"See this, dad." Saying so, the woman took a blue gem from her noble badge and passed it to him. Although she looked composed outside, her hands and legs continued to shake, and tears started coming from the corner of her eyes.
Meanwhile, Lucius caught the crystal, imbued a bit of his mana, and activated it.
At that moment, he also noticed the tears in her eyes and sighed.
He also felt pain in his heart, but he decided not to let his emotions cloud his thinking and started speaking.
"I need you to cast away your emotions and cooperate with me, Margery."
"But-" Margery was about to ask him something but stopped as she realized the seriousness of the situation.
She soon nodded, recited a strange chant, and touched the crystal's top area.
An illusionary image of a black-haired girl was projected in front of everyone in the next second.
"Who is she?" Lucius asked.
At the same time, a murderous aura emitted from his eyes, causing everyone in the hall to step back.
"Her name is Sara, dad. If I'm not wrong, she is a member of the Red Python organization and his father has some good ties with top leaders of the Red Python." Duchess Margery paused before taking a deep breath and continued.
"This girl is skilled at assassination and thieving."
Meanwhile, a frown appeared on the Former King Lucius's face.
'Red Python? When did we offend such a large organization? Why did they target my son? What is their motive?' Questions whirled in his head.
Red Python Organization was one of the largest slave-trading organizations in the southern part of this continent and had great influence in all kingdoms!
'But why would such an infamous organization attack the King of the Rural Kingdom? Do they have any tie with the Light Church?' Such a thought appeared in his head, but he quickly dismissed it.
He believed that the Light Church would never side with this slave-trading organization and felt something was off about the whole situation.
'The question is: Who is this new enemy?'
He quickly tapped his black ring on his forefinger and activated the ring by infusion his spirit power.
After that, he muttered a few numbers in a low voice and waited.
A few seconds later, a male voice came from the other side.
"Lucius? Are you okay?"
"Zivior, where are the Academic Mages? Why haven't they shown up yet?" His tone was angry.
An assassin had killed his son right before everyone, but no one had the power to stop it!
Even the Legendary-Tier 'Shell Heart' artifact was nowhere to be seen in his son's body.
"The enemy had already put a dimensional lock around the Capital, my friend. Headmaster Alius began analyzing the spell to remove it and estimated it would take him around 15 minutes. Until then-" The black ring suddenly vibrated and broke into a dozen pieces!
"Damn it! The enemy is trying to isolate us, huh?" Lucius gritted his teeth and quietly walked towards Sewallus's body.
"Don't worry, my dear son. I will avenge you."
Saying so, he turned his gaze to the silver-haired woman and saw her hugging Sewallus.
"Sorry, my dear child. I didn't make it here on time." Lucius apologized to Queen Christin and turned his gaze towards the Nobles.
"From today onwards, no one should speak about what happened in this banquet hall. If anyone dares to speak the truth, I'll personally ask the Mages to do the Bloodline Cleansing and show you guys the real terror of the Mages. Got it?" As he ended the speech, an invisible power rippled out of his body and caused everyone to nod.
"Good. Tell everyone that my son died due to a mysterious curse."
Lucius then shifted his gaze towards Roysia and ordered.
"Inform the whole city to lock do-" But before he could finish his words, his black eyes widened suddenly.
Simultaneously, the reddish tattoo-like bird symbol appeared on his left wrist and started to glow like pure fire!
Prince Raollet, Prince Huggin, and Prince Tibott also looked at their wrists and saw similar red tattoo symbols materializing!
"Someone entered the Royal Treasury!" Prince Huggin said in a grim tone.
"The Royal Treasury? Red Python? Could it be him?" At that moment, a memory flashed before Lucius's eyes.
A few years ago, a Red Python member came to attend the Royal Exhibition and asked him if the Royal Family was planning on selling a particular stone tablet. It was only a fist-sized stone with some graffiti and symbols on the surface and was excavated near the 'Keel Excavation Site.'
Lucius thought it must be a valuable treasure and declined his request. After that, he moved the stone table to the Royal Treasury and put it along with other important items.
Then, he didn't meet that guy and had long forgotten about it.
"But it seems I was wrong."
Saying so, Lucius released his fire-elemental energy and created a golden aura around his body.
Then, he manipulated the aura, moved the large quantity of elemental energy towards his backside, and soon formed two golden wings!
It was his Warrior Class skill called "Dawn Wings!"
Both wings shone in radiant yellowish light and blinded everyone's sight.
"The enemy is after that stone tablet, huh?"
His eyes grew cold as ice as he flapped the Dawn Wings and flew out of the room like lightning.
...
A few moments ago.
After Abium reappeared outside the Banquet Hall, he didn't alert anyone and quietly left the Palace's main building. Although a few servants roamed here and there, no Royal Knights appeared in his way, which made his job easier.
Moreover, he noticed something odd when he cast his 'Blink' spell.
'I feel like I can cast the [Blink] spell more than four times now. Is it due to my rank up?' He couldn't help but mutter.
'Your spirit power has already reached 20, so it's normal for you to cast more times. Wait till you manage to construct the corresponding spell model, you'll get a big surprise.'
'Oh? That's a relief. Now, how should I find Sara?' He asked, taking his space ring from the storage space and wearing it on his right forefinger.
After that, he also took out the newly acquired academic robe from his space ring and wore it over his formal dress.
It was then that Azolla spoke in his mind all of a sudden.
'That magic rune circle is definitely a first-tier teleportation spell circle, lad. That girl should be in an open area now.'
Abium raised his eyebrows, glanced at the surroundings to check for anomalies, and asked further.
'Can you explain what the range of that spell is? Like, how far can some teleport through this spell rune circle?'
'Two kilometers. She shouldn't have ventured more than two kilometers from the Palace.' Azolla paused for a moment and then added with a chuckle.
'But don't worry. Like your spell casting times, the spiritual scanning range also increased after you advanced to the Official-Tier.'
"Why didn't you say this earlier?" Abium grumbled in a dissatisfied tone and activated the spiritual scan function.
A second later, a small amount of spirit power came out of his body and started spreading in all directions. But unlike before, this power covered the Palace in a blink and even spread to the nearby streets.
"Oh! The scan range has already covered more than 1 km!"
At the same time, Abium closed his eyes and saw a three-dimensional map-like structure in his mind. The houses, people, animals, and even small birds were visible to him.
'But this looks like a low-grade version when compared to the previous one. Earlier, I even detected insects through this scan, though.' He mumbled inwardly and soon noticed an anomaly in the nearby street.
'Three figures are standing on the rooftop and seem to be arguing. The exact location should be...' Before he could pinpoint the exact location, the academic ring in his left hand suddenly vibrated and disrupted his thinking.
Simultaneously, the communication rune inscribed on his black robe started shining golden light.
"Mage Abium, it's your senior Berold. Can you hear me?" A rough voice came from the rune circle.
"Yes, Mr. Berold. What happened? Did you receive the news of King's Assassination?" Abium asked.
"Yes, a while ago. Where are you?" Berold's voice appeared slightly anxious.
"I am now standing outside the Royal Palace and searching for the assassin. What happened?" Abium asked.
"Mentor just informed me that the enemy used a dimension lock spell to isolate the Capital. Go-"
Before Berold could finish his words, the shining golden rune circle started to dim and then disappeared completely.
The communication was cut off!
"Dimensional Lock spell? Light Church? Or someone else?" Abium's face turned deadly serious.
'Moreover, Mr. Berold was going to tell me to go somewhere, but where?'
He shook that thought and was about to look at the three-dimensional map but suddenly froze.
At that moment, a small fire explosion came from a short distance away.
To be precise, it came from the direction where the enemies were located.
'The explosion came from the Serpent Inn's terrace from Graveman's Street. It seems a fierce battle is going on over there.' Azolla answered in his mind.
Abium didn't hesitate for a single moment and dashed forward towards the right.
He ran past many ornamental trees and arrived at the Royal Palace's two-meter tall compound wall in less than five seconds.