Chapter 61: CHAPTER 61- The Painting
Ray finished the meeting with Valindra without saying anything else to her.
He needed time to rethink his plans with her.
If this 'obsession' was really what he thought it was he needed to take huge amounts of protection before he could let it progress.
It could be helpful and at the same time extremely dangerous.
And after that he declared to everyone present there with a loud voice.
"I've decided to change a policy of the empire."
As soon as he said this, everyone looked at him with piqued attention.
Changing an empire policy was a serious matter. It could affect everyone and must be done with planning and thinking.
"From now, anyone from outside cannot enter the palace without getting exclusive permission from me or someone I later choose to represent me."
As everyone widened their eyes in surprise, Isis was the first to speak.
"But what about the people who come to us with their problems?"
Ray looked at her and sighed.
'This is why being too kind is not good.'
"The nobles who have problem from now will address it directly to their territory's Duke or Duchess, who is in turn expected to make a document of the whole process and send it to the palace."
He looked around at everyone and then spoke again.
"In today's event, there were too many traitors among the lower nobles. Helping your own territory's people will increase your respect, make it easier to keep track of things that are happening, and have better control over your people."
And then he looked back at Isis.
"And finally, we will take care of matters at the palace. We still have to find if more traitors exist and clean out the various guilds. At this point we do not want to have any sort of information leak so everyone who needs to visit the palace will have to get my explicit permission."
Ray planned to shut off the palace to those regular people who came to visit with their 'problems'. It was useless in his opinion.
He wanted to make the others work hard for him. He also did it because he wanted to purify and slowly make the palace into the greatest stronghold.
He would need time and couldn't allow outsiders to know what he was doing.
"Dismissed."
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A red haired man was sitting in a chair facing a masked man.
Both of them were staring at each other while a broadcasting device that played replays of the scenes of the palace was placed on the table between them.
As the masked man stared at the device with no visible expression because it was hidden, the other person was not.
The vice-leader of the association was furious at this moment.
He was clenching his fists and a few veins popped in his head.
"How did this happen?"
The masked man who heard this laughed as he replied.
"Huh… it seems like we underestimated that boy."
The vice-leader suddenly couldn't take that laughter anymore and broke the table with a punch.
"Zero! At least take this seriously! We managed to get the slave named Claire, Number 15 within the palace but that fool Number 1 got captured as well! He is the master of that slave!"
The masked man who was Zero didn't act too much. He was used to his vice-leader's outbursts.
And he also knew why he was frustrated. If number 1 dies, Claire would no longer be a slave and their mission would no longer have a plan for success.
But he reassured the vice-leader.
"Don't worry. That old man wouldn't die that easily. And his identity is still not revealed. No one can look through that artifact's power. He will surely find a way to escape."
"And what if he doesn't?"
"Do you think the king will kill him?"
"Yes? After all he was the leader of the traitors in his eyes…"
"No no, you're getting impulsive. See the greater picture. The king from what I have seen is quite intelligent. He would definitely realize that someone was commanding Number 1."
"And isn't that worse for us?"
"Not its better. He would spend his time interrogating Number 1 and looking for us in vain, while as long as the old man stays alive, Claire will keep doing her work and slowly help us."
"But that is only enough to buy a few months of time."
"I'll help. The mission in the Elven Empire is on standby for now anyway."
"Oh? Do you mean you'll visit the prince to convince him like the other numbers?"
"No, I won't be going, I just returned. I'll rather just enjoy myself."
The vice-leader immediately frowned. He knew what this 'enjoyment' of Zero was.
"So how will you help?"
"One of the pups I trained recently will do the job. And if he fails, I'll take care of it later."
As the vice-leader was finally relieved that not all hope was lost and Zero was thinking about a 'target' for his enjoyment, none of them knew how big of a mistake this would be.
Zero trying to convince Ray was probably his worst decision ever.
He didn't know how dangerous trying to manipulate an SSS rank mind, and especially someone like Ray could be.
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In the Eastern Duchy, Valindra was standing at the entrance of her mansion.
The inside of the mansion was dark and no human life could be seen anywhere.
As she walked forward through the hallway, she seemed to know exactly where she was going even in the dark.
Slowly she walked up the stairs where the portrait of a 'family' greeted her.
But she ignored it, and kept walking up until she finally reached a large door on the second floor.
Pushing it open, she entered the room and stood there in the darkness.
If anyone saw this scene they would definitely be creeped out, but the beautiful figure and face of the woman would prevent them from looking away.
Aimed at no one in particular she started speaking.
"Sisters, I have finally found someone similar to me!"
As one would have expected, there was no voice in return.
But she kept speaking anyway.
"I asked him how he knew, and what he said meant that he knows."
Silence.
"I felt it when he used our old title."
Silence.
"There's someone other than that man who knows about us, exactly like we thought and I finally found that someone!"
Silence.
"Ray Celestia, noew the king… he definitely knows about us…"
Silence.
"And he somehow definitely knows… what's going to happen in the future."
There was still no reply coming back, but having said her piece she left the room with a smile and closed the door behind.
Then she walked down the stairs, passed that portrait and entered another room.
If one looked at the portrait, one could see a beautiful scene.
There were three women in the picture and the one in the middle could easily be recognized as Valindra herself.
Weird thing was, the portrait itself looked hundreds of years old, but Valindra right now looked exactly similar to the one in the portrait.
This was the only painting of the three together in existence.
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