A few minutes later, Rion rented two rooms at an inn and left to search for more information about the current condition of the Neptuma Federation.
Even though he could cover the whole southern city with his Zone, the information he would obtain would be mixed up with various other useless information, making it barely useful.
Keeping that in mind, Rion walked to the quarters of the city guards.
As they were personally selected by the duke’s associates, he was certain about them knowing more than anyone else.
With Intent Veil active, he silently stepped inside the quarters and searched for the guards using his Zone.
After searching for a few monts, he selected the one with a scholarly build, styled short brown hair, black eyes, who was writing a letter at the mont.
Without wasting a single mont, he moved towards him.
His steps stayed silent as he walked to his room and knocked on the door.
Hearing the knock, the person inside placed down the quill and looked at the door with furrowed brows. "Who is it?"
Instead of replying, Rion knocked once again, and the person fell silent.
He let out a deep sigh as he stood up from his chair and walked towards the door.
He opened the door and muttered, "What do you want, Ronnie?"
But seeing that no one was there, he blinked a few tis, when all of a sudden a voice reached him from behind.
"Stay as you are."
A shiver ran down his spine, and his eyes went wide. His body trembled as he raised his arms in defeat and mumbled, "W-Who?"
Rion didn’t answer. He lifted the letter placed on the table and said, "Tristan, you will only speak when I allow you to."
Hearing the not-so-borderline threat, Tristan’s legs went weak, his expression turned grim, and he stamred while grabbing onto the door, "O-Okay."
"Don’t try it, Tristan," Rion said coldly upon seeing that he was trying to close the door and run away.
Tristan’s face turned pale, and he mumbled desperately, "I-I didn’t an to!"
To further seal the deal, Rion spoke in his head,
Hope instantly drained from Tristan’s eyes, his hands slid down the door, and he muttered in a broken tone, "A-Ask anything."
"You are a smart man, Tristan," Rion remarked and asked, "Tell , why are the other three dukes trying to push the south duke to give up his position?"
"W-Well, it’s rather complicated to explain—"
"It can’t be more complicated than the life you can have after our chat, right? Or do you want to make your life easy for you?" Rudy asked sharply as he took a step forward.
The wooden floor creaked under his feet, and Tristan frantically shook his head, "T-That’s not what I ant..."
"Then only say the things you an to say," Rion retorted and didn’t even give him a single second to co up with a lie or so sort of stupid plan.
"Y-Yes, I’ll do that," Tristan whimpered.
He took a few deep breaths and answered, "You see, our nation isn’t as strong as other nations, so we form treaties with them and in return we provide them with the materials of sea ether beasts which only we have."
"But due to the unexpected death of Leonara Kingdom’s king and disappearance of the flower princess during their advance in the cursed mountains fifty-seven years ago... the crown prince was made the king."
’Death of Leonara Kingdom’s king...? Is he talking about my grandfather?’
A puzzled expression appeared on Rion’s face. He had never t his grandfather and only knew of him because of the story that Lara had told him and the occasional ntions that Arok made.
’I’ll deal with this later.’ With that, he pushed away his thoughts and asked, "What does that have to do with Neptuma’s current situation?"
"It all started thirty years ago when Duke Clifford beca a nebula. He claid that the current king is not the child of the queen and doesn’t have the true royal lineage."
He took a pause and continued.
"The king attempted to deny the accusations, but before he could restore order, the duke launched a coup and attacked the throne. Though the king survived, the duke retained the support of the people and continued to pressure him. From that day forward, Leonara was plunged into constant internal conflict."
Understanding dawned on Rion.
’It’s way worse than I thought,’ he comnted in his head while clenching his fist in anger, even though he didn’t know his grandfather or the Leonara Kingdom itself, it was still part of his family’s legacy and hearing how an outsider had dared to use confusion to take that legacy away from them, he couldn’t help but be furious.
He cald himself and his thoughts and mumbled, "So seeing that the Leonara Kingdom is in no position to be a support of the federation, the other dukes want the south duke to step down from his position, and then they would split everything he has among the three of them..."
"Yes," Tristan said much more calmly than before, but the fear was still there.
’He just wants so information,’ he thought while thanking the gods for allowing him more days to live.
Rion frowned. "But are they not scared of Leonara’s retaliation, knowing well that it is the kingdom with the most superhuman and Nebulas?"
Tristan nodded and answered in a low voice as if scared of soone else hearing his words, "The three dukes also plan to do more than that..."
Rion’s eyebrows knit together, and he pressed, "What do you an?"
Tristan let out an audible sigh and stated, "The three dukes have already signed a deal with their respective nations... this deal specifies that if the south duke steps down from his position, the three nations will form a united front to attack Leonara Kingdom and stop its centuries-long tyranny..."
Hearing that, Rion’s anger broke through its limits. He hardly gritted his teeth and spat, "Those bastards..."
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