Chapter 39: Banquet Part 4
A week had passed since the birthday celebrations began in the palace and across the capital of Arthenburg, where everyone from children to the elderly rejoiced in honor of the Crown Prince, who had saved the capital from the rebel forces and the dreaded Kalian Empire, a power infamous across the continent for enslaving and oppressing its people, while the nobility of the realm delighted in the feasts and banquets held within the palace walls.
For six days, I had kept the Eastern Faction drunk on vintage wine, gambling, and false promises, and now the room was filled with nothing but the most corrupt and treacherous parasites the Leo Principality had to offer.
The useful administrators and loyalists were nowhere to be seen, having been safely sequestered in the West Wing under the guard of my trusted knights, while the men and women in this room were far too blinded by their own greed to notice their absence.
As promised, I spent the hour leading up to midnight granting the first and final dances to Lady Octavia Orientis.
"The capital has never looked so magnificent, Your Highness."
"My father believes this festival marks the beginning of a glorious new dynasty. One where the East and the Crown are... intimately connected."
"Tonight will indeed mark a permanent shift in the Principality's history. Of that, I assure you, Lady Octavia."
Dancing, I glanced over her shoulder and saw Marquis Orientis standing near the edge of the dance floor, raising his goblet toward me with a smug, victorious grin, looking down at me as a naive, malleable child he believed he had conquered without drawing a single sword, and I answered with a polite, deferential nod.
11:55 PM.
"Excuse me, Lady Octavia,"
I said, stepping back and kissing the back of her hand.
"The hour approaches. I must prepare for my final birthday address to the court."
"Your words have me in eager anticipation, my Prince," she said with a deep curtsy.
I turned away from her and the Marquis and walked straight through the crowd of bowing, flattering nobles. Then I went up the wide marble stairs and stopped at the top, where I could look down over the whole ballroom.
Hundreds of lords, barons, and their heirs, laughing, drinking, and scheming.
11:58 PM.
I let out a slow, steady breath as the mask I had worn for the past week began to fade, replaced by the firm authority of a ruler.
11:59 PM.
I raised my right hand.
From the balcony, the conductor caught my signal, and the grand orchestra's joyful music stopped at once, throwing the massive hall into silence. Conversations below died out, goblets were lowered, and confused nobles looked up toward the balcony, with Lady Octavia frowning and Marquis Orientis puffing out his chest, no doubt expecting me to announce his daughter as my future bride, but instead a dreadful, mechanical groan echoed through the palace walls.
SCREEECH—THOOM!
The huge mithril-reinforced doors of the grand ballroom slammed shut with such force that the chandeliers shook, and a moment later the harsh, unmistakable clack-clack-clack of steel bars locking from the outside rang through the room.
All the exits to the outside were sealed.
"What is the meaning of this?" Marquis Orientis demanded. He looked around, suddenly realizing that the ceremonial royal guards usually posted by the doors were gone. For nobles, they could not bring guards inside the inner palace; only ceremonial swords were allowed according to the rules. Only royal guards were supposed to protect the whole royal palace. Also, they could never leave the sovereign of the nation alone, even if they were ceremonial and without real power. The situation was very strange for nobles who could think rationally, especially since the Crown Prince was here alone without the protection of the Royal Guard, meaning he was left unguarded.
"The meaning, Marquis,"
"is that the party is over."
From the dark corners, behind the thick velvet curtains, and from the upper balconies, figures slowly stepped out of the shadows. Dozens of elite assassins from the Venator Order appeared in the light, wearing black steel armor, holding loaded one-shot rifles and poisoned daggers ready to use.
Behind me on the landing, Vane appeared from the darkness. Beside him stood Vice-Captain Leontar. He drew his longsword, spreading a frightening Rank 7 martial aura as a crimson light burst from the blade over the trapped nobles.
Panic rippled through the crowd. Women screamed, backing away from the armed Venators. The men instinctively reached for the ceremonial swords at their hips, only to realize they were vastly outnumbered and entirely outclassed.
"Prince Alexius!"
"Have you gone mad?! Open these doors at once! You are threatening the lives of the nobility!"
"You have thirty thousand disorganized mercenaries waiting in the hills, Orientis,"
"Mercenaries you planned to pay using the Kham Beastkin Horde to raid my capital's supply lines., although they were thoroughly destroyed by my Royal Army"
Orientis froze. The color instantly drained from his face. "I... I do not know what you are speaking of—"
Kham Beastkins were famous for their physical strength. Although many of them were fragmented into tribes and had no unified authority, they worked as mercenaries for survival and were feared across the entire continent. Even the Kalian Empire was reluctant to invade their land. Marquis Orientis's plan was to raid the supply lines first if negotiations with the Crown for power-sharing broke down, and then even conquer the capital itself, forcing the Crown to surrender. He had information that the Crown had sent the main army to help the Federation of Libertas, although he did not know the reason for this aid. He regarded it as secret assistance from the Federation in exchange for being appointed Governor of the future autonomous zone of Leo under their rule. He thought it was a gift. But to be annihilated by the Royal Army, which he had gathered along with mercenaries bought with all the fortune he had collected and through his connections within the Federation from the Kham Plain, was beyond his understanding. He did not know what magic the Prince had used. Yes, he did not know of the existence of the guns and Earthshakers, since he had only a weak information-gathering network.
I reached into the inner pocket of my coat, pulled out a thick stack of parchment marked with the wax seal of the Federation of Libertas, and tossed it over the railing, letting the heavy letters flutter down across the polished marble floor at the Marquis's feet.
"A formal request to join the Federation of Libertas as an autonomous zone,"
"In exchange for funding the late Duke Vetus's rebellion, granting them 50 years of tax exemption for resource extraction, and offering the capital city of Leo as the main base to the Federation upon my execution."
I placed my hands on the marble railing and leaned forward, no longer needing the System's interface to see the pure terror spreading across the faces of the men below.
"I have spent the last six days watching you, drinking my finest wine, dancing in my halls, laughing and mocking me behind my back. I endured it for six days, pretending to be friendly with lots of you rotten bastards."
"You are guilty of high treason against the Crown. All of you."
"You cannot do this!" Count Morvan screamed from the crowd as he pulled out a rapier with a shaking hand.
"We are the blood of the Principality! We are the nobility!"
"Not anymore,"
I gave a single nod to Vice-Captain Leontar.
"Execute the traitors."
(continue.....)