The entire grand hall was still completely losing its collective mind, the overlapping shouts and gasps from the nobles creating a deafening wall of noise.
Hajin remained perfectly still, keeping his expression neutral while his mind raced a mile a minute.
'Why is he doing all this?' he thought, his eyes fixed on the King's completely relaxed and confident face.
He didn't care about politics, and he knew the King was a seasoned, ruthless ruler who didn't do things just out of the kindness of his heart. Handing a commoner a noble title and a piece of land wasn't a reward; it was a massive, calculated political earthquake.
Even though the Great Families themselves weren't present tonight, since it would take days for them to travel to the capital, the news would reach them immediately. It directly challenged their established hierarchy and threw Hajin right into the center of the kingdom's power struggles.
