The court exploded as discussions of the count's crime spread throughout the courtroom.
Those who once spoke up for him either went silent or turned on him, not wanting to become caught in his screw up.
Count Dellock knocked over his seat again as he called out, "That is a lie! Who is paying you to say this!? Who is trying to frame me!?"
Before things could get out of hand King Roderick tapped the floor with his scepter and silence immediately descended on the room.
The king had cast a silence spell forcing all discussion to cease.
Turning to the knight on his left he said, "Go confirm this."
As the knight left the room people found that they could speak once more and started discussing the news of what Count Dellock had done in a quieter, more controlled volume.
Meanwhile Count Dellock was looking considerably less imposing than he had when Chronos entered the room.
Everyone knew that once a king's knight started taking action the truth would be uncovered soon enough.
A few minutes later the knight returned with a gem that very few of the nobles recognized.
"Wha-What is that?" Asked Count Dellock.
"It's a new product made by the Hundred Towers Mages Academy. It can record and replay what has happened in front of it. I've had them placed in various important buildings to watch for intruders." The King said.
The mages academy was a recent development for the city established by the most skilled mage in the city.
In the past all of the mage towers would fight to prove who was the best but one day they damaged the tower of a young genius mage destroying a project he was working on.
In a fit of rage he challenged all of the towers in the city and after a battle that lasted 12 hours, he defeated every tower's leadership.
Afterwards he went to the king and requested permission to establish a national academy for training young mages, which the king granted. Uniting the towers he had defeated he brought all of their skill and knowledge to a single academy that only had two purposes.
The first purpose is to develop the talents of young mages by keeping the jealousy of the tower's seniors in check. The second purpose was to create an environment in which new ideas could be developed freely.
The flying ships were one of the products developed by the Hundred Towers Mages Academy.
Thanks to this academy many ideas that people had thought were impossible were becoming a reality with each passing day.
Holding the gem in front of the King a mage came forward and cast a spell that brought something out of the gem. An illusion of what had happened that morning. It took a little searching but it wasn't long before they found the time that Count Dellock had met with the court staff.
"Sir, you want us to isolate the trade ambassador?"
Sound was coming from the illusion.
"Yes, that arrogant dwarf won't give in so you're going to help me teach him a lesson." Count Dellock's illusion gave a nasty smile.
"If we do that, we'll be breaking court rules."
"And if you don't follow my orders, I'll have you fired. I'm sure you don't want that disgrace on your family."
The staff had worried looks on their faces before finally accepting.
"Very well, we'll do it."
As the image faded the court had a string of murmurs run through it once more.
"Tha-That can't be real. It was an illusion shown to us by the mage," Count Dellock shouted.
He was grasping at straws now, searching for any way to remove suspicion from himself. He was looking around searching for someone that would back him up when the mage spoke up.
"The recording gem is accurate, and I have no reason to try and alter it, Count Dellock."
She lowered her hood revealing long golden locks and the same sky-blue eyes as that all members of the royal family had.
It was Eliza, one of the daughters of the king.
"Are you accusing the Royal family of framing you, Count Dellock?" Eliza asked with a smile that was not a smile.
"N-No Ma'am," he weakly said.
Chronos thought that he was speaking too softly but from the looks the other nobles were giving Eliza there seemed to be some frightening history behind her.
King Roderick knocked the butt of his scepter on the ground again to draw everyone's attention.
"The Royal Court will place Count Dellock under arrest on suspicion of manipulating the court for personal benefit. As a part of the disciplinary action taken against him, he will lose all standing and position within the court until further notice. His official hearing will take place on another date after the evidence has been gathered.
If a member of the court finds this unacceptable, speak now or hold your peace until the day of the hearing."
No one in the court was willing to speak up for Count Dellock after such damning evidence had been found within their own walls.
"The Golden Knights shall escort Count Dellock to his house where he shall remain under house arrest until the day of the hearing."
With that two Golden Knights entered the court and lifted Count Dellock off of his chair where he had slumped over. It seems that the verdict had drained him of any will to fight back.
Chronos watched them leave wondering what else they would find during the search.
"Chronos stand."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Chronos stood up from the kneeling position he had maintained the entire time.
"The court is now ready to hear your report on the eastern front."
"Yes Sire. The eastern front is currently...
...And following that I made my way to the capital. This ends my report Sire."
Chronos had reported everything that had happened with the tears and the construction of the eastern crucible castles, but he hadn't reported about the Naga's movements or the devils.
Those things had already been reported to King Roderick in private and he'd decided that the court didn't need to know about them yet.
Privately Chronos agreed with him as knowledge of the devils would encourage the idiots amongst the nobility to try to make deals with the devils while thinking they were in control of the relationship.