Kalen's pov
'can you repeat that please'
I said as I sat on a throne specially prepared for me by the king of illionis who stood at my left, we were situated in his castles great Hall and in front of me and the entire Court stood prince Caleb heir to this country and the princess I was supposed to be rescuing, their arms were linked and their eyes fierce as they recounted their story, one of interest blooming into affection then intimacy until they hatched an admittedly brilliant plan to be together which they had succeed in until I came knocking, their story was so interesting that even the crowd I had commanded to remain quiet let out a few shocked gasps from time to time, the details of how their affair came to be were crystal clear thanks to the expert narration of the couple but I still found myself confused by one thing, what the fuck was going on,
I had arrived here with suspicions of foul play, at best I didn't expect to see the princess I expected to have been deceived or to be met with a misunderstanding of some sort but instead not only was the princess here but she was supposedly happily married to the prince and helping in forging an alliance that would be helpful in the event of a civil war in her home kingdom, all of those made sense to me but what I didn't get was why I was here, before leaving Rowain about half of the promised payment was sent to my account in Trident this was what calmed suspicions as to whether I was being played but the more I thought about it the more I felt something was up if Rowain could shelve out that kind of cash why couldn't they just attempt to buy off the Don sponsoring Illionis it was certainly less risky and much easier, I looked to Felix who stood at my right and wondering what his opinion of all this was, he had remained kind and dignified through out the explanation but I could tell that he found my confusion hilarious and was actually suppressing a laugh, I quickly realised that if we were going to get anywhere with this we needed privacy
'everyone not relevant to the current situation get out'
I said authoritively and within the moments the crowd had begun to disperse, when the hall was well and truly empty except for me, my entourage the king and the not so happy couple.
Let's start again this time with my side of the story, I then began to recount how I came across this quest my meeting with her father and the details of my mission, as I spoke incredulousness grew on the face of my audience until the princess finally spoke
"the sky would fall and Rowains sigil would turn a wombat before my father handed the throne over to me"
"it would probably make your flag prettier"
I heard the Illionan King whisper next to me but I paid it no mind instead I chose to ask the princesse
'are you sure my lady'
she nodded her head feverently before I asked 'then would you permit me to confirm
she looked at me as if wondering what I meant before deciding to place her trust in me regardless in what I wanted to do after all if I wanted I wouldn't really need to ask, I reached out and placed my hand in her head scanning for traces of mind tempering and alteration but finding none, I had done a remote scan previously which yeiled the same results but I simply wanted to be sure
'Felix'
I called as I took my hands of her head
'can you check her please'
he walked forward wordlessly and did the same thing I did before switching to scanning her memories
"God that's a lot of practice"
he whispered and at that the Rowain princesses face turned red, he turned around before saying
"nothing Lord Don, she actually loves this man, very much in fact"
'then we cab assume the rest of their story is true as well which only leaves one thing foul play"
everyone snapped at attention at those words
"you're not kidding"
Felix said, he knew very well that even though I wasn't expressive I could be quite sarcastic especially when annoyed
'I've had that feeling for a while now'
I said candidly
"but who"
said Jesse
"who would risk angering a don like this"
"if I may lord Don but ever since I heard about your presence here I had begun to theorise about that"
said prince Caleb
"whoever this person was obviously trying to cause conflict between you and the 2nd Don of Aegis and whoever they are could probably get away with something like that can you think of anyone with motive or anything to gain from this"
I hadn't thought of the fact that the person manipulating us would be able to get away with this I had considered the king of Rowain was playing some kind of dangerous game but no matter how I looked at it I felt it couldn't be him, he was too much of a coward and not smart enough to escape me if it came to chase but what if it was someone who didn't need to run, what if it was someone who was on equal footing with me, I thought back to my meeting with the king he seemed scared back then not of me but of something else something volatile, something unpredictable something whose true nature one couldn't place their finger on or someone
'that slimy blond haired half snake'
I said as I exploded in rage, the sudden change in my demeanor from clam but slightly confused to incredibly angry was quite shocking to all those involved even Felix who knew my rage to be like a slow burn not a blazing volcano but I couldn't stop it after all the bastard had played me for a fool
"how soon can you grant us teleportation rights"
I asked the king next to me, unlike Rowain which simply had a system set in place to alert the kingdom when someone used grand teleport or any kind of long distance travel spell Illionis had a barrier that prevented anyone from using that spell without express permission, it was a barrier that was constructed by several god class mages as such even both I and Felix working together would be unable to break it
"3 no 24 hours"
I grimaced
'that's not enough time, dammit'
I said as I slamed my fist on the handle of the chair I was on bearing it into splinters before saying
'we're leaving now'
"all of us"
said Lucas
'leave the couple I'm afraid we've made a big mistake'
my words made several of the people around me double take, it wasn't often a Don admitted he was wrong but I had no choice in this instance all I could do was recind myself to the fact that I was going to kill another Don barely a week after killing the last,
"I'll get the horses saddled"
'leave them they'll slow us down'
"then how are we going to get to where exactly"
' Rowain and we're running'
"huh!!!!"
they all said collectively even Felix who usually went along with my suggestions sent me a look that said you four might be okay but I don't have that kind of stamina
'Felix can use warp until we're out of the kingdom from there we'll use grand teleport I don't care about being caught anyway'
"but sir if I may ask what do you intend to do in my home country"
asked the princess, I looked at her as she stood filled with both determination and trepidation amd said
'I have some questions for your father'
"and after that"
'and if he answers me correctly I might end up as the first Don of Trident quicker than anyone expected'