Chapter 197: The Baron’s Accusation
The king’s sudden burst of laughter caught nearly everyone off guard, Selena and Lirien included.
After all, receiving such high praise directly from the king himself was no small thing, something everyone present understood immediately.
That said, while something like that would normally leave anyone thrilled, it didn’t seem to matter much to Selena.
Her opinion of the kingdom had always been low, for a number of reasons, chief among them being how easily the system allowed the powerful to walk free while punishing others for nothing more than being related to someone who’d committed some minor offense, one that some noble or another had decided to blow up into a grave crime.
There were plenty of flaws woven into the entire system, flaws that had struck Selena’s own family directly, which was precisely why her opinion of the kingdom, and by extension, of those who governed it, had never been high.
That didn’t mean she would openly show it, though. Not yet, at least.
The interrogation began almost immediately, with the king taking the lead and getting straight to the point.
What had happened to the two of them over the past year?
Where had they been? What had happened to the others? How had they managed to make it back alive?
Both Lirien and Selena recounted their version of events, how they’d been separated before arriving there, how they’d eventually found each other, how some members of their squad had died, and how, for others, they had no way of knowing exactly what had happened, since they’d never had the chance to cross paths with them again.
None of it seemed to particularly bother anyone in the room, except for Baron Langthon. Upon hearing that Percival had apparently lost his mind and attacked Vincent, the baron seemed to doubt every word coming out of the girls’ mouths.
She simply told him to believe whatever he wanted. She had said what she had seen and experienced herself.
That, naturally, struck a nerve with the baron, but the dean stepped in before things could escalate, redirecting the conversation, especially since one particular detail had struck everyone present deeply, the king most of all.
One was the fact that, for the two girls, barely a week had passed in that place.
The big difference in the passage of time was so obvious that it unsettled many of them.
Another was the presence of strange creatures and a place whose geography and structures were completely unfamiliar.
Then there was the presence of certain species that carried a strange energy, one that seemed capable of corroding other beings.
Neither Lirien nor Selena knew how to identify void energy, not yet, at least, but from the descriptions they gave, the king and the others present understood exactly what they were dealing with, and the realization hit the room hard, especially given what the two girls said toward the end.
The appearance of three colossal, strange creatures, each saturated with that very energy.
Hearing the girls’ account, both the king’s and the dean’s expressions darkened considerably; they’d immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusions. But that same gravity didn’t seem to hold for everyone in the room, particularly Baron Langthon, who, already furious, didn’t hold back after hearing all this.
"Do I need to remind you where you are right now? You’re telling me you ended up somewhere with such an enormous discrepancy in time, a place entirely different from ours, with strange structures, monsters that seem to appear every time mana is used, and now, on top of it all, three colossal creatures saturated with void energy? While we’re at it, why not just say the world is ending?" he said, dripping with mockery, directing his words at both girls but particularly at Lirien.
"Your Majesty, it’s clear these two have no intention of cooperating. I recommend the use of a truth extractor," he said, his words echoing through the hall, shifting the expressions of everyone present.
The so-called truth extractor wasn’t a simple device capable of detecting whether someone was lying or not. Quite the opposite. It forcibly extracted information, pressing directly against a person’s very soul and compelling them to reveal whatever surfaced in their mind the moment certain information or questions were presented.
It was an invasive device, one that forced answers out of a person regardless of the cost, even if that cost meant severely damaging or outright destroying the subject’s soul in the process.
In essence, the baron had just proposed subjecting both girls to an invisible form of torture, one that carried a ninety-nine percent chance of causing permanent damage to their souls, or worse, death.
It was a device that, given the severity of its effects, was used exclusively on slaves or criminals of various kinds.
Never on civilians. Not under normal circumstances, at least.
At his suggestion, Duke Kael Dravenmoor’s expression changed drastically. He turned toward Lucius and gave him a furious look.
"Watch your words, Langthon. What you’re suggesting isn’t far from accusing a member of my own family of treason," he said, his tone calm, but carrying a warning beneath the surface that was impossible for anyone in the room to miss.
"I’m not accusing anyone. I’m simply saying their story is far too absurd. It’s obvious they’re hiding something, and we can’t afford to extend patience, not on a matter of this magnitude, one that concerns the safety not just of this kingdom, but of every kingdom," Lucius shot back, not backing down in the slightest.
The exchange only deepened the tension in the room, and soon a heavy silence settled over the hall, the two men staring each other down as though ready to throw themselves into open conflict.
But right at that moment, a faint tapping sound rang out, a single finger drumming lightly against the surface of the table in front of the king, soft and understated, yet somehow enough to shatter the tension the two of them had built.
Both men stiffened immediately, their attention no longer on each other but on the king, who wasn’t even looking at them. His focus remained entirely on the two girls.
"Whether what they say is true or not is for me to decide. I hope that is clear," he said, his words simple, addressed to no one in particular, and yet both the duke and the baron caught the silent warning buried beneath them, nodding without daring to say another word.
The king, meanwhile, kept his attention fixed on the two girls, both of whom felt the full weight of his focus settle over them, a weight that would normally have made any Awakened tremble where they stood. Lirien felt it, at least in part. Selena, on the other hand, didn’t seem to, or at least didn’t show it.
Her gaze remained steady, locked on the king, who met it and seemed to lose himself in thought for a moment.
A few seconds passed, seconds that felt like an eternity to everyone else present in the hall, and finally the king appeared to arrive at a conclusion, opening his mouth to deliver his verdict.