Inside the throne room, King Estadian sat on his throne. His eyes looked straight at the two figures standing not far below the throne's steps.
They were Pratesias, the Crown Prince, and Lionias, his third son, whom he had just summoned immediately after returning from the investigation with Franz.
The silence inside the room was so heavy that even the sound of breathing could be heard clearly.
"Lionias!" called King Estadian, his voice echoing throughout every corner of the throne room.
Hearing his name called with such strict intonation, the Third Prince's body flinched slightly.
"Yes, Father?" answered Lionias in a respectful yet tense tone.
King Estadian leaned forward, glaring sharply at his youngest son.
"Do you know who the actual mastermind is who dared to infiltrate and thoroughly loot this palace?"
The question thrown by his father sounded extremely ridiculous yet terrifying to Lionias's ears. Of course he didn't know who had dared to infiltrate and conduct a massive-scale looting inside the palace, especially since it all happened while he was sleeping soundly in the library.
"I-I truly do not know, Father." Lionias answered honestly, his voice trembling slightly.
Hearing that answer, King Estadian badly wanted to scold Lionias for his foolish report the other day. But the King realized it and tried hard to suppress his anger because his youngest son truly knew nothing about the incident.
King Estadian leaned back against his throne, exhaling a harsh breath.
"Just so you know, Lionias! That bastard infiltrator is Arvin Vedegra!"
Gasp!
Lionias's eyes instantly widened, his breath seeming to catch in his throat upon hearing the name of the culprit behind all the disasters that had struck the palace. He looked at his father with a gaze of disbelief. Even Pratesias, who stood beside him, also gasped.
"If I had not asked for Franz Hualimand's help to investigate directly outside the palace," the King continued in a cynical tone, "we would never have known who the culprit was until the end of time!"
Lionias's feelings became increasingly unsettled. His heart pounded rapidly. He was afraid his father's anger would intensify and blame him for everything. Moreover, a while ago, in front of his father, he had stated with great certainty based on his information that Arvin Vedegra was heading to the Flamort Kingdom to propose to Prince Kylenciel there.
"B-But, Father..." Lionias gathered his courage to ask, his confusion overriding his fear. "How could he possibly enter this palace without anyone knowing?"
"That is the answer I wish to know right now, Lionias!"
...
When the day turned from noon toward late afternoon, Franz Hualimand, who had finished resting and meditating to restore his mana, stepped into the throne room. He immediately faced the King and the two princes who had been waiting.
"Has your mana fully recovered, Franz?" King Estadian asked, getting straight to the point.
"Yes, Your Majesty." answered Franz as he bowed respectfully. "Thanks to your generosity, my mana has recovered and I am ready to resume this investigation."
"If you are ready, there is no need to waste time. Let us resume this investigation at once!" the King commanded as he stood up from his throne.
"As you wish, Your Majesty."
Then, King Estadian, Franz Hualimand, Prince Pratesias, and Prince Lionias left the throne room to continue the investigation that had been delayed.
While walking toward the throne room's door, the King truly wanted to know from where and how Arvin Vedegra had infiltrated the palace without being detected by anyone.
Upon arriving at the intersection of the palace's main corridor located right in front of the throne room doors, the King gave a signal. Franz immediately understood the silent command and promptly carried out his duty.
The middle-aged man crouched down once again. He touched the palace floor and reactivated his Mana Visualization magic at full scale to reconstruct the series of events that had occurred in this place.
The transparent golden dome expanded once again, swallowing the entire palace corridor.
When the magic was fully active and the time of the event had been set back, the domain area began displaying a three-dimensional visualization.
They saw the projected figure of King Estadian in the past, walking and having a serious conversation with Prince Lionias.
King Estadian, standing in the real world, saw his own figure talking to his third son and instantly remembered exactly the crucial topic of their conversation at that time.
At that time, they were discussing the corpse of Orvion, a Victoriaz Academy student, who had suddenly vanished while the inter-kingdom tournament was taking place, as well as the King's plan to invade the Vedegra territory.
And just a few seconds after the conversation in the reconstruction began, the expression on King Estadian's face in the real world instantly turned pale. Cold sweat immediately broke out from the pores of his face.
Right inside the domain, unexpectedly, he saw a solid white silhouette suddenly appear from the direction of the palace's main entrance corridor, stepping soundlessly, and then standing very calmly not far from them.
The white silhouette, which was entirely believed to be Arvin Vedegra's figure, simply stood silently in his position, as if he was engrossed in eavesdropping and listening to every detail of the conversation taking place between the two of them, before finally, Lionias's silhouette walked away toward a place at the end of the palace corridor.
King Estadian instantly realized. The puzzle pieces were now perfectly assembled in his head. All the insane looting actions Arvin committed inside the palace were not merely random thefts, but because that youth had eavesdropped on the conversation happening in this palace corridor.
Arvin knew everything from his own mouth.
However, instead of reflecting on his mistakes, King Estadian increasingly cursed the infiltration act in his heart.
This act of infiltration and looting you committed is truly unforgivable in the slightest! the King cursed with intense hatred. You damn monster descendant! The fact that you can freely sneak into someone's territory just to spy on us is extremely dangerous to the balance of this world!
Beside the King, Lionias also could not hide his profound shock upon realizing that his entire conversation with his father had actually been heard directly by the person who had infiltrated the palace.
Furthermore, a sense of horror crept down Lionias's neck when he saw the white silhouette inside the reconstruction domain begin to move and walk, following his projected self from behind.
"F-Father..." Lionias said with a trembling voice, staring in disbelief at the magical dome in front of him. "Is this formless white silhouette truly Arvin Vedegra?"
"Yes, that white silhouette is Arvin Vedegra!" the King answered firmly. "We must follow where that bastard went!"
With Franz continuously maintaining his Mana Visualization magic domain, the four of them followed the path of the white silhouette, who was very casually tailing Lionias's figure down the palace corridor.
Their footsteps eventually stopped right in front of a room far from the palace's luxurious area. It was the room previously occupied by a slave from the Larde tribe.
As soon as they entered the room, the magical projection displayed the interaction scene between Lionias and the Larde tribe youth.
After the Third Prince finished his business and left the room, the Larde tribe youth was seen sitting and pondering in his chair. After a few moments, he stood up and walked toward his bed.
When the Larde tribe youth was already lying on his bed, the tension on the faces of King Estadian and his group peaked. They watched the white silhouette walk toward the slave's bed.
King Estadian, Franz Hualimand, Prince Pratesias, and Prince Lionias were deeply curious about what actually happened next inside this room.
In that very second, their focus was completely seized upon seeing the white silhouette now pinning down the body of the Larde tribe youth, who was lying in a straddling position.
Even though the reconstructed scene could not reproduce sound to hear what they were talking about inside the room, King Estadian was absolutely certain of one thing. Judging from his gestures, Arvin Vedegra seemed to know the true identity of the slave very well.
The King's suspicion became increasingly irrefutable when he saw the shocked, surprised, and familiar expression clearly shown by the visual of the Larde tribe youth's face when looking at Arvin's face.
Did the two of them know each other? King Estadian wondered in his heart, trying to guess the relationship between the two people.
However, before the King could think of any theories further, his eyes and the eyes of the other three people in the room instantly widened upon seeing the nonsensical action that occurred next.