Prince Raymond straightened his back, put on his most perfect smile, and strode into the crowded hall.
His strong, well-proportioned figure, honed by years of exercise, filled out his splendid, tailored formal attire and displayed his exceptional bearing to the fullest. A group of noblewomen and young ladies from the Angelia Kingdom diagonally across from him cast burning looks his way, as though they might devour him at any moment.
This was the Royal Palace of the Angelia Kingdom, yet Prince Raymond looked as relaxed as if he had entered the Royal Palace of the Lampari Kingdom, without the slightest sense of being a guest.
He had come to attend the Angelia Kingdom's surrender ceremony.
As the representative of the Lampari Kingdom presiding over the ceremony, he certainly had the right to act like the host. Once the surrender agreement was signed, it would signify the Angelia Kingdom's unconditional surrender to the Lampari Kingdom and its incorporation into the latter's territory.
After two and a half years of war, the Lampari Kingdom had finally crushed the Angelia Kingdom and forced it to surrender unconditionally. This was undoubtedly an extraordinary achievement worthy of celebration.
In the several hundred years since the Lampari Kingdom's founding, it had achieved great victories such as destroying the Sark Kingdom and the Frank Kingdom. However, because it had relied primarily on help from the Xinfei Merchant Guild at the time, those achievements generally received little recognition.
This time, however, the Lampari Kingdom had defeated the Angelia Kingdom entirely through its own strength.
Throughout the war, the Xinfei Merchant Guild had maintained absolute neutrality and had never deliberately favored the Lampari Kingdom.
Of course, the people of the Angelia Kingdom would never believe that.
Prince Raymond's gaze fell on the senior officials of the Angelia Kingdom waiting