As Abium entered the royal palace's Banquet Hall, most of the mages and nobles had already gathered and stood in anxiety.
Meanwhile, the king's body was still lying motionlessly on the chair and had already started to emit foul odors.
At the center of the banquet hall, a tall figure stood while showing his back to others and appeared to be talking with two red-robed mages.
Although Abium couldn't see his face, he had already guessed that figure's identity.
'He must be the headmaster Alius.' He thought inwardly.
After looking at that figure for two seconds, he shifted his gaze towards those two red-robed mages and smiled lightly. One was his teacher Zivior while the other was Mage Ubius. Both of them stood there with solemn faces and nodded their head from time to time.
"Okay, I am going back to the tower. Tell Idus to meet me in the Chaos Lab soon. I must teach him a good lesson for inviting an enemy into our domain." That tall figure spoke in a cold tone.
"Okay, teacher." Mage Zivior and Mage Ubius replied in unison.
Then, the headmaster Alius glanced at the deceased body, raised his right hand, and snapped his finger. The next moment, a magic rune circle appeared under his feet and teleported him from there, causing Zivior and Ubius to let out a deep sigh.
"We don't have time to waste. Start the preparations." Zivior ordered while turning his gaze towards the royal knights.
After hearing Zivior's order, the royal knights walked uniformly towards the Late King's body and started to move it to the throne hall with proper etiquette.
After entering the throne hall, they placed his body on the throne and began performing a usual bathing ritual. They first cleaned his body using pure Nature water and started decorating it with multiple ornaments.
Simultaneously, academic mages and kingdom nobles entered the throne hall and watched the ritual solemnly. After finishing the simple ritual, the royal knights stepped down and stood on the silver stairs in line. Meanwhile, Zivior and Ubius stepped up to the dais, stood near the throne, and observed everyone like a hawk.
Noticing those two mages' cold gazes, everyone inside that throne room started to become nervous.
After a long silence, Zivior turned his eyes towards a fat-looking guy who stood among the black-robed mages and asked.
"Do you have any information about Hogg, Josse?"
That guy named Josse wore a unique black scarf around his neck and looked around 35 years old. He had black hair, deep-blue eyes, a round face, and a thick, full mustache that partially covered the top lips.
"No, sir. He and Vice-captain somehow evaded our track and disappeared." Josse said while quivering all over.
"Where is your teacher Idus? Because of his student's betrayal, Headmaster Alius is on the verge of exploding. Tell him to go and meet Headmaster Alius sooner. That bastard didn't even show up after hearing the emergency call." Zivior said in an irritated tone.
"I will inform this message to my teacher soon, sir," Josse replied while nodding his head repeatedly.
Without even glancing at other mages, Zivior shifted his gaze towards the Former king Lucius and urged.
"So tell me now, my dear friend. What is in that stone tablet?" The incident happened under the mages' eyes, causing everyone from the magic academy to be upset. They all felt guilty for not doing their work correctly.
"It's a normal stone tablet with graffiti and symbols on it. We found it during the Keel excavation. I first kept that stone in the royal exhibition area and didn't even consider it an important material. But a few years ago, some guy from the Red Python organization came to the Royal Palace and asked me to sell that stone tablet to him for 20,000 white gold coins. I thought it must have some secrets, so I declined his offer. Later, I started researching that stone table." He stopped for a second and continued in a grim tone.
"But I wasn't able to find a clue. After that, I kept it inside the royal treasury and completely forgot about that. I didn't know that stone would bring that much trouble." Lucius's hands trembled as he finished his words.
"So now it fell into the enemy's hand, huh?" Zivior heaved a deep sigh.
Lucius nodded.
"Haa, I don't care much about this strange stone tablet. But we must find out the Red Python Organization's background and ties with the demon. Place a big bounty on anyone who has ties with that organization and hunt them down." Zivior said in a cold tone and finally turned his gaze towards Abium.
"You did a great job protecting the honor of the royal family, my student. I will also go and visit the old hag to thank her." He said in a deep tone.
"I simply did my duty, sir," Abium responded humbly and politely bowed.
Meanwhile, Zivior thought of something and asked.
"So, where is that demon's hand?"
Those who took part in the procession wore full-length black mourning cloaks and hoods, and so did their attendants.
Colorful heraldic banners were also carried. The coffin was borne on a horse-drawn bier and covered by a richly embroidered pall.
As well as the mourners, the horses were dressed all in black, and it was customary for black drapes to be hung along the route of the procession.
The general citizens were allowed to participate in the symbolic bathing rite in front of the king's portrait within the grand palace later that day.
The king's body was laid in the royal palace's throne hall for seven days, with daily rites. After the second day, the citizens were allowed to pay their respect and attend the lying in state in the grand palace.
A royal cremation ceremony took place on the seventh day evening. Following the cremation of the Late King, remains and ashes were taken to the grand palace. They were enshrined at the royal cemetery and castle chapel.
Following the burial, the mourning period officially ended on midnight 7th, and every citizen had resumed wearing regular colors.
...
…
Eastern Coastline, Alastall woodland,
A small three-layer tower painted in black color stood right next to the Devil Sea's shore and appeared to be around 70 meters tall. Unlike other magic towers, this tower looked gloomier and looked very old.
The tower was fortified and guarded by undead skeletons and humans, who wore crude leather armors with swords strapping to their hips.
Anyone could tell that these guys were not some trained soldiers and appeared unorganized with a simple glance. They looked more like bandits than soldiers.
A guy with a big belly standing on the watchtower suddenly saw a raven flying towards his direction from the east and got startled. He rubbed his eyes and soon noticed that the black raven had already arrived near the watchtower. Meanwhile, the raven slightly turned and slowly landed on his shoulder while flapping its stiff metal-like wings.
He got stunned by the raven's action and soon noticed a difference. Unlike the usual ravens he had seen in the woods, this raven's eyes appeared in crimson red and gave off a dangerous aura around it.
Slowly, he raised his right hand, touched the raven's back with his right hand, and saw some weird letters engraved on its wings and body. That black raven's body was inscribed in rune letters, and a red crystal was also embedded on its mantle. Like a puppet, it stood unblinking on the bandit's shoulder and held a scroll in its mouth.
After a short surprise, the big-bellied bandit snatched the scroll from the raven's mouth and sifted through it. He saw the devil skull symbol seal and a few normal words on the front.
He blinked his eyes twice and soon widened his eyes.
"Boss Keith, it's a letter from Lord Rilos." He shouted and climbed down from the outpost while carrying the scroll in his right hand.