The atmosphere in the room suddenly became incredibly tense and lethal. The air seemed to be sucked dry.
Before the blue-haired man could react further, Elara's voice exploded, breaking the silence with a command sharp as a sword.
"Calian!" Elara shouted suddenly with a booming voice, her eyes not looking away for a second as she locked onto the blue-haired man's movements. "Stop him right now! Do not let him escape from this room!"
Without a second thought or questioning his mother's reasons, Calian acted immediately. He raised one hand, focusing the flow of energy around him, and activated his [Time Loop] magic.
"Stasis!"
In an instant, the air around the man who had just entered rippled softly. However, the effect was far from gentle. The man's body suddenly went rigid, locked completely from the base of his neck to the tips of his toes. He could still see and breathe, but his muscles refused his brain's commands. Time around his physical form had ceased to flow.
Realizing that he was truly paralyzed and unable to move even an inch of his limbs, the man was hit by an overwhelming wave of panic. His eyes darted wildly, trying to comprehend what had just happened to him.
"W-Why are you doing this, Your Highness?" the man cried out with a trembling voice, forcing his vocal cords to work amidst the shock that paralyzed his mind.
"I am the one who should be asking you that!" Elara stated firmly. She stepped forward, closing the distance between them with slow steps that radiated a heavy aura of intimidation. "Why is a rat of a spy from the Yornvast Empire prowling freely within the heart of this empire? Have you been the one continuously leaking Erthland's internal information all this time?"
Hearing the string of sharp accusations from his sister, Emperor Rodaz gasped in shock. His eyes widened as he looked back and forth between Elara and the frozen man.
The blue-haired man was his chief advisor, his confidant, and most importantly... his spouse. He desperately did not want, and was not ready, to believe his sister's words.
"What did you just say, Sister?" Rodaz exclaimed, his voice rising from a deep internal denial. He stepped toward his sister with a pallid face. "You must be joking, right? What kind of accusation is that? It is impossible for him to be a spy! We have lived together for fifteen years, sharing a bed and our thoughts!"
Elara stopped her steps, then turned to glare intensely at her brother, who still insisted on denying the bitter reality before him.
"Do you think I am speaking loudly here just to waste time and make up lies in this throne room?" Elara countered in a low but crushing tone. "Open your eyes, Rodaz! The man who has been sleeping beside you all this time is a spy for the Yornvast Empire. His real name is Harold Waldebrach, the son of a Marquis who is fiercely loyal to that emperor!"
Rodaz's breath hitched upon hearing his advisor's real name.
"And just so you know, Rodaz," Elara continued without giving her brother a chance to process, "this Harold is no ordinary person! He is the possessor of the [Space Traveler] blessing, a rare ability that can manipulate space and distance."
Elara turned her gaze back to the man who was now deathly pale in his paralysis. "In other words, he can move at will using teleportation, manipulate space, and move through palace security without a single soldier noticing. He could report all your plans to the emperor leading the Yornvast Empire even while you were sound asleep holding him!"
His sister's sharp explanation hit Rodaz's consciousness like a sledgehammer. The Emperor stumbled back a step. He stood in stunned silence while looking at Harold's face. The man who had accompanied him through difficult times, the man he trusted with the palace's internal secrets, turned out to be a poisoned blade planted right in the heart of the empire he led.
"Sleep!"
Without warning, Elara cast her magic. A gentle but irresistible wave of magical energy swept across every corner of the throne room within seconds.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
One by one, the dozens of elite soldiers guarding the sides of the room lost consciousness. Their bodies collapsed to the floor, falling into a deep slumber without being able to resist. Not stopping there, Elara also extended the range of her sleep magic to the corridors outside the throne room. The spell would automatically topple anyone who dared to approach within a certain radius.
"Sister!" Rodaz shouted, jolted from his daze as he saw his troops falling all around him. "What are you doing?! Why did you make all the guards here fall asleep like that?"
The Emperor's frustrated shout echoed in the throne room, which was now filled with the soft snoring of the soldiers. However, Elara handled her brother's panic casually, as if she had just brushed dust off a table.
"I was forced to do that, Rodaz." Elara answered with a calm expression. She tidied her gown slightly. "This conversation is no longer just about your blind romance. This concerns the safety of my son. Do you see your spouse standing stiffly over there?"
Instinctively, Rodaz looked at Harold, who was still standing like a stone statue, his eyes reflecting a panic he could not voice.
"Yes, I see him. He cannot move." Rodaz said, his voice now a mixture of confusion and lingering anger. "What exactly is wrong with his body? And what does it have to do with you putting all the soldiers in this room to sleep?"
"It is because of the blessing my son possesses!" Elara replied, her expression turning very serious and protective. She stepped back and stood slightly to the side in front of Calian, like a lioness protecting her cub. "My son is the possessor of the [Time Loop] blessing. He is someone who can manipulate the flow of time at will."
An absolute silence took over once more. The series of shocks tonight were truly testing the limits of Rodaz's sanity.
Hearing his sister's answer and knowing the fact that his nephew who looked so calm in front of him actually possessed a power equivalent to that of a God made the Emperor feel as if he could hardly breathe. He turned slowly, staring at Calian's face with a look of pure wonder and dread.
From where he stood, Harold also experienced a massive internal upheaval. He never expected that the teenager who had been labeled as Empty, a piece of trash without a blessing in the Yornvast Empire, was actually hiding a power more terrifying than his three other siblings.
No wonder he could stop my movements so easily here. Harold thought to himself, trying to grasp the situation amidst his paralysis. It seems he stopped the absolute flow of time for my physical body and even halted the spatial flow around me with his [Time Loop].
With great effort, Harold moved his eyes, glancing toward Calian, who stood calmly beside his mother.
I never imagine that one of the Larvin descendants would be hiding the blessing of a God. Harold thought again. This time, pure wonder mixed with a fear that crawled through his heart. His thoughts drifted far back to the Yornvast Empire. If Duke Maxwell Larvin knew this fact... that arrogant man would surely be struck by an overwhelming regret for discarding and exiling his own biological son, who turned out to be the master of a power that could control this world.