Everyone in the Celestia Kingdom was in a festive mood.
After all, they were going to see the coronation of the new king in two days.
On this day, the prince would be crowned by the current empress in the palace and various nobles would be there witnessing the historic moment.
The ceremony had four steps in total and everything would be broadcasted using magic equipment in various places of the Empire for all commoners to see and enjoy at the same time.
First, the empress would crown him in the presence of the dukes, the royal instructor and the various department heads of the palace court.
Second, the prince would give a speech for the nobles and commoner watching from outside, trying to make a good impression of himself.
Third, the royal court mage, in this case Ambrosia would bring in the magic affinity stones to find out the new king's elemental affinity.
And fourth, an envoy from the Holy Twilight Empire would arrive to give their approval and show their goodwill.
The first two stages were common in every empire; the fourth step too was common in almost every empire except a few like the demon empire.
The third step however was exclusive only to the Celestial Empire.
The heir to the crown could learn magic control and mana circulation, but could not learn elemental magic like fire, wind or water until he became the king.
On the coronation day, several affinity stones would be brought up to him…like the fire affinity stone, the light affinity stone and the such, and finally in front of everyone, the prince would reveal the type of magic he was compatible with.
This rule was enforced for a reason. One, because learning elemental magic required extremely high insight and magic control, one that someone too young could not have.
So young heirs were encouraged to practice physical skills and only practicing mana control until they became king.
Ray however felt that this system was extremely stupid.
This system was made by one of his ancestors not because of all the reasons publicly declared, but to keep the princes in check and not get too strong.
What he found even more stupid was declaring the king's elemental affinity to the whole world.
Ray knew how various kings took joy in surprising others by having double, triple or even quadruple elemental affinity, earning praise and respect from the masses, he didn't believe in this aspect one bit.
It was just like revealing the cards you have for your enemies to understand you even better.
However, he had to follow the rules.
Even if Isis didn't mind him learning magic, if people somehow learned the royals broke the rule they themselves set, it would not be smooth sailing as a king for him.
And the fourth reason, Ray just found it ridiculous.
Unlike the Celestial Empire ruled by humans, or the demon kingdom ruled by demons, the Holy Twilight Empire was a special place.
It wasn't an empire, but it was far more feared and respected by any other empires.
This 'empire' didn't have royals, didn't have a king, and its lands didn't have any nobles, it was ruled by people who worshipped the 'gods' and obtained blessings in return.
No one knew who was the leader behind the scenes. No one except Ray that is.
And the ruling body just had priestesses and priests.
If someone obtained a hero system it was a must to visit the holy empire to obtain a blessing from these very people.
As such, this 'empire' had all the heroes, priestesses and priests under their control. If it set out an instruction to all people loyal to it, they could raze another empire to the ground.
Every time an empire got a new king, they would send a priestess or priest in training as an envoy as a show of 'goodwill' and 'approval'..
However this was no show of goodwill.
This was their own way of asserting superiority
Ray knew these people very well. Yes, they took pride in doing justice and tried to erase evil, but that was exactly the problem.
They had an extremely convoluted view of justice.
These priestesses and priests were selected carefully from among people who never committed evil, vowed their complete loyalty to the empire and all of them had a common skill.
This skill was the most difficult requirement to become a priest or priestess, and it allowed one to view a target's soul, or rather its karma.
Unlike a body, a soul was different. The more people someone killed, the more immoral activities one committed, the more their soul appeared dark to these skills, and the more good one did, the more bright it became.
These 'envoys' sent by the empire would covertly use this skill on new rulers, determining their characters.
If their soul was too 'evil' to their liking, that ruler would suddenly vanish or die in an 'accident' later on.
After all, these people had a hand in his father's death.
Ray who was training his battle skill in the training room was thinking about his coronation ceremony and just how many things were about to happen in one single day.
He was visibly excited as he swung his sword with all his might.
**********************************************
In the East, Ermes Hadwyn was facing an intense headache.
Some weird people had infiltrated his territory and started causing trouble everywhere for the last few days.
They tried to stay hidden and killed very secretively, but some of the people they killed were hypnotized by him.
He tried confronting them and even caught one of them, but he only managed to get their name by trying to hypnotize him before he committed suicide.
'Purple Squad.'
He had never heard of these people before and didn't know what they wanted to accomplish.
Many of his high ranked officials would suddenly get ambushed, captured or killed and even before he could do anything, they would escape.
This was apparently the reason his intuition skill was warning him previously and not because of the prince.
However, today the skill stopped ringing which meant that the people from the purple squad had left.
But the moment he called his son Lloyd Hadwyn and asked him to visit the palace with him in two days to meet the prince, his skill tingled again.
Finally, he decided to let Lloyd stay and manage the duchy while he went to the palace alone.
He would somehow cook up an apology.
What he did not know was that he would need far more than an apology.
*********************************************
In a brightly lit and lavishly decorated room, Number 1 was prancing about holding the communication device which was trying to connect to the vice leader.
After a few seconds, the device connected and he could hear the vice-leader's annoyed voice on the other side.
"Why are you calling me again? What the hell did you do wrong now?"
"I apologize, however there is a new development that could affect our plan…"
"What? Again?"
His voice was slowly increasing, however the next words made him calm down.
"It was an oracle. He arrived at the northern duchy trying to cure the duchess, however Number 3 killed him before he could expose us…"
"Well what's the harm in that? The variable has been taken care of."
"That… before he died he said something…"
"Oh? What did he say?"
"The three will rule once again…"
"…"
There was an overbearing silence in the room.
After a few moments the vice-leader spoke again, but this time his voice contained almost no visible emotion, making Number 1 wonder what expression he was making.
"I'll look into it. Keep following the plan… I'll have to personally intervene if what you said is the truth…"
Number 1 replied positively at which the vice-leader hung up the connection.
At this moment, there was a knock on his door.
"Come in."
A man wearing a dark purple cloak entered the room and immediately kneeled.
"Leader of the purple squad reporting."
"Speak."
"We have just investigated the East Duke thoroughly, but have found no instance of his involvement."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes sir. We investigated a lot of people and even lost one of ours, but found no information relating to this matter."
"Dismissed."
Number 1 sighed; he didn't know what to do. Changes kept appearing in their perfect plan and they didn't even know how.
*Ring*Ring*
His communication device started ringing, and looking at it he determined the caller to be Number 14.
"What happened to you now?"
"Well, the people who went to find trails of the person who spread the rumors just returned."
"And? What did they find?"
"Nothing. It was like the person never existed. Completely vanished into thin air."
"Sigh… alright; just keep following the plan…"
He disconnected the device and pinched the bridge between his eyebrows.
'I feel tired…'
He felt that their perfect plan wasn't really that perfect anymore.