Calian immediately got up from his chair and stepped calmly past the frozen humans around him. He walked along the gaps between the tables filled with smokeless food as if walking inside a large painting, then he went straight to the main table where his mother and uncle sat.
The purple-haired youth gently touched the back of their shoulders, then selectively canceled the time-stopping magic that bound and shackled the bodies of his mother and uncle.
Elara and Rodaz flinched slightly as their consciousness reconnected. The two of them instantly realized the extreme change and the highly unnatural silence around them.
The two of them looked around the table, and were instantly shocked to see the sight of the grand hall containing hundreds of guests not moving at all, frozen in various kinds of strange postures.
"Why did you stop time so suddenly like this, Calian?" asked Elara in confusion, her voice sounding very clear amidst that dead room. Her sharp blue eyes immediately swept the entire hall, trying to find out if there was an assassination threat or an intruder attacking suddenly in the middle of the event.
Calian did not answer that question with a long explanation that wasted time. He merely raised his hand and pointed toward the two nobles who were sitting casually at one of the round tables. "Mother, Uncle, who are those two people?"
Elara and Rodaz immediately followed the direction of Calian's index finger. Rodaz's eyes narrowed slightly as he recognized the faces of the two men who were in a leaning position whispering. The former emperor's face instantly turned slightly more serious than before.
"The one sitting on the left with the gold-lined cloak is Khail Burtois, he is a Marquis who holds control over several major trade routes on the eastern border." answered Rodaz providing detailed information about the noble's identity. "Meanwhile, the well-built man next to him is Barren Gildas, a Count as well as a general of this imperial army who leads a regiment in the southern region. What is the matter with the two of them that you stopped time like this, Calian?"
"Wolvin's hearing is very sharp and precise." explained Calian in a very cold tone, harboring a deep anger because those people dared to demean his spouse. "And he heard clearly that those two people were busy talking about the slave trade of non human races. And they even just said that my spouse is a lowly race who is lucky to have become a member of the imperial family."
Hearing the explanation that came out of Calian's mouth made Elara and Rodaz shocked. They truly did not expect that someone like Marquis Burtois and General Gildas, two people with high positions and very large influence within the imperial government, instead dared to discuss something so taboo right in the middle of the emperor's grand banquet.
Rodaz's face instantly hardened. His jaw clenched tight holding back anger upon knowing the fact that some of his own subordinates turned out to be moles who had been gnawing at the imperial law from the inside all this time.
"The initial targets that the two of you will eliminate have been found!" said Elara softly yet laden with a thick killing intent. Her eyes glared sharply toward the two motionless nobles in the distance. "You and Wolvin must disguise yourselves as adventurers and go to their territory. Investigate their movements, find out their secret trade routes, and investigate their families secretly. After you obtain enough physical evidence to fully ensnare their network, you are free to obliterate them without a trace."
"Yes Mother, I will definitely do it!" answered Calian without hesitation. "I will immediately restore the flow of time in this hall. Please pose again just like before I stopped the flow of time here so that not a single one of them gets suspicious and so that this disguise plan is not discovered."
Elara and Rodaz nodded in understanding. The two of them immediately adjusted their facial expressions and body postures, then returned to pose exactly like before time stopped spinning.
Once making sure his mother and uncle had returned to their safe original positions, Calian turned his body around. He stepped calmly, passing the frozen guests again, then immediately sat in his chair.
The youth positioned himself, took the fork back on the table, then canceled his time-stopping magic in a flash.
The flow of time instantly reconnected.
The clinking sound of cutlery clashing with porcelain plates instantly exploded along with the crisp laughter of the nobles and the strains of string instruments that resumed sounding without any broken note gap. The hanging drop of sauce from earlier instantly fell hitting the plate. The flames of the hundreds of candles slowly swayed again blown by the wind.
The flow of time returned to running normally and the atmosphere in that grand hall became bustling again filled with various kinds of conversations from everyone.
Everything resumed running very naturally, without a single person inside that hall realizing what had just happened to them a moment ago, that an invisible angel of death had just passed a death execution sentence on those two imperial traitor nobles.
....
Time continued to pass, and the celebration banquet held in the main hall of the palace finally came to an end. One by one, the nobles from various regions stepped forward to pay their final respects and congratulate Elara on her inauguration as the new emperor.
Fake smiles and political pleasantries filled the air before their noble horse-drawn carriages finally left the palace courtyard, bringing the landlords back to their respective residences.
As the guests departed, the bustling atmosphere in the hall slowly dimmed. The palace servants began to arrive in neat formations to clean up the remnants of the banquet scattered across the round tables. The clinking sounds of collected plates and glasses became the closing melody of that very long day.
Elara, Rodaz, Calian, and Wolvin stepped together leaving the banquet hall. They walked in a silence laden with tension, passing through the long palace corridors strictly guarded by elite knights.
Upon arriving inside the emperor's workspace, Elara, Rodaz, Calian, and Wolvin sat facing each other on the sofas. The room's doors had been locked tightly and a sound barrier magic had been activated to ensure not a single word leaked out.
"Wolvin, is everything you heard in the hall earlier true?" asked Elara, opening the conversation. Her voice was low yet firm, demanding absolute certainty from her son-in-law before she dropped an execution order.
"Yes Mother, I heard it very clearly and it is impossible to be wrong." answered Wolvin with a confident tone. The Night Wolf youth looked into his mother-in-law's eyes without hesitation. "They also seem to strongly dislike that I have become Calian's spouse. They even blatantly said they wanted to make me their pet, and worst of all, they had thoughts of selling me at a slave trade market."
Hearing that confirmation, Elara became extremely furious.
"Those damn nobles!" cursed Elara in a furious tone, feeling enraged by the greed blinding their eyes. "Even though I brought my son-in-law here so he could live peacefully with my son, instead there is a disgusting incident like this!"
The emperor stared at the faces of her son and her son-in-law alternately. Her aura of authority enveloped the room, giving a strong emotional weight to every word she spoke next.
"The two of you must obliterate those traitors down to their roots! But remember, do not forget to gather evidence of their crimes first before they are killed!" stated Elara firmly.
"Starting tomorrow, you must act like an adventurer!" continued Elara, beginning to explain the details of her plan meticulously. "Because five days from now, the two of you must start working as the empire's official assassins in the dark. I do not want any more non human races to become victims of their atrocities just because we are late to act."
"I understand, Mother!" answered Calian and Wolvin in unison with a steady tone.
"Then, what about the identities of the two of us in the guild?" added Calian. "Our status right now is still rank F, you know. It would be very strange if rank F beginner adventurers could suddenly be outside the city."
"Rest assured about that, Calian. I will handle everything personally with the guild master." answered Elara quickly. Her eyes radiated the calmness of a mother who had prepared everything. "I will teleport to his workspace and discuss this matter secretly without being known by anyone in the guild."
As a son who knew his mother's character very well, Calian could only nod in understanding without the slightest intention to oppose. He also knew very well that his mother always acted very carefully and with highly mature planning.
But, there was still one thing lingering and making curiosity envelop the purple-haired youth's mind since the event in the throne room earlier.
"Mother, actually there is one more thing I want to ask you." said Calian.
"What is it that you want to ask, Calian?" asked Elara while adjusting her sitting position.
"Why did you deliberately tell everyone about your blessing in front of all the nobles present at your inauguration earlier in the throne room?" asked Calian curiously.
Hearing that question, Elara did not answer immediately. She merely smiled softly at her son, a smile containing thousands of hidden war strategies.
"I deliberately showed off my [Supreme Archmage] blessing so that the attention of all the nobles would be too focused on me." explained Elara in a very calm tone. "I wanted them to be terrified and only look at me, so they would never suspect that the two of you possess other powers that are far more secret and deadly. I deliberately became a shield of attention so that you and Wolvin could have free room to move in the dark without anyone watching your every step."
Calian was stunned for a moment hearing the explanation. His mother's strategy was truly mature.
With Elara standing as the sun blinding everyone's eyes, the shadows moving beneath her, Calian and Wolvin, would become completely invisible.
My mother truly never changes. She is always one step ahead in thinking about future plans. thought Calian, feeling relieved as well as increasingly amazed at the figure of the woman who now led the Erthland Empire.