From early morning, the Empty Palace had been crowded with visitors, its gates bustling with activity.
Besides the various government offices reporting for work as usual, the guests arriving from inside and outside the city included local nobles and foreign merchants, property owners and workshop masters, trade-company agents and officials of every rank, even carriage-driver guilds and dockworker representatives—in short, almost every livelihood circle accessible in Emerald City.
The palace gates were completely blocked and unbearably noisy. The open ground was packed with carriages, sedan chairs, attendants, and servants, and people occasionally argued or even fought over parking spots and the order of entry.
Of course, most of them were residents there to watch the spectacle. After hearing the news, they had abandoned even the celebrations around the city and stood in a dark mass beyond the cordon drawn by soldiers and guards, pointing with interest at the extraordinary scene before the palace gates, judging the guests entering and leaving the court, speculating about why the Emerald Legion looked so grim, relishing the tale of Miss Hilaire playing the Prince for a fool—a story that had spread who knew when—and discussing the city's turbulent situation. They sighed over Emerald City's future after the sky fell and mourned the Starfall Kingdom's decline to its present state...
Someone in the crowd could no longer contain his curiosity. After stopping a guest to ask, he learned that they had all received temporary invitations from His Highness Tales and hurried over to pay their respects.
As for the reason, no one knew—not even the invitees. The invitations gave no explanation, merely stating: "The Duke of Star Lake cordially invites you to a meeting."
That only made everyone more nervous and curious.
What was this? After suffering one failure in governance after another, had this