“As the oldest member of the Royal Bloodline of Aroniel and King of Eshaware, I, for one, welcome you to our lands.”

I bowed my head slightly again, placing my right hand on my chest, even though I had just stood upright.

“Thank you for your hospitality.”

He finally tore his hateful eyes away from Adrian and Alysia and turned to me. He studied me briefly, then narrowed his eyes slightly.

“The last time we met… was during our meeting about the fate of the spirits, Count Tenebra.”

“That is correct, Your Royal Highness.”

“Who would have guessed that the next time we would meet would be here, in a situation like this.”

“I am as surprised as you are, Your Royal Highness.”

The king of the elves narrowed his eyes slightly.

“But… I thought we were to meet with the heirs of the Bloodline of Laute, or those with more authority, at least. Not with you… even though it was you who exposed and destroyed their manor by acting alone.”

I didn’t break my expression at all, even though he was clearly unhappy that I was here and… insulted me in a rather straightforward way.

“Ah, please excuse us if you are disappointed, Your Royal Highness. However, a more suitable person than myself to attend this meeting was unfortunately not available in our kingdom at this time.”

“Cevilian must be busy with many separate and important matters, then.”

“It is true that our kingdom is busy with important matters, Your Royal Highness, but if you deem me unsuitable to continue this meeting… you need not worry.”

I drew my cane from my side to in front of me, then placed both hands on it, sharpening my gaze and avoiding eye contact in any way, even if it might be seen as disrespectful a little now.

“As a noble of Cevilian, a hero of the Holar continent, and the official emissary of the spirits, I can assure you that you will not find anything inadequate about me. If I were not, I would not have been entrusted with such an important meeting.”

The king continued to stare at me for a while, occasionally casting brief glances at the trio standing behind me.

After only a few seconds…

“Let us begin our meeting formally, then, Count Tenebra.”

I bowed my head again.

“Of course, Your Royal Highness.”

And… with that, the mana in the whole hall suddenly stopped.

Literally, it just stopped, as if frozen and not flowing anywhere.

A cube appeared around us, the back of which was clearly visible, albeit quite transparent, and the hall fell silent like never before. Find exclusive stories on NovelBin.Côm

’They cut the sound to the guards.’

With Sith’s words, I quickly grasped what it was.

A sound barrier, huh…

How nice.

“First, Your Royal Highness, if you wish, I would like to summarize everything that has happened.”

The king of the elves nodded for me to continue without saying anything.

“First of all, as you know, it was I who discovered the traces and the location of the Laute Family.”

The king nodded slightly in confirmation.

“And I did so through Alysia Laute, one of the granddaughters of Rian Laute, the leader of the Laute Family.”

At this moment, Julian took a step forward and clicked on the device on his wrist. As soon as he did so, a screen opened between the king and me so that we could see each other without blocking each other’s view. And on this screen were some documents and a recording of my ’conversation’ with Alysia.

It was fake, of course.

“Because of the Laute Family’s extensive intelligence network, and because I wanted to get ahead of the Saligia terrorist organization, with which they are allied, I felt obliged to take action and not report it quickly to the royal family.”

At the mention of Saligia, the king’s expression suddenly became more serious than ever.

“Stop. Do you have proof that the Bloodline of Laute is in alliance with Saligia?”

“Of course. We would like to show you our evidence, if you will allow us.”

“Go on.”

And Julian pressed the device on his arm again. And the moment he did, dozens, even hundreds of documents suddenly appeared on the screen between the king and me. Each one was a proof of negotiations, agreements, exchanges with Saligia. And it was Julian who spoke for a while after that point.

“In the annexes, we can clearly see the Laute Family’s communication with Saligia. Likewise…”

Julian pulled the screens to the side, then, without breaking his expression, revealed further evidence.

“As is well known, the Ducal Family of Virhen, to which I belong, is responsible for the oversight of the counts within the borders of Cevilian. At the same time, thanks to the research of the Bealy Baronial Family, who are responsible for the oversight of the barons within Cevilian borders, which has allowed us to gather some of the evidence found here, it is clear that the traitors working on behalf of Saligia have ties to the Laute Family as well.”

Much of this evidence was real, unlike the fake chat data between Alysia and me. Thanks to the Laute Family’s data, we had found and exposed most of the traitors one by one before we came here.

And so, Julian presented all the evidence one by one in a very professional and calm manner. He satisfactorily explained the source, the details of each one.

King Faelan was not a completely silent man. Occasionally he stopped Julian and asked him questions. But Julian never faltered and answered them all with great skill.

So, after a while, Julian had finished with everything he had to say on the topic at hand and it was my turn to pick up where I had left off.

“When I located the Laute family and discovered, thanks to Alysia Laute, the presence of traitors within the nobility, I asked for help from the Quie family, with whom I had been and still am close, and Leonard Quie did not refuse my request, given the urgency and importance of the situation. Then, again with the help of Alysia Laute, I learned the truth about Adrian Laute and I reported it to him.”

And… again, this was the point where someone other than me was going to come to the fore.

“Now, if you will excuse us… from this point on, I will ask you to listen to Adrian Laute himself.”

King Faelan’s eyes twitched, his gaze shifted from me to Adrian, who was waiting for his permission.

And yet, despite the reluctance and hostility in his expression…

“Go on.”

He actually allowed it.

“Thank you, Your Royal Highness.”

Adrian stepped forward, bowing again with a slight inclination of his head before he began to speak. And then he spoke.

“Based on the information I received from Aiden Tenebra… I realized that when I compared what I remembered of my past and my family with the facts, most of the things matched up, so I asked if I could accompany him to the main manor.”

He went on to tell the truth about Rian Laute, who he had learned was his grandfather, and how we had caught him ’weakened’ after his battle with Leonard Quie and were able to surprise attack him.

He said that after Rian Laute’s death, he researched his family even more, and the more he learned the ugly truth about them, the more disgusted he became.

King Faelan never interrupted Adrian, no matter how disgusted he looked, as if he wanted to hear the story uninterrupted. And so he did, glancing only occasionally at the guards standing behind us.

They were casting a lie-detection spell. And not only that, they were checking all the documents that we had submitted on the spur of the moment and making sure that they were correct, that they hadn’t been altered in any way.

At first glance, one might think that we entered here quite uncontrolled. We were not even frisked, but this was actually done with spells as we moved through the corridors to get here.

So there was a lot of processing going on behind the scenes, even if it wasn’t shown to us directly.

Like that, a few minutes passed, and when Adrian finally finished his story and explained how he had come to our current location… the king of the elves, although he had listened to him in silence until now, interjected rather quickly, as if he had something on his mind.

“You were once known as Adrian Caleo. If you have such hatred and disgust for your true bloodline… why did you attend this meeting using their name?”

“It is, in fact, because of the outcome we intend to achieve at the end of this meeting, Your Royal Highness.”

The King narrowed his eyes. For the first time since Saligia had been mentioned, he was serious.

“Continue.”

Adrian fixed his emerald green eyes directly on the king for the first time, making eye contact with him.

And it was impossible not to see the uneasiness on the king’s face multiply the moment this happened.

“Even though the Laute Family appears to have been decimated and destroyed by the death of Rian Laute and the seizure of the manor by the Cevilian Kingdom… I, and my sister, wish to continue to bear the family name, to take the reins, and to ensure that all information and resources ever obtained by the Laute Family are properly utilized and presented, in order to atone for all the evil our family has ever done.”

And for the first time in this entire conversation, I saw King Faelan’s expression suddenly crack in an extreme way.

“You want to keep the name Laute… is that it?”

The disgust in his eyes was so intense that every one of the guards around us braced for action at any moment. The wrinkles on his face became so prominent that this two-hundred-year-old man, who looked to be in his forties at most, suddenly looked decades older.

“Adrian Laute, do you know why your family was exiled from our kingdom in the past?”

Adrian paused, unable to help frowning slightly. The king of the elves continued without waiting for an answer.

“Treason. Treason to the kingdom of which they are nobles, treason to the entire elven race to which they belong, treason to the Royal Bloodline of Aroniel, treason to the World Tree itself, which they hold sacred.”

He straightened up in his throne, his eyes brimming with hatred and resentment.

“Rian Laute was someone I considered a dear friend, the Eminent Bloodline of Laute was the most trusted pillar that all Eshaware were proud of. But he chose to ignore all that, for his own gain. He tainted the World Tree, leaving behind a wound that is almost impossible to close. He caused a catastrophe, then fled as if he didn’t care. The pillar on which the elves leaned became a presence that haunts them at the mere mention of its name.”

The room lit up strangely, the still mana trembled as if it were being held by force.

“And you… you want to resurrect the name of this monster?”

Adrian shook his head from side to side, resisting the pressure of the mana.

“No, Your Royal Highness. I loathe my grandfather, Rian Laute, and the fact that I am related to him by blood as much as you do.”

His emerald green eyes turned cold, and he even clenched his fist.

“Rian Laute is the man who killed my father, his own son. He killed both his first and second daughters-in-law, he even tried to kill my sister, even though she was his granddaughter, and when he couldn’t do that, he simply used her as a tool. He is the only reason why I grew up without a family, the only reason why I have seen nothing but poverty and pain until I reached this age. Resurrecting his name is the last thing I want to do.”

He took a deep breath, his eyes even sharper as he continued, his voice even more determined.

“I am angry at the Lautes, whom I am ashamed to call my family, for everything they have done. And… I know other people are angry too.”

His eyes narrowed, his face soured.

“And this anger will be directed at my sister and me, whatever we do, because of our connection to the people who caused it. We will be judged for crimes we did not commit, we will be the main focus of great hatred for the rest of our lives because of those who are our family; we will suffer. This is the reality of the society we live in.”

He clenched his teeth so that they were clearly visible, his eyes growing even more determined.

“But I… I don’t want that, not when I’ve done nothing wrong, not when I’ve only just learned who my family is, and that they even exist… when I have no connection to them other than my blood.”

So much so that even the mana around him rippled slightly, as if responding to his feelings.

“That’s why I want to change the very name that will be associated and hated with me and my sister. I want to undo all the damage they have caused by using the same name ’Laute’. I want to turn that hatred into admiration, pride, and trust, as it was before, so that my sister and I can at least reach a happier future.”

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