"The blight is alive, and I'm sure you know what that means, father"
His words invited a deafening silence into the room, and everyone displayed various looks of shock. Sigmund immediately frowned after the initial shock passed, while Isabella's expression softened, but she quickly hid it under a stoic expression.
There was a long stretching silence which was broken by the king who was the first to speak, expressing his disbelief at the words his son just spoke.
"Siegfrued don't lie, the assassin's I hired weren't second rate, They reported to have completed the job"
He said, calling into question the legitimacy of Siegfrued's claims. He gazed at his son with curiosity. What reason would he have to blatantly lie like that?
"Do you have any evidence to fully trust what they said is true?"
Siegfrued returned the gaze, his head tipping low and staring at his father, his gaze practically asking if the king was saying that he's a liar and if his word had little merit.
"The assassin's guild is not the type of organisation to report falsehood, despite being assassins they have to be honest with their clients not unless they want to lose business"
King Lucian said, his voice confident in his own words. However, his words caused the prince to huff in derision before responding.
"Your incompetence is appalling, father"
The prince said, his voice laced with thick amounts of condescension and disrespect, and the King reacted accordingly to his words.
*BAM!*
"Boy, I warn you! you will not speak to me like that"
The king slammed his fists on the table, his anger clear, he didn't appreciate the disrespect from his own son, especially considering it was in front of his wife, being disrespected before the person you sleep next to at night was not acceptable and one had to respond to such disrespect.
The tension in the room suddenly increased and forced everyone to tense up. Both Isabella and Sigmund kept their attention on their oldest brother. Sigmund was clenching his fist tightly and all ready to stand up and either defend himself or run.
"Or what? old man"
Siegfrued asked, his aura flooding the room, adding another layer of thick tension to the room and causing Sigmund to begin sweating profusely. The teen did his best to keep his breath calm.
One's aura can be used not just to identify them in a crowd but can also be used to determine their strength, and by purposely leaking a certain amount, one can intimidate others with it.
"You think because you have the strength, you can use violence to threaten me?!"
The King stood up in a fit of fury, his massive size imposingly towering over the table. The king was both fat and tall as such, when he stood up, he towered over most people. Both him and Siegfrued shared an intense gaze, menacingly staring at each other.
"Dearest mother, it would appear our presence is not required at this meeting. Please let me escort you out, I feel it is not safe for a person such as yourself"
Elizabeth aptly assessed, and after having said all that, she stood up, walking towards the queen's chair and quietly escorted her out, leaving the tense room. To Elizabeth's credit, she was no fighter. Despite having the talent to be a mage, she was more of a books type of person, unlike most people within her family.
Seeing the two leave, Siegfrued heaved a sigh and retracted his aura. It did no good to scare his own mother away.
"What I'm trying to get at here, father. Is that I saw the blight with my own eyes and that
you made a mistake by trusting such a shady organisation and if word came out that you were unable to even get rid of someone so weak, the nobles will begin to test us and we can't keep our rule if the nobles think we aren't strong"
Siegfrued stated, the political situation within the Dreyer Kingdom was quite fragile, due to the nature of their Blood birth's right belief any sign that one's blood may not be as potent as they claim it to be invites doubts and doubt invites betrayal and a coup d'etat
The existence of the blight already casted doubt on the potency of the Dreyer blood, after all if one person without a talent for magic can be born that means others can also be born and that means somewhere in the future the Dreyer family will consist of magicless commoners, clearly unfit to rule.
This was the reason why Elizabeth had to get married and why the queen was pregnant. To prove that the Dreyer blood is still strong and can give birth to strong offspring.
"Fine, what do we do?"
The king huffed letting go of the anger he felt and asked as he sat back on his chair, he still felt a bit of anger however he realised the issue so it was fine to let it go.
"Since this assassin's guild you hired didn't do their job right, they need to compensate us and do their job properly this time"
He said, and the King gave him a nod, but there was a question that Siegfrued should have been asked, one that the king didn't think to ask, however…
"If Nathaniel is alive and you saw him with your own eyes, then why didn't you kill him?"
Isabella asked, and Siegfrued gave her an annoyed look as he had hoped no one would ask that. He couldn't let it be known that he hadn't been able to kill the blight easily.
"Reniella was with him in the city of Rix and you know how she meddles, she stopped me before I could do anything, plus it would have been an incident if I fought her to kill the blight"
Isabella hummed as a response, not showing any outward emotions, but her heart was feeling a bit lighter, at least her youngest brother was still alive.
"I see, if that's the case, the assassination route is the right one, I'll make sure they send out their elite of the elite, we can't have such a stain in our family roam freely."
The king explained, and both Siegfrued and Sigmund gave him a nod, Isabella however stood up from her chair
"If that's all, then I'll be going, I had things to do"
She said as she exited the room and left everyone inside to discuss whatever.
Having exited the room, she heaved a sigh of relief, all the tension in her shoulders fading away.
'I'm going to need to go to the Hendrix kingdom, inconspicuously'
She thought she had failed to protect him last time, but with Reniella helping him, she doesn't have to be afraid of Siegfrued and can openly support her youngest brother.
She felt a small lump in her throat, and she quickly walked towards her room. It wouldn't do for her to show weakness out in public.
.....
A/N: I hope you enjoyed. Please comment your thoughts.