As the Cecil Carriage entered the gates of Royal residence, the Cecil family couldn't help but get lost in the grandeur of the Royal palace.
Castle with hundreds of meters in length, along with centuries of history, no matter how many times they witnessed this place, they could help but get lost in it's majestic grandeur.
"Isn't it beautiful ?, it was built by the first Emperor of Helos 700 years ago, it's really a piece of art." Baron Cecil said while explaining the history of the Royal palace.
"Can it fly ?" Karn asked curiously, as it seems his requirements and tastes, have went through the roof after meeting Ian.
"Huh ! Fly ?" Baron Cecil questioned in a shocked manner.
"No nothing." Karn got his answer from Baron's reaction.
'As expected, its not normal for such huge structures to fly up in air,it's just that our templar is an exception.' Karn thought inwardly.
The carriage stopped , before Baron Cecil mentioned. " We need to walk from here onwards."
The Entire Cecil Family along with their escort Knight, walked towards their designated locations.
Soon they entered an unfamiliar hunting ground with several layers of sitting arrangements, With several nobles and their family already taking their seat according their Ranks with the Royal Family sitting in the front, while facing rest of the audience.
As a small Baron family from the outskirts of the kingdom, it was quite evident Cecil family's seat was on the farthest corner of the auditorium.
Just when the Cecil family, as well as the rest of the surrounding family took their seat, a fat chubby man with a royal a garment and a crown in his head, entered the auditorium.
"Ahem Ahem" the chubby man coughed grabbing everyone's attention towards him. "I'm glad all of you could join on this joyful occasion, to celebrate the wedding of my daughter, with the eldest son of the Ideeal family."
"It's the King of Helos Kingdom" Karn murmured to himself as this said entity revealed his identity.
Soon a young man and a woman, entered the auditorium who appeared to be the bride and the groom.
Despite that, it appears everyone was more focused on the woman standing right behind them, with a complete aloof and cold expression on her face.
"It's, Irene Ideeal " Baron cheered from his seat immediately stopped himself, while still being conscious of his wife.
A silver haired and blue eyed beautiful woman,in her mid thirties, but has an appearance of someone in their twenties, this was things Karn noticed after looking at Irene Ideeal.
'Is it because,she is a 9th Circle Magic Sword Grandmaster' Karn thought inwardly, as he heard from Ian, once someone who reaches such Rank, have twice the lifespan of a regular human.
As the banquet proceeded, and people started flocking around Marchioness Irene Ideeal, as she just nodded her head lazily out of consideration.
Time passed by, while nothing much happened in the banquet other than nobles greeting each other's, or frequently throwing sly remarks on each other.
Karn almost lost the count, of how many people came towards the Cecil family and went away throwing some sly remarks, while Baron Cecil could do nothing but keep a smiling face plastered on his face.
Karn sighed as he thought ' I guess being a noble has there own fair share of problems.'
Honestly, he kind of missed, the city of Cassian, a place he built along with Ian, a place where there's no place for such blatant inequality.
But there's still something he need to do.
"This year's hunting festival is going to be a bit special, We have decided to hold a small hunting competition with all the noble families present in here. King Helos announced, leaving a trail of discussions among the nobles.
"Well, no matter how much we try, how the hell are we going to compete with the royals as well as the Ideeal family." One of the nobles chimed in with a dispirited voice.
And all the surrounding nobles nodded their heads, One of them has the strongest army of Knights, while the other quite literally has one of the strongest individual in the continent.
Honestly no one would be willing to participate in an already losing battle, And even without those two families, there were several old fossils in this kingdom, strong enough to destroy an entire city within a span of a day.
King Helos grinned, as he already guessed the concerns of those slimy nobles.
"Hear me out first, only those at the age of 21 and under could take part in this competition."
The reason why King Helos gave such stipulation, firstly to make sure everyone in here agree to participate, and second and the main reason was to brag about his son.
King Helos glanced sideways and looked at his eldest son with a face that seems full of pride.
"That sly Bastard" Irene Ideeal murmured to herself after hearing King Helos's announcement.
But it seem's no one has seen through such obvious and petty scheme of their King. As all those nobles agreed to participate in the festival.
Marcus couldn't help but sigh inwardly as he noticed his father's petty schemes to make him stand out.
"That guy is up to something"
But suddenly Marcus heard a young voice speaking to him, as he turned around and noticed a youngman munching on a piece of bread while taking to him.
Marcus looked around before pointing his fingers towards him asking "Are you talking to me ?."
As Markus looked towards this individual infront of him who was wearing a plain Knight armor, as nothing about his appearance seemed nobility to him.
"Well you looked kind of out of place, just like me, so I thought we could connect, If your uncomfortable I'll leave."
"No..No need, You're right I'm not into this kind of place, Ahh ! you were saying something about the King." Markus said, as it seems this individual had no idea about his identity, and he decided to keep it that way,for a while atleast.
"I can't exactly put my finger on it but there's a certain slyness in his voice, as if everything is going according to his plan."
Markus couldn't help but be impressed by this young man's instincts, as he couldn't help but ask.
"How do you know that ?"
"Well, for the past three years, I've seen and dealt with all kinds of nobles, so I could tell."
"When you say, dealt with...."
The youngman immediately interrupted Markus,before he mentioned.
"Ahh!, No, don't get me wrong I haven't killed anyone of them."
Markus immediately sighed a sigh of relief before he heard something that shook his entire soul.
"Well I did broke a certain Viscount's Jaw, I wonder what he is doing ?, I hope he is not dead, Naikda is working very hard to give that person the most gruesome death possible.
Hearing this, Markus wasn't exactly sure, whether it was really safe to keep this individual inside the Royal palace, but his curiosity got the best out of him.
"Y..Y..You assaulted a noble, and then dared to enter the Royal palace, aren't you afraid of getting yourself executed."
"Ahh! my bad, I didn't explain properly, that noble belonged to the Crune Empire, and he killed one of my comrade's mother, right in the middle of the streets."
"Preposterous, what about the authorities, isn't he afraid of someone reporting him to the Imperial Knight's" Markus couldn't help but burst out of anger, while he heard about such absurd incident.
"This is the Crune Empire,we are talking about"
Hearing that Markus immediately made a disgruntled expression, he has heard rumors of the barbaric dealings, that frequently occur in the Crune Empire.
"Honestly I was pretty surprised, when I entered this kingdom, after being here for three months I realised the main source of trouble that actually needs to be eradicated, is the crune empire...."
the young man stopped talking as noticed a shocked expression on Markus's face, before a letting out a laugh.
"Ha Ha Hah, Who in their right mind talks about destroying an entire empire, and so openly at that." Markus said, as he couldn't contain his laughter. "you sure talk big."
"Sorry, It's a bad habit I got from a certain cat...I mean from a certain person"
"You're an interesting fellow, Since you let me in on your secret let me tell you one as well." Markus said, as he looked around making sure no one's listening to him, before whispering in a low voice "You see the reason why the King held this competition, is to brag about his son, who just recently returned, after graduating from the Ignis Academy."
"I see."
"That's it" Markus felt kind of disappointed from such a bland response from this young man. "Don't you feel angry, the King is abusing his authority, The results are already predetermined, his son is a peak 4th Circle Magician."
But contrary to Markus's expectation the young man merely shook and said.
"Being a king doesn't mean he is made out of stone, what parent doesn't look out for his own son ?." the young man went on a trance before continuing "and I don't think he is harming anyone with this, so it can't really be considered much of an abuse."
Markus immediately realised how narrow minded his thinking was,while he was only going through his father's flaws, he completely forgot to notice his father's undying paternal love for him.
"Right, I didn't catch your name my name is Markus and you are ?" Markus questioned this young Knight, with whom he had a pleasure talking with.
"Karn" The young Knight introduced himself.
"Right Karn, it was nice meeting you, to be honest with you I'm that 4th Circle Magician, I was talking about." Markus finally revealed his identity as the first Prince of Helos Kingdom.
"Ahh! your highness" Karn said, as he gave a light bow.
"Please don't " Markus immediately interrupted before speaking " Call me markus, and you can continue to speak comfortably with me."
"I see, Markus then" Karn gave a glance forward before saying "Earlier you said the results are already predetermined."
Markus immediately nodded as he said "There's currently no one in this entire empire, who's at the 4th Circle, while being under the age of 21."
Although if other's heard that they might think Markus is being arrogant, but on contrary there was not even an ounce arrogance in his tone, but him merely stating facts.
"That Maybe so" Karn grabbed his still sheated sword and raised it in front of Marcus and said
"The person who taught me the way of a sword, told me once ' there's no better thing than a sword, when it comes to dealing with monsters and beasts', so don't count on your victory, not yet."