'Oh boy,' Kyle thought. 'I was expecting this to happen, but it still feels weird when it actually happens.'
"Of course," Naga said as she stood up again.
Shore shot a venomous glance at Wild, who just looked back in shock and anger.
"Sure thing," Kyle said casually as he also walked over to Larian.
Larian turned around without saying anything and led the three representatives to the throne room.
There were almost no guards inside the castle, and the throne room also wasn't guarded.
What was the point of guarding the most powerful person in the kingdom? Something that could endanger King Skysand couldn't be stopped by some guards.
Larian opened the huge doors to the throne room without grace or care and walked in.
The three representatives followed after Larian into the throne room.
That was when Kyle finally saw it.
An empty throne room.
There was nobody in here.
'Anticlimactic,' Kyle thought.
The three representatives just followed Larian, who led them to a smaller door at the edge of the throne room.
This was the administration room.
Whenever the king was "on duty", he spent most of his time in there.
Signing documents and meeting people in an empty throne room was a bit too awkward.
The throne room was for events with several people present.
As Larian approached, the door opened on its own.
The room was filled with a bunch of scrolls, sheets of paper, books, and a couple of machines.
The room was definitely not small, but it also wasn't as gigantic as the throne room.
On the far side of the room was an almost ten-meter-long table with a couple of fancy chairs around it.
Larian entered first, and he walked to one of the walls of the room.
His message was clear.
He would not be partaking in this meeting.
He was just here to watch.
Then, the three representatives entered, and the door closed behind them.
As Kyle entered, he could feel the thick and dense Ether in the air.
It felt dry.
It was like the air was trying to absorb every bit of moisture it could get.
However, Kyle was more focused on the single person sitting behind the big desk.
The intensity of the Ether in the air made it clear to Kyle…
This had to be King Skysand.
King Skysand wore yellow robes and a small yellow crown.
His hair was brown, and he had a well-trimmed, small mustache.
His appearance was surprisingly young. One would think that he was in his thirties.
Right now, King Skysand was looking at the three representatives with a helpless expression.
"You created a fine mess," he said with a sigh.
"We deeply apologize," Shore spoke respectfully, bowing her head.
"We will accept every punishment you deem just," Naga added as she also bowed her head.
Kyle looked at the two of them before looking at the king.
The king looked at Kyle, and one of his brows raised.
"Eh, yeah. What they said," Kyle said with a nod.
The king blinked a couple of times.
"Not one for formalities, are you?" he asked.
"I mean-"
"Never mind," the king interrupted Kyle's attempt to explain himself. "We have more important things to do."
"So, how did this entire thing happen?" the king asked, looking at the three of them.
"We-"
"Before you explain," the king said, interrupting Shore. "I don't have time to deal with your lawyering. I do not want to spend even more resources on investigating this entire thing than necessary. I want to get this solved as quickly as possible."
"You," the king said, looking at Kyle. "You're the representative of the Stark Brotherhood, correct?"
Kyle nodded.
The king looked at Kyle for two seconds. "You're supposed to answer verbally."
"Eh, yeah, I am," Kyle said.
'I thought he would be more… regal? Is that the word? You know, kingly, or whatever. Imposing?'
'Instead, he seems more like an overworked and annoyed manager.'
"You seem like you don't value your own life highly," the king commented. "Maybe you will tell us the truth."
"I'll do my best," Kyle said. "I just don't know all of the details."
The king raised an eyebrow. "Fine, you can begin."
"My Guild wanted to expand to the west," Kyle said. "The others were not very happy about that. The Crown Prince told me that it would be in my best interest to stop."
"Did you stop?" the king asked while he got non-verbal confirmation from the Crown Prince regarding the validity of Kyle's statement.
"I asked him if it was the Skysand Kingdom telling us to stop, and he said no. It was just advice. So, I said that we would continue," Kyle said.
"Why didn't you stop?" the king asked.
"Should we?" Kyle asked.
"I want to get through this as efficiently as possible," the king said with some annoyance. "Just answer my questions and try not to answer my questions with another question. This is not a discussion. This is an interrogation."
"Why didn't you stop?" he repeated.
Kyle took a deep breath. The Crown Prince had asked him something similar. Back then, Kyle managed to wriggle his way out by asking questions back.
This time, that wouldn't fly.
Now, Kyle actually considered lying to a certain degree.
He looked at the king, who just raised a strict eyebrow.
Finally, Kyle sighed.
"Because this is the open market," Kyle said. "As long as we don't break the rules, we can do whatever we want. So what if our competition isn't happy with that? They are our competition. They are already our enemies. Who is scared of offending an enemy?"
"If we just stay at our size, we won't grow, and we want to grow. The others don't want us to grow. So, might as well expedite things," Kyle explained.
The king sighed in annoyance.
Then, he looked at Shore and Naga.
"Did you two retaliate?" the king asked.
The two of them looked at each other nervously.
Should they lie?
Should they speak half-truths?
In the end, Naga just sighed and gestured to Shore to just do it.
Shore looked helplessly at Naga before sighing.
Then, she turned to the king.
"Yes, we did," she said.
In response, the king uttered just one word.
"Why?"
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