1400 A Forgotten, Looming Sword

"Maybe we should wait a bit l—"

Bang!

An orange fist slammed the twinkling stone of the long table and a shockwave of aura swept the meeting room.

"You cowardly bitch! How long are we going to wait?" An orange-skinned man in a black suit rose to his feet and pointed his finger at the speaker.

A small chatter ensued, with people seated across the table discussing the issue with renewed vigor.

"It's a mission they all submitted to His Majesty. Prince Merov displayed full confidence in fulfilling the objective. It's taking longer than expected but I do not doubt for a second he's going to succeed."

The speaker who started this all, a pale woman with ashen skin clad in black clothes clinging to her morbidly thin body, retorted with great conviction.

"And watch your tongue, you uncivilized brute! I'm the closest to Prince Merov! If he realizes the words you spouted at me in front of everyone, you'd be out of his good books without any chance of redemption." The woman's words stung because they were true.

Prince Merov was once a lowly person. He didn't have anyone to call his own. After his meteoric rise, people thought even though he'd develop superficial, interest-based relations, he'd not create a genuine relationship.

But then came Nexa.

The Prince said that out of all the people in his life, she's the most important to him. It's not a romantic relationship, they could tell. Nor was it a master-apprentice pair.

Nexa seemed to be a…proxy for someone else.

"…I don't care if the Prince hates me after this. I am but a loyal supporter of His Highness. I want to see him and verify his condition." The orange man did not step down and resorted to sophistry.

As one of the important nobles of the kingdom, he spend a lot of political and economic capital on Prince Merov. All for the sake of climbing one step higher in the pyramid.

How could he allow his investment to be at risk?

Many people here, strong and influential men and women of the Pala kingdom, were convinced by Merov because of his extraordinary growth and uncommon strength.

These were his 'super supporters'—patrons in a sense—the ones who make up the 'faction' of the Prince.

He was all of that too, but first and foremost, he's an investor.

"I have not a shred of doubt about the Prince's greatness. But I have many doubts about his competitor's treachery." The man continued, pushing the discourse in his favor with tact words.

Nexa could not make a proper comeback.

And she knew that, even if she did argue, the only value she'd ever gotten was due to the prince. As a person herself, she was worth zilch to these arrogant elites.

'Because I am a rootless powerhouse!'

Her kind ruled a Duchy in the past and were said to be at the height of their glory, yet aiming higher.

Due to their racial talent, they were able to devour creatures that were as strong as them without much backlash.

Their race's divine path was naturally tuned to the <Devourer> vein.

It was all good until hubris filled their minds.

They started to devour beings from other duchies—the talented, the strong and the clever—all of them were devoured by these humanoid beasts.

The warnings from the kingdom were ignored repeatedly and then, they incurred the wrath of the new crown prince.

King Ferdinand, even when he just became a crown prince did not hold back in his actions.

He not only crushed the entire army of that duchy's ruling race, he personally oversaw the slaughter of their race to apparent extinction.

But Nexa's presence today proved that the race did not just vanish. Few survived.

She wouldn't have been able to set foot in the royal capital usually but being Prince Merov's closest person gave her a lot of authority.

King Ferdinand gained a lot more experience since those days and did not oppose or suppress her. As long as he did not violate any big rules, he just let her be.

It's not that he developed a sympathy for this race, he just didn't think Nexa or the few remnants alive could do anything at this point.

Her becoming a rank 8 despite being from a duchy was already the highest point of her life.

If she didn't have a death wish, she wouldn't seek to make an enemy out of a peak rank 9 who's also the strongest man in the kingdom.

"No matter how nice you try to coat it otherwise, the Prince would be disappointed for your lack of faith in him. But since this is what the faction seeks, then I shall not object." Nexa said in an emotionless tone.

"Then we'll get going."

"Take care, everyone."

"We'll start off in a few hours. Get your work done and prepare for a small trip to the edge of the kingdom."

"If not for the Prince, I would not even glance at such a backward place."

The council was empty in a few seconds, save for the thin ash-colored woman. After double-checking the presence of any beings, she opened a hand mirror and tried to activate it by injecting aura.

"Master! Master, please respond!"

The pleas of the woman echoed between the luminous walls as well as between the luxurious chandelier and the hybrid-diamond tiles.

Just like it had been for the last few weeks, there had been no response. The last proper message she received was two days ago and she instantly judged it was heavily delayed for some reason.

[This boy is stupid! He can't even fight a mere duchy called Zions!

Oh! Orion! We have dangerous enemies!]

And then, there was no more.

"Where are you, Master?"

The invisible signals from the hand mirror smoothly traveled through layers of space, crossing dozens of duchies before stopping at a spaceship.

To be precise, in the training room of the ship, at the red-bladed sword floating beside a young man.

It tried to reach an old soul.