In front of the palace.
Harden glared at Rennes arrogantly, as if he was already sure of his victory.
He knew that Rennes had no proof.
Without proof, even if he was the Chief Consul, he had no right to kill a duke.
When Harden saw Rennes maintaining his silence, the corners of his mouth curl up slightly.
But suddenly, Rennes, who had been expressionless the whole time, smiled as well.
He sneered and said, slowly, "You think you've won for sure?"
The next moment.
A large amount of dark clouds appeared out of thin air, blotting out the sky and the sun.
Under everyone's shocked gazes, the head of a huge dragon poked out from the dark clouds. It finally turned into a giant dragon that crouched above the palace.
If there was an Archmage present, they would clearly be able to sense how powerful Rennes' magic control was.
Although the ice magic dragon was perched on top of the palace, it did not cause the slightest damage to the palace.
Water element and ice element combined with dark element. This was yet another S-class spell.
It had to be known that the more elemental attributes a spell had, the more complex it was, and the harder it was to control.
Moreover, although it was a hot summer day, everyone present was chilled down to their bones.
Although the sky was covered by dark clouds so the people further away could not see the giant creature in the sky clearly, they clearly saw the head of a giant dragon peeking out from the dark clouds earlier.
Now, they seemed to be able to feel the cold brought on by the breath of the giant dragon, as if the giant dragon was right in front of them.
Rennes waved his hand casually, and a huge hole appeared in the middle of the dark clouds.
Blazing sunlight passed through the hole and shone on the crowd's shocked faces.
The sudden change made everyone's heart sank.
All of them could now see the full appearance of the dragon in the sky. This time, they did not need the guards to force them – they ran away from the dangerous area of their own accord.
The silver-haired old man's eyes widened. He could not believe that Rennes would dare to openly use large-scale offensive magic in the capital.
The scene unfolding in front of him was beyond the silver-haired old man's expectations, and also beyond the expectations of all the members of the Lucas family.
When the paid refugees crowding around the members of the Lucas family saw the terrifying scene, they scrambled to escape before it was too late.
The guards were smart enough to leave a gap in their formation to let them run away.
All of a sudden, only the members of the Lucas family and their family's personal guards were left. There were not even a hundred people there in total.
They were all rooted to the spot, trembling.
Rennes smiled and said, slowly but clearly, "From the moment I sensed that you were quarreling outside the palace, I've wanted to use the roar of an ice dragon to shut you up, preferably forever. Your voices are really annoying."
"But why didn't I use my magic power from the start? Because out of respect for Lifa, I hoped to reason with you first."
"I saved the Noah Kingdom from the Raytheon Empire. In other words, everyone here owes me their life."
"Look carefully. This is the proof you asked for! All the explanation you need! Do you understand?"
After hearing Rennes' words, the light in Harden's eyes slowly dimmed.
He had miscalculated. He had not expected so many people to choose to believe in Rennes.
As expected, the commoners would never believe in the nobles, unless they were given enough interests to do so.
However, in the face of such great power, all of that seemed so insignificant.
That's right, the fact that the honorable Archmage was willing to talk was already a great honor for them mortals. He had actually dared to question the words of an Archmage?
The honorable Archmages disdained to talk to mortals.
Perhaps, it was because Rennes was being promoted as an apostle from another dimension and had an amiable reputation that they had subconsciously overlooked that he was still an Archmage. They did not hold him in the same honorable position as the other traditional Archmages on the continent.
That made the Lucas family feel that they had a chance.
Speaking of the Lucas family.
More than half of them were so scared that they had fallen to the ground.
Seeing this, Lifa made a prompt decision.
Since Rennes had created such a good opportunity for her, she would use this opportunity to crush the Lucas family.
This could also serve as a warning to the other nobles in the kingdom who were getting restless.
"Apprehand the Lucas family and all the related families. Throw everyone into prison. We will hold a public trial at a later date!"
Lifa's voice penetrated far. Using magic tricks, her voice spread throughout the capital. All 300,000 residents of Noah City could hear her.
Noah City was the political and economical center of the kingdom, and it was also the gathering place of the nobles. This should make most of the nobles in the kingdom lay low for a while.
The fall of the Lucas family would signify the end to the era of the nobles controlling Noah.
Now, a new era would begin under the reign of the Queen.
And she, Lifa, wanted to announce this to everyone!
Her bright eyes were filled with determination.
She, as the Queen of the Noah Kingdom, must lead this country to greatness!
Any existence that stood in her way would go down!
Next to her, seeing Lifa's determined expression, Rennes smiled and blew into the air.
A breeze rushed into the sky, and the magic energy that formed the dark clouds began to dissipate.
Finally, with the disappearance of the dark clouds, everything else dispersed too.
At the same time, Rennes sensed the emergence of another mysterious light spot in his body.
...
What happened in front of the palace, using the Lucas family as sacrifice, seemed to have made a statement.
Nobles, especially powerful nobles, were creatures with a sensitive sense of smell.
Right now, these people were all thinking the same thing.
They were thinking of when they should visit the palace to meet the Queen, and the recently appointed Chief Consul, to express their attitude and loyalty.
Through this incident, all the subjects in the imperial capital were now fully aware of a certain fact.
Their new Chief Consul was more domineering than any previous Chief Consuls they had.
Fortunately, Her Majesty the Queen was upholding justice and ensuring fairness. This was the greatest news for the commoners.
Some people sighed in their hearts. As expected of the Chief Consul. They were also happy to have such a powerful Consul.
A day later.
News of the Lucas family's downfall had spread like wildfire.
Lifa's prestige as the Queen was rising at a terrifying speed.
Similarly, as the Chief Consul, Rennes' name was now remembered by most of the citizens of the kingdom.
..
While Lifa was leading a large group of ministers to the Lucas family manor in the imperial capital to perform a thorough investigation, Rennes was staring curiously at a girl kneeling on the ground in front of him in a secret room in the palace.
From her pupils that looked like they were made of gold, and the back of her hand that was covered in scales, it could be seen that she was not an ordinary person.
Of course, Rennes had long seen through the girl's real identity.
She was a young dragon.