At this point, the doors were opened and a guard led a woman in rags into the room and brought her before the Emperor.
As she made her way to Claudius, she set her eyes on Omar and immediately had a look of fear in her eyes.
Vincent was the only one who noticed this since he had a negative reaction about Omar and did not trust him on that.
"Seems like my hunch is close to right. Omar is somehow involved in this if this woman is so afraid of him," he thought.
The Emperor's wife ordered for a seat close to her for the lady to sit on.
Claudius then said, "Since she's here already, we'll start with this first."
He then nodded to the lady to permit her to speak.
She began, "My Lord, I am Haruka. I come from a desolate land known as Grimeburgh, a once green and simple village not too far from the northern border of Pardour."
"I am the only remaining person from that village and the reason is so gruesome for my lips to bear!!," she said in tears.
It was so traumatizing to Haruka that the Empress herself had to kneel beside her to give Haruka comfort.
As Haruka wiped her tears, she continued, "My land was a peaceful one. Everyone had enough, conflicts rarely occurred and my family especially was happy."
"That was….until 'they' appeared."
"Who exactly?," a voice asked Haruka, and all eyes turned to the east corner of the room.
It was Dante, who had clearly recovered from the poison, but was still weak which led to Esmeralda holding him in order to stand.
Vincent and Maki breathed a sigh of relief, with Maki close to tears knowing that their Sensei was okay.
Dante looked at the both of them and smiled, which made them a bit more pleased.
"Forgive me, my lord, but I'm certainly intrigued by the story and I would like to remain here, if you don't mind."
"I can't allow it, Dante. You're far too weak to stand and I won't risk having you injured again," Claudius replied with a hint of concern.
Dante then looked at Esmeralda, who sighed and left him to stand on his feet.
"I'm not fully recovered, but I can still move on my own, Sire. And besides, there's something I need to confirm from her."
Claudius was not too pleased with this, but he allowed it nonetheless, since it was futile to order Dante to leave in order to recover.
"Fine. Haruka, you may continue."
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Haruka then nodded and continued, "It was about a week ago, and I had just returned from the fields attending to my sheep, as any woman would in my village."
"But as I returned, everything was in flames!! Everything!! From the houses to the chief's hall, everything was in flames!!"
"I was shocked and was worried for my children that I ran into the village, screaming for help."
"As I got close to the hall, I saw people on horses with black hoods and a green insignia on their back resembling a spider."
"Then I saw one of them lunging a sword through one of my co-wives and he looked back at me."
"I knew for certain I was next, so I ran for my life."
"But it was all in vain as I got to a river and he caught up with me."
"He then slashed me with his sword on my chest and I dropped into the river."
"I thought I would never see my children again, until a man rescued me from the river, saving me from death."
"He had told me he saw the flames from a few miles away from his house and knew that there was a raid there."
"And to my surprise, my children were sleeping next to me on my bed, and I cried as I touched them, knowing they were ok."
"After three days there, he told me to come to see the Emperor here and ask for his help, which I did. But….," she paused, choked with her tears, "….he was attacked a few minutes after we left."
Everyone shook their heads in displeasure and Dante clenched his fists in anger.
"Those damn bastards!! They will pay for this!!," he swore as he heard the story from Haruka.
"They finally caught up to us, and one of them, an old man with a wrinkly face and a scar across his temple, then appeared out of nowhere and casted a spell on me and my children, knocking us unconscious."
"After we woke up, nothing happened so I assumed they had left us alone to die. But then, I received a letter from them which I lost along the way on my journey to this city," she concluded.
Vincent was looking at Omar, with his Sentiel Vision activated, and noticed something that no one else had realized.
...…••••••••••••••••••••••....
Sentiel Vision is a high-grade visual ability which enables the user to observe and break through any illusion spell lower than it, without revealing the user's employment of the ability.
However, it took a great deal of Mana for the user to activate it and conceal the usage, so only a Beta Class individual could use it and so far, Vincent is the only individual known to possess it.
...…••••••••••••••••••••••....
Omar had placed a disguise spell around himself; Icon Shroud to be exact.
...…••••••••••••••••••••••....
It was a very powerful illusion spell which distorts the caster's physical appearance before the eyes of anyone close to him or her.
It was an exclusive ability and worked on any individual, except for those above the Beta Rank or even monsters with Class S-ranked visual abilities, which Vincent possessed as his newly awakened Sentiel Vision.
...…••••••••••••••••••••••....
As soon as he saw what was underneath Omar's Icon Shroud, he smirked and said to himself, "Looks like I found the rat after all!!"
The figure Haruka described earlier on matched perfectly with what Vincent saw about Omar.
He kept this information to himself and did not tell anyone, not even Maki who was close to him, about it.