Looking back, it was clear that this was their first big move against us.
"It would appear that the ones that had been behind the collapses of various mines were the defilers and puppeteers, investigation and interrogation did not reveal much, they had taken strong measures to avoid any information from getting out, the captured members of both group had no prior memories before their last assault, some reports seemed to have been indicating that a new group, called Alizé, had been part of the effort, but no concrete evidences of their involvement have been confirmed"
"The numbers that have been both killed and captured are tremendous, it makes no doubt that neither of them retain much of their forces, most intriguing, are the two unknown variables that participated in the battle, the so-called knight of plague, and the mysterious caster"
"Both were sighted for the very first time on this very day, a knight of good power wielding a potent ailment, but most concerningly, the mage could not only make use of a zone, he was able to do battle with Rosemary, The Volcano Witch, she reported that the refinement and expertise of her enemy was higher than hers, only dominating the fight thanks to her inherent advantages"
"We suspect that both of those men were hired blades, the defilers and puppeteers are rather weak overall, they wished to cause discord and stir up troubles by slaughtering students of the academy, some of them from other nations, and the talent holders, it makes no doubt that had their plan gone their way, the diplomatic rumble would have been unmanageable"
"But of course, doing so in the presence of powerful foes would have been difficult for them, Miss Rosemary made it impossible, and Gelter, the fallen knight, was also a force to be reckoned with, making it likely that both were paid a hefty sum to take care of those two, despite this, their attack was a failure"
This was the sort of melodies that had been gracing the king's ears for the past few hours, he had not been left untold of this accident for long, of course, having students be attacked wasn't a good look, but Agilulf Wanneck was quick to turn the whole thing on its head, managing to convince anyone, even if begrudgingly, that this attack clearly showed that the students could not possibly into better hands.
Where else could youth be ambushed in this way and everyone ending up perfectly fine? Only under Toordefer's care.
"First, they invade this palace, then they dare to try and harm students of our respected academy, those fools have gotten too big for their britches, their existence will no longer be tolerated, I will do the unthinkable, and expend funds to eradicate what's left of them" the king uttered, sitting in his lustrous throne, making his subjects gasp.
"Also, I will take responsibility for the regrettable passing of Gelter, may he be given post-mortem honours and titles, invite his lady here as well, I have to present my apologies" he signalled for some pages to go ahead and do just that.
Agilulf Wanneck cleared his throat, standing up from his throne, his bright red and exquisite cloak fluttering.
"This whole thing is certainly dubious at best, powerhouses don't grow on trees, a lone knight I could understand, but a mage that has mastered zone?
Our dear volcano witch spoke very highly of his capabilities at that, in this day and age, only Rosemary was a known user of this supreme technique, considering this and putting it together with Audit's visions, I will admit that I worry for the wellbeing of this nation"
The king admitted, allowing the many of his subjects gathered in his throne room to speak amongst themselves before striking the ground with his sceptre.
"Starkefolten, Pezerx, Millipolo, Glittegoyaume, Dschungelland and Tochi, mightiest nations and either ancient or descendants of old superpowers, none seem to truly be taking the threat the prophet warned us of, they don't believe his ramblings, and they believe themselves capable of handling whatever it is that is coming for us anyways" he mentioned Tochi even though he had since long been made aware of the less than ideal state the country had been left in.
In fact, the mad prophet had made a greater job of gathering allies than himself, Agilulf Wanneck had heard that Quideos Audit had somehow managed to convince one of his old friends of helping in some capacity, clearly, he was constantly working toward preventing the terrible fate he witnessed, if it was all another one of his delusions, it would have ended a long time ago.
"On top of ridding ourselves of pests, we shall begin further reinforcing our defences, someone go get me all of the Starkefoltians diplomats residing on our grounds, we'll get a hold of their defence technologies"
"My loyal nobles, begin training troops on your lands, we will slow down on our food exports, stock up for ourselves, catch a hold of the death hunters, we'll offer them a good place in Tamaris and advantages for settling in here…" the king enumerated countless measures and things he wanted done, finally turning to his three otherworlders.
"As for you three, you still lack in experience, you missed the chance to battle defilers and puppeteers, so you'll be participating in their extermination, Pierre-Ornée will be accompanying you"
Last time, he had sent them out to find the heretics and doll lovers, but they had completely missed their hideout, having reasonably crossed off the mines of the list of where to look since they had been made aware that the volcano witch would be there for a little while, there was no point to bother.
He continued on explaining specifics, his nobles taking notes, the servants running around, the king had thought long and hard about all that could be done to prepare for what was looming ahead.
Just as he prepared to end his speech, a page arrived sprinting into the room, completely red, panting heavily, raising his index finger, trying to say something but running into some problems.
"Breathe in and out slowly my child, who is it that is barging in this time? Did I summon him by saying his name? That would not even surprise me…"
"My King, there are three of them!"