A few minutes later, the meeting ended.
The ministers and nobles left the council chamber one after another, their steps hurried and their expressions varied.
Some were weighed down by worry, some harbored ulterior motives, and others had excitement gleaming in their eyes.
Horace stood where he was, looking at the empty long table.
Messmer walked up beside him and asked quietly, "Uncle, will those nobles... really obey?"
"They will," Horace said. "Because I placed Great Runes on every one of them."
Messmer jerked his head up. Wait, that underhanded?
"While the meeting was in progress just now." Horace's tone was flat.
"In my capacity as acting regent, I required everyone to swear loyalty to Caria and the royal family."
"An oath is itself a kind of Great Rune."
He looked at Messmer.
"So now they have only two paths: honor their oaths and fight for Caria, or break their oaths and suffer the backlash of the Great Runes."
"And that backlash..."
Horace smiled.
"Not only can it make them wish they were dead. I will also make an entire family disappear from the world overnight."
Only then did Messmer understand why the nobles in the council chamber had looked so strange.
It was not simply fear. It was the feeling of being bound.
"Go." Horace patted his shoulder.
"Start preparing the Fire Knights. I'll have someone send you the list."
Messmer nodded, turned, and left.
While Caria was busy preparing for war, Lilith was laughing heartily.
The little-girl Outer God with red hair and red eyes leaned against the window, holding a faintly glowing "mirror."
At that moment, the mirror showed Leyndell, the royal capital.
It showed Marika, but not entirely Marika.
"Marika! You actually..." She rocked back and forth with laughter, nearly falling off the windowsill.
"Half man