Supreme Monarch

—Two days later.

—Radiance City, Emerald Palace.

 Situated in the confines of a highly secured chamber within the Emerald palace, were the highest-ranking demon nobles of the Floato region, and members of the Jaxith family's Royal Court, having been summoned here by the degree of the Demon Lord herself. 

 The tension in the room rose quickly as this was a gathering, unlike many others. The presence of every single Elder in the family spoke volumes to the seriousness of the topic being discussed here today. 

 Their combined auras, made the room unbearable for even the royal knights to enter, making them the only ones present in this meeting room. 

In the center of the room sat a rectangular platinum meeting table and situated on the most important seat in the room was the Demon Lord herself, Keyrille Mayz Jaxith. Sitted to her right was the second prince, Reynald, and the rest of the seats had been filled by the Jaxith Family's Elders and ministers, consisting mostly of Earls and Marquises.

If this was a normal situation, everyone except the Demon Lord would have stood up to pay their respects and then properly initiate the meeting — this was the protocol after all — but that was not what had happened. 

 They each had a stack of parchments in front of them and an holographic display from a magic crystal on the center of the table showed stilled images of scenes and landscapes from within the city. 

After confirming that everybody had received and taken their time to peruse the materials they had prepared ahead of time, Reynald cut through the tension in the air and spoke.

"Let us begin. The topic of this meeting will be the attempted kidnapping of the Darknar Family's envoy. An offense that could very much lead to the annihilation of the Jaxith family." 

He had used a term as intense as 'the annihilation' in hopes that everyone would treat this meeting with the gravity it deserves.

As he paused to observe the reaction of the room, he noticed the white-haired and bearded Elder, who was around the age of his mother, had the most displeased expression out of them all. It seemed that he was deeply anxious about the emergency.

Reynald didn't find his expression to be strange as it best fits their current predicament, if only his mother hadn't allowed the Elders to talk her out of the first vassalage deal the envoy had presented, they wouldn't be in as bad a situation as this. 

 Reynald couldn't help but worry about his mother. Would she be able to make a well-informed decision concerning this issue?

'She probably has some convictions against the family that's using the name of her precious Demon King.

 'If only Father were still here to talk some sense into her.'

 After the death of their father, his mother appeared to have aged quite significantly. She had lost all motivation and was now a shell other former self, perhaps that's also why she's still so stuck in the old ways. 

'I messed up by not pushing for vassalage hard enough in the last meeting, what point does the elder's favor matter if there's no region to rule.'

 The reason their family relied so heavily on the support of their Elders and nobles was because of the glaring weakness of their family's head, and his lack of power. They currently depended on the strength of the Elders and their armies to protect their region and maintain their rule. 

 This level of dependency is what had led them to their current predicament. 

Reynald felt uneasy so he took a peek at the Elders and nobles of the court.

The topic of this meeting was something that was delivered to them only a day ago by the maids they had assigned to the envoy. The content of her report basically said; The emissary had gone missing during her attendants at the Korver family's head dinner party.

 The knights assigned to her were unable to locate her for most of the night so they requested the aid of the palace rogues, which led them to the Heartrail Family's estate after it had been completely blown away. 

Upon further investigation from the 5th princess's personal guards, the Mansion's ruins revealed an underground storage facility that was discovered to be for the foreign secret organization most widely known as Numbers.

 The emissary was also located during the discovery of this underground chamber having taken care of her assailants herself after recovering from whatever spell or drugs were used to kidnap her initially. 

 After escorting the envoy back to her residence, the 5th Princess's guards then led the charge to investigate the underground chambers where countless illegally smuggled substances were found in the underground storage and cells that seem to have been housing slaves recently. 

 The origin of these substances that are believed to be the main ingredients to a highly addictive drug and the whereabouts of the slaves remain unknown. 

 Powerful anti-divination magic had most likely been used to prevent the use of any magical methods to investigate the origin and use of everything found within the underground chambers. 

 The worst part about this report was the utter failure of their knights to even rescue the envoy even after failing to prevent her capture in the first place. Their utter uselessness had only given the emissary enough grounds to use against their surveillance of her actions within the city. 

As of now, the envoy had remained within the detached mansion prepared for her but had declined the services of their assigned maids and knights, insisting that the undead that had escorted her to the city were more capable than their knights.

 A statement they all found difficult to refute.

She was probably waiting for the Jaxith family to conclude their investigations no doubt having relayed their blunder back to the Darknar family as they decide on their next move. 

Given that this could be considered an international incident, it would not have been unusual to give the other side more than a few days to investigate before responding. 

 Even then, for them to reach a consensus on a response, finish their preparations, complete investigations et cetera, would probably take them more time than they were given, even if they were to rush through every process.

"I'm sorry for the delay your Majesty. Our report had been delayed because we needed to investigate more about the organization known as Numbers, it took us quite a bit of time."

The one who had lowered his head was a Demon marquess and the head of foreign affairs, who was also the minister of information and was in charge of the investigation of the rather unknown secret organization known as Numbers. 

"The report we got says they are an organization based in the northern parts of the continent, they apparently specialize in Drugs, Smuggling Slave trades et cetera, correct?"

The Marquess and head of foreign affairs nodded in response to one of the Elder's questions.

"That is correct. There wasn't much known about this organization as our information network did not fully extend into the regions operated by the Great Five. We've judged that the base of their organization is located somewhere within the Sentro Region, as such, they are currently beyond our reach." 

 The entire room went silent for a moment as the Elders all exchanged curious gazes before someone finally asked.

 "How can an organization located so far away create a facility, or rather a base of operations underneath our city without anyone noticing them!?" 

 Another Demon Marquess and also the head of military affairs and defense, or the Minister of War, was in total disbelief, his eyes narrowing in a rather horrifying realization. 

 He was the youngest person here and also 10th in line to the throne despite not being a pureblood. He had well-shaven grey hair, a dark skin tone, and a slender but muscular build. 

 His eyes were bright green signifying his connection to the Jaxith family and a scar across his left eye that appeared more like a curse mark than any injury. 

His relationship with the royal family was rather poor as he believes he should be the next in line to the throne as someone with the highest potential in the family so he stayed away from court meetings frequently, making Reynald unaware of his true capabilities. 

 However, Reynald did not doubt his strength as his aura alone was already enough to rival him despite receiving no special training from the family. He was also vastly more experienced in battle than him given his rank as the minister of war. 

"It appears as though the minister of war is not familiar with the internal affairs of our region. The Dark Order is an organization operating within our city and we have been unable to fully eradicate them. If they are aiding this new organization then it would've been very difficult to know about their operations ahead of time. They might've even masked any operations from this organization by launching an attack on a random location."

Hearing one of the Elder hurriedly defend the incompetence of their information department made the Demon Lord's expression change for the first time in a long while as she furrow her brow as she asked:

"...So you're saying we can't even monitor the operations of a small religious organization like the Dark Order so how can we monitor the ones of Numbers?" 

 A cold chill ran down the Elder's back as he hurriedly tried to explain himself. 

"Please forgive me, your Grace, I'm afraid this is the current limits of our information department after being limited by the Great Five's attempts to pressure us over the years. Our spies outside the region are also rapidly being hunted down and slain. We are literally being forced into a corner like common prey.'

Reynald smiled inwardly while simultaneously letting out a silent sigh of relief. It seems there was still some fight left in his mother as only a single sentence from her had forced one of the Elders to hesitate and he had ended up saying something he otherwise wouldn't have. 

 This was the sign of a True Demon Lord. 

Keyrille's gentle gaze slowly swept across the room as she observed the dejected demeanor of every single member of her royal court. To think the Great Jaxith family had sunk so low that none of them could raise their heads high when speaking about their situation. 

"Has our influence in the Demon continent sank so low? If the Great Five is also responsible for the current war, that means the current affair with the emissary from the Darknar region may also be a ploy to drive us into a corner."

"Yes, your Grace." 

His mother let out a tired sigh.

"Has the Adams family also bent their knees to the Great Five?"

 The Adams Family was one of the neighboring families they were currently at war with, however, despite them being on the weaker end, they were also one of the oldest families in the continent and were once their allies. 

"We can't be certain, your Grace, because we have yet to receive intel on what is going on in their region. Perhaps they had fallen prey to some honeyed words or perhaps they simply felt that there was more to gain by siding with one of the Great Five than siding with us."

 The Adam family was the larger of the three neighboring families and thus, were most likely leading the charge in their current alliance. 

"Is that so? I understand, head of foreign affairs. Thank you for your hard work so far."

 "I'm honored by your kind words your Grace."

 At the Demon Lord's praise, the head of foreign affairs stood up and lowered his head. Just then, the Demon Lord's gaze shifted to one of the Elders beside her and asked with an even more serious expression on her face. 

"Now then... Elder Crome, or rather, Minister of internal affairs. Have you confirmed the statements in the maid's report? Do we believe In the involvement of our very own nobles in this incident or was this done by outside forces?"