Black Sword and Fragments [Vol. 1: Unforeseen Conspiracy]

Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Meeting of the Royals

In the middle of the Kreo Capital, inside the sky-high Palace's chamber.

“Good morning, Kreonian. This meeting is a blessing, ain't it?” The voice of a man in full regalia reverberated. 

An emblem of authority and earnestly could be traced in that man's simple words. He is sitting on his high golden throne—causing the attendees to look up at him. Even though his true age is already on eighty-something, you could not believe that this man is already that old. Even to whom eyes could see, has a clearer version or not, they will definitely think that this man is only thirty years old more or less. There is a unique light on his deep set of black-colored eyes, and scars of various sizes could be seen on his wide and masculine body. He is Leonardo Dracus, the current King of the Kreo Kingdom.

In front of the King are the ten Knight Commanders, three Generals, and the Guild Master of Adventurer's Guild, Haxus Dariuvus that was personally invited by the King using the Knight Commander Lorine Blacksword.

Besides the throne of King Leonardo Dracus, the other General, Ayanno Nightangel stood earnestly. Every time there is a meeting, Ayanno was not grouped with the other general. He is often seen standing beside the King as it is also the order of the Majesty himself. 

“First of all, I'm very thankful to our generals and Knight commanders for making themselves present here on this meeting.” His gaze turns into Haxus. “Thank you too, Guild Master Haxus.”

As a response, Haxus Dariuvus shook his head. “No, my Lord. It's a blessing to be invited by you. I'm the one who should be saying thanks.”

Leonardo just smiled at that response as he nods his head, and again, his gaze traveled to the meeting attendees. It only stops when he saw the blonde young man with a sword shape eyebrows. “Seeing you here this early, I should be most thankful to you, General Zara Green.”

Various laughs from the Knight Commanders and the other Generals resounded in the surroundings. To all the important meetings from the past, this is only the first time that General Zara Green attended early. Before, every time there is a meeting, Zara Green always attended when it is already finished and the attendees are all gone. And his reason is that he always forgotten that there is a scheduled meeting. Because of this, Zara Green awkwardly laughed while scratching his head. He doesn't know what to say to his Majesty.

When the waves of laughter dissipated, the heavy presence of the king spread in the surrounding. Of all the people here in King's chamber, Leonardo Dracus has the highest authority that no one will dare oppose.

Aside from his title as a King of the Kreo Kingdom, the Platinum ranker Kethra Beck and Stallion Ibzaar, couldn't measure the true rank of their king. Even how much they forced themselves to measure Leonardo Dracus'  magicule energies, they still couldn't identify how strong he really is.

Nonetheless, they are sure that his rank must be higher than them. After all, they are rich in knowledge and they know that once a ranker couldn't identify the rank of the other ranker, it only means that that ranker is stronger than them already. 

In the whole Kreo Kingdom, the rank of their king is hidden and confidential. Only the elites and the most important personnel know about the strength of the King.

For the important persons who have the rank of a Gold, they think that King Leonardo Dracus is a Platinum ranker. Still, from the perspective of the Platinum rankers, they know that the king is already beyond Platinum rank. The proof that the king has already surpassed the Platinum rank, is that these Platinum rank generals couldn't even read his exact strength and magicule energies.

Simultaneously with the dissipating of laughter, the expression of the king became more earnest as his gaze turns to the youngest attendees of the meeting. “Thank you too for attending, Ballion Ibzaar. Congratulations as well. It is really amazing. Despite being this young, you have already reached Level twenty-one silver rank.”

That's right. Aside from the Generals, Knight Commanders, and Guild Master of Adventurer's Guild, Ballion Ibzaar is also here. Why? Because he is the reason and main topic of this meeting.

Ballion smiled at what he heard. “Oh, Lord Majesty. I'm not worthy of your profound words. Compared to this kind of me, you are on whole another realm of strength.”

The king didn't respond to that words, he instead get to the point. “You should have known already, Ballion Ibzaar of why you are here and why I have forced the Adventurer's guild to exterminate all your rights as an adventurer a month ago.”

Ballion nodded as his response to the king. He respectfully said. “Yes, my lord. Just like before, I have repeated the same mistake. I have stepped again on the rights of those weak rankers. I promise, this would be my last mistake, my Lord.”

“Hmm... Asking for forgiveness could be said easily. As long as the fellow one hasn't been proven something yet, hence, should not ask for forgiveness.” Earnestly responded by Leonardo Dracus.

“I won't prolong this meeting anymore. We all know that the thirty years wasn't been enough for our enemy to stop. Even the Hidden attacks and conspiracies of the Dark Alone Bandits couldn't be denied that is still happening to our Kingdom.”

The king's gaze traveled to the attendees before he continued. “I know that you are all aware that it was almost two years now that we are still being attacked by the enemy secretly. It was already many times that they destroyed our Foundation. The planting area for the production of Nimrod Pills, the exclusive supplies of High-Quality Life cores, and the other Weapon mastery book. All of that attacks from the foundation of our kingdom have been planned by them uniformly.” His gaze became sharper. “That is also why I couldn't stop thinking that we are already babysitting a traitor inside our Kingdom, a spy, particularly.”

“All of these happenings, I couldn't help but to feel uneasy.” He looked at the Generals, Knight commanders, and the other people before stopping at the location of Stallion and Ballion Ibzaar. “I want to hear the truth from both of you. I don't want to accuse you this early, that you two are part of the Dark Alone Bandits, but I could never feel at ease as long as it is still not clear to us what really happened. It is the first time that the ability of Ballion Ibzaar to control an actual wild magicule beast has been known. This information has even come from my most trusted person, General Ayanno Nightangel. You all know that General Ayanno is not someone who likes to invent stories out of his imagination only.”

The others, except for the Ibzaar brothers nodded their heads as an agreement with the King. The Knight Commanders and Generals, just like Leonardo Dracus, feel uneasiness and they seek clarification. They have known the ability of Ballion Ibzaar to control magicule beasts a few weeks ago already, be that as it may, until now and for the rest of their lives from the past living inside the kingdom, it is the first time they heard of such an ability. 

They think the same thing at this moment. They are speculating that Ballion Ibzaar has come from Dark Alone Bandits. Ang about to his older brother, General Stallion Ibzaar, it wouldn't be wrong to think that he is also one of the spies of the enemy. As a known loving older brother to Ballion, he should explain what is happenings to them. Even if Stallion Ibzaar is often busy as one of the generals of the Kingdom, still, chances of knowing something about the ability of his younger brother is rather high.

It was thirty years ago when the arch-enemy of the Kreo Kingdom, Dark Alone Bandits attacked. A bloody war and chaos have started between the strong opposing forces, Royal Soldiers and Adventurer's against the notorious Dark Alone Bandits. That war lasts for twenty-seven days, but in the end, the Bandits retreated from the war. 

The majority of the citizens who fought and survived the war, consider the action of retreat from the enemies as their victory in the war. But, for the King Leonardo and the attendees of this meeting, they know that they still haven't won the war yet. Along with the strong member of the bandits, their leader successfully retreated from the eyes of the war. 

For the King, as long as he hasn't cut the root cause, if he still hasn't yet killed the Leader of the Bandits, the word victory is only a desire that hasn't been manifested in reality yet—more so that he has no any idea where he could find their base.

After the war, peacefulness followed for several years. Nevertheless, just about two years ago, the Dark Alone Bandits became active again. In that two years is that they have already executed many things against the kingdom. They have repeatedly and perfectly destroyed the foundations of the kingdom. In addition, they have also abducted some of the citizens that have no family. And now that thirty years have passed, it would not be impossible as well that there is already a spy here inside the kingdom. 

And now that Ballion Ibzaar's ability to control wild magicule beast is a hot topic, the others could not help but feel doubt about him. Aside from this rare ability, their doubt is supported by the repeated wrongdoings of Ballion Ibzaar. It was already ten years ago that he has known in the adventurer's guild for bullying innocent and weaker rankers, and all the attendees in this meaning know about it.

Leonardo Dracus' attention is still locked on the Ibzaar Brothers. “Now, I want to hear from both of you on how Balliom Ibzaar could control these wild green cougars. I know that it is against your freedom to hide a few secrets from yourself. But the safety of our kingdom is involved here.”

“Stallion, I'm not really hoping that much that you have something to tell about this. But knowing you as one of my generals, the some of the time from the few break time you have must have been used for your brotherly bonding. I'll ask you first, what do you know about this unusual ability of your brother? ”

When Leonardo Dracus said that, all of the attendee's attention turned to the Ibzaar brothers. Their eyes are full of curiosity as if so thirsty for the answers of the brothers.

Stallion sighed at what he heard. He shook his head earnestly. “My Lord, I could not deny that despite a hectic schedule, I still have time for my little brother. Yet, to answer you, my Lord, I don't know either what to tell. Even if he is my brother, even I don't have any idea to what he was doing when we are far from each other. I hope you consider my answer, my Lord. I should let my brother tell the truth by himself.” He looked at Leonardo's eyes and continues. “I'm really sorry, my Lord.”

Even though Stallion denied that he knows something, nevertheless, in fact, he really knows details about Ballion Ibzaar's ability to control magicule beasts. He just chooses to be silent for the safety of his little brother. Even if his words are natural to the ear, in his mind is that he is thinking so much about his brother's safety. And as his love language to his brother, it is the only thing he could do in this situation. He could never defy the authority of the king, aside from the King's status, he was sure that the king has already surpassed the Platinum rank.

Leonardo Dracus didn't respond to what Stallion have said. He became silent but he still didn't remove the fluctuation of his magicules from the surroundings. His gaze then locked on Ballion, still, he didn't speak any word.

Ballion Ibzaar, upon meeting the earnest gaze of the king, nods his head. He got what the king means. He is the next one to explain.

“I understand, Lord Majesty. There's no reason any more to hide this unimportant thing.” Ballion Ibzaar respectfully said.

When they heard this, the calm eyebrows of Stallion Ibzaar jumped to his shock. 

“Ballion! What the hell are you doing?! Even if this news arrived at Boss, he couldn't save us immediately!” In Stallion Ibzaar's mind. He wasn't expecting this to come out of his little brother's mouth. He frantically looked at Ballion, however, even a bit, Ballion didn't pay any attention to him. Ballion continues his words

“The secret behind my ability is that...”

To be continued...

---

Votes and Feedback are highly appreciated! 💛