The next day, more than forty nobles led by Joseph Charles entered the Royal Palace. Their accompanying attendants were stopped outside and could only wait patiently at the gates.
Inside the Royal Palace, their guide was not one of the lovely palace maids they were accustomed to, but an ordinary-looking court attendant. He bowed slightly to the nobles, then led them toward the Audience Hall.
Scott Hanboni frowned at the stern-faced soldiers guarding the corridor entrance. Seeming to sense something unusual in the air, he asked uneasily, "Joseph, do you feel like something is wrong?"
Gerard Dimo mocked him in a teasing tone. "You're overthinking it. This is the Royal Palace, the safest place around. What could possibly be wrong? Don't tell me you're scared."
The nobles behind them held back their laughter, but their barely suppressed amusement made Scott Hanboni's face turn livid. Feeling insulted, he merely snorted and said nothing more.
"Rest assured. If even this place isn't safe, nowhere in the kingdom is." Despite his words, Joseph Charles secretly used magic to probe the Royal Palace. Such an act challenged and offended the dignity of the royal family, but his unease was growing stronger, as though something terrible was about to happen.
Yet his investigation revealed nothing. Joseph Charles could only attribute his unease to excessive nerves, beginning to wonder whether exhaustion from the past few days had made him imagine things.
The doors to the Audience Hall swung open, and the nobles filed inside to bow before the king seated above them. The Capital's powerful nobles and ministers stood silently on either side, watching the nobles in the center with chilling smiles.
The king raised a hand slightly, signaling for them to rise, and asked, "My loyal subjects, what urgent matter has brought you all this