Emperor's Reckoning

Leyna grabbed both of Luna's shoulders with veins popping out of her hands. Her mouth twitched as she asked, "What do you mean missing? He is not leaving you...RIGHT?!"

Luna smiled wryly at her protective mother before she gently clasped her hands. She shook her head, as she said, "No he is not leaving me, mom."

Hearing her words, Leyna let out a sigh of relief. She was more worried about Luna's happiness rather than the face of the queen of the kingdom she and her husband ruled.

Luna took a sit before Fenrir suddenly leaped and landed on top of Leyna's breast to the latter's surprise. His tail wiggled happily before he closed his eyes and rest with a smile. Luna was sitting in front of the mirror before she remembered a certain episode that eventually led their relationship toward the current stage. 

Her face was blushing red as she remembered then. She adjusted a strain of her hair and put it behind her earlobe. Her face grinned as she looked at her face in front of the mirror.

Leyna shook her head, as she kept on rubbing Fenrir's luscious back fur. 

"So, my daughter, what are you going to do now?" asked Leyna with a smile.

"Mother," muttered Luna.

Leyna raised her eyebrows, it was unusual for her to be called formally when they were not in public.

"Lyon, he, an attempt of murder was made against him post the competition."

Leyne furrowed her eyebrows, "Then, what happened?"

Luna smiled with a hint of pride in her tone as she said, "Of course, going by the tradition, the winner usually died in an 'accident' however, the room where he was last seen was quite bloody but no corpse was visible. The experts managed to sniff a hint of Returning Jade Stone to be used in that place. Two, to be exact."

"Anything can happen mother, but by his usual antics, he might incite the wrath of powerful cultivators by now or maybe a leader of some sort."

Leyna raised one of her eyebrows, "What you are saying is?"

Luna stood up before she faced her mother, "I want to ask you as the Princess of the Phantera Kingdom and as your daughter also, if Lyon was ever in a trouble, I will gladly sacrifice my life to save him."

Leyna quickly put her hand on top of her head rubbing it like when she was a child, "You have grown a lot huh, one blink of an eye and you are already a woman right under my nose."

Luna could only smile wryly against her mother.

"But no matter, the time it takes for someone to grow to differ for each one. If you believe in him that much, then you are doing the right thing. All children must go with their loved ones eventually, though I'm obviously not prepared or will never be, I need to face it one day."

Luna broke down in tears before she hugged her tightly. 

"Don't worry mom, in the meantime, I will stay here and be with you."

Leyna combed her hair with her fingers as she muttered, "You can stay here as long as you like."

"But..." muttered Leyna.

"But?"

"You need to give me a grandchild or two, or even five!"

"Eh....?!?!"

Leyna turned around as she held both of her cheeks, "I mean..."

She closed her eyes as she imagined the situation in front of Luna's squinting eyes. Bubbles coming out of her head as the scene of her tending five toddlers at once was in place. Some of them were running around the palace breaking things while one was sit down crying a river and the other was clinging to her breast like a certain someone.

"I love you grandmother!"

"Hehe, hehe, hehe..." Leyna muttered to herself.

Luna's eyebrows twitched as she saw her mother had already entered the dream world and couldn't be woken up to reality. She decided to left her be before facing the window that overlooked a part of the kingdom.

"Everyone is looking for you, Lyon. Older sister Karina, older sister Ryona, even Jugen is looking for you. The whole Nostria once know your name, now the whole Mabia knows about you too."

She took her hand in front of her heart as her eyes were gleaming with hope, "I know I will meet you again, on the day where The Throne begins!"

"That being said," she contemplated. 

-----------

Roughly seven hours ago.

Few days after Luna, Karina and Ryona confronted the representatives from the Treas family by killing two of their guards. Sophia made her appearance and met with the three in the same room.

"I have just received words and I quickly came as fast as I could," said Sophia as she was panting her breath.

"Looks like, the Treas family had a conflict going on internally huh?"

The four of them darted their glance against the entrance. The man was bald and had a goatee. he was one of the overseers that responsible for The Crown, the previous tournament.

"Overseer Van, where were you when it happened?" asked Sophia.

"Miss Sophia, with all due respect, I was tending my beloved bird since she had been going restless."

"Restless?" asked Sophia.

"Yes, since the moment our winner made his grand appearance there was a certain aura shock kind of wave that affect her pride."

"What kind of aura are we talking about here?" 

Beastmaster Van shook his head, "You wouldn't understand, only a beastmaster knows what I'm talking about but that's not important."

"You're right," Sophia answered before she took a bow against the three women, "I'm sorry for letting this happen!"

"We never expected an accident would come this soon, I've even prepared precautions for this but it looks like it's not enough, someone still managed to sneak in. However there is one thing that you need to know, I didn't command all the soldiers that were supposed to seek him out."

The three women raised their eyebrows before Luna squinted her eyes, "Then who was it?"

Sophia looked at the woman with the mini wolf cub on her arm. She could tell that her identity didn't mean one thing to her. She only met a few people that didn't instantly curry her favor but even fewer when they were actually lower both in status and cultivation. 

"Luna, was it?" said Sophie with a smile.

"Yes, I'm Luna, the woman of the man you always call 'handsome thief'."

"And I'm Ryona, his wife!" shouted Ryona not with shame but with pride.

Sophie glanced at the other one to which the latter darted her gaze away.

"You're Karina, right?"

"E-en, I'm his...uh... teacher."

Ryona playfully punched her shoulder before the latter muttered, "Stop it."

"I have just received the news of the accident not too long ago and I have yet to give command of his search. I need to affirm the situation first before doing a grand search but the way I see it, it seemed like kingdoms are joining forces for his whereabouts."

"That is correct," answered Luna before she continued, "What I want to know is who?"

Sophie looked at her before darting a glance at Beastmaster Van. The latter let out a sigh before he nodded, "Right, right, I understand, little old bald beastmaster don't have a place in this situation."

After closing the door shut, Sophie began to explain.

"What you are about to hear is something confidential and the public only take it as a rumor. The Treas family is now being divided into two powers that coveted the inheritance of my great grandfather. You know how massive the treasuries are right?"

"The popular saying is, 'Treas family has the treasure that is as vast and thick as the world itself', maybe I missed the exact phrase but not the meaning."

Ryona raised her eyebrows as she looked at Karina who just answered it right out of the blue, "Hey, I didn't know you are knowledgeable?"

"What do you mean? You mean you didn't know the popular saying, oh right." Karina almost forgot that Ryona came out from a prison-like labyrinth. Her past was still shrouded with mystery along with the others.

Meanwhile, Sophia was surprised to see someone actually didn't know the existence of her famous family but she rubbed the thoughts off her mind before Luna interjected.

"So you are one of this power I presume?" asked Luna.

"Correct."

"And that Russel guy that ran with his tails between his legs is from the opposing power?"

Sophie raised her eyebrows before she muttered, "Russel Treas Nistan... so it was him after all."

She nodded before she said, "You do not need to worry though, the Alrude of the Treas family will handle this matter, please rest and take it easy."

"Alright," said Luna before she got up and left the room with the other two catching up behind her. She didn't have that much hope of Sophie finding him rather she had unbound-able hope that Lyon will arrive when he was needed the most.

Sophia let out a sigh before she muttered, "I wonder how the Empress would respond to this.... my hands are already trembling at the thought."