Felipe·Kodaor walked into the study, glanced around the faces of the Grand Duke of the East, Marquis White Wind, Marshal Qiesike, and the Chief Speaker, and finally landed on the emperor behind the desk.
He bowed slightly, the movement was not big, but it was very standard, the standard posture in the royal etiquette tutorial, no more, no less. He straightened up, walked to the desk, and sat down on the chair where the Grand Duke of the Eastern Territory sat just now.
"Please all of you go out," Kodaor said. His voice was not loud and his tone was calm, but the meaning of "this is a notice, not a discussion" could be heard by everyone present.
The Grand Duke of the Eastern Territory glanced at the emperor. The emperor's face was ugly, but he still nodded slightly towards him. The Grand Duke of the Eastern Territory stood up and walked towards the door. Marquis White Wind followed him, Marshal Qiesike followed them, and the President of the General Assembly walked at the back.
The Speaker paused at the door, looked back at Kodaor's generous and upright back and the top of his meticulously combed hair, opened his mouth, said nothing, and walked out.
The door closed behind them. The sound of the door closing was not loud, but it spread far in the quiet study, like a stone sinking into a deep pool, causing silent and invisible ripples.
There were only two people left in the study.
Felipe VIII is sitting behind the desk, and the Crown Prince is sitting opposite the desk. The oak desk is covered with dark green velvet. On the velvet are spread the credentials of Vagrian and the urgent report from Viscount Luoweida, as well as the report on the wages of workers in the eastern mines that the Speaker did not have time to collect before leaving.
The sun shines in from the south window, casting the shadows of two people on the floor, one long and one short.
The emperor looked at Kodaor, at his smooth chin, straight bridge of nose, and dark brown eyes that were exactly like his own.
"Kodaor." The emperor's voice was a few degrees lower than usual. It was not fear, but disappointment.
"I know you want to sit in this position. But your current behavior makes me very disappointed."
Kodaor did not answer immediately. He withdrew his gaze from the dust in the sun and landed on the emperor's face.
"Father, why do you think I did all this?"
The emperor snorted coldly. "You are harming the empire."
"No, Father." Kodaor's tone has not changed, it is still so calm and calm, like a cat slowly licking its paws in the sun.
"It is always the worms that harm the empire. They not only harm the empire, but their actions endanger the safety of the people and shake the foundation of the empire."
"What?" The emperor couldn't understand what this guy wanted to say.
Kodaor stood up and took two steps in the study. His steps were not fast, but each step was heavy, and his boots made a heavy, rhythmic muffled sound when they stepped on the wooden floor.
"Father, I mean - this world is not what I want." He stopped in front of the window, turned his back to the emperor, and looked out the window.
Outside the window is the skyline of the imperial capital, and in the distance is the tall tower of Empire Tower Mage Corps. At the top of the tower is a blue, slowly rotating crystal ball, which is the core component of Imperial Magic Power Monitoring Center and the pinnacle of imperial magic.
Kodaor When he was a child, he often lay on the window of the palace and stared at the crystal ball in a daze. At that time, he felt that the empire was very powerful, so powerful that nothing could threaten it.
Later, when he grew up, read a lot of books, went to many places, saw a lot of things that he had never seen in books, and asked a lot of questions that adults were unwilling to answer, he began to feel that the crystal ball was getting smaller and smaller.
"You should know Silence Society."
The emperor frowned. "That group of legend scholars?" He had heard of this name, mentioned by some ancient book researchers at Empire Tower Mage Corps and some history professors at the Royal Academy.
It is a mysterious organization with members all over the continent. Their identities are kept secret and their whereabouts are secretive. Its main job is to collect everything related to ancient legends - ancient books, demonic remains, relics of gods, myths and legends.
The imperial royal family has no formal contact with them, but some scholars from Tower Mage Corps have had informal exchanges with them. The emperor's impression of them is that they are a club of scholars who are fanatically obsessed with legends and myths.
"I have contacted and cooperated with them. I know - a lot of things." Kodaor turned around, looked over the emperor's shoulder, and looked at the huge imperial territory map behind him that hung from the ceiling to the ground.
The map marked every province, every city, every major river and mountain range in the empire, as well as the boundaries of neighboring countries and those blank areas that had not yet been annexed by the empire and were marked with only the word "unknown".
He looked at the words "unknown" for a long time. "Do you know the history of this world?"
"Our scholars have studied it very clearly," the emperor said, "hundreds of thousands of years ago, the first human race appeared, developed magic, and soon dominated the world.
Later, it experienced several eras of prosperity and decline... until now, it is another revival of human Civilization."
Kodaor shook his head.
"No, Father. The gods--are not legends."
The emperor's pupils shrank slightly.
"That master Venerable of Ten Thousand Spells--Valot has been guarding the edge of the empire all year round. Do you know where that place is?"
The emperor tapped his fingers lightly on the table. He knew.
Forbidden Land in the eastern part of the empire, an area classified as "top secret" by Tower Mage Corps, an area that is not even marked on the map, an area that is sealed and monitored at all levels, and no one is allowed to approach without permission.
The official statement is that some powerful ancient monsters are sealed there, and it is the peace that the ancestors bought with their blood and lives. This statement has existed since the emperor could remember, and he has never doubted it.
"That is a place where the devil rests." Kodaor gave the answer.
The emperor's fingers paused for a moment, and then continued to tap, maintaining the previous speed, as if using this action to maintain his composure.
"Our ancestors could defeat them, so can we," the emperor said.
He knew that it was a sealed area, that there was some kind of powerful existence sleeping there, and that Tower Mage Corps's elites were stationed there all year round.
He always thought that it was just an ancient monster, just like many monsters that had appeared in the history of the empire - powerful and terrifying, not something that humans could easily fight against, but not impossible to deal with either.
Human beings have reproduced generation after generation, and every monster has died. Human beings are getting stronger and stronger, and monsters are getting weaker and weaker.
Kodaor smiled bitterly, not sarcastically, but the kind of bitter smile you can't help but smile when you discover that the truth you have always believed is actually just a thin piece of paper that can be torn when you poke it.
"No, Father. History is incomplete. There are many things we don't know, and there are many things we can't find. We are like being in a fog, just one of the countries in the fog.
There are Zalan Khanate in the southeast, Liushan City-State in the south, Saint Junxi, Victoria, Karelia in the west, Nordheim in the north, and Vagrian in the east.
We thought we were big and that the empire was the center of the world. But we just lit a lamp in a small clearing in the fog.
Where the light illuminates is the world we think it is. Where the light does not illuminate, there are things we don't know."
Kodaor walked back to the desk, put his hands on the table, leaned forward slightly, and looked directly at the emperor.
"I want to know the truth about this world. Not when the world ends and the empire is destroyed, but I don't know anything.
I want to clean out the moths and dig out the truth so that the empire will not become a brushstroke in the history books."
He paused, straightened up, took a step back, and then said something again, his tone as calm as if he was saying that the weather is nice today.
"So, father, Crown-Carving Guard has taken control of the palace. From now on, I will temporarily control the empire."
The emperor suddenly stood up, his chair slid backwards, and the back of the chair hit the bookshelf, making a dull, harsh sound. He put his hands on the table, leaned forward, and stared into Kodaor's eyes.
His face showed anger first, then shock, and then a more complex and indescribable expression - the kind of proud and fearful expression that a father had when he saw the shadow of his own youth in his son, and it was unclear whether it was joy or sorrow. It flashed in his eyes, and then was submerged by anger again.
Kodaor did not give in. He stood in front of the desk and looked at the emperor, at the pair of dark brown eyes that were exactly the same as his own, and at the face that was very similar to his own, with fine lines worn by time and government affairs.
"Father, you are tired. Please rest."