Kairos was filled with disbelief when he heard the Duke. If it came from the mouth of anyone else, he would’ve doubted the audacity but Lord Yue is the right-hand man of Emperor Galahad.

“His Majesty were attacked with deadly force but a sudden flash of light appeared and he vanished. However, from what I saw… the blow was unavoidable. Moreover, even if his Majesty somehow dodged it, he was already suffering from terrible wounds since before I arrive. Those are the kind of injuries would’ve gotten to him sooner or later.”

“That’s not the worst of the news,” an elder nearby interjected, “Lord Kairos, we have not met before, I’m the Right Prime Minister. You can call me Mr. You, or Mr. Right as friends do.”

Despite the gravity of the situation, Kairos had to use half his cultivation strength to stop his urge of rolling his eyes.

The duke coughed embarrassedly and hurriedly explained, “That’s because his family’s name You (右) is the ancient character for 'right'.”

The You family is a middle-ranked noble house, but because of him attaining the highest authority for a minister of state, his family managed to squeeze into the top of the gentry and became part of the Hundred Nobles.

After a few deep breaths, Kairos calmed himself down, at least the name is easy to remember, but at this time, he heard another thing that almost made him question life.

“Incidentally,” Lord Yue continued, “This old guy over here is the Left Prime Minister, his family name is Zuo (左) for Left.”

“What? How?”

“… The emperor had a sense of humour… Prime Minister Me was a commoner without a name, and thus his Majesty gave him one.”

Kairos did not know where to laugh or to cry… Mr Left and Mr Right…?

Prime Minister Zuo, greeted with a nod, “Lord Kairos, nice to meet you.”

“The emperor has a terrible sense of humour… Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like Prime Minister Me minds.”

Noticing Kairos’ unnatural expressions, the Left Prime Minister shot him a glare.

“Oh no… he definitely minds! Damnit, Old Galahad, why did you purposely gave him such a hilarious family name?!”

Without waiting for Kairos to recover, Prime Minister You continued seriously, as though nothing happened, “I had trustworthy information that the Fifth Prince was assassinated, and the Third Prince crippled and now in a coma.”

Seeing Kairos fell silent, Lord Yue added, “Lord Kairos, the two prime ministers are absolutely loyal to the emperor. With the empire in chaos, everything now falls upon their shoulders.”

“Are you certain about this?”

“They are unquestionably trustworthy. The ministers of the state are all required to swear fealty with a Soul Slip.”

Kairos nodded quietly. However, he is adamant in the presence of a traitor amongst the high-ranking officers. Otherwise, today’s incident would not have happened.

“Currently, we believe that the Third Prince is left alive but already is a hostage in the enemy’s hands,” Lord Yue explained, “They will need royal blood to take over, without a member of the Vestimore left, no one would concede the empire’s forces without winning a war against us.”

Prime Minister Zuo added, “From my sources, her royal highness, the crown princess went missing. The Blue Bloods had risen their heads claiming that this is a rebellion against the nobles. Unfortunately, many… too many families are in support of this… rumour and they are calling for an investigation and stricter control over factions with commoners.”

“Then the enemy is probably the Silent Lambs Empire,” Kairos declared to the astonishment of the others, “by way of elimination, the one with the biggest gain right now is our neighbouring empire. Besides this, they are the only ones with access to the immortal realm and the source of those assassins.”

“Young lord, how can you be sure?”

“I had the chance to get my hands on the Phrixus royal treasury in the past. There were many immortal realm objects there, mostly pseudo immortal rank but nevertheless there is no question those were objects beyond our realm.”

“That explains their sudden raise in power.” – Right Prime Minister You.

“No, that doesn’t tell us that they are definitely the ones who sent the assassins.” – Left Prime Minister Zuo.

“That’s because the crown princess isn’t missing. My men and I managed to rescue her at the last moment from the hands of a Peak Triple S ranker. Straight from the horse’s mouth, we know that this was a mission from his sect.”

Kairos briefly explained the incident that happened at the Gilded Snow and despite the bulk of what happened was left out, the three old guys were thoroughly impressed by the battle, especially Lord Yue who had personally fought the assassins.

“In this case, the situation is even more critical than we believed. Let’s come up with a response plan together,” Lord Yue got up in spite of his injuries and beckoned them towards the war room.

The Left Minister immediately protested, “Old Yue, it’s not like I want to chide you, but aren't you too frivolous to let this young boy into our planning?”

“I assure you that Lord Kairos here is more than equal to any of us in this area.”

Minster Zuo gave the duke a scrunched-up frown. Trusting a boy with the future of the empire is tomfoolery. Even if the young earl started learning politics from his mother’s womb, how much would he know?

“Come on old Zuo, we have all heard of the young lord’s numerous talents. Having a second option from such a gifted individual wouldn’t be bad,” Minister You said with a smile, although he also agreed with the Left Prime Minister in his heart. However, showing this much respect to Kairos is necessary, at least for the sake of maintaining cordial relationships with the duke who invited the boy.

The group made their way to a steel-coated room and walked past the long table in the middle. It was a gloomy place that doesn’t seem to brighten up no matter how many torches and crystallised light are placed here.

The hall had been heavily warded against observation artefacts and coated with metal to insulate from magical spells.

In here, their conversation will be a hundred percent safe.

The four of them moved to a gigantic white jade hanging on the wall at the back of a room. What Kairos thought was a decoration, was in fact a type of jade slip. However, unlike the normal kind, this one could be used multiple times by numerous people and served only one purpose.

To detect untruths. Of course, the runes binding this jade is different from the usual jade slips, even if a lie was detected it will only glow but could not be shattered.

As to who was lying, the people in the room must observe themselves according to when it lit up, which is why this jade had to be large enough to be seen by everyone.

The accuracy is infallible. Unless someone could cheat even their own soul, deceptions is impossible not to be found out.

They infused a strand of their soul fragment into the jade then proceeded to sit down for their discussion; after the meeting is over, they can retrieve it.

The one that started the discussion was none other than the duke, “According to the situation the Third Prince has most likely fallen under their control. I agree with Lord Kairos that the Silent Lambs Empire is most likely pulling strings from behind, but we must not forget that having enemies within our border is far more dangerous.”

“Do you mean the Blue Bloods?” Kairos asked.

“Yes, and the Devilheart. They had begun to consolidate their strength, moreover, the Sun and Moon clan had recently split up with the Moon clan suddenly deciding to follow after one person: their heir apparent, Calculus Devilheart. So far, I do not have enough information to deduce why.”

The two prime ministers and the young Earl did not show any sign of surprise at the mention of the Devilheart family, but one of the Three Great Nobles divided to swear allegiance to a boy still caused them to frown.

It was terrible news indeed.

For the Silent Lambs Empire to control the Third Prince, there must be a traitor that could act as an intermediary, and the Devilheart had long been awaiting their chance to reign.

Lord Yue had hinted to Kairos in the past that he had been assigned by emperor Galahad to the Third Prince specifically to prevent a possible rebellion. However, the target his majesty and the duke were concerned about was not the prince, but his subordinate, the Devilheart house.

The Calculus’ family had been secretly building their strength for a number of centuries. Throughout the years, they had been purchasing and adopting orphans and slaves, then after a series of brain-washing, these people were released across the empire – and even out of their borders – to gather resources.

It was unknown that many of the adventurers that claimed to be without factions were actually part of their secret army.

With Soul Slips controlling them and the hidden support of the Silent Lambs Empire that wished to sow discord and create a devastating civil war, this massive conspiracy had been well-camouflaged and ridiculously successful.

Despite the Devilheart family being subordinate to Lord Yue, they were in fact far more powerful than any of the Three Great Nobles. There was a nagging suspicion since Kairos previously met with the duke and heard that even as the head of the Dark Gods family and one of the most powerful practitioners on Gaia, Lord Yue could not fully control the Devilheart family but only suppress them.

Now with the Moon Clan joining the Devilheart family, the situation for Saint Empire and the especially Vestimore’s faction is perilous.

“Looks like we have enemies everywhere,” Kairos sighed.

“There’s more bad news to add,” the Left Minister said, “The Orc armies are stirring, with more activity in the recent months than the past decade added together. We had tracked their encampment to the Endless Plains and found that Orcs from all over Gaia are gathering there under the banner of the Orc King.”

Everyone’s faces turned grim as death. Right after the emperor went missing, dangers sprung up from all sides. The situation had turned from being chaotic to the survival of their empire.

“Let’s first talk about our opponents’ forces, what do we know?”

“Lord Kairos, the Silent Lambs Empire had been sorely weakened by your previous expedition in their lands, furthermore, their contact with the Immortal Realm is limited. Mortal kingdoms could only be considered a recruitment point for those lofty sects in the upper realms, and thus we can conclude any aid would be limited. This is our only chance to breath in all these.”

Kairos nodded seriously.

“The Orcs, though preparing for war, will still need some years to fully ready their armies, especially since they are still gathering the last of their feral kinsmen into their army. Including war preparations and handling sabotages by the human kingdoms, we expect they will need at least five years, at most seven, to engage in war.”

“The Endless Plains is at a corner between our empire and the northern savages… Those beasts are too close to us. Before they attack, we have to find a way to share this threat with the north. Otherwise, I fear we might not survive,” Minister Zuo said.

Kairos disagreed, “Those Orcs are more than beasts. They are warriors that remember the blood feud with Calculus and will most likely attack us until they have his head.”

Lord Yue sighed, “Then we are in for a terrible future. No matter what, we can’t allow the Orcs to enter our borders and let them indiscriminately murder our citizens. If that happens, we will only give the Devilheart a chance to openly take the throne.”

The Left Minister added, “With their influence and power, it’s not even possible to convince the public about the blood feud.”

Kairos gave Minister Zuo a smile as thanks for his explanation. Despite the old man questioning his right to be here, there was no trivialising involved once matters were discussed.

After the two prime ministers had given Kairos what their men discovered, the duke finalised their current position, “Right now, those under the Vestimore banner are only the ministers of state and my Dark Gods family. Despite being one of the Three Great Nobles, we are up against the two princes’ military strength, the Moon clan, the Devilheart family, the Silent Lambs Empire and soon, the Orcs. We are completely outmanned and outmatched.”

“I’ve more or less understood the current situation,” Kairos replied Lord Yue, then to everyone’s surprised he smiled and said, “Looks like we still have a chance if we play our cards right.”