The Extra of The Lunerra

At King Faelan's request, I gave him a very brief summary of everything I suspected about Saligia.

Just a few sentences were enough for him to grasp the whole situation, to come to a final conclusion with me. And so it was. After my last word, he stretched slightly, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

Only a few minutes had passed when he said his next words.

"Yes, there are guards in the palace who are acting abnormally."

He opened his eyes again after that. The pale yellow of his eyes had been replaced by the golden yellow of before. But, this time, there was no pressure in the corridor, no one was having trouble breathing or standing.

Still, when he turned toward me, I couldn't help stretching slightly, straightening up.

"Well done and thank you. If you hadn't realized this... it might have been too late."

He glanced briefly behind me, in Adrian's direction. Then he sighed lightly. Continue your adventure at My Virtual Library Empire

"First, let's get Saligia out of the palace. Then... immediately this evening, hold the meeting that will resolve the Laute matter. No need to drag it out any longer."

He turned slowly, a golden glow slowly appearing around him as he moved calmly along the corridor.

"Go back to your room and don't be worried about Saligia. You don't have to deal with anything. As the responsible person here, I will take care of everything."

It was then that he turned the corner, leaving only the fading sound of his footsteps, one by one. And when they disappeared completely... a squad of guards appeared in front of us from around the corner. Not even waiting for us to react, they knelt down as they saw us. The foremost of them, the one wearing a different kind of armor to the others, shouted quickly.

"We apologize for the inconvenience you have been put through! Please return to your room and let us know if you have any requests! Any problems will be resolved as soon as possible!"

I glanced at the kneeling guards, then turned away with a sigh.

Adrian and Julian... they were literally like a deer caught in the headlights. They were both looking at me and the guards kneeling in front of us as if they didn't quite understand what was going on.

And they actually did not.

"Let's go inside like they said. I don't think there will be any more problems."

And we did that.

Our guards were also as confused as they were. But when I asked them to don't make a big deal out of it, they complied as if I had given them an order.

Finally, when our door closed... Alysia was looking at us blankly.

"What... just happened?"

She wasn't looking at Adrian and Julian, though. They weren't doing themselves any favors at the moment. They were both waiting for an answer, as she was.

"I simply realized that Saligia was up to something, that's all."

"Saligia?"

She paused for a moment, as if she couldn't quite remember the word and what it meant. But then her brow furrowed.

"That terrorist organization?"

"Yes. But we don't have to worry about that right now. King Faelan himself has taken matters into his own hands, after all. I don't think he's going to let us do anything anyway."

I slowly made my way to the empty armchair in the center of the living room and let myself sink into it.

"No matter how intense things get, there is no one more powerful than him right now."

But then I stumbled over my own words, sighing slightly.

"Though it would be more accurate to say that the number of people more powerful than him on the planet can be counted on the fingers of one hand."

I ran my eyes over the trio after what I had said. And that's how I saw that their gaze on me hadn't changed a bit.

Well, I still can't explain the prince's situation to them... I mean, I can't really explain it.

But I don't even think that's what we should be focusing on.

"We'll probably go back to Cevilian tomorrow. So... let's talk about the last meeting we'll have today, shall we?"

*******

He wasn't wrong.

No, far from being wrong... he was spot on.

Aiden Tenebra was exactly correct.

After all, I only needed to go through the entire security system and study the movements of the guards to realize that Saligia had been moving stealthily, slowly, for days.

Which... actually... wasn't even necessary.

After the chaos in front of Aiden Tenebra's and the Laute's quarters, they must have realized that something was wrong with their plan. Because instead of being sneaky, they chose to be direct, to speed up whatever they were going to do, not caring about being exposed.

Inside the palace, the chaos was like nothing it had ever seen in all its time on Lunerra.

Soldiers were fighting each other in certain positions. There were people trying to break into important storerooms, trying to attack all the records in the archives.

They were trying to do as much damage as they could the moment their plans fell apart.

But they had one problem.

No matter how successful Saligia was in infiltrating us... they avoided the oldest and most powerful people as much as possible because they knew they were also the closest to the royal bloodline. And that made them weak against Eshaware's main force, no matter how numerous they were.

On top of that, they were caught off guard. Trapped and surrounded by men many times their strength.

There was nothing they could do.

So, even for a while, the palace was a place of great chaos and disorder. But it was over in minutes just as it had begun.

The storerooms and archives, almost everything of value, were preserved with almost zero damage.

There were casualties and some damages over here and there, of course, but no one succeeded in escaping from the palace. They were all captured, one by one, and the palace dungeons held more prisoners than it had ever seen before.

When, at last, calm and silence reigned over the palace again, as if it was all over...

"What do you think I should do?"

I asked one of the two waiting in front of me a question.

He was a little... uncomfortable, I could see it in his every movement. He was very different from before, from the person he used to be. And this... was a clear detail of how much he had been pretending, acting all his life.

Yet it was not all this, but the presence and demeanor of the second person next to him that caused this discomfort.

Alith took a deep breath, crossed his arms, and looked thoughtful.

"Let me be clear, Your Majesty. Saligia's main goal has never been an 'attack', at least not for the palace. They wanted to use the presence of the dark elves to slowly drag the kingdom into a desperate situation. And once I was on the throne... they would use me to bring Eshaware under their complete control. So, while the palace was a place where they tried to keep a great deal of surveillance, it was never a place where they wanted to try great things. It wasn't worth the risk, not when everything was going perfectly, even if slowly, for them."

With every word he said, the person next to him, his sister, Phloria, stiffened even more. The truth she had learned about her brother... she hadn't yet digested it, hadn't even tried to accept it.

She was still in favor of keeping Alith in the dungeon. She found it hard to see him as a 'person'. Even if she didn't put it into words, it wasn't hard to understand what she was thinking.

Still, she was silent, for now.

It was just... the looks she gave Alith were quite piercing.

Yet Alith ignored them as much as possible.

"That's why I think that whatever they've been trying for the last week, whatever they've been preparing, they haven't had enough time because it's been interrupted now. So... we have nothing to worry about, at least as long as we clear the palace of their presence as much as possible."

His eyes sharpened slightly, fixing on me.

"Saligia... is a threat that should not be underestimated in any way, and I also think that all the best precautions should be taken from now on. They are arguably even more important than the dark elves themselves."

I certainly had no intention of underestimating them when they had managed to break into the palace, to lay their hands on a member of the royal bloodline, to take control of such a large part of the guards.

Still... I wasn't about to ignore the words of someone who had experienced everything first-hand for so long, so I buried the thought in my consciousness that I would take them even more seriously than I do now.

And then... I took a deep breath.

"We will interrogate everyone in the palace, from the most authorized to the least authorized, even those we trust. Only those with absolute loyalty and devotion will remain, no matter how few they are. After that, everyone who will be admitted into the palace will be checked more than once for possible links to Saligia or dark elves. Anyone found to have any connection with Saligia will be executed. Do any of you have any objections?"

Alith was already asking for it, so I didn't even look at him. I just... kept my eyes on Phloria.

Instead of giving a vocal answer, she just nodded her head. No matter how much she didn't trust Alith, she agreed with my decision.

"Good."

And so... there was not much more to talk about Saligia today.

There was just the last meeting in a few hours.

Not much to think about, though. I've already come to a decision. And frankly, I have no desire to keep the four of them here with all the trouble we're having at the palace. It is best that they return to their kingdom as quickly as possible... and we deal with our own problems.

*******

The palace, as the elves call this strange building, was largely silent after the commotion that had taken place just outside our room.

I knew quite a lot about what had happened through the spirits, though. At the same time... I had a short communication with Alith in the same way.

So I knew very well that the Saligia issue was largely resolved, that their threats were over before they could even begin.

It was just...

"Golden tears have appeared everywhere!"

"The king of the elves knocked out all the guards with bindings from the rips!"

"It was like a one-sided massacre! No one died, though."

The spirits are overwhelmed by King Faelan's magic. They go on and on about how scared, excited, or how mesmerized they are...

Alith must have the same magic. Phloria too. Did they never see them doing the same thing or something similar?

Or... was the king on a completely different level, causing an effect so great that it made their heads spin?

Not surprising, if the latter is the case.

Still, spirits are really hard to deal with...