The Emperor's eyes shined when he heard that and looked towards the Duke. The duke on the other hand hesitated a bit as he had wanted the news to be public once the marriage was done.
"Who is your son marrying?" the Emperor asked.
"He says it's the daughter of the Vice headmaster of the First Bond school," Ning said before the Duke even had a chance to respond.
"Daughter of… that retarded girl? Why would you want your son to marry that girl? Are you an idiot yourself?" the Emperor couldn't help but ask.
The vice headmaster's first daughter was known to be a girl whose mental functions stopped developing when she was 6 years old due to some injury. So despite being 36 years old, she had the mental capabilities of a 6 years old, who no one would want to marry, ever.
"You want to ruin your son's life just for a little power? Are you that desperate, despite being a duke?" the emperor asked.
"It's…" the duke hesitated a bit. "It's only partly about increasing my political power, your highness."
"Oh? What's the other part then? It better be something really good for you to want to ruin your son's life," the Emperor said coldly.
"The vice headmaster of the First Bond school has 5 spots available to his name. I… I just wanted to get my eldest son one of those spots," the duke said.
"Spot?" the Emperor was confused. "What spot?"
"Your highness, did you not realize?" the Duke asked. "The Sealed Island opens up in 2 months."
"Oh… OH!" the Emperor was surprised. "Right, I forgot about that. Lamar brings it up from time to time, but… but I simply didn't remember."
"Young Lanley is going to get one of those seats?" the Emperor asked.
"Only if I can take the vice headmaster's daughter off of him," the duke said.
"I see," the Emperor said. "No wonder you are willing to go so far. That makes sense."
Ning looked at the emperor weirdly as the old man's tone had just changed.
"Are you okay with this? It looks like you are okay with this," Saphandra said from the side.
"Young lady, you…" the Emperor paused for a second when he finally paid attention to Saphandra before continuing, "you don't understand what sort of opportunity this is. If it were me, I would give up on being an Emperor if it meant my son could get a chance to enter. This is a monumental opportunity, that only comes once in a lifetime for a person."
"So you're saying you are willing to ruin your youngest son's life if that means your eldest son gets a 'chance' at doing something?" Saphandra asked.
The Emperor hesitated for a bit and looked towards the Duke before saying, "yes, I would."
"Pathetic," Saphandra said.
"Listen here little girl," the Emperor said. "The Forbidden Island only opens up once every 30 years, and only has a select number of people that can enter."
"In the last 3 times it has opened, only 10 or so people have been successful in bonding, and 5 of them have gone off to become the 5 headmasters of the 5 different schools. The rest didn't want anything special, so they are living a peaceful life."
"If there is a chance you can enter such a place, you do whatever you can to enter. What Grecian is doing… I… I would do the same," the Emperor said.
"You're a disappointment of an Emperor. What's so special about this forbidden island? Just what sort of beasts do you bond here?" Saphandra asked in disgust.
Ning on the other hand was already understanding what was happening. If he was right, and that was why they were so desperate, then that made sense.
"No," the Emperor said. "You don't bond any beasts there."
"Then?" Saphandra asked.
"You bond Spirits," Ning said. "The Forbidden Island is full of spirits, isn't it?"
"Yes," the Emperor said with a weird look. "Are you from one of the 5 schools too? This is sort of secret information that not many know about."
"No, I just guessed," Ning said.
Saphandra was a little bit too surprised. "Spirits? You… you bond spirits there?" she asked.
"Yes, there are many spirits there and you have a chance to bond with them," the Emperor said. "If you do ever bond with a spirit, you won't have to keep that hair dyed. You will actually have proper violet hair."
Saphandra frowned but didn't say anything regarding that. "If there really are many spirits in there, then why the need for spots? Can't everyone who wants to go in just go?"
"I'm afraid not," the Emperor said. "The Forbidden Island is named as such because for most of the time, everyone is forbidden from entering. However, for an entire month, every 30 years, it opens up and allows people in there. But the amount it lets in is dependent on the number of spirits inside."
"It allows 5 people per spirit inside, and they will have to fight each other to get a chance to bond something on their own," the Emperor said. "If I'm not wrong, Lamar said that this year there were about 25 spirits. This means a total of 125 people are allowed in there. Since the 5 academies involved are the ones that determine who can go, you can see why the duke wants to make such a decision."
Saphandra frowned even more. The Emperor's words had logic to them, but that didn't mean they weren't deplorable. She turned to Ning for him to say something, but Ning was already deep in thought.
Spirits were only born in places with very strong Spiritual energy, where the energy can pile up over time to form sentience.
If this place had multiple spirits, then certainly spiritual energy there was one of the strongest on the planet.
On top of that, when Ning factored in the fact that there was a seal around this place, he was certain he knew what this Forbidden Island was.
There was no doubt that it was the Origin of this place.
