Way of the Knights

Chapter 174 - Woes Of A Royalty

---

"You're finally here, Goat." The Crown Prince who's wearing a Dragon mask nodded and received Victor's greetings.

His gaze then landed on Raven who politely had his head down on the side, Victor looked up for a bit and saw that his master was looking at the person he brought.

"Master, this is the child you ask me to invite before. I brought him here since he expressed interest in joining, however he remains uneducated about our purpose."

"Ah! So this is him! You've done well, Goat." Balmung praised as he nodded and inspected Raven.

The gaze of the Crown Prince became somewhat enthusiastic as he looked at him. Raven felt a headache, for some reason he felt like he willingly entered a trap. After a close inspection from the eyes of Balmung, he finally stopped and talked to Victor.

"Leave this child with me. You may go and meet up with Drake, Tiger and Vermillion, they will tell you the purpose of this meeting." Balmung said, Victor then lowered his posture once again and said:

"As you wish, Master." But before he left, he sent a voice transmission towards Raven saying: 'I'll leave, don't worry Master won't do anything to you, I could tell that you could already recognize him so you should know this as well.'

He patted Raven's shoulders and retreated from the room, leaving the two free to discuss everything that they have to. Once he left, there was an eerie silence inside the room past the lively chatter of the crowd outside. It was then that Balmung suddenly waved his hand and a peruse energy covered both of them.

Raven became alert but he didn't move. He inspected what changed in his surroundings and found out that the sound of people chattering outside of the room was cut off, he could feel some kind of barrier around them.

"Cone Silence, a simple formation capable of blocking sounds. Our discussion might be a little too sensitive to be heard by everyone so I activated it." Balmung said as he proceed to sit down on his table. "Relax and make yourself comfortable." He added after sitting down, gesturing Raven to sit down in front of him.

Raven nodded and accepted his invitation, he sat down on the chair in front of Balmung's table and remained silent. Suddenly, Balmung moved and removed his mask.

Then his undisguised face was exposed to Raven. Instantly, a wave of reminiscence swept his mind, countless memories resurfaced and reminded Raven just what kind of man Balmung is.

He heard many things about him during his previous life and the current one. Most of them were from Luna's ramblings, saying that he was a benevolent and kind person but also doesn't back down from a challenge. Though they act like kids whenever they were together, Luna always looked up to her big brother. Both of them rarely saw their father since he's always out, looking for ways to strengthen their kingdom. It was Balmung who stepped forward and shouldered great responsibilities ever since.

At first, due to his youth everyone chided him and didn't place any trust in his decisions, specially after considering that fact that he immediately used his authority to impeach several people as soon as he could. But who would've thought that he had been bidding his time and made dozens of movements without anyone noticing. All of the people he arrested were all spies and collaborators of the Black Curtain Guild.

On the first week since he took charge of the kingdom, not only he severely gutted the operations of the Black Curtain Guild but also silenced everyone who were unsatisfied with him.

Nobody, not even Raven, managed to figure out how he did it. All he knew that his dad placed great trust on Balmung's decisions and worked with him on multiple occasions.

"Not even surprised huh?" Balmung chuckled after seeing Raven's deadpan expression. Nevertheless, he already expected much from him.

'My Dad and Luna placed great trust on you, there's no reason for me to act suspicious about you.'

'I'll trust you as well. I hope that you're everything they said.' Raven shook his head and rubbed his face.

Balmung was surprised by his actions but became stunned when he saw that Raven removed his disguise as well. The young man then stood up and made a respectful gesture towards the prince.

"Vendrick Valorheart, son of Luis and Eva Valorheart, greets you Crown Prince Balmung."

The formal greeting was received by Balmung with a satisfied nod. When Raven sat back down, Balmung felt that Raven was truly comfortable around him now, which is a little shocking for him. Nevertheless, he didn't think too much about it and went ahead to say some important things.

"I believe you go by your nickname, Raven? Correct?"

"Yes, your highness. I prefer people to call me that."

"Very well then. Tell me, Raven. From what you've seen so far, what do you think is the Clan's purpose?"

Raven stared at the eyes of the prince for a while, he then answered the most common thought that he had upon his initial observation.

"I have no idea to what extent just yet, but I figured that everything is for the sake of our home." His answer warranted a nod and smile from the Crown Prince.

"Simple isn't it?" Balmung asked with a faint lightness in his voice. "It's just like what every self-proclaimed righteous organizations' purpose as well. We see a potential harm against our people, we eliminate them. If we see something that will destroy our home, we extinguish them. Very, very simple."

"But you deal with humans." Raven sighed.

"Exactly." Balmung similarly sighed as he massaged his temples, "Not everyone is willing to work for free. Humans seek fulfilment, be it by wealth, self-worth, reputation and all sorts of things. In the end, it's more of a business collaboration instead of unification for the sole purpose of creating a better environment for future generations."

"Even so, I can't blame them for their ignorance." Balmung said with a wry smile. "The walls protecting our kingdom remained strong during the past 100 years. No beast hordes made it through, no plans of Black Curtain Guild did any serious damage, the crime rates are low, and the satisfaction of the people are high. All of these qualities made them relax their guard. Majority of the citizens think that our kingdom is safe from harm, but they absolutely have no clue at what cost."

"How many loyal soldiers unhesitatingly confronted the enemies with no regards to their safety? How many families lost their parents, children, relatives, partners and futures? How much effort one had to place just to remain alert for any possible acts of terrorism from our enemies? Do they even know that the battle was far from being over?"

"Many people think that just because we, the Royal Family, had troves upon troves of treasure that we just lay down on our beds without any care about the well being of others. It's widely known fact that the King is outside of the kingdom, doing his absolute best to search for opportunities to strengthen our kingdom. Everyone adored him for breaking the norm but do these people truly understood the gravity of this situation?"

"The King, who was supposed to sit up on his throne to gaze and guide the kingdom to glory, has to personally get up and do the dirty work since no one else is capable of doing so. Though it pains him to pass the responsibility to his children and leave them, he had no other options, he couldn't find it to himself to let the kingdom rot under his rule. Who knows what kind of dangers he faced outside? Is he even sleeping well? How does he deal with this solitude? What keeps him from returning? When will his loyal subjects realize what he has to endure?"

As Balmung spoke, his words became more and more personal. In the end, Raven could see that his chest was visibly heaving up and down from all of the pent up frustrations and anger he held.

In the end, Raven could only sympathize with him. Even without him saying these things, he already knew about all of this. In fact, this was true reason why he created a grand plan for his friends and himself. Everything that he did, he did it for his home. But unlike Balmung who take a rather secretive and careful approach, Raven's method will be vastly different. Whether it's effective or not, he had no clue just yet. But if it will allow him to leave in peace for his eventual ascension, then all will be worth it.

"I apologize, I made fun of myself in front of you. You know, getting all personal and stuff." Balmung chuckled and scratched his head.

Raven shook his head and replied: "Don't be Your Highness. The responsibilities you hold are far too heavy, it is natural for it to take a toll on you. Before Knights, we are Human first, you built a strong bond with your people here in the clan, I'm sure they won't mind it if you share some of your responsibilities with them."