Unlike the Dalaran Council, whose questions had focused more on the details of Rhonin's several encounters with Deathwing, these kings were more concerned with matters such as the orcs' troop strength and the current state of their settlements.
When they heard that the mountain dwarves had dealt the Dragonmaw Clan a heavy blow, and that the three of them had freed the Red Dragon Queen and her children, the kings all looked much more relaxed.
Only Daelin's expression was somewhat stiff. Aaron guessed that the man probably still wanted revenge on the Red Dragonflight for his son's death at sea.
"In that case, we should soon be able to deal with these green-skinned monsters once and for all, shouldn't we? We must speed up construction of the internment camps as well," Terenas said with a smile.
But upon hearing this, Genn's and Thoradin's expressions shifted slightly.
As the king of Gilneas, Genn had always pursued a fairly isolationist policy. Naturally, he had to contribute to fighting a foreign enemy, but in Genn's view, building internment camps was utterly unnecessary. Why waste food and money on those greenskins? In short, Genn did not particularly want to pay.
As for Thoradin, the Kingdom of Stromgarde under his rule had been on the front lines against the orc attacks and had suffered devastating losses in the war. There was no way to replenish its coffers through war reparations or the like, and his plan to carve off a piece of Alterac's territory now looked unlikely to come to fruition. This king was also very hesitant about building internment camps.
To Aaron's particular disappointment, however, these two merely harbored some dissatisfaction and ultimately did not challenge Terenas on the spot. Otherwise, he would have had a chance to watch four kings argue.
While the kings each entertained their own thoughts, Uther continued talking with the others about their adventure. As Grand Master of the Silver Hand, he would probably serve as supreme commander in the coming campaign to retake Khaz Modan.
Just then, the court attendant Terenas had sent out earlier hurried in and whispered a few words into his ear. Terenas's expression immediately darkened.
After pondering for a while, Terenas addressed the gathering. "Everyone, I have some news to share with you. Lord Daval Prestor has left without saying goodbye."
At Terenas's words, the kings' expressions changed in different ways. Even Kael'thas's expression shifted somewhat. Aaron looked at their reactions, and a thoughtful expression came over his face.
It seemed that Dalaran already suspected Prestor. Presumably, Kael'thas's mission this time was to take this opportunity to investigate this newly emerged lord. The only question was what Dalaran's investigation would uncover.
Of course, how Dalaran conducted its investigation no longer mattered. For a long time to come, Deathwing would need to recuperate beneath the Maelstrom. His daughter would take his place stirring up trouble among humans, and the main stage for the Black Dragon Princess's schemes would shift to Stormwind City, whose reconstruction had only recently been completed.
"Sir Uther, sorry for the trouble, but please take some men to look into the situation. Prince Kael'thas, sorry to trouble you as well, but please accompany them. According to my attendant's report, there seem to be traces of magic at Lord Prestor's residence."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"At your service, Your Majesty."
Seeing that Kael'thas was about to leave, Aaron blinked, bade farewell to the kings, and followed him. Rhonin and Vereesa left with them, leaving only the kings in the room. Once they had gone some distance, they could still faintly hear the four kings arguing. It seemed that without anyone else present, the kings could not avoid having an argument after all, especially now that a problem had arisen with the plan they had already largely agreed upon.
After gathering several Silver Hand knights, Uther led the group toward Prestor's residence. Prestor, who claimed to be a noble from Alterac, naturally had no residence of his own in Lordaeron. His lodgings were a house belonging to Lordaeron's royal family that Terenas had provided.
Uther briefly explained these circumstances to them along the way, after which Kael'thas shared some other information.
According to Kael'thas, Dalaran had been watching Lord Prestor for some time. There were traces of magic on him, and he had consistently evaded Dalaran's scrutiny. Unfortunately, the various nations had grown increasingly wary of Dalaran in recent years, making it difficult for Dalaran to openly investigate this mysterious lord.
As they talked, the group arrived outside Prestor's residence. Unexpectedly, someone had already arrived before them. Three teenagers and a bearded dwarf, accompanied by several Lordaeron royal guards, stood gathered at the entrance, pointing things out.
Uther went over first, greeted them, and asked what they were doing there. Only then did Aaron learn that the bearded dwarf was Muradin Bronzebeard, the younger brother of the current king of Ironforge, Magni. He was also the one who would later succeed Magni as king of Ironforge after Magni unfortunately became a diamond statue.
After everyone introduced themselves, Aaron learned that Muradin currently served as Ironforge's ambassador to Lordaeron and also taught Arthas martial skills on the side.
"Calia said Daval was missing, and Jaina said he was suspicious, so we came to have a look. Don't worry, Sir Uther. We've been very careful," the blond-haired Arthas replied calmly.
Although Arthas had said nothing about himself, judging by his sparkling eyes, he was certainly the one most interested in this affair. There was even reason to suspect that he had dragged everyone else along.
Muradin pointed at the door and spoke in the booming voice common to dwarves. "There's something strange about this door. It clearly isn't locked, but it just won't open."
"It should be the work of magic." Kael'thas stepped forward and placed his hand on the door. After sensing it for a moment, he told everyone that he should be able to break it and asked those present to wait a while.
With that, purple radiance began spreading around Kael'thas. In response, black runes began appearing intermittently on the tightly shut door. As Kael'thas cast his spell, these black runes began shattering one by one. Judging by the way his brows occasionally furrowed, however, the process was not entirely smooth.
"Hello, I'm Arthas. We met just now." Arthas looked about fourteen or fifteen at this point, and he greeted everyone quite politely.
"I'm Muradin Bronzebeard. Good evening, everyone!" Muradin's booming voice was practically identical to Falstad's. Perhaps all dwarves had equally loud voices.
After everyone exchanged greetings, Arthas began asking them about their adventure. Judging by the young prince's behavior, he seemed to yearn for adventure stories.
Looking at Arthas, who had yet to experience all that would happen later, Aaron had an idea. The timing did not seem quite right, however, so he merely tucked the thought away and recounted his group's adventure in response to Arthas's and the others' questions.
While everyone enjoyed their conversation, Kael'thas was making fairly smooth progress overall in breaking the defenses Deathwing had left behind. It seemed that the old Black Dragonflight's precautions were not particularly difficult to unravel. It did not take Kael'thas long to dispel the defensive magic on the courtyard gate.
"Prince Kael'thas, please be careful." Seeing Kael'thas reach out to push open the door to the old Black Dragonflight's residence, Aaron called out a warning from behind him.
After all, no one knew whether the old Black Dragonflight had set other traps inside his residence, waiting for someone careless to barge in.
At Aaron's warning, Kael'thas hesitated slightly, turned to glance at the others, and signaled for everyone to step back a few paces. Though somewhat puzzled, they did so.
Once everyone had cleared the area in front of the entrance, Kael'thas nodded in satisfaction. Then he summoned an enormous fireball more than half a person's height and hurled it straight at the door.
As the fireball struck the door with a boom, the seemingly exquisite door gave a teeth-grating creak and abruptly toppled backward, stirring up a cloud of dust.
Everyone behind Kael'thas stared in stunned disbelief. None of them had expected this seemingly elegant elven prince to choose such a forceful approach.