The anger and frustration currently gnawing at King Estadian's sanity were now intensifying. The shattering of the secret room's door seemed to be the pinnacle of all the misfortunes that had befallen him.
At a time when his heart was still grieving over the tragic death of Wiltan, his second son, along with the bitter reality of losing almost ninety percent of the kingdom's core military strength which caused immense losses, now, all the precious items inside the palace had also mysteriously vanished.
Furthermore, the assistance of Franz Hualimand, the best and most reliable investigator, evidently remained incapable of uncovering the face or true identity of the mastermind behind this entire chain of nonsensical events.
Why is all this chaos happening one after another? King Estadian thought, his breathing heavy as he stared at his secret room, which was now completely empty.
Amidst the suffocating silence, Franz, who stood not far behind the King, attempted to offer an objective perspective from the viewpoint of an investigator.
"Your Majesty," Franz called out in a very cautious tone, "looking at the scale of the destruction and how neatly this theft was executed, the culprit's motive seems to be more than just wealth. Recently... have you offended anyone, or perhaps had a disagreement with a certain party?"
Hearing the rational question slip from the investigator's mouth, King Estadian's body instantly flinched. The question triggered a very specific memory in his head.
Someone who had a disagreement with me? the King repeated in his heart, his eyes narrowing. There is only one person who has openly shown dislike and even dared to defy me directly. But, could it possibly be him?
Even though he clearly knew who the person he had a disagreement with was, King Estadian still felt doubtful. His logic tried to dismiss the suspicion. Moreover, based on his third son's account, that person had gone to the Flamort Kingdom to propose to a prince there.
King Estadian was well aware that if he made a misstep by accusing the person without proof and causing slander, a war would almost certainly break out. And in their currently shattered military condition, the Victoriaz Kingdom would suffer a crushing defeat.
However, in order to confirm his suspicion, he had no other choice. He had to immediately inspect the place that was previously rented by the Astoria Kingdom's delegation group.
The King immediately turned around and looked at the royal investigator with a sharp gaze.
"Franz!" he called out in a straightforward and authoritative tone. "We are going outside the palace right now! There is one place you must investigate with your magic!"
"As you command, Your Majesty." Franz answered obediently while bowing his head.
Without wasting time, King Estadian, immediately followed by Franz, strode out of the room to quickly head to the place that had been rented by the delegation from the Astoria Kingdom during the inter-kingdom tournament.
....
Time passed quickly. The royal carriage, driven at high speed, finally arrived at its destination. As soon as the carriage stopped, King Estadian and Franz immediately alighted.
When the two of them set foot on the ground, Franz looked around in confusion. The place they were currently at was nothing more than a vast plot of empty land. However, he chose to remain silent, not daring to ask for fear of provoking the King's anger, who was highly sensitive at the moment.
Not far from where Franz stood, King Estadian began walking with certainty. He walked straight toward one specific point, the point where he remembered interacting directly with 'that person'.
Seeing the King already moving, Franz quickly followed, walking with brisk steps trailing behind him.
Upon arriving at his intended point, King Estadian halted his steps.
"Franz, use your power at this point right now!" King Estadian ordered absolutely. "I must see what happened here to confirm my suspicion!"
"Understood, Your Majesty. I will do it immediately." Franz answered obediently, preparing to focus his mana. "If I may know for the alignment, when exactly is the time of the event you wish to see?"
"Ten days ago, in the morning!"
Hearing the timeframe coming from King Estadian's mouth, Franz felt hesitant. Rewinding the reconstruction time to ten days ago in an open space like this would severely drain his mana.
However, he also knew that it was highly impossible for him to refuse or oppose a direct command from the King.
Obediently, the man agreed to do it, even though he knew for certain that the action would leave him exhausted.
Franz began positioning himself. He crouched down, placed his right palm on the ground's surface, and then focused his mana into his palm.
The Mana Visualization magic was activated.
The moment the magic activated, a golden, transparent semi-spherical dome instantly appeared and enveloped the middle-aged man's body.
The transparent golden dome continued to expand rapidly, piercing the wind and crawling across the empty land, until it finally enveloped a quarter of the vast expanse's area.
Once the dome's boundary had enveloped the designated point, Franz immediately focused his mind. He forcefully pulled the mana traces left behind in this place, unraveling the layers of time day by day to reconstruct the past event.
Let's begin from ten days ago, in the morning.
Right when Franz reached the requested point in time, the area inside the Mana Visualization magic domain began to distort. Ripples formed in the air, and light particles began to gather, slowly manifesting and forming numerous human silhouettes as well as a silhouette of a large building that had previously stood there.
The human silhouettes that appeared with physical details and clothing colors were the students from the Astoria Academy. The reconstruction displayed a scene where they were getting ready to leave the Victoriaz Kingdom.
All the students appeared to be gathering and going about their normal activities in front of the shelter house Arvin had created for their temporary residence.
However, among the dozens of normal and highly detailed student visualizations, King Estadian and Franz's eyes caught a highly glaring anomaly.
There, stood one figure whose silhouette was entirely pitch-black. The true form of that person, whether clothing texture, facial features, or hair color, could not manifest within the domain at all. He merely looked like a living shadow absorbing the light.
Seeing this bizarre phenomenon, King Estadian and Franz were incredibly shocked. For the second time on the same day, they saw a figure whose true form could not be tracked or read inside the domain. Previously white, now pitch-black.
"What exactly is happening here, Franz?!" asked King Estadian, confusion mixing with frustration upon seeing the pitch-black silhouette.
"T-To be honest, Your Majesty... I also do not understand at all."
Completely unbeknownst to either of them, the pitch-black silhouette manifesting in the Mana Visualization domain was actually Davin, Arvin's eighth spouse. He was the first person to bind his soul to Arvin.
Davin, who had previously died while the Soul Seal Ritual was taking place, had indeed successfully returned to life after the ritual process was completed. However, the original soul that had previously inhabited and given life to that body had actually moved, been pulled out, and merged with Arvin's soul.
What currently inhabited the youth's body was not a real human soul, but rather an entity purely taking the form of thick black smoke.
The black smoke was made of mana and served a crucial role as a connecting medium between Davin's soul, which resided within Arvin, and his original body in the outside world.
Because of the existence of that thick black smoke, Davin's soul could still move his body freely, he could still feel the sensations originating from his body, and behave like a normal human in general, even though his soul was no longer inside his physical form.
And because the way Franz's Mana Visualization magic worked was by tracking the traces of a living being's soul essence and mana to project their form, the magic experienced a malfunction when attempting to manifest Davin's body.
That body was devoid of a soul and was merely driven by Davin's soul, which currently resided within Arvin's soul.
As a result, the domain was only capable of projecting that form according to what was inside it: a thick black smoke whose silhouette took the shape of a human body.