Episode-861
Chapter : 1721
"We wait," Lloyd said. "We fortify. We keep the Titan Squad on standby. We watch the sensors. We are standing in the boxing ring, hands up, waiting for the opponent to throw the first punch so we can counter-attack. It’s the only logical move."
"It is the only move we have," Roy agreed grimly. "We cannot risk the alliance with Zakaria by looking like conquerors. Princess Amina is watching us just as closely as the enemy is."
The mention of Princess Amina made Lloyd wince slightly. Managing his "fiancée" while living with his pregnant future-wife was a logistical nightmare that made warfare look simple.
The tension in the room was thick enough to chew. It was the agony of the unknown. Every soldier knew that the waiting was worse than the fighting. In a fight, you had something to hit. In the wait, you were just a target.
Suddenly, the heavy oak door to the War Room creaked open.
Ken Park slipped inside. As always, the assassin-turned-bodyguard moved without making a sound. He was a shadow in human form. But today, Lloyd noticed something different about him. There was a tension in Ken’s shoulders, a tightness in his jaw.
"Report," Lloyd said immediately.
"A rider," Ken said, his voice low. "From the Southern Outpost. He arrived ten minutes ago. He didn't stop for checkpoints. He rode a horse until its heart burst."
"Invasion?" Roy’s hand went instantly to the hilt of the sword at his hip. "Are the legions moving?"
"No," Ken said. His face was a mask of confusion. "It’s not an army. It’s one man. A courier."
The room fell silent.
"One man?" King Liam asked, leaning forward. "After months of silence? A scout?"
"He is unarmed," Ken replied. "He is carrying a white flag. And he is demanding to speak to the leadership."
"It’s a trick," General Kaelen said immediately. "An assassin. A suicide bomber with magical runes carved into his skin. I’ve seen it before."
"We scanned him," Ken said. "No magical tattoos. No hidden artifacts. He’s clean. Just exhausted and terrified."
"What message does he carry?" Roy demanded.
"He wouldn't say to the guards," Ken said. "He claims he has a message for the King and the Arch Duke. And... for Lord Lloyd."
"For me?" Lloyd frowned. "Why me?"
"He carries a sealed scroll," Ken explained. "He says it is for your eyes only. It bears the royal seal of Altamira. But... it’s not the King’s seal. And it’s not Prince Cassius’s seal."
"Whose seal is it?" Roy asked.
Ken looked at Lloyd, his dark eyes unreadable. "It bears the seal of a Queen."
"Queen?" General Kaelen frowned, looking puzzled. "Altamira has no Queen. King Aurelius has been a widower for twenty years. And Prince Cassius is unmarried. Unless..."
Lloyd felt a chill run down his spine. A memory surfaced—a promise made in a carriage, a signet ring passed from a dying father to a daughter in the dark. He remembered a young woman with too much mana in her blood, drowning in her own power until he taught her how to swim.
"Bring him in," King said. "Now."
"Your Highness," General Kaelen warned. "If this is a trap..."
"If it’s a trap, we have the Arch Duke, and an Emperor-Rank assassin in the room," Lloyd said calmly Lloyd didn’t said there is Sovereign level people hiding in the shadow and King Liam himself a peak Sovereign. "I guess you can let him in, Lord Kaelen."
Ken nodded and opened the door.
Two guards dragged the courier into the room. The man was a wreck. His uniform, the distinctive green and gold livery of the Altamiran Royal Messengers, was covered in dust and sweat. He could barely stand. His legs were shaking, and his face was gaunt with exhaustion. He looked like a man who had been running from hell itself.
He fell to his knees before King Liam.
"Your Majesty," the courier wheezed. "Arch Duke. Lord Ferrum."
"Rise," King Liam commanded, his voice regal but sharp. "You have ridden far. You have killed a good horse. Speak your message."
The courier tried to stand but stumbled. He reached into a leather tube at his belt with trembling hands. He pulled out a scroll of heavy vellum. It was sealed with purple wax—the color of royalty.
Lloyd stepped closer. He could see the seal clearly now. It was a phoenix rising from a crown. It was a new seal. A seal that hadn't existed on any map or document before today.
Chapter : 1722
"I bring word," the courier announced, his voice cracking, "from Her Majesty, Queen Seraphina of Altamira, First of Her Name, Protector of the Realm, and Breaker of Chains."
The titles hung in the air like smoke. Breaker of Chains. That was a provocative title. It sounded like a challenge.
"Queen Seraphina?" Roy looked at Lloyd, confusion warring with recognition. "The recluse? The sick princess you treated? The one who was dying?"
Lloyd kept his face impassive. "It seems she got better."
King Liam gestured for the scroll. The courier handed it to Ken. Ken ran his hands over it, checking for contact poisons or explosive runes. He nodded to the King. "Safe."
Liam broke the wax seal. the crack was loud in the silence. He unrolled the parchment. He read it in silence. As his eyes scanned down the page, his eyebrows rose higher and higher. He didn't look angry. He looked... stunned.
"Well?" Roy asked, his patience fraying. "Does she declare war?"
"No," Liam said, his voice filled with wonder. "She does not declare war. She declares... a parley."
He handed the scroll to Roy. Lloyd moved to look over his father’s shoulder. The handwriting was elegant, sharp, and familiar to Lloyd. It was the handwriting of someone who had spent years writing in secret diaries, hiding her thoughts from a tyrant brother.
Lloyd read the words:
To King Liam of Bethelham and Arch Duke Roy Ferrum,
The era of shadows is over. The usurper Cassius has fallen. King Aurelius is dead. I, Seraphina, have taken the throne. I know the crimes my brother committed against your people. I know the poison he allowed into our lands. I do not seek to continue his madness. I seek to end it.
I request a summit. Not on a battlefield, but at the fortress of Ironhold. I will come with an honor guard, not an army. I wish to discuss the terms of a permanent peace... and a joint alliance against the true enemy that threatens us all.
The Seventh Circle must burn.
I await your response.
Seraphina.
There was a stunned silence in the War Room. The phrase The Seventh Circle was the key. For a century, the Altamiran government had officially denied that the Devil Race existed. They claimed the attacks were from rogue mages or bandits. To admit the existence of the Seventh Circle—the ruling body of the devils—was a complete reversal of a hundred years of policy.
"It’s a trap," General Kaelen insisted, breaking the silence. "It has to be. A coup? A new Queen? And she wants peace immediately? It’s a feint. She wants to get our leadership in one place—Ironhold—and decapitate us."
"It’s too elaborate for a simple assassination," Lloyd said, his mind racing. He was analyzing the variables. Seraphina had done it. She had actually done it. She had overthrown Cassius. "If she wanted to kill us, she would have kept the element of surprise and attacked the border. This... this is a political risk for her."
"Why?" Roy asked.
"Because she just took the throne," Lloyd explained. "Her hold on power is fragile. Leaving her capital to meet with the 'enemy' makes her look weak to her own generals. If she is willing to take that risk, it means she is desperate for this alliance."
"You know something," Roy said, looking at his son. It wasn't a question. Roy knew Lloyd had secrets. He knew Lloyd’s time as 'Dr. Zayn' in the south had involved more than just medicine.
Lloyd hesitated. He couldn't reveal everything. He couldn't tell them that he had personally given Seraphina the strategy to overthrow her brother.
"I know that Princess Seraphina was... dissatisfied with her brother's rule," Lloyd said carefully, choosing his words like a lawyer. "Our intelligence suggested she was a potential ally. If she has taken the throne, it changes the entire geopolitical landscape. She hates the Devils more than we do. They infected her country. They poisoned her father."
"She mentions the Seventh Circle explicitly," King Liam noted, tapping the scroll. "That is... unprecedented."
"If she admits they are the enemy," Lloyd said, "then she is not our enemy. She is a potential partner."
"It is too risky," General Kaelen insisted. "We cannot risk the King’s life on the word of a courier and a piece of paper."