Chapter 70.
The first day of the ball, which also served as the Third Princess Arelia’s coming-of-age ceremony, ended safely.
Arelia appeared later than scheduled but was received with applause and congratulations.
The first day’s events were wrapped up with a dance between Arelia and descendants of several high-ranking nobles.
For the second day, as it was Arelia’s birthday, it was decided that the festivities would be hosted inside the palace, following along with tradition.
It was customary for a birthday banquet of the imperial family to be held at a designated place, so the ball being held at the magic school became quite a big issue among the nobles.
Due to William and his subordinate’s magic, most of those who attended the ball were unaware of the night’s incident. There were some who noticed, but they had no choice but to keep quiet because it happened at an imperial event.
Aside from that, students from the magic school, knight school, and civil servant trainees were not invited, as the birthday ball was held at the palace starting from the second day.
Hearing the disappointing news from Arelia, Mrs. Arscilla tried to invite all the boarding students, including Yuria and Alice.
However, as punishment for allowing Arelia to follow Lupin recklessly, Yuria was reprimanded and was not allowed to attend, even though she would have naturally been invited. That made the princess very gloomy.
Upon hearing the news, Prince Zantes visited Arelia to wish her a happy birthday and offer small words of consolation. After a brief conversation, he told her to rest and left her room, heading for the secret conference room.
After walking along the secret passage for a long time, he arrived at the secret conference room to find that all the seats except his and Orphina’s were filled.
"You’re late." The emperor greeted Zantes with a benevolent smile.
"My visit with Arelia delayed me. I apologize."
Seeing as Zantes apologized with his head lowered, the emperor nodded.
"Good job. I’m proud of you for taking care of your siblings."
Zantes’ brows twitched. He knew that the emperor did not go to see Arelia. To be exact, it wasn’t that he didn’t go but couldn’t. And Zantes knew this.
Despite this, he felt his anger rise slightly at the sight of his father using Arelia as bait but said nothing. He didn’t like using his younger sibling as bait in the first place.
Calming down and moving past his apology, he sat down. Then he suddenly noticed a portrait hanging on the wall of the conference room.
"What’s that drawing?”
The painting that Zantes pointed to was a sketch of Denburg that Bloody had an artist paint.
"Oh, that’s a sketch of this guy’s runaway nephew."
"Is that so?" Zantes looked at Denburg’s sketch curiously.
“No, I keep saying it doesn’t look like him at all!”
“Pardon?”
Seeing the strange expression on Zantes’ face, William and Arcanta laughed.
"Would you like to see the sketch that Bloody painted in his likeness?"
Arcanta took out a crumpled paper and showed it to Zantes.
"Woossi! That’s really what he looks like!"
Zantes thought that the sketch he received was so messy that even a child could do better. He pondered how he should react.
"Aren’t we here to report the results of what happened today? Let’s get started." He decided to give up responding to it and avoid the subject altogether.
Ignoring Bloody complaining about how the sketch truly resembled the said person, William pumped his mana into the magic circle on the table.
The magic circle on the table glowed brightly, and a three-dimensional image of the magic school floated up on the table like a hologram.
"I’ll give the report on Operation Anthill."
William began to explain the operation. The plan used Arelia, who had the access cord, as bait to lure the Twelve Zodiacs into the magic school to arrest or kill them.
"The first time we leaked information was to the individual known as ’Leo’ who wears a golden mask. Yet, it was Leo, red-masked Scorpio, and brown-masked Taurus that came to the magic school."
"Scorpio and Taurus? The people whose powers we don’t fully grasp showed up?"
William nodded at Arcanta’s question.
"Yes, although our side leaked information on purpose, it is thought that they have a formidable intelligence network."
William manipulated the magic circle to change the hologram’s video.
Atop the clock tower in the video stood Taurus and Scorpio. Due to the masks, it was not known whether they were talking or not. However, while they were facing each other, Scorpio suddenly disappeared from the video.
"I believe Scorpio used invisibility magic to disappear. After this, Scorpio did not reappear."
"Then what about Taurus?"
In response to Bloody’s question, William manipulated the magic circle again.
In a different video, a slightly balding middle-aged man wearing a deep v-neck was with Taurus.
"It’s the director of the Adventurer’s Guild." Zantes pointed out the middle-aged man in the video.
William nodded. "The director of the Adventurer’s Guild was invited specifically for this operation.”
This was off the record information William provided Zantes, the crown prince. The latter responded with a casual nod as if speaking informally was natural.
In this secret conference room, it was an unwritten rule for its occupants to be unconcerned about status.
"Also, this video has sound," William said.
"How is that possible? Didn’t you say it’s much too difficult to include sound because the range of the video was so wide?" Arcanta queried.
The hologram, which filmed the entire magic school was quite a bit of work to make. However, thanks to William, it was not impossible to include audio.
"Yes, but it’s a different story if someone in the video has a recording device." William acknowledged.
In the video, the director of the Adventurer Guild was carrying a magic recorder. In addition, William and Bloody also had a recorder, so the conversation with Leo was included in the video.
In this video, voices could be heard.
- Hey, boy! Haven’t we seen each other somewhere?
The Adventurer Guild Director licked his lips and questioned Taurus.
- Kuhmm! You, you have the wrong person.
Taurus tried to run away as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.
- Oh my, no way. I’m sure I’ve seen you with an old man wearing a blue mask. Was the old man a "Zodiac"?
- I don’t know anything about that!
Taurus shuddered and backed away.
Bloody and Arcanta fully empathized Taurus’s feelings.
While the director was a good person, he wasn’t someone they wanted to be around. They were sure that the director’s gestures and tone were deliberately controlled to make the other person uncomfortable. They were confident of this.
- Anyways, I’m disappointed, boy! How could you have your hands in such a dirty business like kidnapping?
Arcanta couldn’t figure out if the director said that because he knew that the other was part of an organization hostile to the empire.
- Who... Who’s doing something cowardly like kidnapping? I don’t do anything that goes against my principles! Also, don’t come any closer! If you come even one step closer, I won’t let you off!
Taurus’s voice in the video sounded somewhat frightened.
- Oh my, oh my. You won’t let me off? How naughty!
Everyone watching the video, aside from William, felt pity for Taurus. How unfortunate it was to have gotten caught by someone like that.
The only reason William didn’t pity him was simply that he couldn’t understand the words of the director of Adventurer Guild.
Like a fire truck that quickly barrelled through a red light, the director approached. Disgusted, Taurus exchanged attacks quickly before fleeing and ending the fight.
"Taurus has not been spotted since he ran away."
The emperor stroked his chin. He didn’t believe that Taurus was telling the truth when he said he wouldn’t do anything cowardly like kidnapping. However, there was no need to pay attention to a person who had never been seen again.
"Then that means only Leo took the bait as planned.”
William nodded at the emperor. He then played a hologram video of Leo and his subordinates, explaining what had happened.
As the hologram video was playing, Zantes pointed out a person who looked hazy.
"Why is this person showing up like this?"
When Zantes pointed out this anomaly, William looked perplexed.
"It’s likely he used magic to prevent recognition or had a magic tool with similar effects."
"So you’re saying it’s not possible to know his identity?"
"Not really. According to Arelia, that person introduced himself as Lupin."
"Lupin? Isn’t that the thief who was causing a commotion in the capital until recently? Why would he be there? He couldn’t be a new member of Zodiac, could he?"
William shook his head at Zantes’ question.
"I don’t know. That’s definitely a possibility, but there are some strange points about it.”
"Strange points?”
"Let’s just keep watching for now."
They resumed the video that was paused for the question. As the scene in the video changed, Zantes freaked out.
"Why is he flying around carrying Arelia on his back?"
In the midst of the dangerous attacks, Lupin carried Arelia on his back and did aerial stunts.
William calmed Zantes down and reported everything that had taken place up to the current point to the emperor.
After hearing every report, the emperor groaned and gave his review of the operation.
“It failed in the end.”
It was as the emperor said.
In the first place, this was a large-scale operation involving two battle race combatants recruited to kill the Twelve Zodiacs.
During the previous operation, "Spider Trap," they succeeded in killing as many as two Zodiacs but failed this time.
Fortunately, Arelia was safe, and there were no losses, but a failure was still a failure.
Zantes hit the table, unable to hold back his anger at the emperor’s sentiment.
"Is that all you can say?"
The emperor sighed at the sight of Zantes’ rage.
"Father! As bait, Arelia’s life was in danger! All you can is ‘it failed’ after seeing that video!?”
"Arelia knew this from the beginning."
Zantes vented his anger at the emperor.
"Arelia is Father’s daughter, and yet!"
"Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"
At Arcanta’s call, Zantes realized his mistake. However, his anger did not dissipate despite this realization.
"Father is too cold-hearted!"
He clenched his teeth and stormed out of the secret conference room.
"Crown Prince!"
When Arcanta got up from his seat to try and catch Zantes, the emperor stopped him with a gesture.
"It’s fine. He’s not wrong.”
"Shouldn’t he know how Your Majesty felt regarding this operation?”
The emperor gave a bitter smile.
"Personal feelings are useless to an emperor. He doesn’t have to know."
After saying that, he became startled. Before he knew it, he was telling himself exactly what his father had said to him.
Looking back on his days as Crown Prince, he was no different from Zantes.
He vented his anger at wrongdoings and didn’t hold back his words, but in the end, he still ended up saying things he never thought he would say.
There was a bitter taste in his mouth.
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