(Thank you very much to 'Kaede no Chōrei' for the reward!)
Royal City of the Baruba Empire, within the royal palace...
In the central hall of the palace, all those with immense prestige in the Baruba Empire had gathered here.
Though it was said that everyone with immense prestige in the Baruba Empire had gathered here, there were also members of the younger generation, around their teens or twenties, present.
They were all direct descendants of the Baruba Empire's royal family and its three great clans. Every young person qualified to stand here was destined to become a leading figure of the next generation of the royal family or the three great clans.
At that moment, they stood in two neat columns around a round table in the center, lining the walls of the hall.
Those seated at the round table were the ones who truly possessed the greatest prestige in the Baruba Empire!
At the head sat the emperor of the Baruba Empire—Goda!
Seated beside Goda was the Baruba Empire's most prestigious prince, the young man acknowledged as the next emperor of the Baruba Empire—Safa!
Apart from those two, three elderly men around fifty or sixty years old occupied the two seats to Goda's left and the seat beside Safa.
The first seat to Goda's left was occupied by an old man whose face was covered in wrinkles, yet who possessed waist-length black hair.
He was Kolon, the old patriarch of the Moma Family, the foremost family of the Baruba Empire, and one of the ninth-rank powerhouses of the Council of Elders!
The second seat to Goda's left, beside Kolon, was occupied by an old man who had been frowning the entire time, as though dissatisfied with something.
He was Will, the old patriarch of the Vitan Family, the