we do this, you will be confined to your estate and the academy only. You will be escorted by knights to make sure you do not run off.”
“That is fine. As you now know, I do have a few people I can send out to handle my business affairs for me.” I was speaking mainly about Annie. She knew Thurul well and also understood what I was trying to do.
“Speaking about people… Grace Dollen seems to be acting as your servant now?” King Gravos asked while raising an eyebrow. I have not yet explained this part to him since I did keep some things from him.
“That is something I can not talk about as it has to do with Grace’s personal matters. If her parents would like to speak to me, please have them come to my house. But more importantly, Your Majesty, We need to talk about this man named Azengrade and the dungeons. Along with the person who okayed a bunch of kids to enter the one we entered.” I tried to change the subject. There were more important things than digging into Grace and my relations at this time.
“Hmmm… The man you say is more powerful than anyone you have ever met?” At King Gravos’s question, I nodded my head. “He is someone who seems to be able to alter dungeons. This was why we were locked in. He even said so himself.”
“I am not sure about this Azengrade since I have never heard of him or a race with the markings you described. I will have my own people look into it. As for the person who reported to the academy that the dungeon was a safe enough for young kids to train, they seem to have disappeared. Myself and also the Dean have sent people to investigate. The Dean will speak about this matter when you meet him later on. Also…. I must tell you that the dungeon, even after you destroyed its core, has seemed to heal itself and has turned into a goblin dungeon again.
“Of course, we now have signs posted warning those who wish to enter that they should not be females. It gives a pretty graphic description of goblins outside of the entrance, so hopefully, it will stop unfortunate incidents from happening again. I have also decided to use it as a means to train the kingdom knights as it is the second closest dungeon to the capital.” Hmmm, so destroying the core did not destroy the dungeon.
After thinking for a moment, I reached into my inventory and pulled out a shard from the dungeon core. “Your Majesty, can you have someone look into this shard for me? It is a shard of the core I destroyed.”
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