"Give a present?"
"Is this brat trying to bribe us?"
"Hahaha, not bad. He wants us to let him live in exchange for rewards? He really underestimates us, doesn't he?"
The Dukes had a mocking smile on their faces. They couldn't even believe that Gabriel could give them something that could attract their attention at all. Moreover, even if he did have a nice thing to give, so what? They knew that they couldn't let Gabriel live now that the Emperor was here.
'Little boy, let us see what you can give. If it's something nice, we can still take it and then kill you. Did you really think that anyone here would let you live?'
Gabriel didn't even need to look at the Dukes to know what they were thinking. At this point, he had read them up completely.
Not only the Dukes, but even the Emperor and his children thought that Gabriel was trying to bribe the Dukes in his favor.
"Heh, as expected. This kid isn't righteous. After all this act, he finally reveals his real face... Using money to escape when his lies were caught." The Eldest Prince scoffed, finding Gabriel to be very pathetic.
That timid Princess Azia simply lowered her head, not saying anything.
As for the Emperor, he could only smirk at this point. It was clear that the man before him was at the end of his wits and didn't have anything that could help him.
"Don't capture him for now. Let us see what bribes he has prepared for us," A Noble laughed heartily, gesturing for their guards to wait for a moment.
Even though he didn't intend to let Gabriel live, he still wanted to get the benefits from Gabriel before actually having him killed.
The Royal Knights didn't move closer to Gabriel but they didn't lower their weapons either. They kept their swords aimed at Gabriel, who was still standing calmly.
He didn't even look at the Royal Knights, as if he didn't put them in his eyes. His face was so calm that it was really strange and the person who felt that strangeness the most was Princess Shia.
In the entire Empire, she was the first person to meet Gabriel. She had also seen him fight. She had seen a glimpse of Gabriel's strength. Moreover, she was the only person who knew that Gabriel was a mage of Light.
With how things were progressing here, she had a really bad feeling about it.
Even though her Empire didn't pay much importance to mages, she knew just how capable they were, especially a Mage of Light which was considered to be the strongest element.
"Father, We should leave here..." She told her father.
When she arrived here, she didn't know that the person challenging their authority was Gabriel and by now, it was too late.
For some reason, at the moment, she didn't feel as if they were victors. Instead, she felt as if they were being stared at by a Predator. Her family was out in the open, and it was really dangerous, especially since the person on the other side was Gabriel.
"Leave? We aren't done yet. Today, we need to remove future trouble from its roots and I want to watch it happen with my own eyes!" The Emperor calmly answered. "Don't disturb me more. Just sit silently! Let your elders deal with it!"
"But father, he isn't-"
"I told you to shut up!" The Emperor smacked the table before him, seemingly frustrated. "Enough with your antics. I told you to not disturb me anymore!"
"But I just wanted to tell you that he-"
Shia at least wanted to tell her father that it was dangerous to be here since Gabriel was also a mage. Unfortunately, before she could even complete her sentence, she watched her father glare at her.
Shia shut her mouth immediately, feeling intimidated under that gaze. She had already tried speaking three times. She wasn't sure if her father was going to slap her if she tried speaking one more time. Her father really looked like a completely different person than she had seen before.
At the moment, she felt as if her father was really shaken on the inside, and wanted Gabriel to die at any cost. He wasn't even hearing anyone else. His entire focus was on Gabriel. She couldn't understand why her father was suddenly like that. If Gabriel was really lying about their family's betrayal, why would her father behave so strangely?
She couldn't help but feel even more suspicious of her father, wondering if Gabriel was actually telling the truth.
After a long period of silence, Callum returned, carrying a heavy bag on his shoulders.
"Hmm? Is he giving us gold or something? That bag looks heavy!"
"Hahaha, looks like our random guess was right! The boy is indeed from Yann. How else could he have so much gold?"
"Heh, we can't be so sure before we check. Maybe he's just trying to fool us? Who knows, he might've just filled the bag with stones to fool us. What I'm more curious about is why Duke Callum is helping that boy. Did he already sell his loyalty?"
"It's possible. I think we should kill him as well, after dealing with Gabriel. I've always been suspicious of him. We might as well do some cleanup today!"
The Dukes watched Callum returning with the bag. At the moment, they had already made up their minds to kill Callum as well. However, first they wanted to deal with Gabriel. He
"Open the bag and show us what's inside! We want to make sure you didn't fill the bag with useless things!" one of the Nobles exclaimed.
"Don't worry. I'm sure it's not a useless thing. If anything, the young inside the bag is something that you'd all have considered a treasure," Gabriel vaguely answered, gesturing for Callum to show everyone what's inside.
Callum opened the bag and turned it upside down before raising it in the air.
As soon as the bag was raised upside down, a lifeless body came falling down from the bag, landing on the table with a thud.
"My present to you all... I hope you all like it," Gabriel stated, without the slightest change in his expressions.
The lifeless body of Saint Knight fell out of the bag, scaring quite a lot of people, especially the one who was expecting gold or treasures.
Almost all the Nobles stood up, as shock and fear filled them up. Their chairs fell behind. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.
Even the Emperor was horrified as he stood up. The Saint Knight that he sent to kill Gabriel had been killed instead? How was this possible?
