"Announcing the arrival of His Lordship, Marquis Randall."
The Chamberlain's calm and clear voice rang out across with room, with all eyes turning towards the man who walked in right after.
It was a man who looked somewhere in his early thirties, dressed in a three-piece brown suit that matched his light brown hair and eyes.
He was fairly muscular, something that could not be hidden under this blazer.
The man, Marquiss Bourne Randall of the GEE, asked as he walked up to the conference table in the centre of the room and took his seat at the fourth position from the head of the table.
"Exactly Seven minutes, Marquis.
This is your third strike."
His reply came from the person seated at the head of the table, a clean-shaven man with dark eyes and hair worn slicked back.
This man was adorned in a regal mess dress, exuding elegance in the white uniform with resplendent gold braiding. A cascade of medals adorned the chest of the uniform, and a crimson sash was draped across his torso—a symbol of authority.
"Damn, don't have any more chances, huh?
I'd do my best to be early next time."
Though Bourne said that, all of the nobles present knew fully well that it was just lip service and the man was definitely going to be late for the next meeting.
Their gazes then turned towards the man at the head of the table who would still pardon Bourne's lateness, the Emperor of the Great Eastern Empire; Isaac Tarron Wilson.
"Begin the Morning Court."
At the Emperor's command, the Chamberlain stepped forward with files in his hand and began reading out the matters of state.
This was the Emperor's Court, where the most important problems of the nation were addressed.
It was attended by all Court Nobles based in the Capital with ranks of Count and above.
The issues being addressed spanned multiple categories; Economic, Environmental, Security, Technological, Educational and many more.
All the nobles present were required to actively participate.
One couldn't just sit down and be silent throughout the meeting, as the Emperor watched everyone closely and noted down everyone's opinions.
If you didn't have an opinion to give, then you didn't need to be present.
And as much as being able to attend the Emperor's Court was an honour, being removed from the list of attending nobles was also a great dishonour; as it meant that you were not contributing to the betterment of the nation.
The Seating arrangements at the conference were determined according to their noble ranks, as well as the power and authority they possessed.
The first six seats on the Emperor's Left and Right sides were reserved for the Six Most Powerful Men and Women of the Empire—Six Dukes/Duchesses.
These Six were also the Second to Seventh Star Generals of the GEE.
At this moment, only three of the six were present, with the other three being in the Western, Eastern and Southern Sectors of the Country.
Askal was closer to the Northern side of the GEE, as well as the location where the Emperor resided, hence the reason why there were Three of them in the capital.
Right after those three, came the Marquises; the first of which was Bourne.
The Randall Family was the most powerful marquisate in the empire, closely followed behind by the Parrus Family where the Foreign Affairs Minister hailed from.
The meeting went on normally at the beginning, but towards the end, Emperor Isaac began to notice something.
Hidden beneath all the suggestions offered by some of the nobles, were their underlying ambitions and desire for personal benefit.
From the suggestions that three nobles had made in regard to an Educational Problem in the rural areas of the Empire, one could easily discern what Faction they hailed from.
The GEE's nobility was split into three factions; the Imperialists, the Aristocrats and the Neutrals.
At the head of each of these factions were two out of the Seven Star Generals.
The Third and Seventh were the Imperialists; who heavily supported the notion of the Emperor reigning supreme and wished to extend the Nation's power and influence even more. The Fourth and Fifth headed the Aristocratic faction; the ones who believed that the Nobles as a whole should not hold less power than the Emperor, and wished for more privileges to be afforded to them.
Finally, the Second- and Sixth-Star General were of the Neutral Faction that didn't take either side, preferring things to remain as they were without any shifts in power balance.
In the eyes of an outsider, the three factions maintained a 'delicate power balance', but the reality could not be any more different.
The truth of the matter was that all three factions were dancing in the palm of the Emperor's hand.
The Dukes who headed each faction were ultimately all on the Emperor's side, and Isaac had them create these factions to figure out the dispositions of all the nobles present and know how best to handle each one.
Emperor Isaac's grip on power was firm and unshakable.
The nobles were not all stupid, and a select few of them had figured out this, but even if they had figured it out, there was absolutely nothing they could do.
They certainly could not go up against the Emperor and Six Dukes at once.
Heck, they needed multiple Marquisates to band together just to go up against one Duke, much less the other five, AND the Emperor.
So even if they had figured it out, they had no choice but to play along, unless they risked getting on the Emperor's bad side.
The Court Meeting Ended pretty quickly and a lot of decisions were finalized, with Isaac feeling that he was going to be very busy in the coming days.
"This concludes this Court Se-"
"Wait, there's still something else."
The voice of the Second Star General whom Evan had met a year ago in Gerfast, Duke Kieran Cooper, cut the Chamberlain off before the man could declare the Session over.
"My Apologies, Your Grace."
Kieran waved off the Chamberlain's apology for not knowing there was something else, before ordering a knight to bring in something. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NovelHub(.)net
Emperor Isaac also appeared to be curious about what is it that Kieran had to show, as he watched the technicians switch off the images of the Empire's maps and economic growth charts being projected by the magic projector.
When he saw the box that the knight brought in, his eyes showed recognition.
"Isn't that the box that came in from the Beast Kingdom some days ago?"
Isaac had been busy with some Wolfen-related matters at the time, so he left it for Kieran and Marquis Parrus to handle, eventually forgetting about it due to how busy he was.
"Yes. It was Stamped with the Beast King's personal Seal."
Beast King Kolvar's seal was something that only he—the Monarch of the Beast Kingdom could use. No one, not even his wife or children had the authority to send an international message using his Seal.
Hence the reason why Isaac was surprised when he heard this.
'I may have underestimated the importance of this…'
The man leaned forward and watched as they placed the recording stone into the magic projector when Kieran dropped another bombshell.
"Another thing of note was that this message's content had absolutely nothing, to do with the Beast Kingdom."
Isaac was naturally dumbfounded by this. Kieran was insinuating that Kolvar had used his Seal for the sake of someone else, and this got the Emperor wondering just who it was that dared to use a transcendent as his liaison.
The answer to this question was revealed when the magic projector came on and projected a 3-D hologram of a certain Hero.
Everyone present recognized who this was; this was someone who had become famous overnight due to the Dullahan Incident in the GWE last year.
There was also the Lacertilia Dungeon Break of last month, whose heat hadn't died down yet. Multiple rumours were going around about him, citing he had gained the power of a dragon, with a few supposed 'sightings' of him with white reptilian wings on his back.
When they recalled all of this information about Evan, the expressions on the faces of the nobles present all turned Dark.
"GWE, Hobha, Beast Kingdom…he's finally targeting us now, isn't he?"
Bourne spoke with a sigh, and all the nobles who heard his words couldn't help but concur with him. It couldn't be helped, as wherever Evan had gone in the past few years—something big always happened.
Even Emperor Isaac could barely stop his face from twitching in displeasure at this. The man didn't want Evan coming over to cause a ruckus at this delicate time, after all.
"Let's see what the Hero has to say."
Snapping his fingers after, the recorded message began playing.