A cold wind swept through the lush treetops, brushed against the thick brown trunks, and circled through the courtyard before the banquet hall.
Several armored knights rode their horses through the courtyard, patrolling vigilantly. The sound of hooves echoed through the quiet night.
The First Prince secretly avoided everyone's gaze and quickly slipped into a hidden corner of the banquet hall.
Only then did he dare speak quietly with Viktor.
"So, what is it you wanted to tell me?"
Viktor narrowed his eyes and examined the First Prince in his golden formal attire before asking.
"There are some things that aren't suitable to discuss in front of Miss Liya, nor should other nobles hear them."
The First Prince looked at Viktor's concerns and thought for a long time before continuing, "I feel that the disturbances in the southern rifts and the flood of monsters must have some hidden cause behind them."
The First Prince had thought carefully before deciding to reveal this information to Viktor.
Ever since returning to the royal capital, this matter had lingered in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt.
Originally, the situation in the Empire's south had been stable. Adventurers and monsters existed in a delicate balance.
But when exactly had the problem started?
The First Prince fell into thought.
If he had to find a starting point, it was probably around the time Viktor took the Princess to the Kingdom.
Soon after, news arrived in the royal capital that Princess Aurelian had been personally designated by Oberli as the heir to the imperial throne.
In fact, the stability of the southern monster rifts was extremely important to the Empire.
Not only did they provide livelihoods for adventurers in the south, but they also guaranteed the security of the Empire's southern border.
These adventurers viewed every monster emerging from the rifts as wealth itself and were willing to risk their lives for generous rewards.
At that stage, the royal family interfered very little with the rifts, allowing adventurers to divide the profits freely.
At that time, adventurer satisfaction was undoubtedly at its highest.
Because they could make a fortune there.
But as time passed, both the number and strength of the monsters inside the rifts continued to increase.
Eventually, adventurers alone could no longer handle them.
The Empire was forced to send troops to the southern border and strengthen control over the monster rifts.
Even after the military intervened, the sheer number of monsters meant adventurers could still earn considerable profits.
However, while adventurers did not have many objections to the military's presence, a clear division began to appear among them.
The monsters became stronger and harder to deal with.
As a result, some adventurers chose to join or establish guilds.
Joining a guild not only guaranteed their safety, but compared to lone adventurers, although the rewards were not necessarily higher, they were far more stable.
Even so, the southern situation had originally maintained a certain level of stability.
But now, monsters were pouring continuously from the rifts. No matter how hard adventurers tried, they could no longer push deep into them.
Monsters gathered in large groups outside the rifts. Their frenzied attacks constantly battered the solid defensive lines established by the military along the southern border.
The adventurers had no choice but to fight alongside the military and defend the front line together.
But the question now was, 'When exactly had the original balance been lost?'
Before the monster rifts erupted into chaos, adventurers and the military still maintained a tacit order.
Adventurers ventured into the rifts and cleared out most of the monsters, while the military guarded the front lines and prevented monsters from spreading at the edges.
Now, however, the situation had become complicated.
Only by deploying large numbers of main forces could the south remain stable.
If one were to ask adventurers how satisfied they were with the south now, the answer would undoubtedly be complete dissatisfaction.
They had come here without any noble cause in mind and had never considered protecting the southern population.
They were here purely because it paid well.
But now, even making money had become difficult.
The rewards from the battlefield were far less than what they had once earned by venturing into the rifts.
Realizing this, the First Prince stroked his chin and said to Viktor while thinking, "So I suspect someone deliberately expanded the monster rifts, causing the current situation that's nearly impossible to defend."
Viktor opened his eyes and stared at him.
"Do you already have a suspect?"
The First Prince lowered his head. His brows were tightly furrowed, and a trace of heaviness and pain flashed through his eyes.
He did not want to easily voice the suspicion in his heart, because that name represented a huge conflict and great pain for him.
But in the end, he slowly said, "The only person I can think of is Owiser."
A month ago, although monsters from the lower layers of the rifts had begun moving upward, causing the upper-layer monsters to become more numerous and stronger, the situation had still been controllable with the military present.
However, this also caused some adventurers' incomes to drop sharply.
The First Prince felt that this might have intensified the adventurers' dissatisfaction with the military, allowing resentment to gradually build up.
After all, they had come south to make money, and now they could no longer do so.
But the military's first priority was protecting the humans living in the south.
To maintain the southern front and ensure civilian safety, the military had no choice but to act this way.
Yet ever since the Second Prince arrived in the south and stormed off after angrily berating everyone, the number of monsters pouring from the rifts had increased dramatically not long afterward.
Well, from the adventurers' perspective, this should have been great.
As long as they wanted to kill monsters, there would always be monsters to kill.
Making a fortune was no longer an impossible dream.
But having the chance to earn money didn't mean having the chance to spend it.
There were simply too many monsters.
Once weaker adventurers stepped onto the battlefield, they often had no chance of returning.
Their flesh and blood remained forever on the front lines.
Their corpses littered the battlefield, each with a different gruesome end.
As the number of adventurers decreased, the endless stream of monsters made defending the southern front increasingly difficult.
Looking back now, if someone really had expanded the monster rifts, what would their motive have been?
The answer should be jealousy.
Because the adventurers earning less money were jealous of their peers who made fortunes every day.
They hated those who continued making huge profits amid the chaos while they themselves couldn't even get scraps.
If there were more monsters, wouldn't everyone be equal?
And so the monster rifts were maliciously pried open because of unequal interests.
But no one thought that more monsters would affect more than just profits.
Whether one could earn money or not also depended on one's own abilities.
In the past, everyone could make a fortune in the south.
But now, because of the malicious interference of some weak yet jealous adventurers, everyone had fallen into trouble.
At this point, even retreating to save one's life had become a major challenge.
Whenever Albany thought of the Second Prince, a sharp sensation spread through his entire body.
The jealousy Owiser carried disgusted him beyond words.
It was like a foul-smelling swamp sitting right before him, enough to make him vomit.
With such deep jealousy, it wasn't impossible for the Second Prince to have influenced the adventurers in the south.
Albany struggled internally for a long time before raising his head and speaking seriously to Viktor.
"Count Viktor, you must stay on guard against Owiser."
"I don't know what's happened to him, but his 'jealousy' may very well be the key to all of this."
A trace of concern appeared in Albany's eyes.
After hearing him out, Viktor remained silent for a moment, seemingly sorting through the information in his mind.
After a while, he asked in a deep voice, "In other words, the Second Prince never came back at all?"
Albany froze slightly and searched his memories.
Albany froze slightly as his mind rapidly searched through his memories.
Indeed, after news spread that the elves and the Empire had established diplomatic relations, reports had claimed that the Second Prince had hurriedly left the south and was preparing to return to the royal capital.
The First Prince had always worried about what Owiser might do in the south.
When he heard Owiser was about to return to the royal capital, he had finally relaxed somewhat.
Only after the southern war stabilized did he choose to return as well.
But looking at it now, Owiser had never returned.
Because from beginning to end, he had received no news about Owiser.
As this realization struck him, Albany's face filled with horror, and a terrible feeling rose in his heart.
Viktor's calm voice sounded again, "If things are really as you say, then I think it's already too late."
"Wha..."
The First Prince widened his eyes and was about to speak.
Suddenly, thunderous hoofbeats rang out from outside the banquet hall.
A burst of sharp, chaotic footsteps rolled in from the distance like thunder.
A bronze-colored figure raced across the ground straight toward the banquet hall.
The knights saw the approaching rider and immediately drew their weapons, preparing to stop him.
Gwen's pupils shrank as she quickly identified the rider.
"He's an Imperial soldier. No need to stop him."
The knights finally came back to their senses and put away their weapons, staring in shock.
It really was an Imperial soldier.
But weren't Imperial soldiers supposed to remain stationed at the border year-round?
Feeling a gust of wind rush past them, the knights could only watch helplessly as he rode straight into the banquet hall.
The horse's hooves struck the golden ground with thunderous explosions. It crossed the red carpet, climbed the steps, and charged into the golden forest.
The officer pulled on the reins.
The horse reared onto its hind legs and let out a long neigh.
The nobles were terrified.
They scattered in every direction, stumbling to the ground and pressing themselves against the walls, trembling.
Their eyes were filled with shock and confusion.
Even the elves were startled and crowded into the gathering nobles, nervously staring at the heavily panting horse.
The officer had already leapt off.
The moment he dismounted, the horse collapsed to the ground, foam spilling from its mouth.
He hurried forward on foot and ran toward one area of the banquet hall.
The First Prince saw everything and stared blankly at the officer who had burst in.
Covered in wounds, the man stumbled and crawled his way to the First Prince's side.
"Your Highness, First Prince!!!"
"The southern front... has fallen!"
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