The King of Evigheden walked out. Beside him was a man who looked tough but was thin. He wore gold, white, and red clothing, characteristic of the distant royalty of the Kingdom of Arcelia.
The Hero and Divine Hunter, Aster Zeggler.
Most of those present were not surprised to see him. They had been informed that he would be there, but his presence still gave young and old alike much to talk about.
Behind them came several people of great importance to the Kingdom.
The Permanent Dukes.
Unlike the dukes from the royal family, who were granted titles and territories by the crown, these dukes have duchies on the level of kingdoms, as they are the leaders of the kingdoms that Evigheden conquered.
In the territories of the old kingdom of Findaria, the Duke of the Mountain now rules in the south. This gigantic mountain range crosses half the western and part of the southern continent. He has numerous marquises and earls under his command.
Next to the Duke of the Mountain was the Duke of Shadows, who ruled the territories of the old Kingdom of Sahdowsdawn, east of the capital of Evigheden. This kingdom is the largest in terms of urban area, as it has the most gigantic cities ever built.
For example, the City of Shadows, from where the Duke rules his 10 Marquises and 16 Earls.
Finally, three large figures in every sense of the word (they were over 2.5 meters tall) walked alongside them. They are known as the Dukes of the Duchy of the Three Giants. They rule over the former territory of three kingdoms that had formed an alliance years ago (Reverie, Farea, and the Kingdom of the Divine Sapling).
All of them have sufficient status to be feared throughout the kingdom, mainly because they are all demigods.
The appearance of so many demigods made the atmosphere heavy, but they all remained behind while the King and Aster Zeggler sat side by side, looking at all the nobles gathered there.
Princes, Royal Dukes, Marquises, Earls, Viscounts, Ministers... All the kingdom's high nobility and high officials were present, with few exceptions.
This meeting was expected to be extremely important, so almost everyone responded to the King's call.
As he scanned each member of the nobility, he was surprised to see Ryan, but his gaze did not linger on him for long, and then he simply looked back over.
"Thank you for coming, dear brothers, sisters, and important people of my kingdom." The King immediately spoke. No one else dared to say a word. "Today's announcement will be as brief as possible, for the Kazaks continue to advance on each of our borders, and we must keep them reinforced," he said.
Although the Kazaks' continuous attack on the borders was nothing new, it was still a cause for concern.
When the Kazaks first appeared fifty years ago, humans ruled the four continents, there were many kingdoms, and everyone could travel wherever they wanted, almost without fear.
Just 50 years later, the Kazaks conquered the North and South Continents, ruling the two ends of the world and forcing humanity to retreat to the East and West Continents, increasingly losing important territories.
If it weren't for the fact that the East and West have always been the most powerful and have many demigods, they too would have fallen, and humanity would be history. But thanks to the wise moves of the King of Evigheden in his internal conquest, the kingdoms were able to strengthen themselves, now as duchies, which has also allowed them to survive the onslaught of those terrible evolutionary monsters until now.
So abandoning the borders is not an option. These demigods have to go back to their respective places.
"Luckily for us, it's not all bad news." The King looked at his counterpart, Aster Zeggler, and motioned for him to speak. "Please, Hero Aster."
Aster smiled and looked at those gathered.
"As you all know, in the East, my comrades and I fought to the death against the Kazaks, forcing them to retreat, but also against the one who allowed them to come into this world: the Divine of Chaos. It is difficult for me to talk about what happened back then, because my then best friend betrayed me," he said.
Among the ranks of nobles and princes, Ryan stared at him. A dangerous glint flashed in his eyes as anger and hatred intensified within him.
The traitor, talking about betrayal.
Although furious, Ryan could do nothing but remain silent.
Aster frowned slightly as he scanned the room. He had sensed something strange, but unable to find anything, and having to speak, he ignored it.
"The point came when Arcelia's royal family was completely wiped out, and on the orders of the last member, I had to administer the continent on my own. But that's not sustainable. Administration isn't something I'm good at; I wasn't born for it. I was born to fight the Kazaks, to kill those who want to steal our lands." His voice sounded like an authority, a law, or a divine mandate. It was loaded with his convictions, ideals (and lies).
Ryan frowned. 'The Royal Family of Arcelia died?'
That family was peculiar; it wasn't very powerful, but had tremendous power. It was difficult for them to die just because of the Kazaks.
His eyes flashed with caution. 'They trusted this bastard blindly. Were they betrayed?' he thought.
Given that it was Aster, it didn't sound far-fetched. But he had little information, so he stopped theorizing and focused on listening to what that bastard was saying.
"Therefore, I made a decision together with the King of Evigheden. From this day forward..." Aster Zeggler stood up, as did the King, and both spoke the following words at the same time:
"The Kingdom of Arcelia becomes the Duchy of Arcelia, under the crown of Evigheden. The crown of Arcelia will be worn by the Duke, but he will not be recognized as King from now on."
His words were explosive, but they didn't give everyone enough time to react.
"This is not something to be taken lightly," said the King, shaking Aster's hand. "The Hero Aster and I undertook a mission in enemy territory and managed to bring back what originally belonged to us." As he said this, he took out a strange item.
It looked like a key, but it was broken in half.
It had an incredibly powerful energy, which immediately struck the spirituality of everyone present, until not one dared to look at it directly.
"The Key to the Divine Gate. Although it is broken in half, it still retains much power. When activated, it will tell us where its other half is. But this key will not be used by any of us, the older generation. We are already passing away, dying in a few decades, and in the best-case scenario, we will live another 100 years. We are no longer qualified to carry them."
"That's why." The King cleared his throat through spirituality, and his strong power resonated throughout the room: "We have decided that the Key to the Divine Gate will be handed over to the next King."
"The current generation of Kraham is brighter than ever, and the extermination of the other Royal Families makes it clear to us that this is the best way to do things. My son Albert is incredibly talented, and so is Brandon. Most of my children are worthy contenders for the throne."
He emphasized "most" to clarify that he was not referring to everyone.
Naturally, those words were directed at one person: Ryan.
"That is why the War for the Throne of Evigheden begins now, years before the appointed time, but at the right and necessary moment. In addition to ruling the entire world, the ultimate reward will be this piece of the most coveted Key in the world."
Ryan's ears rang with joy, amazement, and shock.
A key that had been stolen 55 years ago by the Divine of Chaos, which then led to the destruction of the Kingdom of Farea in the struggle to recover it, had been recovered—a part of it.
'How did they do it?'
He himself had participated in the mission that time alongside Aster. Both of them failed miserably and were unable to recover the key. The Kingdom that supported them was destroyed, and although they ultimately killed the Divine of Chaos, it was a shame to have lost it.
Even though it was only half, how on earth could they recover it, now that the forces of the Divine of Chaos had the Kazaks as allies?
There was only one answer: they had grown stronger beyond limits.
But how?
This opened up a new range of questions in his mind, which Ryan had to ignore. There was a possibility that they had done it using the Key, but that sounded too dangerous.
He focused on what lay ahead: the battle for the throne would not be easy.
Aster Zeggler is the master of his four brothers (the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh), and now he is part of the same kingdom as them.
All their goals are under the same banner, and he must beware of the dangerous Kazak monsters and the constant changes in the plot to come from Brandon.
The changes in this life... were too much.