[The Royal Palace, Ethos]
[3rd Person's POV]
While the waves made by Jake was spreading and shook the underworld. Things in Royal Family was tense too. There was less than seven months left for the selection of heir to the throne.
The two main players, namely, Edward and Egbert were at each other's throat. No one could afford to lose an inch of advantage.
After rest of the princes backed off the throne race. The faction of the First and Second prince grew exponentially. Some houses that previously supported those silenced princes, switch sides and joined either of two factions.
This was not just a war for succession anymore. Any one of the sides could start a civil war that could last for years and permanently scar the kingdom.
The worst outcome, that some other nation tries to take advantage of the mayhem of the Kingdom.
For the noble houses that joined the succession war, this was a do-or-die scenario. If the opponent win their houses would likely be destroyed or permanently cripple it. Afterall, no king want a subject that loyal to another person.
No matter how much these houses tried to prove their loyalty. The losing houses would never be trusted, especially because the King would have to reward the houses that were loyal to him during the crown's ascension.
These winners would likely exploit, or downright destroy the losing party.
Nobody will take the destruction of their family lying down. As the stakes of each side rose, the probability of a full blown conflict seemed imminent.
And now the tension rose to a level higher than ever. It was because of a certain message that one of the Egbert's faction member received.
A faction's meeting was set up to discuss the matter that the received message entailed. Not everyone had the accurate details about the purpose of the meeting, they were nerved.
This happened due to the fact that the day of announcement was coming close. Rising tensions and stake built up pressure in noble houses. The closer we get to the bloody day, the bigger the moves they have to play to win the succession war.
Some nobles even began to doubt the King's true purpose for the whole drama. What was the King's true purpose? The King could easily select one successor to the throne on his whim and no one could object him. Was their King so weak-willed that he can't even choose one of his sons for the throne?
Despite having these thoughts, nobody voiced it aloud. Everyone knew what kind of fate awaited them if they voiced their thoughts.
Freedom of speech is non-existent in a monarchy. If caught voicing one's true opinion, death is just a mercy. Even commoners knew of this fact.
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Inside the meeting room, sat Egbert on a magnificent chair. The blonde man with green eyes had a pondering expression on his face. He looked around on the crowd as people kept entering and sat down on their respective seats.
Nervousness could be seen on almost all the participant's eyes. The fact that their Prince had a solemn expression on his face only served to tense up the atmosphere more.
The prince, looked around the meeting room once more. Each participant was seated and was looking at him expectantly to speak up. After confirming the arrival of all the expected members, the prince spoke the reason for the meeting.
"The Underworld wants to join our side" spoke the prince in a calm manner.
This sentence sent tremor inside the silent meeting hall and people started to murmur. Discussing the implications of what this sentence meant.
Although the Prince just said a simple word. Slowly everyone's mind rang that this already chaotic situation of the empire will get worse if those people interfere.
Seeing the Prince silent and sensing his intention to speak more, the room slowly started turning silent.
"I know what you all are thinking right now, that those people will make our matters worse. But what I am going to say to you next will change your mind." Egbert said with perfectly calm tone. It looked like he was truly a master of crowd control.
After a short pause to let the information digest, Egbert dropped the bomb. "There is a new faction in Underworld, apparently, it has many top level experts and assassins in it. And those people have joined Edward's faction."
Again, after his words silence followed. One of the Noble asked permission to speak up and said "Can it really be true, that an underworld organization will be this powerful that we need to associate ourselves with them?"
The others looked at him like he just stole the words from their mouth. Everyone was looking at Egbert eagerly to know how the Prince came to this conclusion. They trusted Egbert's leadership, that is why they joined his faction. And in this situation too, they wanted to know their Prince's decision.
Egbert softly smiled took out a device. It was the video playing device that was sent from the Underworld as a proof of the new faction's threat.
Egbert activated the device in front of them and the video of a base getting destroyed by Jake was shown. They saw how easily the Mafia members were outmatched by only a kid with yellow eyes.
Those eyes even sent waves of shiver through nobles. Seeing their reaction, Egbert stopped playing this video. As this video stopped, one of the Noble's said "Frost Demon!"
Others also nodded to his words, the person shown in the video was truly a Frost Demon. He looked cold as Ice, and his demeanor was as un-human like as one could get.
But still, a single powerful individual cannot be the reason of noble's joining a whole faction. There has to be something else.
Sensing the mood, Egbert then took out a paper and began reading it. The letter contained detail accounts of what happened in the underworld in past years. Exaggerating most of the stuffs, they also pinned the blame of potential assassination of Third Prince to the Silent Rouge, coincidentally, which was true.
After hearing the whole thing, the faces of Nobles turned solemn. They now knew the whole reason of why this meeting was being held. If someone can assassinate Third Prince right inside the Capital and leave no clues for it, then no one in the Kingdom was safe.
This was a threat that could potentially destroy this kingdom, and this threat has been infesting the Kingdom's lands for who knows how many years.
If Silent Rogues are allowed to become stronger, then not only the Underworld, but every person will be affected by this. And as if things weren't problematic enough, the Rogues had joined the opposite faction.
That meant they had such a terrifying enemy on the other side of the battlefield. What anyone was afraid the most of was the element of unknown and uncertainty in this organization. Nobody knew its true face or what power it held.
How could they face them without any information on them? It would be like a blind man charging head first into a battlefield.
"Let's have a majority vote, those in favour of allowing the underworld to join our side, raise your hands" Egbert announced to the seated people.
At that moment, every hand raised, which showed the agitation caused by the new fish that toppled the fickle power balance of the Kingdom. Everyone had the same opinion, to wipe out or subdue this new variable that appeared on the battlefield.
From then on, the meeting progressed smoothly. The person shown in the video, Jake was given the sobriquet of 'Frost Demon'. Naturally, nobody recognized him not even from the Lillian's case nor from the bandit attack that happened years ago.
Jake unknowingly created waves of his own name. And that will only continue to spread more.
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