No one expected the enemy to inscribe a magic circle in the Palace for assassination. Moreover, they carved a magic rune circle right behind the King's seat, making everyone in the banquet hall doubt the security there.
Abium also felt something was off about the incident and hurriedly stood up. Like him, Baron, Helena, and other nobles stood up from their seats and stared at the front table in shock.
Meanwhile, the wine glass in King Sewallus's hand slowly slipped and fell on the concrete floor before breaking into multiple pieces.
What happened? How did the assassin manage to assassinate the King? No one inside the hall knew the answer.
Soon, the Nobles began to wake up from the shock and hurriedly moved towards the front table. Servants, Royal Knights, and even the Nobles' guards entered the banquet hall at that moment and added to the crowd.
What surprised everyone was that the Royal Knights suddenly raised their swords at the Nobles and were ready to attack!
"Stop it! You guys are an embarrassment to the country!" Roysia also ran from behind and shouted in a sharp tone.
Simultaneously, she looked at the soulless body of the King and felt more pressure.
'Damn it, what happened to the King?' She couldn't help but let out a shocking gasp.
Abium was also analyzing the situation at that moment and frowned. Unlike others, he watched the whole assassination in slow-motion and knew it was more of a well-planned plan than a normal assassination.
'What happened to the defensive artifact? Why didn't it activate when Sara thrust her dagger? Furthermore, how did the enemy manage to inscribe a magic rune circle behind the King's seat? Is it an insider's work? Where is the so-called legendary tier defensive artifact that I heard of in the past?'
Although Abium had expected these situations to occur, he was still shocked by King's assassination.
'From Azolla's earlier words, I can confirm that King only had a month or two to live. What would the enemy gain by killing a half-dead man?' Another question appeared in his mind.
'Also, the enemy seems to know in and out of this Palace and even appears to have spies inside. Otherwise, inscribing the magic circle right behind the King's seat under the watchful eyes of Royal Mages is completely impossible. If the enemy's spies had infiltrated this Palace to such an extent, they would've long been aware of King's health condition. But even after knowing this, they made a complicated plan and assassinated him. Something doesn't add it.' He paused.
'What if this assassination plot was just a distraction?' Abium's mind raced,
'If the king was killed in the banquet hall, what would happen?'
All the Royal Mages and Royal Knights would rush to the banquet hall and stop the Nobles from leaving first.
'More precisely, they will detail all the nobles, including me.'
Indeed, the Royal Family always had a bad relationship with the Nobles.
'To make things worse, the assassin killed right after the King announced who his next successor is! So, the Royal Family's first suspect would be one of these nobles.'
But if the Royal Family dared to arrest the Nobles now, Abium was sure that a bloodbath would happen!
'My reputation would hit rock bottom. After all, King Sewallus died on the same day after he conferred the Noble Title.' But he didn't care much about those silly things.
Although he didn't understand the enemy's primary motive, he was sure of one thing.
'The possibility of a Noble being the real culprit is too low. Light Church? Should I check it out?'
His slim figure quickly mingled with the crowd and soon left the banquet hall without alerting anyone.
At that moment, Crown Prince Huggin woke up from the shock and bellowed while looking at the breaking magic circle with bloodshot eyes.
"Who gave permission to inscribe a magic rune circle inside the Palace?! Who did it?" His thundering voice echoed everywhere.
Unfortunately, no one even had the guts to answer his questions.
After getting no answers from the servants, Prince Huggin gritted his teeth and looked at his father's face.
At that moment, he also noticed a strange anomaly.
'Why didn't he utter a scream earlier?' Indeed, after Sara stabbed him from the back, King's body became motionless instantly and didn't even twitch!
His eyes and mouth were wide open, and King looked more like a doll placed on an ornamental chair than a dead body.
If not for the blood dripping down from the chair and painting the white floor in blood, no one would believe that the King had passed on.
"Something is wrong." Huggin muttered in a grave tone and shifted his gaze towards the nobles.
Meanwhile, nobody spoke a word and lowered their heads in shame.
In truth, this was the most humiliating moment for every noble of this kingdom.
Nobles were supposed to be shields and spears of the kingdom, and their main job was to protect the Monarch in any situation! Despite frictions between the Nobles and the Royal Family recently, they always maintained equal respect and prioritized the safety of their kingdom above all else.
But when an assassin killed their King right before their eyes, it was more like a slap on everyone's face!
A brave young male servant stood up amid the nobles' silence and finally spoke.
"Your Highness, Royal Mage Hogg is the one who inscribed the magic room circle this afternoon. When I asked him about this, he told me that it's for safety measures."
"Why didn't you inform the Royal Knights?" A childish voice, filled with anger, echoed in the hall.
The one who spoke this time was none other than Prince Raollet!
The young man's voice trailed off as he said, "I told the vice-captain, Your Highness. But he said everything is fine."
In the meantime, the Crown Prince turned around and locked his gaze on the wavy-pink-haired woman.
"What is the meaning of this, Lady Roysia?" He asked in a deep tone.
However, she also appeared to have no idea about this and lowered her head in shame before speaking in trembling.
"V-Vice-Captain never told me anything about this, Your Highness!"
"Argh! Where the f*ck did he disappear? Where is Royal Mage Hugo?" Prince Huggin couldn't help but get angrier at his incompetent soldiers.
"I'm really worried about the security inside, brother. Everyone signed a soul contract, right? But how did they manage to nullify the backlash for their betrayal?" Prince Raollet asked solemnly.
As both Princes were in deep thoughts, the main banquet hall door opened with a screeching sound again, causing everyone to shift their gaze towards the entrance.
Soon, an elderly man stepped into the banquet hall. His hair appeared white as clouds, and a few wrinkles appeared on his face, showing that he had already crossed 70 years.
He had monolid black eyes, high arched eyebrows, a shallow nose bridge, a slightly wrinkled face, and olive skin. He wore leather armor with a golden breastplate in the front and held a sheathed longsword.
As soon as this old man stepped into the banquet hall, a strange chill spread everywhere.
At that moment, everyone in the hall recognized him instantly and didn't even dare to breathe.
He was Sewallus's father and the former King of the Peral Kingdom!
His name was Lucius Lockridge Godefrey, the man who protected the kingdom in the shadows.
He was the only seventh-tier warrior of the Peral Kingdom!
After stepping onto the red carpet, he quickly ignored the Royal Knights and nobles and walked forward.
"Calm down, both of you. Now is not the right time to shout at others." While speaking, the old man arrived in front of the elevated platform and continued.
"There are many ways to erase Qrevna's mark from one's soul. I just got the news from the institute that the Royal Mage Hogg's life crystal has already been broken. It means that he is dead, or someone helped him to unbind the contract."
As he spoke, he shifted his gaze towards the front and looked at his son's corpse.
"""Grandpa!"""
Meanwhile, Princess Ankerita, Prince Raollet, and Prince Huggin hurriedly moved toward Lucius and grabbed his arms in tears.
"May our Mother Nature guide him and show him the path of light in his afterlife!" Lucius said with a stern face and patted his grandchildren's heads.
Another two figures entered the banquet hall a few seconds later and cried as they saw King's dead body.
If Abium were here, he would have recognized them in an instant. The first was Princess Evelune, and the second was Prince Tybost.
As the Royal Family members were mourning, a blonde-haired woman stood in the front row, didn't even look at them, and quietly focused her attention on the unique blue-gem embedded noble badge.
She was around 45 to 50 years old, had blue eyes, long wavy hair, and a hawk nose, and wore a stylish black overcoat over her ordinary knight dress.
If someone looks deep into her eyes, they will find small human images appearing and disappearing magically over there!
In truth, she also saw Sara's face earlier and was in the middle of matching her face with all the criminals in the Dewsummit City through her unique artifact called 'Observer Eye'!
After 20 seconds, she finally blinked her eyes and stepped forward.
Meanwhile, Lucius also looked at her and asked.
"Did you find the culprit, Margery?"