True King's Ecstasy

The Rapidclaw kingdom has taken a gloomy nature because of the constant war, they are facing right now. People are being taxed again and again, and young men in the kingdom are sent to war.

After escaping from the camp and coming to ask for reinforcement, Mason quickly headed to the capital. He wanted to report this post himself before the nobles and king hear it from someone else. Mason knew he will have to face some kind of punishment for losing against rebels, he just didn't want it to affect his life or his family.

He entered the capital after showing his noble insignia, they had the privilege of entering and exiting the capital without paying any sum of money, especially a duke like Mason.

On his way, he thought about adventurers,

"Why didn't they support us? even though I promised to pay them a food sum of money," He thought about entering the guild for a minute but, since he was in a pressing business Mason decided to head straight to the castle.

On his way, he met many people who gave him surprised eyes like officials and some soldiers, who knew that he was supposed to be on the war front.

"Let me meet the king, This is an emergency," He requested looking at the castle guards who were patrolling the area. Unlike normal guards or soldiers, they were pretty high level as well as they had some authority.

They easily identified him as it was their duty to remember the noble to not disrespect them in any way,

"Sir Duke, I'm really sorry but without prior arrangement, even you can't talk with the king," He said making Mason even angrier.

"Tsk~ This is an emergency, I want to meet him," Mason was throwing a tantrum outside but suddenly the door to the private meeting room opened and one of the guards came out.

He whispered something to the castle guards,

"Duke Mason, his highness is expecting you," His whole demeanour changed when he got the news.

Mason quickly entered the room without thinking twice,

"Your highness, Duke Mason reporting here," He bowed showing respect to Granbell.

"Mason, why are you here? Didn't I send you to deal with those rebels?" Granbell didn't give him a greeting for anything as he quickly got onto the subject.

"It- it's we I experienced a quick problem, your highness," He couldn't even talk properly as he felt guilty.

"Hoh~ what problem?" Surprisingly Granbell was looking at him calmly expecting answers from him.

"Rebels were stronger than we expected, your highness and those adventurers didn't do their job properly so I had to face a crushing defeat, my lord,"

"I humbly ask for more reinforcement to finish those damn rebels," Mason noticed something was strange but still he had no choice but to continue what he was doing.

"Reinforcement? Now, where do we have such things? Don't you know we are already at war with the empire?" Granbell asked making him go silent for a minute.

"My lord!" Granbell and Mason both heard a voice which was familiar to both of them.

"Come in, Ivan," Granbell told looking at the man in front of the door.

Mason felt his face going pale looking at him, he was so angry seeing Ivan,

"Damn you, adventurers," He shouted making guards conscious of him. They tried to restrain him but Granbell suddenly told them to back up.

Ivan didn't get intimated by his actions as he walked into the room,

"Mason, I'm disappointed in you," Granbell said making Mason's eyes open wide and look at him.

"Why?" He didn't know what they were talking about.

"Why! You ask why! You can't defeat some damn rebels with that big army even after adventurers helped you to destroy their walls and not only that just because you want full glory you asked them to go back as their work is over," Granbell suddenly exploded making him scared of him.

"But I don't ask them to go back," He said but, Granbell didn't believe him.

"You're still lying, I had my spies on your rank, they told me everything and Ivan here reported to me everything too, you're telling me all of them are lying?"

Mason didn't know what to tell him as part of what he said was true. Since he wanted the full glory of the battle he didn't let adventurers do anything but he didn't ask them to return back.

"Guards! Grab this fool! Put him in prison until I give my decision," Granbell ordered making two guards grab Mason by his hands.

"Let me go! Your Highness, I ask for forgiveness for losing the war but, I didn't ask anyone to retreat from the battle, they are framing me," He shouted while being grabbed by the guards.

"Take him out!" Granbell said his last words to him.

Ivan looked at the whole scene with interest. He didn't think that things would turn this way. Even if he's caught lying to the king he won't be able to do a thing to him except not allow him to enter the kingdom again.

The guild was a prestigious organization that had a lot of influence so nobody was foolish enough to go against them.

"Your highness, I'm really sorry about what happened," Ivan just apologized but it didn't have any meaning to it.

Granbell looked at him, he knew this man was hiding something from them and something that even his spies couldn't get their hands on, if it wasn't for him being suspicious of this whole ordeal he would have beheaded Mason for his error instead of putting him in a prison,

"It's okay, guild master, you can go now, thank you for coming to witness this,"

Both of them gave their official farewell and went on their way. Ivan was still thinking about the power Velian showed to him. He wanted to recruit him to the guild as soon as possible,

"I'm taking a huge risk for you, kid," He thought while going back to the guild. He paid all the adventurers who participated in this war with his own money so they won't grumble about it.

Granbell sent a messenger to the battlefield near the Cantrell territory asking them to abort the campaign and come back but, he didn't know that it was too late for that.