Chapter 352: Rohan's Emissaries Are Already Here

Helen, Mirian, and Irina had not yet returned from their improvised scouting mission at the borders. What sounded on paper like a highly important military task was actually a strict punishment to discipline them, forcing them to patrol Kowarre's cold, inhospitable night skies mounted on the scaly backs of the wyverns.

Because of their insubordination, they were forced to spend the night out in the open, far away from the warm comforts of the castle. And thanks to their absence, the fortress felt unusually peaceful.

Inside the fortress, Lise and Alicia immediately positioned themselves on either side of Ryan. He was standing right at the wide entrance to the throne room, a place that had gradually become the usual spot for official meetings and decision-making.

In front of them, a low-ranking demon panted slightly, sweat beading on his forehead after a rushed journey.

"Your Majesty. My humble name is Addy, and I come before you as a messenger from the border city of Amice, located to the east of this castle. The emissaries sent by Demon King Rohan have finally arrived in our territory," the demon announced, taking a knee on the floor.

Ryan frowned slightly, crossing his arms.

"But why did you come in person, instead of communicating with me or my generals through the base's communication relics?" Ryan questioned, immediately noticing the breach in protocol.

Right at that moment, the heavy doors of the hall slowly opened, and Chloe walked in silently.

Although the brown-haired young woman now had very specific duties and training after being initiated as a Stygian, she still liked to continue doing her personal, everyday tasks.

She had just returned from hand-feeding the rest of the ferocious giant wolves in the stables. Even though the wyverns weren't present that morning, despite her terrifying past experience of being hunted by the wolves, Chloe decided to continue fulfilling that dangerous caretaking task.

It was her own form of shock therapy; she wasn't going to let some old trauma overcome her and turn her into a weak, skittish mage.

Seeing that an audience was underway, Chloe stopped a few meters away and remained in complete, respectful silence, observing the scene.

In the center of the room, the messenger clenched his fists against his knees. His face contorted, and he seemed to have a great deal of shame stuck in his throat.

"Your Majesty, it's just that... well..." Addy hesitated, averting his gaze toward the torches.

"Answer already, you idiot. Don't waste our king's time," Lise immediately snapped. The dragon maid took a step forward and threatened him with a sharp glare, letting a fraction of her overwhelming, lethal aura slip out.

"Yes!" the messenger blurted out, standing at attention like a terrified soldier under Lise's pressure.

"Your Majesty, what actually happened is that, right as we were about to notify you, one of Demon King Rohan's emissaries violently crashed into our watch base and smashed the main communication relic to pieces," Addy confessed, closing his eyes.

The messenger bowed deeply until his forehead almost touched the rug, showing his absolute shame and fear of reprisals.

"Please, I beg you to forgive our profound incompetence. I swear we never thought something like this would happen so suddenly," the demon pleaded.

'What the hell is this guy saying?' Ryan thought, raising an eyebrow at the absurdity of the report.

"Are you saying those emissaries attacked you at the border?" Alicia asked, twitching her wolf ears forward, ready to declare a state of war if the answer was yes.

"No, no, it wasn't a premeditated attack against us," Addy quickly clarified, waving his hands. "You see... it turns out two of the emissaries were fighting to the death among themselves up there, right on the back of a massive dragon. And in the middle of their stupid brawl, the dragon got fed up, sent one of them flying with a brutal swipe of its tail, and he crashed like a meteor straight into our communication tower. Those guys... are the demon king's sons and their escort," the emissary explained, still not believing the nonsense he had just witnessed.

"A dragon?" Ryan murmured, connecting the pieces of information he had about their neighbors. "It must be the fire dragon, right?"

"Yes, young master. Given the childish and destructive description, it's undeniably that damn bitch Irnina," Lise replied, gritting her teeth with obvious racial contempt toward the other dragoness.

'I figured as much. In the end, Rohan decided to send his own sons instead of coming himself,' Ryan analyzed in silence. 'But why the hell were they fistfighting each other? Are they a couple of impulsive idiots?'

"So, just to confirm and avoid any misunderstandings," Ryan said, adopting a much more serious and commanding tone. "Besides destroying your base of operations out of negligence, did they attack, threaten, or cause physical harm to our city's demon guards?"

Chloe remained silent at the edge of the rug, carefully evaluating how Ryan handled diplomatic meetings. She was learning how a true ruler weighed crimes before passing judgment.

"No, Your Majesty. No one in my garrison was hurt," the emissary assured him, shaking his head. "In fact, to our complete surprise, the demon king's first son personally apologized to us for the disaster they caused."

"Hmph, that insolent damn lizard. If you order me right now, young master, I'll go and punish her severely for damaging our property," Lise suggested, cracking her knuckles with a sadistic smile, eager for a legal excuse to massacre the fire dragon.

"Hey, calm down and don't be hasty, Lise. Let the king decide how to handle this incident," Alicia interjected, giving the aggressive maid a slight nudge with her elbow to calm her down.

Chloe nodded from her position, fully agreeing with Alicia's prudence. Meanwhile, poor emissary Addy was blue in the face with fear, trapped between monstrous auras and not knowing where to look to avoid offending anyone.

Ignoring his subordinates' bickering, Ryan turned around and walked with slow, heavy steps across his long red rug, evaluating every angle of what had happened.

He walked straight to his throne and dropped into it with a relaxed yet commanding posture.

'So, after so much waiting, they finally came in person to negotiate the ransom for the brat I have in my care. Even though they're already causing disasters before crossing the threshold, I wonder what hidden intentions they really came with,' Ryan reflected.

With that in mind, Ryan fixed his piercing gaze on the kneeling messenger.

"And you, Addy..." Ryan questioned suspiciously. "How exactly did you get to my hall so quickly if the border city of Amice is quite far away, even traveling by wyvern?"

"That... that's because, actually, very close to here in the catacombs, there is an ancient hidden settlement with a teleportation circle in perfect condition," Addy replied nervously. "We used to use that secret passage very often to bring weapon shipments to the former demon king."

After hearing that explanation, Ryan turned his head and looked at Lise very, very seriously.

'Don't you think you should have told me about a damn secret teleportation circle that connects directly to my castle?' Ryan reprimanded her through their mental link, without moving his lips.

'Forgive me, my young master. Between so many things and all the cleaning... I completely forgot about that dirty place,' Lise replied in his mind, shrugging with a deeply embarrassed, apologetic smile as she averted her gaze toward the ceiling.

Ryan let out a long, heavy sigh in his seat, deciding to deal with the dragoness's incompetence later, and turned his full attention back to the messenger.

"So, I assume Demon King Rohan's troublesome emissaries are still being held in the city of Amice, waiting for an escort?" Ryan asked.

"No, Your Majesty. Even though our guards firmly insisted they wait for authorization from the capital, they said they were in a hurry and flew straight here. Given the speed of their dragon, I estimate they will arrive at the gates of this castle in about two hours or so," Addy reported.

"I'm very sorry to tell you that your estimates are completely wrong, Addy," Ryan said in a strangely calm tone.

The human king lifted his face, staring up at the hall's high stone ceiling. But his eyes weren't trying to detail the ceiling's architecture; his monstrous, razor-sharp SSS-rank perception had suddenly expanded, spreading like an invisible net far beyond the walls, the mountains, and the clouds surrounding Kowarre.

"Your Majesty?" the messenger asked in deep doubt, not understanding the cold reaction.

Addy looked around and noticed that, from one second to the next, both the dragoness Lise and the beastwoman Alicia had adopted the exact same tense reaction. Both had stopped breathing, looking up at the ceiling and tensing their leg muscles like springs ready to jump.

Unlike them, Chloe, who didn't yet have a high enough level to feel mana signatures from such colossal distances, was also deeply confused by the sudden change in the room's atmosphere.

A cynical, anticipatory smile slowly formed on Ryan's face as the air around him began to turn heavy and suffocating.

"They are already here," Ryan added.