Chapter 63: Watching From Above

The voice belonged to a man in his forties, cream-colored hair, a face carved into permanent sternness.

He remained standing near his own seat as he spoke, and though he offered the Emperor a bow, anyone watching closely would have caught the reluctance behind it, a hesitation that had nothing to do with Varka himself.

The real cause stood just beside the throne, a figure wrapped in a black fur cloak, and it was that presence alone dragging the stiffness into what should have been a simple, respectful gesture.

Something in the man’s expression tightened as he lowered his head near someone he clearly considered an enemy, an aura bleeding off him despite standing in front of the Emperor himself.

Varka recognized him instantly.

"Ah, Galen. Something on your mind?"

The weight in Varka’s voice was enough to snap Galen fully back into composure, catching himself right before his irritation slipped into open disrespect.

Galen had never quite managed to hide his discomfort standing anywhere near Cassius. Both men carried the title of Weapon Master among their respective houses, though in a direct fight, Galen would fall short, his own strength settled at the early eighth tier, an Astral Core, still nothing to scoff at given it matched the standard expected of any Pillar Patriarch today.

"Forgive me, Your Majesty, for letting an unbecoming expression slip. I happened to notice what looked remarkably like termites gnawing their way into someone else’s honey."

The jab landed exactly where Galen meant it to, aimed squarely at House Sarnel and whatever ground they seemed intent on gaining tonight. He raised his voice just enough to make sure the whole hall caught every word of it.

Cassius’s gaze cut toward him immediately, sharp and unblinking.

He wasn’t the only one. Every Sarnel present turned their attention toward Galen at once, watching for whatever came next.

Burrel, one of the family’s Elders, round-faced and heavier set than most, let a pulse of mana flare outward without hesitation, a quiet display of House Sarnel’s standing aimed straight back at House Versys.

"It seems one of our guests has forgotten his manners," Burrel said, chin lifted, clearly relishing the chance to answer the insult in kind.

Galen’s eyes went wide, locking onto the Elder with open contempt. "What did you just say? Or did I mishear, and this pufferfish is trying to lecture us on etiquette now?"

The Versys attendants scattered around the hall, Elders among them, traded sharp looks with the Sarnel side of the room.

Every eye in the hall turned toward the sudden flare of tension between the two families.

Elsewhere, three of the Seven Pillar houses sat clustered together, close enough that their familiarity showed plainly, House Augusta, House Winter, and House Pneuma, all three simply watching the spectacle unfold between Sarnel and Versys with mild interest.

"Irvine, aren’t you going to help the Emperor settle those two down?"

The voice came from a woman in a blue gown, the same shade Alicia and Cecilia wore, blue hair falling loose around her shoulders, her tone carrying the easy familiarity of someone who considered herself Irvine’s equal.

Amelia Winter. Archduchess of the northern territories, a considerable distance from Sarnel land.

Irvine only studied the two feuding houses, chin resting against his knuckles, a faint smile tugging at his mouth at the sight of two Pillar families squaring off.

"Aren’t you at all curious why Varka suddenly decided to name Helia a throne contender? He never mentioned that on tonight’s agenda. If we want an answer, maybe we should just watch where Galen takes this."

Irvine’s observation cut straight to the question everyone in the room was quietly asking themselves, why the imperial family had chosen tonight, of all nights, to make that declaration.

"They look more like they’re settling a personal grudge than answering anything, Irvine. And if this actually turns into a real fight, this whole building won’t survive it."

"Hah. If the building falls apart, wouldn’t that make things even more interesting?"

Amelia only shook her head at him, unbothered as always by whatever chaos unfolded around him. Even mid-laugh, though, his eyes kept drifting toward Princess Helia.

"Honestly, I can’t really blame Galen for how he’s acting toward the Sarnels, not with what happened between their houses decades ago. This can’t be easy for him tonight."

The old grudge Irvine referenced traced back to the early wars, when the Bravenheart Empire had set out to conquer six neighboring kingdoms across the continent of Arta. Bravenheart had won every one of those campaigns, folding each defeated kingdom under its rule.

Among them sat the kingdom that had once served as House Versys’s own seat of power, the southeastern territory known as Castilla.

Though Castilla’s throne had since changed hands, it remained under the watchful eye of one of the Seven Pillar families, same as the five other conquered kingdoms, all of them now subject to Bravenheart oversight through the Pillar system.

House Sarnel stood apart from that arrangement entirely, granted the unique right to move freely and claim territory of its own, land that hadn’t been carved out of some conquered kingdom the way the others’ had.

That privilege came with one binding condition from the crown at the time: House Sarnel was obligated to lend aid whenever conflict broke out with another kingdom.

And that was exactly where the trouble started. House Sarnel had extended help elsewhere during the wars, but when it came to Versys’s own battle for Castilla, no such support ever arrived.

Left to fight alone, House Versys had bled heavily for it, losing far too many of their own in that campaign.

That single failure had planted the seed of tension between the two Pillar families, a wound that had never fully closed, even now.

"And Amelia, if you think about it, Princess Helia herself comes from Castilla’s own bloodline. Put yourself in Galen’s position. Wouldn’t that be enough to make anyone furious?"

Amelia fell quiet at that, turning the thought over. If she stood where Galen stood tonight, she couldn’t honestly say she wouldn’t feel the same fury.

Irvine, meanwhile, had already produced a thick cigar, leaning back in his chair, a spark of fire catching at its tip from nothing more than a flick of his fingernail. He looked thoroughly entertained by the chaos playing out below.

Amelia reached over without a word and froze the cigar solid before he could take a single draw.

"Father, isn’t it rather rude to smoke at an event like this? Especially with so many people around."

The reprimand came from a young woman with the same shade of red hair as Irvine, marking her instantly as Augusta. His eldest daughter. Claudia, Lumina’s older sister, plainly unimpressed with her father’s behavior.

"Ugh, why are the women in my life so terrifying. Cedric, swap seats with me, would you?"

Irvine turned toward the man seated on the far side of Amelia, already reaching to trade places, though Cedric made it clear well before Irvine finished the sentence that the seat currently under him suited him just fine where it was.

Irvine glanced around the hall, searching for anyone willing to back him up.

No one stepped forward. Not a single soul in the vicinity dared take his side, not even his own attendant, who simply shook his head at him, a silent, firm signal to leave the cigar alone for now.

"Speaking of daughters, Irvine, why don’t I see your Saintess tonight?"

"Ah, that’s Lumina. She’s still in the Kingdom of Castilla, handling some business for the Order of Lumielle, if I remember right."

"Your girl certainly keeps herself busy. Is she angling to become the next Oracle, by any chance?"

Irvine let out a slow breath at the question.

"I’d rather she didn’t. She isn’t strong enough for that yet."

Something in the way he said it suggested he hadn’t fully grasped just how much potential his youngest daughter actually carried.

"By the way, Aunt Amelia, why don’t I see Cecilia around? Didn’t she come with you tonight?"

Claudia and Cecilia had grown close as classmates at Orvis Academy, close enough that Claudia had no trouble slipping into calling her "Aunt," a familiarity she usually kept to smaller company rather than a crowd this large.

"I believe she’s downstairs right now, with Alicia, chasing down some old acquaintance of hers."

Curiosity sparked immediately in Claudia at the mention of an old acquaintance. Close enough to the balcony railing, she leaned forward, scanning the floor below, and found her target quickly.

"I think I found them. Auntie, is the acquaintance you mentioned that young man in the silver cloak down there?"

Amelia glanced down as well, confirming that yes, that was likely who Alicia had been searching for all evening.

"Wait, Claudia, you’re saying there’s a guest here tonight wearing a silver cloak? Are you sure you’re seeing that right?"

Irvine hadn’t caught sight of Lucian yet, but the mention of that particular color alone was enough to catch him off guard.