Chapter 5 - the banquet (3)

"What the fuck is going on here?" Julius thought to himself as he stood by the side entrance, watching Irene and Eric walkthrough.

"Those fuckers told me they had that whore in their sights, so why the fuck is she here?" Julius grumbled, his face contorting with a mix of annoyance and fury.

A silver-haired boy, a little taller than John and around fifteen years old, approached Julian with an amused look. "You look like you've eaten some shit," he quipped.

"Let me guess, Mother wanted you to assassinate that woman, and things didn't go quite according to plan, did they?" Alfred said, taking a sip of juice from his glass.

"Fuck off. If all you're here to do is taunt me, I already have enough of a headache," Julius retorted, shooing Alfred away.

"I'm afraid it's too late for that. It seems our 'naive' younger brother will give us more of a gift on his birthday than the other way around," Alfred said, walking away with a sly smile.

"What do you mean by that?" Julius shouted out loud, to which Alfred simply pointed his glass towards the slowly opening main gate.

"HIS HIGHNESS THE THIRD PRINCE, AND THE MAN OF THE NIGHT, JOHN VON ELDRIN, HAS ARRIVED!" a guard announced, visibly nervous as he looked at John's blood-drenched figure walking into the hall, holding two dead bodies—one with a crushed head and the other with its throat ripped out. Two assassins in black robes followed him, with Joseph right behind them.

Seeing John's arrival, Irene rushed to her son's side with a shocked expression. "John, honey, what is all of this?" she asked, looking at him with concern and scanning him for injuries, unfazed by the blood covering him. "It's okay, I'm not hurt at all. Sir Joseph was with me the entire time," John whispered into Irene's ear.

A moment of absolute silence filled the hall, broken by the high king, who had sensed the awkward situation and left his secluded room to investigate.

"What is all of this, young child?" the high king asked with an angry look.

"I would like to know the same, Your Highness. Someone had the bright idea to ambush me in the middle of the hallway from here to my building," John said, tossing the dead bodies in front of him and motioning for the two assassins to step forward.

*shinggg*

Before the assassins could utter a word, the head captain of the imperial guard swung his sword, chopping their heads off. John looked at him amused, while the high king seemed annoyed. However, the one truly furious was the emperor, whose aura radiated not armament, enhancement, or sharpening, but pure pressure.

"Gerald explain yourself, it seems clear to me they had surrendered and were about to give us a response about their actions…you better have a valid reason or else there will be a 5th head on the floor today." the emperor said in a cold voice, that caused all the nobles there to tremble in fear, the guard captain was after all one of them.

"Your Highness, I merely did my duty as the Guard Captain. Someone who threatens an Imperial's life must be executed," the guard captain asserted, prompting a loud laugh from John.

"Ahahahahahaha! Ah, I apologize; the hypocrisy of that statement just got the best of me. Please continue," John said, wiping a single teardrop from his eye due to his laughter.

"I will deal with you later," the emperor warned, his face displaying anger towards the guard captain.

"John, child, tell me everything," Eric said, walking forward. He pulled a chair and made John sit on it, while the concerned nobles watched closely.

It was evident to everyone present that if someone dared to attempt an assassination on an Imperial, there were only four possible culprits: the Grand Duke, who was currently secluded in the north dealing with monster threats, the neutral High King, one of the five Dukes, or an Imperial themselves. All except the Grand Duke were present.

"Well, it happened like this..." John began his explanation, leaving out any mention of Irene being the target and instead portraying himself as the assassination target. He mentioned how he asked Joseph, his training instructor, to accompany him because the rest of the Imperial Guard had mysteriously vanished, leaving Joseph as one of the few people he could trust.

"I see," Eric said with a sad expression, then continued, "But how did you manage to kill these guys? They seem quite competent, and that one even appears to be ascended." Although Eric knew John's capabilities, he asked the question to convey a message to the Empress, noticing that John had been looking in her direction.

"Like this," John replied, demonstrating by covering his hand in aura and hardening it.

A look of shock spread across the faces of the assembled nobles, and murmurs filled the room. Julius wore a chaotic expression, while Alfred seemed amused as he observed the scene from the other side of the table. The High King and the Emperor appeared satisfied.

"Do you have any guesses who could have done this?" Eric asked, even though he and his father already knew the answer.

"I don't know, but whoever did it is in this room," John stated, his gaze fixed on the Empress.

"Huffff, Michael," Eric called out, and the Prime Minister appeared from nowhere, startling some of the newer nobles. The older ones were accustomed to his sudden appearances.

"You know what to do," Eric instructed the Prime Minister, who nodded before vanishing just as quickly as he had appeared. Panic flashed across the Empress's face as she turned to the High King, who whispered something in her ear.

"I warned you," the High King said, moving past her to stand next to John before speaking out loud.

"It's clear to me that today's mood has been soured due to some fool's actions. However, there are a couple of announcements to make. Eric, go ahead," Gerrard said, looking at his son with a stern expression. Eric glanced back at his father, initially skeptical, but eventually sighed and nodded.

"First of all, I'd like to apologize to the many guests who were invited to celebrate my youngest son's 10th birthday. As you can see, the mood has been affected," Eric began, bowing his head briefly, especially directed towards the old elvish man, who attended as the representative of the elves. Other guests were still in a discussion chamber with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, discussing matters.

"Now, we had initially planned to announce this at the end of today's banquet, but as a birthday gift, my youngest son has asked for an Awakening ceremony. I have arranged for it to take place the day after tomorrow in the holy land, conducted by the current pope himself. All of you are invited to the ceremony if you wish. The portal will open tomorrow night, and arrangements for your stay can be made there and then. However, for now, I declare the end of this banquet," Eric declared as he escorted the dumbfounded Irene and the blood-covered John.

Following him was Geoffrey, not in the least interested in the chaos Eric's words had caused. Behind him trailed about twenty members of his neutral faction.

That day, several rumors and pieces of news spread across the empire. The most amusing of all was the title given to John by the staff who had seen his blood-covered appearance: 'the Crimson Prince'—a fitting name, considering the look he had.

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Somewhere in the northern forests of the empire, a striking silver-haired man adorned with scars across his face stood atop a pile of dead red wolves. His silver armor gleamed in the dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy. He held a communication crystal in his hand, attentively listening to the reports about the events unfolding in the empire.

"The 'Crimson Prince,' huh? Seems like I have a very entertaining nephew," the man mused with a grin, amused by the news he received. He leaped gracefully off the mound of monster corpses and let out a sharp, piercing whistle.

*SCREEEECHHH*

In response to his call, a colossal black wyvern descended from the sky, its wings cutting through the air with power. The beast landed before him, exuding an aura of majestic might.

"Let's go, buddy. It looks like I need to pay the holy land a little visit," he said with an intrigued glint in his eye, his amusement evident in the curl of his lips.