The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 580: Questioned

Prince Kaizon was given a copy as well, which startled Dominic.

He had assumed that the court was just a formality, but the defendant was being given access to all the evidence being presented against him so that he could form some sort of legal defence, if such a thing was even possible.

For commoners, it was custom to hire a representative. But for the Royals, they were expected to know the law well enough to represent themselves, except in the case of injury or illness.

Everyone read silently for a few minutes, mostly skimming through the documents to ensure that it all matched what they already knew. But Kaizon looked increasingly confused as he read some of the pages.

“This is nothing but slander. Who would dare say that I attempted to claim the twin Princesses as slaves?” He shouted, five minutes into his reading.

“You refute it? But the entire Cygnian court watched you do it. The King of Mitfield, the King of West Keria, and over five hundred foreign Nobles and Royal Family members were present.

It was quite the spectacle.”

Prince Alex smirked as Kaizon realized what had happened. His clone had done something incredibly arrogant and stupid, and now he was being held accountable, as they looked exactly alike.

Many of the Royals already knew that it was his clone and not actually him, as Prince Alex had led the assassination after the convoy had crossed the border.

But that didn’t change the accounting of the event in the eye of the public.

“Is that the only objection that you have? If there is doubt that it was truly you, we can exclude it from the evidence.” The King of Axbridge suggested.

“I do object. I will not accept that such boorish behaviour is associated with my name.

I did many things for my country, not all of them respectable. But I will not have my name recorded for the history books as a crass man.”

“Noted.”

The Necromancer King tapped the table to indicate that he wished to speak.

“Defendant Kaizon, we know that you managed to recruit the majority of the Skiple Royal Academy as well as the Ormsted Sect to your cause. However, there are no mages among either of those groups who could have been responsible for the clones of yourself that were employed.

Nor could they have been responsible for the majority of the Monster Summoning rituals.

They do not specialize in the form of blood magic that was used in the spells, and they do not have anyone at the level necessary to create so many independent, fully functional clones.

In order to be certain that you are not also the product of an advanced clone spell, we require the name of the one who cast the spell.” He insisted.

Prince Kaizon gave a rueful laugh. “You already know, but you want to make me say it here, don’t you?

Fine.

The one who backed my ascent to the throne from the start was the former Prime Minister of the Wavemates Royal Court, the Archmage of Kinewen.

He came to me when he learned that Cygnia intended to assassinate the former King, and offered his support to move from a simple General to the Crown Prince.

It’s a perfectly legitimate option, anyone with Royal blood can be named the Crown Prince, and I earned the title like every Crown Prince before me.

None of what I did constitutes a betrayal of my nation, and I will not recognize the puppet King that you placed on the throne.”

The Necromancer King shook his head. “You see, that’s the issue here, isn’t it? You don’t recognize your lawful King. He was coronated according to the proper rituals of Dagos, he holds the symbols of the Dagos King, and the nation has formally recognized him in front of his fellow Monarchs.

It’s not uncommon for the throne to be contested, but the risks of attempting regicide to claim the throne are well known.

You can’t claim that the charges against you are unfounded when you learned as a child what the outcome of a failed coup attempt would be.”

Kaizon sat still, unmoved by the ancient King’s words.

“I regret only that I couldn’t end the curse and improve the lives of my loyal subjects.”

The Necromancer King nodded, while the others moved on to topics that were more important to them.

“Where is the Archmage of Kinewen now?” The King of West Keria asked.

Prince Kaizon laughed, a hysterical, broken sound.

“Don’t you know already? When the one who locked down his tower as it flooded is sitting right here in the room with us?”

Everyone turned to the Necromancer King, who did his best to look innocent. But Kaizon was not looking at him. He was looking at Advisor Trionne, who was lost in her own little world, altering a broken magitech storage cube.

In a way, that did make sense. The Techno Witches could so many strange things that the mages and others could not fully comprehend.

If you weren’t more powerful than him, the only way to truly trap him would be with a spell that he lacked the knowledge to break. Only, the Archmage was hundreds of years old, and renowned for his indestructible body spell.

That signature spell was how Dominic had realized that the one who came for him and Alexis early in the war was an imposter.

To think, the mightiest of defensive spells had been defeated by nature.

Nature, and a barrier that prevented him from escaping it.

“Do you have any proof that he is dead?” The King of West Keria asked, concern clear in his expression.

He had known the Archmage for a long time, and the man was incredibly powerful. It was not a shock that a coup attempt backed by him had come so close to succeeding.

But there had to be more to this story. Things just weren’t adding up.