At the Argos royal palace, King Kepos hurried all the way to the main hall. After days of depression, unable to eat or sleep, he seemed to have aged more than ten years, with none of his former heroic bearing left.
Today was the final day of the ten-day deadline. If they did not hand over the princess, Sea Monster Cetus would destroy the entire city-state, leaving tens of thousands in the city with little chance of survival.
Outside the palace, nearly ten thousand people had gathered in protest, ready at any moment to snatch away the princess and conduct the sacrificial ritual.
No matter how this affair ended, the royal family would lose all dignity and no longer possess its former authority or cohesion.
The queen had gone from a beautiful woman to a withered old crone, the princess's future was uncertain, and the throne was teetering on the brink...
The string of disasters filled Kepos with regret. Had he known this would happen, he would never have spoken so wildly in the first place. Then he would not have fallen into such a miserable situation.
Fortunately, there was still room to turn things around. The brave soldiers he had entrusted with this important task had brought back a way to repel the Sea Monster from the banks of the River Styx.
Before entering the hall, Kepos put away his sorrow and assumed a complicated expression suited to greeting men of merit.
There was self-reproach, emotion, shame, excitement, and all manner of other feelings.
Of course, in terms of emotional intensity, he was far inferior to Lord Liu charging out howling to greet Zilong at Changban Bridge, falling flat on his backside three times along the way, and finally even throwing away his own son.
That could not be