Yao Ning paced back and forth in the hallway of a heavily gilded palace located in a city known as Truelight City. Her face was in a frown and had been in a frown ever since she had found out that her King had been taken into custody for killing a high-ranking member of the Empire's army.
No one had told her exactly what was happening and those that did only told her that it would be okay, and she should relax.
'Like hell, I can relax,' the old woman thought to herself.
Liang Shufen sat on one of the chairs in the hallway as well, her face grim as well. She bit her fingers in frustration, eyes unfocused as her mind was lost in some thought. There were other people around her, all important people in their own right, but none seemed to focus their gaze on her at all.
"What are they talking about in there? Why can't be with them?" Yao Ning asked once again, even though she knew the answer would be the same.
No one even bothered to answer her this time around. The old woman's frown only deepened, but she remained quiet. She knew she couldn't go in right now, but she was worried about what they were doing to her king.
'If these people lay a single hand on His Majesty, I swear I will—" her words left her mind when she noticed someone quickly walking down the hallway.
Long Fangyu, the Crown Prince of the Azure Imperium, made his way through the hallway, along with a host of other men following him. He seemed to be silently conversing with the people and stopped when he noticed her.
"Your Highness," Yao Ning quickly bowed. "What is going to happen to our majesty? You cannot keep him captive."
"Lady Yoa," the Crown Prince quickly spoke up. "Please calm down. I will go and see what is happening. I can promise you no harm will come to your King. Be calm."
The woman took deep breaths and nodded.
The Crown Prince left the old woman and walked ahead. He went into the room that had to be opened from the inside, and behind him, the door locked again.
Yao Ning could only pray the Crown Prince did something to help their king.
Alex sat in a rather comfortable chair with a cushioned seat that seemed too warm for the cold. Surrounding him were nearly 40 different men and women.
6 of those were the Kings and Queens who had happened to be there for the Continental Tournament that was to be held in a week or two at best. The rest of them were high-ranking members of the army that had gathered to hear from him.
And they had heard all he could tell.
Everyone whispered amongst themselves, making their own judgment of the situation, planning on what was the right thing to do. They couldn't punish a foreign monarch directly, but he had killed someone so he had to take responsibility for it somehow.
The voices suddenly died when the door opened and the Crown prince walked in. People quickly turned to give their greetings and remained quiet for the Crown Prince to speak.
The Crown Prince looked at the room and frowned.
"You, you, you, you, and you," he pointed to 5 old men he knew to be wiser than most. "Everyone except the kings and the ones I pointed, leave."
The sounds of people walking filled the room and within moments, the room of 40 people dropped to only a dozen. The room became much more quiet after that.
The Crown Prince then went forward and sat opposite Alex on an empty sofa.
"Your Majesty, I would like for you to recount your words on the last day again," the man said.
Alex nodded. "I had asked Zhao Boqin if he would fight me on the last day, so he came and said he would fight me if I agreed to his bet. He wanted my Mirror and I wanted some answers from him."
"He lost, so I went to ask him the questions. Before I could get to the questions, he attacked me with Immortal Qi. I managed to dodge due to remaining careful, and because he attacked me, I did so too. It was in retaliation, only I didn't expect him to die."
"I had expected the talisman to save him."
That was the story that Alex had made and everyone knew about now. He knew everyone would doubt that he didn't ask any questions, but that was the least of the problems for them, so he hoped it would get buried amidst the other problems.
"Do you feel remorse for what you did?" the Crown Prince asked.
"No," Alex said. "He attacked me, so I killed him. I feel no remorse."
"Then why did you give yourself up?" the Crown Prince asked.
Alex gave a frowned look. "What else was I to do?" he asked, laughing dryly as he did so. "Anyone would know I was the one who killed him when the dead body appeared outside. I had no reason to hide."
The Crown Prince frowned when he heard that. "There was no dead body that appeared outside," he said.
The words caused Alex to frown for real this time around. "No body?" he asked with a concerned look. "But I killed him, and I saw the body get teleported away."
"But nothing appeared outside. We scoured the entire island, but there was nothing there," the Crown Prince said.
"Nothing?" Alex fell into a thought. "The hell?"
He had clearly seen the body get teleported away. Did someone get rid of the body when they found it outside? Did someone rob the corpse and want nothing to get tied back to them?
Or… was the dead body just not considered a 'victor' per the Martial Ground's rule, and thus it remained inside the island. If Alex had to bet on one of the possibilities, he would bet on the dead body still being inside.
"You should send someone into the Martial Ground to recover the body then," Alex said. "Not that I should say it to you. You should have sent someone in already."
The Crown prince shook his head. "We cannot just send someone inside. The secret realm won't open for another 30 years, and until then whatever is inside will remain inside."
"Oh…" Alex wondered if he was a little hasty in giving himself up. He nearly laughed at the thought of that. Even if he had said nothing, sooner or later, suspicion would've fallen on him anyway. It was better to get it out of the way from the start.
The Crown Prince pulled out a formation plate and placed it down before asking, "About the questions you wanted to ask Zhao Boqin, can you tell me what they were?"
"I wanted to learn about the Military training, and how it was handled. My own army back home is relatively new, so I wanted to learn more. I had no 2nd questions planned at that time."
"I see," the Crown Prince said and poured Qi into the formation. "Please let us converse among ourselves for now."
The formation opened up to cover everyone but Alex. And Alex could only imagine they were going to come to a verdict by the time they came out.
