Unsealing Emptiness

The Prince walked back with a sigh. If not for his brother pressing on this matter, he would have never allowed people with blank history to take a single step into the palace estate.

Unlike what rumors suggested, mass recruitment into the royal army wasn’t his idea but his brother’s instead. He thought it smart to make use of the people of his kingdom instead of running the soldiers thin.

And having realized that he couldn’t be everywhere at once, he gave in to the king’s orders. Getting the Dragon Hatchlings was a pleasant surprise that only proved that his brother was right.

The Dragon Hatchlings aside, he was the most concerned about that man named Kumaou and the woman named Rose. More so about the former, since it was more than concerning that they didn’t know about a human cultivator in the Origin Realm wandering about their kingdom.

The existence of Rose wasn’t concerning, but she was suspicious as well. Her heart wavered each time his figure came into her view. Despite that, her face showed a completely different picture. Together with her lack of background, all of this blended into a picture of something dangerous.

He also hadn’t yet figured out where the Dragon Hatchlings had received their cultivation resources.

That is why none of them were allowed inside the main palace all this while.

Now, however, circumstances had changed. They had just received the news of the skirmishes on the southern border and all the people in the Origin Realm were busy with other tasks. They had trustworthy delegates to handle the talks with the neighboring kingdom of the south, but they needed to show their strength as well.

.....

He would have made the trip himself if he wasn’t busy himself.

. . .

As per the Prince’s instructions, Ozul’s group along with Kumao and Rose made their way toward the palace.

Unlike before, they weren’t halted this time. To varying degrees, all of them were elated because of this.

Ozul, who could feel their emotions, was particularly interested in Kumaou’s. He wasn’t a man who would be attracted to things like this.

‘I should keep an eye on both of them,’ he made a mental note to himself. Their reactions in front of the Prince alone were enough for him to do so.

Shortly after they entered, guards clad in silver armor adorned with stripes of expensive-looking blue linens joined them. Without uttering a word, they began to walk ahead of the group, making it known that they had to follow them.

For reasons of their own, everyone kept a keen eye on their surroundings.

Ozul made an effort to memorize the place. He had surveyed almost all of the palace estate leaving the main palace. There wouldn’t necessarily be more chances like this in the future.

The escort guards brought them in front of the throne room before leaving.

Others might have felt confused or at least a bit uncertain about what to do, but Ozul wasn’t one of them. He could feel the presence of that man on par with the Prince behind those doors. There was another man from the Origin Realm inside the room, but that was it.

There was no one else, so it became clear that the doors wouldn’t open on their own. They had to do it by themselves.

Ignoring the grandiosity of the giant room that felt a bit empty, Ozul lead everyone to walk forward until he was in the middle of the room, staring straight at the man who looked almost the same as the Prince if not for his facial hair.

The king stayed silent for a few seconds before bursting into a fit of laughter,

“HAHA! You guys really live up to your name, Hatchlings.”

Ozul had already discussed it with his group, so they weren’t surprised that he knew. On the other hand, Kumaou and Rose shared a similar expression of confusion.

Suddenly, catching something out of the ordinary, Ozul gave Rose a sidelong glance.

‘Heh... Now that is interesting,’ he thought, restraining a smirk to surface on his face.

On the other hand, the king noticed his lack of attention and was now starting to feel the disrespect.

He didn’t mind them not bowing in courtesy, thinking that they might not have such customs from the Realm they came from. However, it seemed to be getting to their heads by now.

Within a blink of an eye, his aura spread throughout the throne room, washing over the group as they were forced onto their knees to prostrate before him

Only Ozul and Kumaou fared better as they held on, with only the upper half of their bodies arched in a bow.

But that too only lasted for two seconds before all that pressure was lifted, giving them room to breathe again. Any more than that, and even Ozul and Kumaou would have dropped on the floor.

The king’s laughter again resounded in the room as he pointed at them, “You both have impressed me, I must admit.”

“To think there were such gems in my kingdom, towed away in the rubble of pebbles!”

He was back to appreciating their strength while his eyes roamed on all of them, “I see you guys have had some fortuitous encounters.”

“We were simply lucky, your majesty,” Ozul adapted to the formal talk as he guessed the lack of manners displeased him.

“They don’t call you Dragon Hatchlings for no reason. Not only your talents, but even your luck is unprecedented it seems. Alright, I will not pry into those matters anymore. We all have our secrets after all,” the king spoke mysteriously, while particularly eyeing Rose and Kumaou.

Their lack of solid background had already reached his ears.

Still, he wasn’t much worried. Before him and the Prince, these people were nothing more than a bunch of flies. For now, he needed to milk this cow in front of him as much as he could.

While Kumaou was important as he was in the Origin Realm and Ozul and his group were Dragon Hatchlings, Rose was nothing special in his eyes. There were many other recruits as well who were in the last stage of Nascent Soul Realm.

The only reason she was picked is that she always hung around the former group. This had created a misunderstanding among others that they had all become good friends.

Unaware of the rising suspicion regarding them, Kumaou and Rose seemed to be wondering what this ‘Dragon Hatchling’ was. It appeared as if they had never heard of this term before. Kumaou was itching to ask, but even he was reserved when in front of someone at the peak of Origin Realm.

“Enough of the small talk, all of you are wondering why you were summoned today. You must have even wondered, at one point, why the Blue Lion Kingdom is suddenly recruiting soldiers.”

The king then released a tired sigh before leaning back on his throne, seemingly a tired old king whose shoulders bore the weight of the entire kingdom.

‘Who are you trying to fool?’ Ozul thought, but his thoughts were shared by all.

This was a man who had killed his own father and other close relatives in his ascension to the throne. This was a man who was considered one of the strongest in this region. A man one step below the realm of transcendence. How could anyone think of him as pitiful?

But they kept their thoughts to themselves. The strong had the luxury to act however they wanted.

After taking that dramatic pause, the king continued, “These are harsh times. As the empires are moving, the waves of politics which were once kept on a leash by those powers are now roaming free.

With how much is happening all around the kingdom, it is clear that someone is behind all of this. Be it one of the neighboring kingdoms or a third party in the shadows, it doesn’t matter. The point is, the soldiers stationed on the borders and inside the capital can’t be sent everywhere. That is why we need you.”

There was an obligatory nod from everyone as they heard his speech.

Meanwhile, Ozul wondered just how Ember pulled off such a thing. He knew how actively she was causing trouble for the Blue Lion Kingdom, but it seemed like she wasn’t giving her best back then.

As he surveyed the palace estate every other night, he knew how the Imperial Prince was almost always out of the estate to deal with one matter or another.

Just a day before, two of the only three Dukes of the kingdom had almost declared war against each other, potentially throwing the whole kingdom into a bubbling mess if not for the Prince intervening before anything happened.

The increasing frown on his face every day was a testament to his growing frustrations at the state of this kingdom. All of a sudden, the whole kingdom seemed like a spoiled child that he personally needed to tend to every time it itched him in the wrong spot.

“In that regard, I have to commend all of your efforts. You have done well in serving the kingdom. But that is also why you all are here today...”

The king described the situation on the southern border and that they only needed to be present while the official delegates did their work.

The reason why he had called for them himself this time was simply that he wanted to see and judge them for himself.

Ozul didn’t care for such things. The only thing he took away from his ramblings was the fact that there were ’empires’ above kingdoms like these.

‘I should look into that after all of this is over.’

After they were excused from the throne room, they made their way out of the palace, again escorted by the guards who appeared just as they left the room.

As that meeting was over, Ozul happily mulled over his discovery in the throne room.

‘That Rose... she knew beforehand...’