Cab Section Hallway


    Royal Pce, Gerfast


    Great Western Empire


    March 21st


    Year 1052


    A fairly tall middle-aged man with dark hair and grey eyes, dressed in an official ''Full Dress'' court uniform, strode across the hallway with his jacket flowing in the wind.


    On his left chest pocket, was an embroidered crest of two crossed swords oveid by a roaring lion head, one that anyone qualified to be in the castle definitely recognized.


    Hence the reason why everyone he passed stopped their activities and bowed to him as he walked down the hallway.


    Trailing a few metres behind him, was a younger man with blonde hair and brown eyes. He had a cold expression on his face, that somehow looked picturesque when taking the blue knight uniform he had on.


    Like the man in front of him, he had a simr crest embroidered on his chest pocket, with the same crest printed on the sheath of the sword on his waist.


    As one of the very few existences who were permitted to hold a weapon in this part of the royal castle beside the guards, he was naturally a man of high standing and authority.


    He also had people greeting him respectfully as the two men walked down towards the door at the end of the hallway.


    When they got far, a few of the maids who were cleaning, huddled together and began speaking among themselves.


    "Just what is happening today?


    First, it was the royal family, then the chief court mage, and now the Prime Minister and Sir Fourth Sword are going in there."


    "Hopefully, it isn''t something bad."


    "Ye-"


    "GET BACK TO WORK!"


    """Yes Ma''am!"""


    Ignoring the tter behind them, the two men walked into therge double doors that were opened for them by the knights standing guard, entering into arge cab room that had a round brown mahogany table at the centre.


    It was surrounded by nine chairs, six of which were upied by other people, with thest one having a magic projection artifact atop it.


    The two men greeted the other people in the room as they walked to two of the open chairs and took their seats, with their gazes going towards the youngest person in the room who was currently spinning around on her luxurious swivel chair.


    Perhaps sensing their gazes, the person stopped, taking off the face towel that covered the upper half of her face to reveal a pair of striking blue eyes that fit perfectly on her beautiful face.


    "Hmm? Seems Like you''re all here.


    Sir Jenson, turn on the magic projector and connect to the Duke, please."


    As she spoke, golden lines appeared in her blue pupils, intricately connecting together to form a symbol that all the people present in the room were familiar with.


    She ignored the slight surprise of the others who just discovered she could hide said symbol, yawning lightly as she pulled out a thick opened envelope from her pocket.


    A few momentster, one of the bulbs on the magic projector ced on the only chair not upied by a person, glowed with a green light, followed by the projected hologram image of a man''s upper body appearing in the air.


    The man was one with a muscr, probably tall frame, with sharp schrly facial features and wine-red hair that had a strand hanging over his forehead.


    He was wearing a ck cored shirt, with the first two buttons off and the jacket of a court uniform draped loosely on his shoulders.


    The man was seated on a luxurious cushion chair, with his elbow ced on the armrest and his chin propped up on his hand.


    "Nice to see you, Duke of Cheverton."


    The blue-eyed girl, Princess of the Great Western Empire, Laurene Hayes, called out to the man, who nodded before responding with a greeting of his own.


    "Good to see you too, Your Highness."


    A small smile appeared on Laurene''s face as she nced at the faces of all the people present in the room. She then took a deep breath before speaking.


    "Thank you all for taking out time from your busy schedules toe here today.


    To not waste our time anymore, I''m gonna go straight to the point."


    She ced the envelope in her hands on the table before continuing.


    "I believe everyone here present should be aware of my little adventure to the Nepte Province, where I conveniently happened toe across one of the ruins holding information about the dimensional rifts you all have been heavily involved in researching and how I just so happened to be able to unlock that particr Ruin without triggering its very dangerous defensive systems.


    A bit too many coincidences for just one day, though."


    She shrugged her shoulders as she spoke thest part of her statement, to which one of the personages in attendance, the Great Western Empire''s Emperor, replied.


    "Yes, and we all know that you didn''t just ''happen'' toe across that Ruin.


    Carry on."


    The young princess'' lips twisted into a pout, a moment before she turned around to one of the other men seated at the table.


    The rather attractive ck-eyed man had a masculine, sightly bulky muscr build, with long legs that put his height at a bit over two metres.


    He had short water-blue hair, tinged with grey strands, on both his head and on his chin, with slightly broad shoulders and thick forearms that looked capable of swinging any sword with ease.


    "Sir Bowthe. You have been briefed about the details, yes?"


    The man, the Second of the Great Western Empire''s Ten Great Swordsmen, Luke Bowthe, nodded in affirmation, an action that was mirrored by Laurene before the young girl picked up the envelope on the table and pulled out a very long letter from it.


    "Good. So basically, all these ''Ruins'' you''ve been researching for information about the dimensional rifts, are actually bases of operations belonging to the ''Seven Heroes''.


    Hence the reason why you guys could barely have any ess to more than half of them, and why grandpa''s attempt to forcefully open one of them cost the lives of five knight toons and an entire team of researchers.


    Basically, any one of these ''ruins'' that has more of one hero''s crest than the other, is definitely a ''private base'' and trying to forcefully open them would have severe consequences, ranging from just five toons getting destroyed to the entire Nepte Province being wiped off the map.


    That''s a bit over two square kilometres, definitely gonna be a disaster if that happens."