The feral grin that formed on Sol slipped, the moment the feeling of hostility vanished, as fast as it appeared. Looking at Milia's calm expression, it seemed that she hadn’t felt it; otherwise, with her personality, there was no way she would let it pass.
This could only mean one thing.
The one or ones who sent this feeling of hostility were incredibly skilled. The only reason he managed to feel it should be because of his heightened senses.
‘Is it a traitor? Someone jealous?’
It was only speculation at this moment. He needed to speak about it with Milia later.
“Your highness? Is something the matter?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Dismissing her with a wave of his hand, Sol began to focus on the numerous people standing in front of him. At first view, three clear rows were formed.
The first one consisted of four people, two women, and two men. He could easily recognize Ketia in the group. This most likely meant that the other three were also part of the Fingers.
The second row consisted of 20 or so people. Finally, the last row was easily in the fifty or more.
Seeing that nothing was wrong, Milia smiled before she walked next to the four Fingers and kneeled in front of him.
“Welcome, your highness.” Her voice was calm, but if one paid attention, they would feel a slight trembling of excitement.
The moment she kneeled, all the others followed suit and repeated after her.
“Welcome your highness.”
Their voices were low but united. It was different from the hot-blooded feeling the soldiers of Highland gave him. Those people in front of him weren’t soldiers, but hardened spies and assassins.
Looking at them all kneeling in front of him, Sol felt no sense of elation. It was confusing at first because he was sure that his pride should have boiled in happiness at such a sight. But it didn’t take long for him to understand.
Aside from Milia, those people weren’t bowing to him, but to the crown. It didn’t matter who stood in front of them.
‘I am really greedy.’
Why should they be loyal to him? It wasn’t like he had done anything for them. Thinking so, he sighed and released the full brunt of his aura.
Immediately, the atmosphere in the room changed. If before, some of them had just kneeled for the form, now they were seriously doing so as they felt the grand aura that seemed ready to crush them at any moment.
“I will not make any grand discourse, nor will I ask much of you. All I want is your loyalty.”
Sol did not bother threatening them. Those people were assassins trained to be ready for death and devoid of any family. There was nothing to threaten them with. He just needed to show them that he wasn’t someone to be trifled with.
“Are we clear?”
“Yes!”
“Then, aside from the Fingers, all of you are dismissed.”
The second and third-row immediately vanished at his words. This brought him some comfort.
‘Well, at least, even though they aren’t loyal to me, their loyalty to the crown is clear.’
Thinking so, he focused his attention on the five people, who, from start to finish, didn’t even blink nor change their breathing despite his pressure and with a smile, he gently talked to them,
“Well, I guess it’s time for some presentations, don’t you think?”
The stronghold of the crown’s shadow itself wasn’t particularly large. Though, this was only relatively speaking. In reality, the stronghold was an underground fortress whose branches stretched from the center of the capital to all the four zones. This was most likely why five Fingers existed in the first place.
After leaving the place where he was initially transported with Milia, he was directed to a large room reminiscing of a reunion room.
“After you, your highness.”
Sol didn't act in a reserved way and entered the room before taking place at the head of the long rectangular table that had only five chairs.
The other four waited for Sol to indicate them to sit before taking place. In the end, the only one left standing was Milia, who finally stood behind him.
“Your highness, if you may, let’s have the honor to introduce everyone.”
“Go on.”
“Then, your highness, you may have already guessed, but the five of us are the leaders of the crown’s shadow.”
Sol nodded. The crown’s shadow was composed of three divisions. The hand, the eyes, and the feet.
The feet were the division charged for foreign relations. Diplomacy was their bread and butter.
The eyes were the spy division placed all over the kingdom and also in a few foreign kingdoms. Because of their positions, most of them were unknown. Only the two leaders knew all the members of the eye division. Even then, each of them only knew one-half of the total members.
Finally the hand–was the assassin division. The one tasked to protect the crown in the dark and to do the dirty jobs when necessary.
‘But what confuses me are their numbers. They should have been nine in total. Five leaders for the hand, two for the feet, and two for the eyes.’
“What about the others?”
A somber expression flashed on their face, and, even though he couldn’t see her, he was sure that the same expression should be on Milia’s.
“They are dead. More precisely, we killed them.” The one who answered was a tall man wearing a silver monocle on his left eye.
“Mind your manner, Edgar. It’s our lord you are talking to.”
Ketia chastised him before Milia could. She knew fully that if she didn’t intervene asap, this matter would become bigger.
Snorting, Edgar adjusted his monocle before releasing a sigh, “I beg your pardon, your highness.”
“No matter, there are more pressing issues. What do you mean, by killing them? Since when?”
He only had a very basic knowledge about the three divisions, but learning that the leaders of two out of the three were killed was rather intriguing.
The four pairs of eyes focused on him, or rather, behind him. It seemed that it had been decided that Milia would continue the explanation.
Milia didn’t relish this, but it was something necessary,
“Your highness, all the truth will be explained to you. But let me finish the introduction.” Seeing Sol nod, she continued, “Firstly, you may already know her, but this is Ketia. She is one of the Fingers, but she also plays the role of one of the Feet. This is why, during princess Lilin’s escapade, she was following her. She played a very big role in the success of the princess. Her cover is her maid job.”
Ketia smiled as she shook her head, ‘I simply did what I had to do. The most difficult part had already been resolved by the princess.”
Milia didn’t waste time and pointed to the monocle-wearing man, “This rude man here, is Edgar, one of the Eye and the Fingers. His cover is the identity of a rather rich businessman working in jewelry. The store we used belongs to him.”
The man nodded with a smile. For some reason, Sol felt like punching this guy.
“That slutty looking woman here is Aria, like Edgar, she works as a Finger and an Eye. For her cover, she works as the madam of the red light district.”
The woman in question was a dark elf. She had a rather voluptuous body and was holding a long smoking pipe in her hand. Her clothes looked more like black bikini than anything else.
“Ara, It has been a long time, but your tongue is as harsh as ever.” If she was offended by the way Milia introduced her, she didn’t show it. In fact, far from offended, she seemed to find it amusing.
“Finally, here is Berthold.” The man named Berthold seemed like a gentle middle-aged man, “He works as one of the Feet and a Finger. As for his cover, he works as a bartender.”
The man nodded to Sol while giving a kind smile, “I am happy to finally meet his highness. I have heard many good things about you from Milia.”
“Oh, hush, no need to disturb his highness about that.”
Sol smiled, at how panicky her voice sounded.
“I will be happy to hear those stories at a later date.” He turned then toward Milia, “Then, what about you?”
“Your highness, I work as one of the fingers, but also as the overall leader of the organization.”
This information wasn’t particularly surprising. It was easy to see that all of the five present here seemed to defer to Milia one way or another.
Still, they all had the same weird odor.
He couldn’t pinpoint it, but none of them seemed to be what they appeared. This was extremely confusing. Even more so since Milia didn’t have such a weird mix of odors.
‘Then, what is the link? Perhaps hybrids?'
It wasn’t impossible, but he something told him that this wasn’t the answer. Deciding that blind guess wouldn’t bring him anything, he began to speak
“Well, I am happy to finally meet all of you. While I do not have a perfectly clear picture of the situation, I also know that you guys had been a great help in keeping this kingdom afloat. Now, before we continue, I would like to finally have an answer. What happened to other people who should have led the other two divisions?”
Milia hesitated a little before finally hanging down her head.
“In order for you to understand, we must go back to the cause of everything.”
“The cause?”
“Indeed. Your highness...Do you know the human genesis theory?”
