Chapter 532: At The World Council Summit [VI / Bonus - ]

Chapter 532: At The World Council Summit [VI / Bonus Chapter]

Aki knew it was cope.

She knew it was a pathetic embarrassing delusion, a thin paper-mache shield she was holding up to stop her chest from caving in on itself but she clung to it with everything she had.

Right now, in front of more than five hundred people, she couldn’t allow a single muscle in her cheek to twitch.

’I... I...’

She was jealous... furious, bitter, and burning with a toxic envy that tasted like iron shavings under her tongue but she kept her face in a frozen expression.

If she lost her temper now, if she let even a sliver of that resentment show on her face, she would tumble deeper into her father’s bad side than she already was.

And sliding down into the King’s bad side was a quick way to stop existing.

The King continued with his deep voice carrying through the acoustics without a microphone, rattling the glass in the mezzanine lamps.

"When the Queen departed this world shortly after the First Princess drew her first breath..."

He let the sentence hang for two heavy suffocating seconds and there was a deliberate pause over the timeline... it was a quiet inflection that laid the late Queen’s death squarely on Aki’s shoulders.

Aki’s pulse thumped once, sounding hard and flat against her ears but she didn’t flinch.

She had heard that exact phrasing in the corridors since she was seven years old.

The Queen bled out because the child took her life and gave no mana in return.

The words were similar to an ancient blade, it had grown dull from overuse, but it still left a familiar cold ache behind her ribs.

"The grief was severe," the King said smoothly, his gaze drifting lazily toward the eastern arc of the Grand Table. "In my search for solace, I traveled east, deep into the sovereign territories of the United Hegemony. It was there, among the coastal valleys and ancient shrine peaks, that I met the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes upon... A daughter who carried the combined martial heritage of both the Yamatoan warrior clans and the ancient dynasties of the Shogunate Isles."

He lowered his chin slightly, letting the room absorb the weight of the confession.

"She was Kiera’s mother and it brings me sorrow to state that she succumbed to an incurable lung rot three years past but her lineage remains intact."

The King gestured toward the two eastern monarchs seated side-by-side at the Grand Table.

"The United Hegemony sheltered my daughter when the world was volatile," the King said. "The Crown does not leave debts unsettled so in the coming territorial allocations, the Hegemony’s trade corridors will receive a total exemption from imperial transit tariffs for the next twenty years, along with three Tier-5 deep-sea mining anchors transferred directly to their coastal fleet."

King Zhao Xian of the Shogunate Isles and King Minamoto no Masashi of the Yamato Sector exchanged a rapid imperceptible glance.

Then, both men rose smoothly from their star-iron chairs, bowing deeply from the waist.

"The United Hegemony bows before the grace of the Crown," King Zhao intoned, his long white beard brushing the collar of his imperial yellow robes. "We shall guard the eastern waters with our lives."

Beside him, Minamoto bowed with one hand resting flat against the black lacquer of his samurai cuirass with the plates clattering softly in the quiet.

Across the circle, the other seven rulers looked on with thinly veiled jealousy.

A twenty-year tariff exemption and three Tier-5 deep-sea anchors were absurd economic concessions!

It was the kind of leverage that could tilt regional maritime trade balances for half a century.

In their heads, both eastern monarchs were undoubtedly offering silent reverent prayers to the dead woman whose brief encounter with the King had just handed their nations an insurmountable geopolitical advantage.

Added benefits could mean a lot of things down the road... It could mean that once both of them had the requisite age and experience, their delegates might even be elevated to permanent seats on the World Council.

More benefits also meant that in every single negotiation that followed today, the Hegemony would hold the upper hand.

The King dismissed their bows with a lazy wave of his left hand, turning his sapphire eyes back down to the girl on the floor.

"Come forward, Kiera," he commanded gently. "It appears the staff failed to prepare an official seat for you at the Grand Table."

Kiera didn’t show a shred of anger as she took two light steps forward, sinking into another graceful low curtsy with her voice ringing clear and melodious through the hall.

"There is no need to trouble the servants, Father," she said softly, keeping her chin dipped with humility. "The affairs of the world far exceed the importance of a single chair... If it pleases the Crown, I am more than content to remain standing at your flank, or even sit upon the stone floor. I grew up in the mountain barracks of Yamato so I am well accustomed to cold stone."

Aki’s jaw tightened behind her collar.

’Look at that,’ Aki thought, her stomach turning with disgust. ’Look at the way she words it. "Accustomed to cold stone." She’s playing the humble, mistreated, self-sacrificing daughter for every scrap of sympathy she can wring out of him... It’s an act! It’s completely calculated to pull at him!’

Aki glanced toward Alexander.

Her elder brother was sitting three chairs down with his face drained of color.

His hands were clenched so hard against his knees that the fabric of his black dress trousers was tearing along the outer seams.

Alexander had spent so many years trying every possible angle to earn their father’s approval... he had bled in the northern trenches, executed prisoners without blinking, and paraded his Purple Core before every visiting dignitary but the King had never given him anything more than a cold dismissive nod.

’It’s not going to work on him,’ Aki reassured herself, watching her father’s stone-faced profile. ’Father doesn’t have a soft bone in his entire body. When Alexander took a magic spear through his shoulder at nineteen and knelt on the marble waiting for praise, Father just told him his footwork was pathetic and docked his legion’s budget. He’s going to tell her to shut her mouth and stand by the wall—’

"Nonsense."

The King’s voice was remarkably soft.

His expression... that eternal immovable mask of granite actually melted as a warm genuine smile touched his lips as he tapped his right thigh with his heavy signet ring.

"Come here," the King said. "Sit."

The entire Great Assembly Chamber seemed to drop ten degrees in an instant.

Alexander’s head jerked up with his sapphire eyes wide and bloodshot, staring at his father with an expression of pure uncomprehending horror while Aki felt the breath punch straight out of her lungs.

’Sit... on his lap?!’

Kiera hesitated, her golden eyes wide with delicate modesty.

"Father... before the governing heads... that would be improper—"

"I am the Sovereign," the King replied smoothly, his tone leaving no room for argument. "What I permit is proper... Come."

Kiera gathered her amethyst skirts, murmuring a quiet submissive "Yes, Father" and ascended the marble steps of the dais.

She sat down upon his knee, smoothing her dress over his navy wool trousers, resting her hands neatly over her lap.

The King rested his broad heavy palm flat on the marble surface of the table with his posture completely relaxed and his arm lightly framing her back.

It was an open declaration that not only was Kiera recognized... She was the favorite as well!

Alexander looked like he was about to choke on his own tongue.

For decades, he and Aki had shared the same cold silence from their progenitor... an absence of affection that had defined every waking hour of their upbringing.

Now, this girl had walked into the room, spoken three humble sentences in an eastern accent, and was sitting on the King’s lap like a treasured pet while people watched.

The people of the other nations kept their heads down, sensing that this was strictly an internal royal bloodline affair and the tension was suffocating.

The other seven heads of state wanted to throw hateful glares at her, furious that the United Hegemony was reaping astronomical benefits simply because of a royal bastard, but everyone in the room knew that showing open hostility here was pure suicide.

Everyone, except for one.

Standing near the perimeter wall, stationed directly behind High Marshal-President Valeria Da Silva’s chair, was a young female junior officer from the Amazonian honor guard.

She was broad-shouldered, barely twenty with her dark olive uniform crisp and her jaw set with the fierce independent pride typical of the Amazonian military.

She looked at Kiera sitting on the King’s lap as she looked at the Hegemony monarchs practically glowing with favor and her lips peeled back in a sudden venomous sneer.

...The woman simply glared at Kiera with pure undisguised contempt and that glare lasted less than a single microsecond.

The King didn’t even turn his neck.

His sapphire irises merely flared with a blinding pulse of void-light.

FZZT!

There was no incantation and there was no mana projection either... Nobody could feel a rush of wind or a sound of an impact.

The Amazonian woman simply stopped existing.

One millisecond, she was a living breathing human being composed of bone, blood, and military wool.

The next millisecond, the physical space she occupied was empty with not a single trace of ash fell to the floor and not a scrap of her uniform remained.

The air collapsed inward to fill the sudden microscopic vacuum with a pathetic pop, barely rustling the hair of the officer standing next to her.

A collective terrified gasp caught in the throats of the people.

Destruction.

The terrifying authority of the King of the World as he didn’t need to fight and he didn’t need to chant for it.

If your core power was vastly inferior to his, he could simply command the molecular bonds of your physical matter to unspool and vanish into the ether.

The King tapped his finger on the marble.

TAP!

"Whose subordinate was that?" the King asked, his voice smooth and conversational, as if he were inquiring about a smudge on the glass.

High Marshal-President Valeria Da Silva didn’t hesitate for a tenth of a second as she rose immediately, snapped her fist to her chest in a crisp military salute, and lowered her head three inches.

"An undisciplined frontier recruit from the jungle perimeter, Your Imperial Majesty," Da Silva stated, lacking any fear. "She lacked the psychological fortification required for this assembly... Her failure reflects upon my command so I offer my formal apology to the Crown."

The King stared down at her for three agonizing seconds.

Then, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he gave a curt dismissive wave.

"Discipline your ranks, High Marshal. The air in this chamber is expensive and I have no patience for insects who cannot manage their eyes."

"Understood, Majesty," Da Silva replied, taking her seat with iron composure, though the other guards behind her were visibly shaking with their knuckles white against their sidearms.

The King shifted his weight, resting his chin on his palm.

Princess Kiera remained perfectly serene upon his lap, her golden eyes watching the table with quiet detachment.

"Given that our esteemed guests from Blessed Land have yet to grace us with their presence," the King said, his gaze drifting lazily toward the two empty violet-velvet chairs, "we shall delay the formal petitions regarding the northern rift borders. It would be... unseemly... to divide the northern soil without Lord Vespera present to state her terms."

A quiet tense murmur ran through the hall once again.

Lord Vespera. Why was she so late? Did she have a death wish? Disrespecting the summons by walking in late was an insult of the highest order.

Aki’s chest felt tight.

Beneath the dark blue velvet of her lap, her fingers traced the edge of her star-iron chain under her collar.

’Where are you, Silas?’ she thought, the question clawing at her throat.

Did he have any idea what this room was? Her father had just turned a human being into empty air without lifting a single finger.

If Silas tried his usual blunt, unbothered attitude here, the King wouldn’t debate him... he’d crush him into dust before the first sentence left his mouth.

The King lowered his arm, resting both forearms across the celestial marble and the amber light overhead glinted off his sapphire eyes as he addressed the room.

"In the meantime," the King said. "we shall redirect the assembly toward our infrastructural foundations. Before we discuss foreign borders, we must confirm the stability of the terrestrial perimeter."

Then the man tapped his ring finger against the celestial marble of the Grand Table.

TAP!

The sharp singular sound traveled clean across the five tiers, vibrating through the baffles of the vaulted obsidian ceiling and the silence that followed was heavy and brittle.

Nobody was looking at the vacant spot behind High Marshal-President Valeria Da Silva anymore.

Aki kept her hands locked in her lap beneath the velvet folds of her midnight-blue gown and she didn’t let her shoulders slump.

Her gaze remained pinned to the horizontal seam of the titanium wainscoting across the floor, but inside her skull, her pulse was hammering a violent rhythm against her eardrums.

’That aside, Father used Destruction,’ she thought, the word tasting like lead shavings on her tongue. ’That woman... she just died without even realizing what happened.’