With confidence, Duke DeMarco cast his first real spell as he stood in front of the area where the corrupted symbol used to be. After about ten minutes of him waving his arms around and chanting a spell, and just as Kayn was starting to get bored of watching when he could reveal it with a wave of his hand, the symbols of the formation became visible. The intricately woven symbols and lines connecting them were all glowing with a brilliant golden hue with nothing out of place.
"Huh?" Duke DeMarco spoke and then began making circles around the area while staring at it intently.
"Is something wrong Duke DeMarco?" Talaro asked to get the ball rolling.
"Um, no Your Majesty. It's just that, this is where I sensed the incongruity in the formation, so it should be here, especially since we can feel the formation no longer active. It just doesn't make sense."
"Maybe you could teach me that spell you were using to sense the incongruity, then I can confirm I am feeling the same thing from that area." Emperor Talaro said offhandedly.
"I'll just try revealing a few more areas Your Majesty, maybe I interpreted the spell's feedback incorrectly." Duke DeMarco spoke as he moved away from the area and began a similar spell chant in another corner of the room.
"Do as you will. We need to figure out what's going on here, so take the time you need." Talaro spoke as he and Kayn proceeded to follow the duke to the next location.
'There's no way I forgot which corner it was in! It was definitely there, but maybe I somehow made a mistake. I will only know once I check all four corners now.' The duke thought to himself.
Almost 30 minutes later and with nothing to show for it, Duke Demarco whispered under his breath after even the last corner in the room was functioning perfectly.
"How is this possible? It worked, but there's nothing there?" His mumbles were barely audible, but two monsters like Kayn and Emperor Talaro who had increased hearing due to their races heard it clearly.
Rather than the emperor responding though, it was Kayn. "How is what possible? The fact that the formation isn't corrupted as you thought it would be? That's probably because I fixed it about a month ago when I first noticed the foreign symbol corrupting the formation."
"What?! You're blaming me for trying to corrupt our lifeline?! You obviously did something! Especially since the formation is no longer working! I was merely saying it was impossible that I couldn't find anything when the formation is clearly not functioning properly!" Duke DeMarco shouted angrily while pointing his finger at Kayn.
"Oi, put that finger down before I chop it off. I don't like being pointed at. Back to the topic though, you also mentioned 'it worked'. So, what worked?"
Duke DeMarco's hand was shaking in rage, but he still put it by his side regardless. "I was talking about my spell! My spell was definitely working to show us the formation and areas of incongruity, I just don't know what's wrong with it.
"Your Highness, please take him into custody, he clearly ruined our only lifeline between us and the attacking forces!"
For Kayn, this was all the more amusing since he had his All-Seeing eyes activated, and while not as strong as Charlotte's eyes, he could tell when someone was lying and Duke DeMarco was definitely farting out of his mouth constantly.
"I'm tired of this farce DeMarco, why did you try to betray us?" Emperor Talaro spoke as the anger began to show on his feline face.
"What!? Why would I do such a thing! Are you really believing some new comer over one of the families who has been loyal to you for so long!?" Duke DeMarco was outraged at the treatment he was receiving.
While he knew he was the one that tried to corrupt the formation, his work had definitely been fixed, but the formation was still inactive and there was no longer proof he was the one who did it! So how did they know?
"Loyalty? What part of your family is or was ever loyal to the Mancean Empire? When your coward of a father Marco fled and took most of his wealth and resources, ascending within a few years of the war starting? Or when you tried to corrupt our one line of hope for survival before our savior here found out about your plan?
"Or how about the slave-ring that your family had been running for years right underneath my nose? The one most important rule of MY empire, not having slaves or selling them, was being flaunted right in front of my face by a 'loyal' family!
"Tell me! Which part of any of that is loyalty to Mancea!?" Talaro shouted in anger as he approached Duke DeMarco with firm steps. At the same time the duke was faltering backwards until he reached the wall while shaking in fear. He had even pissed his pants by this point with a puddle forming near his feet.
However, just as he was cornered, he mustered up the courage to fight back. "My father isn't the only one to run away! What about the leader of the White Hand? She ran away and even took a powerful warrior with her! Also, if you knew about the auctions, why didn't you do anything about it! Seeing as how you knew it and didn't act, you must not care that mu-"
Before he could finish his accusatory sentence, he was lifted straight into the air with a clawed white paw-hand around his neck. "I didn't know about your family's disgusting proclivities until Charlotte told me when she left. And yes, I'm aware she left, but neither she nor Yelena was ever a part of the empire to begin with nor did she have any obligations to protect it.
"In fact, her obligations were to that young man over there. Protecting his family until he could reunite with them. But instead of leaving us all behind to our own fate, the person you keep accusing of being a traitor stayed behind in order to help us all! He fought for days all by himself in order to give us time to recuperate and now he fixed our formation due to having an actual traitor in our midst.
"We saw a mere glimpse of what he is capable of. If what I felt the other day is a power he can control, if his family had died, I don't doubt that he would just kill everyone on this continent for being involved in their death!
"Don't ever try to tell me who is and isn't a traitor when I can clearly understand that myself! I would love to just throw you out to our enemies, but I bet you were working for them, so they probably wouldn't do anything to you as I hope. So instead, I'm going to make you watch as I kill your wife and children that you've so desperately kept here since the very beginning. When you are broken from despair, then and only then will I end you."
Emperor Talaro dropped him to the floor and before he could begin scampering away, he grabbed the back of his collar and started to drag him to the door.
"No, no, no! Please! They didn't do anything! They don't even know! My wife wasn't even aware of the family business and my children are too young and innocent to have been involved! Please!" DeMarco begged as he was being dragged away.
Talaro paused and looked down at the pathetic rat in his grasp, "And why should I believe anything you say?"
Rather than DeMarco answering though, it was Kayn. "He was telling the truth. If you're aware of Charlotte's ability, I have something similar. What he said just now about his wife and kids was the truth."
Talaro stayed silent for a moment, but shook his head, "Regardless they were in bed with a traitor, I cannot allow them to stay here with us and this man isn't going to live past today."
Kayn looked at the pathetic pleading written on DeMarco's face and sighed. "Talo, no Your Highness, please allow me to offer you another option."
Talaro narrowed his eyes at Kayn, "Speak."
"While I know leaving the family alive could cause them to try and retaliate as revenge, what if we frame it as that scum abandoning them and turning traitor? As punishment, they will be kicked out from the safety of the shelter.
"However, I have a strong aversion to causing innocent children harm, so I would like the opportunity to try and smuggle them out of the city to somewhere they can try and find safety. I can also gather a few more resources for the shelter while I'm out and about if you want to get a list put together for me."
Talaro stood in thought for a while before sighing and releasing the tension in his shoulders. "I also don't want to make the children suffer for the sins of their parent. But as you said, they would most likely try to get revenge if we went about it the way I wanted to.
"If you're willing to try smuggling the family out of the city to somewhere they can fend for themselves, I'll allow it. As for getting a list of supplies we need together, I'll go consult with the others after I deal with this trash."
"Ah, on that note. Please let me deal with him as well. I have a few questions for him myself. Seeing the look in your eyes desiring to torture him and extract all he knows, I ask that you allow me to do that as well. Then I will kill him and get rid of his body without leaving any evidence." Kayn spoke hurriedly before Talaro could take the disgraced duke away.
A skeptical look appeared on the white tiger's face, "You want to torture him? Do you even know how?"
Kayn nodded, "I have more experience on both sides of that fence than I would care to admit in my short life."
"Fine, but make sure you tell me everything he knows about the enemy, how he was communicating with them, and why he turned traitor in the first place. Also, I want to see his body before you make it disappear. When do you want to deal with the family?" Talaro asked as he threw the duke to Kayn like a ragdoll.
Duke DeMarco rolled to a stop at Kayn's feet, not daring to move. "I still need some time before I'm confident about going out there without being spotted. So, I'll take care of him before I get back to my training. Give it about two months and I should be ready to take the family out. This will also give them time to realize that they were abandoned and their hatred for him will start to grow."
"Hmmm, that's a good idea. Okay, let me know when he's dead so that I can see his body. We will arrange a list of things we will need and have it ready for you in two months' time. I'll take my leave now then."
Just before Talaro left the room, he looked back at the former duke, curled up on the floor by Kayn's feet like vermin and spoke, "I hope you die a painful death and that if your soul ever finds its way through the cycle of reincarnation that you become an ant that I accidently crush underneath my boot."
The door slammed closed after he said that, leaving only the former duke and Kayn inside of the room.