"We greet the Guardian." The present 6 leaders and 1 guardian stood on their seats and greeted me by folding their hands. Even if they didn't like it, it was an unspoken law in dragon realm to respect those stronger than you, nobody knew who created it but it was imprinted in the genes of every dragon since its birth.
"It is an honor for me as well, please take your seat." I said walking past them taking the seat designated for me.
The conference room was not any less majestic than the Throne room of king where he had his seat high above all the other leaders which indicated his position. One level beneath him was two seats reserved for Guardian and then there were ten seats facing each other in two rows.
Sometimes I thought if he had to make conference room look like throne room why even bother building one.
But it indicated the king's pride that we will never be able to sit on same level as him. But nobody was unaware of his fake prestige which he always tried to maintain, why else he and his ancestors would bind other powerful dragons with soul contract.
There were only few minutes left when the designated time of meeting would come. As I was seated, i was observing the behavior of other leaders and looking for any change in expression or hint that would give away their plan.
On surface they were pretending to chat with other while few of them were doing nothing but I knew they were discussing their plans telepathically.
As the time of Meeting was about to start, we heard the sound of footstep approaching the conference room and we knew whom it belongs to.
That oppressive aura increasing with each footstep, even the walls and ground of palace were shaking.
With a familiar release of mana, which I have felt hundreds of time by now, the door of conference room swung open and a monotonous voice rang in ears of everyone.
"Your Majesty, The King of Dragon Realm Azmath has entered the Meeting hall." The Monotonous voice has declared the arrival of king but even before it finished speaking everyone was already bowing towards the king excluding me, I was just sitting on my seat and this was not the first time I had done this.
The king eyed everyone, including me for slightly more time and gestured all to return to their seats. He walked towards his throne and sat on it and one by one everyone took their seats.
"We should start with today's meeting's agenda." King spoke.
Once again a monotonous tone reverbed inside the meeting room, stating the agenda of the meeting. The thing which was speaking was an artificial intelligence installed based on the knowledge of Dragon race and had the responsibility to record the minutes of the meeting.
"Today's meeting's agenda is to discuss the strategy to conquer the tower and release the seal placed by Guardian Adam of the void in the year ... and other related matter to it."
"Please approve or make amends to the agenda if any, your majesty and Guardian Alex." The AI asked for king and me for approval.
"I approve." The king spoke in a solemn tone.
"I approve." I said in an indifferent tone.
I was the one who is going to release the seal and therefore it was only fair to ask me to approve the agenda because I was the direct party involved just as much as king was.
After approval king spoke about some past stories to definitely pinpoint the mistake of my father, how he favoured all other races and what is at stake blah blah blah and after some time he spoke to me.
"As for Guardian Alex, he would be signing a Soul contract for this expedition until the seal is released." My interest suddenly picked but I had general idea of what it will be.
Saying this king forwarded me a page like object clearly made out of mana having a imprint of king's soul on it. There was written that I can't ditch the expedition before unsealing the seal, once I sign the contract my soul will be restricted until I had unsealed the seal. Even if I fail to clear the floor I had to start it once again etc.
I read through the whole contract and signed it. When it returned in king hand, I could see the satisfying smile on his lips. Well only a fool would repeat the same mistake, he certainly learned from his past mistake.
Soul contracts were very common occurrence in all over the dragon realm and the reason for all the problem in my life.
The contact which my ancestors had signed with past royal families was more of a slave contract then soul contract. There were condition mentioned such as we cannot directly harm each other but the dominance in the contract was possessed by royal family who had authority to release me from the contract but even I knew they wouldn't do that.
The worst part was that the contract would continue from generation to generation even if the person disagree, he will be bound by contract from its birth.
It was also mentioned in the contract that my bloodline would never start its own family and there will be only one person possessing the ability of void and he has to work as the Guardian of royal family. If it happens that two people possess the ability at the same time, one has to cripple oneself or die.
"Since the matter is clear that the Guardian won't run away from his duty this time, we can proceed further with the meeting." The king was about to speak but I cut him in.
"It was your mighty self's mistake for not taking every contingency into account." I spoke and I could see king glaring in my direction and then turning toward 2nd leader whose face pale due to his negligence in last expedition.
"AI, give everyone a brief summary of our mission." The king spoke clearly ignoring my attempt to provoke him.