"Yes.
I dispatched the sixth and seventh of our Ten Great Swordsn to join the coalition force."
Rudeus replied to his daughter with a calm expression, however, dozens of thoughts were running through his mind at once.
"The coalition force of grandmasters from almost ten countries set forth, reaching Graugro to take out the undead.
But before they could set out towards the affected areas, 'he' appeared."
"The 'Beast King'."
"Exactly.
But Duke Eris, if you look at the official reports, Graugro's head of state admitted to never having sent a request for help from the Beast Kingdom.
The reasons stated were that help had already been asked for, from three major world powers, and that Graugro was not capable of repaying the help of any more major powers.
The Head of State stated that he never had any intention of asking any more countries, especially when he had his hands full dealing with our Great Western and the opposite Great Eastern Empires.
He also stated that he was quite apprehensive towards the beast Kingdom, given that its king had been the one responsible for the destruction of the country that once existed towards the south of Graugro.
The man had zero intentions of attempting to negotiate a plea for help with the Beast Kingdom, yet, the Beast King still ca.
It was fine if he just happened to be in the area, but the Beast King had been confird to be spotted in the Beast Kingdom, a day before the coalition force was supposed to set out.
So, he wasn't anywhere near Graugro before this, only appearing on the day that the coalition force had planned to move.
He then went on to prevent the coalition force from taking action, moving in person to the place where the undeads' main forces were concentrated and wiping out all the grandmaster-level undead there himself.
After that, he left the coalition force to clean up the remaining undead in the master level and below.
This eyewitness report from our Empire's Seventh Sword, confird that the beast king was holding the severed arm of what he believed to be a human, in his hands, and that he also made a statent that the Seventh Sword deed important enough to report to you, father."
The mont Laurene said those words, the air around Rudeus changed, and magic power began leaking from his body, drawing the attention of everyone present in the room.
As the person who had been married to him for over twenty-five years, Claudia recognized the expression on his face as one he only made when he was angry.
However, Laurene only smiled and asked.
"Don't the words; 'Tsk...dealt with him but he still escaped.', sound familiar to you, dad?"
**BAM!!
Rudeus slamd his fist on the table, causing cracks to spread out as he spoke with a cold voice.
"How did you get access to those records?
That part of the records should be kept in a level of the Royal Archives, under a level of security that you, Laurene, should not have the clearance to pass.
Your royal family insignia doesn't give you the authority to bypass the magic formations guarding that level."
Expressions of surprise adorned the faces of all those who heard Rudeus' words, with the understanding of the reason for his displeasure coming to them.
In response to her father's question, Laurene propped her chin up on her palm, before pointing towards her eyes with her other hand.
"These guys happen to be good at helping 'see' through the weak points of magic formations and how to bypass them without triggering the security alarms.
Worry not though, I only got to level three. The formation at level four was way too complex for the current to decipher."
The way she spoke made it sound as if her action of entering into the Country's information Archives without the required level of authority was nothing serious.
"That doesn't change what you did."
"I know, but on to the matter of the 'Him' that the Beast King spoke of, did you conduct an investigation?
Knowing you, there's no way you wouldn't. I'm guessing you turned up with no results?"
Laurene blatantly returned the topic of discussion back to the matter of the undead incident of twenty-five years ago, while Rudeus only stared back at her in silence for close to a minute.
Just when Claudia was about to say sothing to disperse the heavy atmosphere in the room, Rudeus withdrew his magic power back into his body and leaned back on his chair before saying words that shocked all those present.
"I believe you."
"HUH?"
"Your majesty?"
"What?"
"Rudeus? What do you an?"
Even Laurene who had been calm since the beginning, couldn't help but let out a voice of surprise upon hearing him believe her so easily.
"It's not that I didn't turn up with any results at the end of my investigation, it was that I stopped my investigation halfway through.
Not long after I began my investigations into who this person, most likely the mastermind of the incident was, I was visited by one of the Beast Keepers with a ssage from Beast King Kolvar himself.
He advised to stop looking into them, and it would not be good for our Empire's citizens if said masterminds were to draw their attention towards us."
Laurene's eyes widened in shock as she heard her father's words. She had prepared another ans to convince him of the existence of the Demonic Hand but never expected that he already knew about them sowhat.
"Twenty-five years ago, I had just barely ascended to the throne after my father decided to retire.
The advice of soone who had been ruling a country for centuries before I was even born, was sothing that I had zero reasons to reject.
Even the action of sending two of the Ten Great Swordsn was ant to Boost the image of mine and that of the Great Western Empire, internationally.
I even gave the two 'Swords' orders to retreat in the event that the situation was more than they could handle. Couldn't afford to lose two of our most powerful combatants.
Everything about the incident was suspicious, and the Beast King's ssage made wash my hands of the matter.
I focused on other important things that concerned my Empire and eventually forgot about the incident.
Only to rember it when you read out that letter with information stating that the Cheverton duchy would be attacked by undead monsters again."
The room was dead silent for a few minutes after the Emperor was done speaking, with Duke Cheverton finally breaking the silence.
"So, this 'Demonic Hand', really does exist, and 'The Five' doesn't want us to know about them."
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