Chapter 506: Disatisfaction~

"So..."

The man seated there rested his chin upon one hand.

"This is the one for whom that woman wishes to create a Fifteenth Throne?"

His words echoed softly across the hall.

The moment they ended...

Several pairs of eyes quietly shifted toward Razeal again.

Razeal, who had been silently standing before the World Council without saying a single word, slowly turned his head toward the voice that had spoken. His crimson eyes calmly settled upon the man seated upon the throne before studying him without hurry.

The man looked to be somewhere in his mid-forties. He possessed a broad, powerful build that somehow gave the impression of someone who had spent his entire life upon battlefields rather than inside palaces. Heavy dark-colored armor completely covered his body from shoulders to boots. It was not the kind of armor polished every day by servants to shine before nobles.

Quite the opposite actually. It looked old... incredibly old matter of fact. Countless scratches covered its surface, deep cuts marked several plates, while dried stains, dirt, dust and signs of endless battles remained upon it as though they had become part of the armor itself. It carried no decoration for beauty. Every mark upon it told a story. His long black hair fell behind his back without much care, while a thick beard covered the lower half of his face. Even so, there was no denying the man was handsome.

However, the moment anyone looked into his face, that thought immediately disappeared beneath another. Serious. Extremely serious. His sharp features, the deep permanent frown resting upon his forehead, and those unwavering eyes made him look like a man who had forgotten how to smile long ago. Around him lingered an overwhelming scent of battle. It wasn’t an actual smell alone. It was his presence. His killing intent leaked naturally into the surroundings without the slightest attempt to hide it.

It was so dense that it almost felt alive, as though countless battlefields followed wherever he went. Whether he simply couldn’t suppress it anymore... or whether he had never bothered to... Razeal couldn’t tell. It simply felt like this was the man himself.

Despite the man’s dissatisfied voice had outwardly. Yet the moment Razeal had entered the Sovereign Hall earlier, something had happened that only the man himself understood. Every instinct inside his body had immediately sounded an alarm. Every hair beneath his armor had stood on end before his eyes had even properly looked at Razeal. His countless years upon battlefields had sharpened his instincts far beyond ordinary people. Long before reason or logic reached a conclusion, those instincts had already whispered that something about the young man before him was abnormal. It wasn’t strength. It wasn’t aura. It wasn’t killing intent. It was simply... wrong. Different. His body had sensed danger before his mind could understand why.

Still, his face never revealed any of it. His expression remained calm, almost indifferent. After all, this wasn’t the first time in his long life he had encountered someone capable of making his instincts react this way. A man who had reclaimed an entire continent from monsters did not panic because of strange feelings. If he had, he would never have survived long enough to become a World Regent.

Razeal quietly continued observing him. Unlike most of these regents who doesn’t know much about him.. he already knew the identities of every World Regent sitting inside this hall.

During their journey here, the puppet messenger had briefly introduced each Regent to him, describing their appearance, authority and position so he would at least recognize them upon arrival. Because of that, Razeal immediately knew who this man was.

The World Regent representative of the Wasteland Continent. Land of The Foresaken War.

The Continental Commander.

The Lord Commander of the White Standard.

The man who stood at the very front of humanity’s longest and bloodiest war.

The Lord Commander Lucian von Dreven.

Razeal honestly didn’t know much about either Lucian or the Wasteland itself. The puppet messenger had spoken very little beyond the basic history.

The Wasteland was the continent humanity had once completely lost to monsters. Cities had fallen. Kingdoms had disappeared. Civilization itself had nearly vanished there. Then one man had gathered the scattered survivors beneath a single banner the White Standard. Little by little... year after year... battlefield after battlefield... he had pushed the monsters back until humanity once again possessed a homeland upon that ruined continent. Whether the stories were exaggerated or not, Razeal didn’t know. But one thing was certain. Nobody became a World Regent through empty titles.

Razeal chose not to answer.

His expression remained unchanged as he quietly stood there, neither agreeing nor denying the man’s words. He simply watched.

However...

Before the silence could continue...

Another voice suddenly echoed across the Sovereign Hall.

"Ridiculous."

The single word arrived like a blade of ice.

"What exactly does she think of us?"

The voice was calm...

But every syllable carried obvious dissatisfaction.

"Her subordinates? Is that what we are now? To place someone within the World Council as our equal without even discussing it with the rest of us?"

The temperature inside the hall seemed to drop with every word.

"Not only is it disrespectful toward every World Regent seated here..."

The voice paused.

"...It is disrespectful toward the World Council itself."

Another brief silence followed before the speaker looked directly toward Razeal.

"And look at him."

His cold eyes narrowed.

"The boy hardly appears to have left his teenage years."

His voice became colder.

"What wisdom could someone like him possibly possess? What experience? What qualifications? This council governs matters capable of affecting the entire world. Kingdoms rise and fall because of decisions made inside this very hall."

His cold gaze never left Razeal.

"And now we are expected to accept a child as our equal?"

His expression hardened further.

"I find that completely unacceptable."

The last words echoed heavily throughout the chamber.

Silence returned once again.

Several of the other World Regents didn’t speak.

Yet a few quietly nodded.

Some gave only the slightest movement of their heads.

Others remained expressionless, but the lack of objection itself spoke enough.

Clearly...

The speaker was not the only one carrying dissatisfaction toward the Empress’s decision.

Razeal slowly turned his head toward the new voice.

His eyes calmly settled upon another man.

He possessed pale skin that almost resembled snow beneath the hall’s ancient light. Long silver hair flowed over his shoulders, while a crown carved from crystal-like ice rested proudly upon his head. Jagged black armor covered his body, its sharp edges resembling frozen mountain peaks. Thick white furs rested across his shoulders, giving him an even greater feeling of authority. He sat perfectly straight upon the ancient throne of eternal ice, his arms folded tightly across his chest as though carved from stone itself.

Behind him rose towering frozen spikes formed from ancient ice older than most lands themselves. Everything about the man radiated discipline, pride and absolute control. Even the air around him seemed colder than elsewhere inside the hall. His gaze carried no curiosity.

Only judgment.

Only cold authority.

And at this very moment...

Every bit of that cold gaze was fixed directly upon Razeal.

Razeal slowly turned his head toward the man who had spoken, calmly meeting those ice-cold eyes fixed upon him. His crimson gaze studied the stern figure sitting upon the frozen throne for only a moment before recognition appeared in his mind. ...That crown. There was no need to think much further.

That crown of eternal ice... the throne... the overwhelming cold authority surrounding him. There could only be one person.

Hraezar Iceheart. The King of the Frost Continent. One of the World Regents. Razeal quietly recognized him from the descriptions the puppet messenger had given him on the way here. However, instead of replying to the man’s offending words or defending himself, he simply shifted his gaze away from Hraezar and calmly looked toward the puppet standing beside him.

After all...

Why should he be the one arguing? He had been invited here.

Personally invited by the Empress.

He hadn’t forced his way into the World Council. He hadn’t begged for a seat. He hadn’t challenged anyone here for their position. The Empress herself had decided to make him a World Regent. If the others disliked that decision, then they should question the one who made it. Fighting with all these old monsters just to prove he deserved the position sounded completely stupid to him. That wasn’t his responsibility. It was the Empress’s. She had given him the throne. If someone wanted to oppose that, then they should oppose her, not him.

As for whether he had really accepted becoming a World Regent...?

Well...

Yes.

He had.

Without much hesitation actually.

Not because he cared about prestige or authority.

But because it was simply too profitable to refuse.

In fact, if he was being honest with himself, he had wanted something like this for a long time since getting to know the truth as this would be very very advantageous for him. But.. he never worked for it

Becoming a World Regent had never been part of his original plans because he had always believed it was impossible. There was no realistic way someone like him would ever be accepted into the World Council. Yet now, the Imperial Empress herself had unexpectedly opened the door for him.

There was absolutely no reason to refuse.

Not when this single position would save him years of work.

Not when it would make his plans for world conquest far easier than before.

And that wasn’t even the biggest reason.

His real reason for coming here was something else entirely.

There was something he wanted to ask.

Something he needed answers to.

Knowledge that ordinary people would never possess.

Knowledge that perhaps only the World Regents sitting inside this hall might knew.

If he could obtain that information...

Many of his future plans would become far simpler.

That alone made accepting the invitation worthwhile.

Still...

Accepting the invitation didn’t mean he was desperate to keep the seat.

There was a difference.

Yes, becoming a World Regent would benefit him tremendously.

But there was absolutely no way he was going to stand here and argue with World Regents over whether he deserved a chair.

That would be unbelievably foolish.

His eyes quietly swept across the enormous hall once again.

The pressure filling the room was unlike anything he had experienced before.

Every single person seated upon those ancient thrones radiated an unbelievably heavy presence. Their auras were completely different from one another, yet each carried enough weight to make even the air itself feel heavier. Even the attendants standing silently behind several of the thrones gave him an uncomfortable feeling well except some

Familiar faces he chose to just skip.. As for others he couldn’t clearly judge their strength, but his instincts warned him they were anything but ordinary.

As for the World Regents themselves...

Razeal was almost certain.

Every single one of them...

Was an Emperor-ranked powerhouse.

And that... Was no joke.

Making an enemy out of even one Emperor was already dangerous enough.

Making enemies out of several at the same time simply because of pride...

Would be idiotic.

So...

Razeal remained silent.

Instead of answering Hraezar, he simply looked toward the puppet messenger without saying a single word.

If anyone should answer...

It wasn’t him.

It was the representative of the Empress.

This entire situation existed because of her decision.

So naturally, the responsibility for explaining that decision should also belong to her side.

Let them argue among themselves, Razeal quietly thought.

The Empress made this decision. Let the Empress defend it.

Since the Empress herself wasn’t present...

Then the puppet messenger would have to speak on her behalf.

Whether the little puppet actually possessed enough authority to stand against eleven World Regents...

Razeal honestly had no idea.

Still...

Surely none of the World Regents would actually attack someone sent directly by the Empress...

...Right?

That final thought lingered in the back of his mind for a brief second.

Even Razeal wasn’t completely certain.

So he simply chose the safest option.

He remained perfectly silent.

Not saying a single word.

His silence, however, was immediately misunderstood.

The eleven World Regents quietly watched him.

None of them were fools.

They could all clearly see what Razeal had done.

He wasn’t answering.

He wasn’t defending himself.

He wasn’t even trying to explain why he deserved to stand among them.

Instead...

He had silently pushed the responsibility onto the puppet messenger.

To many of the World Regents...

It looked shameless.

Several frowned ever so slightly.

One Regent slowly leaned back against his throne with visible disappointment.

Another quietly narrowed his eyes.

Their thoughts were almost identical.

A man who wishes to sit upon the Fifteenth Throne... Yet refuses to even stand for it himself?

He isnt answering.

He isnt defend himself.

He isnt even speak.

Then how can someone like that deserve to sit beside them?

The atmosphere inside the Sovereign Hall grew even heavier as more than one World Regent silently reached the same conclusion.

At this moment...

Razeal’s silence was doing far more damage to his image than any words ever could.

And it went on for long seconds.

Several of the World Regents honestly felt offended.

Razeal’s silence had not calmed the situation.

If anything... It had made it worse.

To them, it looked as though the young man standing before the World Council had absolutely no intention of defending his own position. Instead, he had simply pushed the responsibility onto the Imperial Empress’s messenger. It gave the impression that he wanted the authority of a World Regent, but wasn’t willing to stand up for that authority himself. For rulers who had each earned their seats through countless years of responsibility, hardship and sacrifice, that was not a good impression at all.

Among everyone present...

One person reacted the most.

The beautiful woman seated upon the magnificent dragon throne slowly crossed one elegant leg over the other. Her long dark hair, carrying the color of flowing lava, rested behind her shoulders like a burning waterfall. Her sharp draconic golden eyes slowly moved toward Razeal, and the disgust inside them was impossible to hide. One slender finger repeatedly tapped against the armrest of her dragon throne.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The quiet sound echoed through the silent hall.

Although she still hadn’t spoken a single word, the irritation on her face was already obvious. It wasn’t simply dissatisfaction anymore. She looked genuinely offended by what she had just witnessed. To her, a person who refused to even defend his own right to stand before the World Council had no business even standing before them. She continued staring at Razeal as though trying to understand what exactly the Empress had seen in him.

Several of the other World Regents quietly glanced toward her.

None of them looked surprised.

In fact...

Many almost seemed to be waiting.

They knew her personality very well.

She was proud.

Direct.

Hot-tempered.

If she disliked something, she rarely kept quiet about it.

Judging by the expression slowly appearing on her face... Everyone could already guess what was about to happen.

"...She’s about to say something," more than one Regent thought silently.

Even the attendants standing behind several of the thrones instinctively became more alert.

The atmosphere grew heavier with every passing second.

The puppet messenger quietly remained where he was.

For the first time since entering the Sovereign Hall, even he seemed uncertain. His emotionless platinum eyes slowly moved from one World Regent to another. He had completed the task given to him by the Empress. Everything afterward had been left to Razeal. Yet now the situation was clearly becoming more complicated than expected. Even he seemed to pause, silently considering what should be done next if the confrontation continued to escalate.

But...

Before the dragon woman could open her mouth...

Before any other World Regent could speak...

And before even the puppet messenger could decide what to do...

A calm voice suddenly echoed throughout the Sovereign Hall.

"I was not being disrespectful toward anyone by making this decision."

The voice wasn’t loud.

It wasn’t angry.

Yet the instant it sounded...

Every other noise inside the enormous hall disappeared.

It naturally drew everyone’s attention without needing to force it.

"Rather... It was quite the opposite as I expected all of you... as World Regents..."

"...to respect my judgment."

The calm voice spread through the chamber like gentle ripples across still water.

Immediately...

The entire Sovereign Hall fell silent.

Every head slowly turned toward the source of the voice.

Toward the platinum throne standing proudly at the very front of the council table.

Someone was standing there now.

Nerrisa.

A faint, elegant smile rested upon her beautiful face.

Long platinum hair flowed behind her like strands of moonlight, moving gently despite there being no wind inside the hall. Her calm platinum eyes slowly swept across every World Regent seated before her. There was neither anger nor disappointment within them.

Only quiet confidence.

No one had sensed her arrival.

No one had noticed when she appeared.

One moment...

The throne had been empty.

The next...

She was simply there.

The moment everyone’s eyes settled upon her...

The atmosphere inside the Sovereign Hall changed completely.

The countless powerful auras filling the chamber seemed to weaken all at once.

Not because they disappeared.

Not because their owners had withdrawn them.

But because they had been naturally suppressed.

Her presence alone quietly overshadowed every other aura in the room.

It wasn’t violent.

It wasn’t overwhelming by force.

It simply carried a majesty that made every other presence feel smaller.

The hall somehow became even heavier than before.

Even the dragon-haired woman stopped tapping her finger.

Lucian’s sharp eyes quietly narrowed.

King Hraezar remained perfectly still.

The puppet messenger, who until now had stood completely motionless, visibly relaxed ever so slightly upon seeing her appear.

Nerrisa’s gentle smile never faded.

"But..."

"It seems I was mistaken."

Her calm eyes slowly moved across each World Regent one after another.

"It appears many of you still do not trust my judgment."

She paused for only a brief moment.

"However..."

"That is perfectly fine as well."

There wasn’t the slightest trace of anger in her voice.

She sounded as calm as if they were discussing ordinary weather.

Then she gently folded her hands before herself.

"So..."

"To every World Regent present If anyone opposes my decision..."

She looked directly across the ancient table.

"...Then stand."

"I am completely open to having the discussion..."

"...that all of you seem to desire."

The final words echoed softly throughout the Sovereign Hall.

And suddenly...

The entire hall fell into complete silence.

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Yoooo, guys...

First of all, I’m really sorry for disappearing for so many days. I sincerely apologize.

I was on a family vacation with all my cousins, relatives, and basically the entire family, so I just couldn’t find the time or focus to write. But... I’m finally back today!

To make up for the wait, I’ll be uploading two Chapters a day until next month. It’s my way of apologizing and thanking you all for being so patient.

Now then... please forgive this sweet, lovely, and totally your favorite author. 😌❤️

The good news is that this long vacation wasn’t all bad. I had a lot of time to think, plan, and organize everything. Because of that, I finally have a clear direction for our story, and I’m genuinely excited for what’s coming next.

So, I guess it turned into a win-win after all!

Thank you all so much for sticking with me and continuing to read my story. Your support, comments, and patience truly mean a lot to me.

Now, enough talking...

Enjoy the Chapters! ❤️

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