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Chapter 381 – DE LUCA

Blake refrained himself from clicking his tongue in front of his father. After all, his father was still the king of Hazelden.

Right now, he and his father were locked up in the tearoom in the king\'s palace. The entire room was covered with some sort of barrier that they couldn\'t break. Moreover, the female Paladin that arrived with the Crown Prince was guarding the room outside.

His mother, the queen, and his two younger sisters were locked up in the next room.

[It looks like our knights have been apprehended as well. Worse, the nobles who expressed their support haven\'t come to help us yet. Shouldn\'t they be here by now to demand the Crown Prince to release us?]

"Calm down, Father," Blake said, trying to console his father even though he was also anxious. "Hazelden Kingdom is still on a friendly term with the empire. His Majesty wouldn\'t easily order to execute us as long as we deny we tried to assassinate the Crown Prince."

"Are you sure?" his father, who was sitting on the sofa across from him, asked. "But the Crown Prince seemed to have obtained some pieces of evidence against us."

"We just have to deny it firmly and accuse the Crown Prince of framing us to steal our weapons, Father."

He was worried about the evidence that the Crown Prince had procured, though.

Their kingdom was able to hide their illegal business for so long because the empire didn\'t really care about weapons.  Most of the knights and the nobles of the Moonasterion Empire were Mana users. They only needed weapons as a means to conserve their Mana.

In short, the empire wasn\'t strict, and they didn\'t monitor their kingdom. Thanks to that, they were able to get away with their illegal transactions easily.

[The empire is known for winning wars thanks to Mana, but not every country or kingdom on the continent could use Mana as their main source of military power. Thus, the demand for the weapons made by Hazelden is high.]

The fact that their kingdom sold weapons to the enemy nations was a grave crime. But the profit they gained from those transactions was too tempting to ignore, so they took the risk.

[If only that damned Paladin didn\'t visit our kingdom!]

"This is all Brigitte\'s fault," Blake said, frustrated. "Everything went downhill ever since she brought that damned Paladin to the palace. If only he didn\'t discover our transactions with the enemy nations…"

His father clicked his tongue. "We shouldn\'t have welcomed that damned Paladin to our kingdom."

It wasn\'t like they could deny entry to the emperor\'s closest aide.

Moreover, Glenn wasn\'t just an ordinary Paladin. He also came from the prestigious House Exton. Although Glenn claimed that he had severed his ties with his family, his investigation said otherwise.

[Pissing off the Extons is just as bad as pissing off the emperor. The Extons have been quiet ever since the current emperor ascended the throne. But there\'s a reason the whole continent still acknowledges them as the emperor\'s "wild dogs."]

"It\'s not just our illegal business we should be worried about, Blake," his father said. "Our assassination attempt failed. And it looks like the Crown Prince trusts your worthless sister."

"Again, we\'ll deny the Crown Prince\'s accusation," he said firmly. "We\'ll also accuse Brigitte of conniving with the Crown Prince to steal my position from me."

Unlike the empire, Hazelden Kingdom didn\'t prevent women from taking the throne.

But it had been a while since a queen led the kingdom. And he would make sure it would stay that way.

[I\'m going to overcome this ordeal and take the throne from my father.]

His father didn\'t look convinced. "Have you sent a message to Luca?"

Luca was the head of the Luca Merchant Guild– the guild that had been providing premium and special Mana stones to the kingdom. All the merchant guild leaders that inherited the guild would also inherit the name \'Luca.\'

Over the years, their kingdom had been on a friendly term with all the Lucas that ran the merchant guild.

When Blake talked to the current Luca about their predicament (about Glenn discovering the kingdom\'s illegal business), the merchant guild leader offered his help. It was Luca who advised them to kill the Crown Prince and pin it on Brigitte.

"Luca said once the Mana-suppressing bombs exploded, he\'d received a signal," he explained to his father. "It has been a while since I released the Mana-suppressing bombs, so I\'m sure Luca is on his way to save us."

King Landon let out a deep sigh. "I hope Luca comes soon," his father said. "That damned Crown Prince will pay for this humiliation."

Blake nodded in agreement. "All we could do at the moment is wait for Luca, Father."

***

JURI turned to her Aunt Sera when she heard her let out a deep sigh.

Right now, she was in the tearoom with Greko, her Aunt Sera, and her mother. The four of them were resting in the room next to the room where the Hazelden queen and the two princesses were currently locked up.

"What\'s wrong, Aunt Sera?" Juri asked curiously. "You look worried."

"I just received a report from the people I asked to catch the Luca Merchant Guild," her Aunt Sera explained. "Apparently, all the headquarters that the Luca Merchant Guild used to occupy have all been emptied. In short, the whole guild suddenly disappeared."

Oh.

That would be a problem for them, since the Luca Merchant Guild disappeared along with the remaining Hisa Jewels the Wisterias sold to the guild.

"Is it possible they noticed us trailing them?" Countess Jade Wisteria, Juri\'s mother, asked. Then she sipped her tea before she continued. "But Luca Merchant Guild is a huge guild. They can\'t possibly disappear completely in just a few weeks."

"It sounds like the guild has been planning to disappear all this time," Juri said while putting more cookies on Greko\'s plate. "I don\'t get it, though. Their guild is one of the richest guilds on the continent. Even if they supplied the Hisa Jewels to the Hazelden Kingdom, it\'s not like they committed a crime against the empire because it\'s the Wisterias who sold the jewels to them."

Her aunt and mother both flinched at her words.

It was true, though.

She loved her family, but it didn\'t mean she would take a blind eye to the crimes they had committed. Moreover, she was ready to get punished with her family.

"You\'re right, daughter," her mother agreed after she recovered from her blunt words. "The Luca Merchant Guild wouldn\'t disappear just because of that."

"Unless they already know the "premium Mana Stones" we\'ve been selling to their guild were actually Hisa Jewels that belong to the royal family," her Aunt Sera said. "If that\'s the case, then we can assume the Luca Merchant Guild has been toying with us all this time."

"We should report this to Princess Neoma," Juri said seriously. "She might be busy talking to the High Priest, so I\'ll send a message to Her Royal Highness first."

***

[SNEAKY bastard.]

Nikolai watched the dead crow on his table. It was dead, but that didn\'t mean the \'Judge\' had died as well. After all, the crow was just a puppet.

[They\'re now looking for Neoma.]

He felt like he couldn\'t breathe, so he stepped out of his office and went back to the balcony.

His Soul Beast, the Azure Dragon, was currently roaming the sky while eating the damned crows that almost covered the entire sky with their sudden appearance.

[The crows haven\'t changed at all. They appear whenever they think it\'s the right time to build the Crown Prince\'s power. At the same time, they also begin to assassinate the royal princesses they think would get in the way.]

"Your Majesty?"

It was Geoffrey Kinsley who went back to his office after the presence of the Judge disappeared.

"Everything is alright," Nikolai assured the Paladin. "Like I said, the crow was only here to talk."

"Are the crows related to what\'s happening to Valmento?"

"That seems to be the case," he said. "The Judge also asked about Neoma\'s whereabouts."

"As expected, the crows already know that a royal princess was born in this generation as well," the Paladin said worriedly. "But I\'m relieved to know they haven\'t figured out yet that Princess Neoma is hiding in plain sight."

"But it\'s only a matter of time before they do."

The crows wouldn\'t kill Neoma right away.

Just like what the crows had done to Nichole, they would wait for his daughter to grow into an adult before they subject her to their cult\'s disgusting experiment.

"I just don\'t understand one thing," Nikolai said when he remembered the last thing the judge said before it disappeared. "The Judge said something strange."

<"I want to know if Prince Nero is truly the rightful heir to the throne.">

Those were the Judge\'s words– words that he never heard from the crows when he was still the Crown Prince since he was the sole heir to the throne back then. And Nero was supposed to be the sole heir, too.

[So, why did the Judge speak like they have another candidate for the throne?]

It couldn\'t be Neoma, could it be?

***

"PRINCE NERO, I\'m glad you\'re safe!"

Neoma flinched when she saw Bram, the Holy Knight that she met earlier, approached her with tears in his eyes.

For some reason, she felt weird while looking at him.

[Bram\'s divine orb is still the same, but what is THAT?]

Her thoughts were interrupted when Bram suddenly held her by the shoulders.

She felt her skin crawl.

Before she knew it, she had already thrown Bram (who was probably twice her size) over her shoulders. Everyone in the room looked shocked by what she did, but she didn\'t regret it. She felt like she had to do that.

"Disgusting," Neoma said, her eyes now glowing red. "Why is your body now filled with Darkness?"

It was the same Darkness that she saw the Holy Knights throw up earlier.

She didn\'t see it when she met Bram for the first time, but she could clearly see it now. Darkness seemed to be flowing in the bastard\'s veins instead of blood. To be honest, she didn\'t expect she\'d be able to see something like that.

[Is it because of Dion\'s eyes? He didn\'t say he could only see divine energy, after all.]

Bram, who was now plopped on the floor, laughed loudly. "Prince Nero, you have good eyes!"

And after saying that, Bram\'s body turned into several black crows.

[What the hell just happened?!]

***

NOTE: Hi! As you already know, Volume 3 is about to end. Volume 4 will come up soon, and the volume title will be called \'FALL FROM GRACE.\'

I hope you subscribe to my privilege to access the advanced chapters if you can (*cries in tiny* please, onegai, juseyo *sobs* let\'s subscribe). I\'m just excited for you to read the second to the last volume, and I wish I could read your thoughts/comments in "real time" (as soon as I post the chapters).

Volume 4: FALL FROM GRACE is my most favorite major arc, so I wish you could join me in this journey. The next volume  has all my favorite reveals.

(And HER MAJESTY\'S epic comeback).

I\'m not sure if I was supposed to say that. But anyway, y\'all are smart. I knew you\'ve already seen Her Majesty\'s return coming a mile away. LOLOLOL.

Since this is the second to the last volume, and I really want to finish the MAIN story as soon as I could, you can expect more chapter releases this March. See you! Thank you for the support! Let\'s wrap up Volume 3 now to welcome Volume 4 the soonest~

***

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***

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