The priest of Zeus looked at me angrily. For a moment, I thought that he would actually accept my challenge, but then, his gaze met with the other priest. A subtle shake of his head was enough to make the priest of Zeus swallow his disagreement.

"Of course not," he managed to say, unable to control his anger. "The last thing I want would be to accidentally malign your great high priest."

"I thought so," I said smugly, while, at the same time, I used my Charisma to repeat the orders to Baron Maell, that he needed to stay under the safe house and not go out. "Now, continue explaining how this waste of space here is not a traitor despite the testimony of my high priest."

The kingdom representative was the first one to speak. "Here's a pardon, stamped by the high council," he said as he passed the document.

I checked the document, just long enough to confirm that it was genuine. "Alright, he's off the death penalty," I said, and the priest of Zeus smiled, like he had won a victory. "But that doesn't explain why he's here?"

"Since his mistakes have been forgiven, it means that—" the priest intruded.

"Nothing," I interrupted.

"I beg your pardon," he commented.

"It means nothing. House Maell has already cast him out of their ancestral records. As far as we're concerned, he has no need to be here. Do whatever you want with him."

"He can still declare a blood duel for admission," the priest started. "And, if we think it's unfair, our church might decide to appoint a champion."

"Oh, I would love that," I answered, happy with the threat of the duel. "I might even beg the high priest to leave the opportunity to me."

"You dare stand against the great Zeus!" the priest declared, even angrier.

"Standing against your god? No," I said. "However, how much force is your precious god willing to sink into this little planet that's about to go through the Calamity?" I chuckled. "I would love to reduce that number by one."

"You think that you can defeat our champion?" he asked.

I said nothing for a moment, relying on my body language to look at the others. "We already know all we need to know about you, and believe that we can," I said with a big smile. "Now, why do you think we can't?"

The silence was beautiful. By challenging him on his lack of information, I was hitting his weak spot. After all, from their perspective, not only did we appear from nowhere, but also managed to build an infrastructure that was able to smuggle a lot of magic weapons without getting caught.

All the while, they didn't even know the name of our god.

I could see the doubt in their eyes as they looked at me, aware that my high-handed approach against the church of Zeus might be just a bluff … but then again, it might not be. They needed to assign some substantial forces to reveal our hand.

Not a move they were willing to commit so close to the Calamity.

"There are still some legal issues that need to be addressed," the diplomat intervened as he looked at me, and pulled out some documents. Clearly, they were prepared to keep me in the tent, no doubt wanting to keep me away from the battle at the Wall. I had already shown how dangerous I could be against an army, and that was when I was alone.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I was equally happy to accept that and force their flying castle to stay here. With most of the younglings there to support Zolast, the Wall was as secure as it could be. I much preferred staying there, ready to intervene in case of an emergency.

What followed was two hours of pointless legal discussions about many topics, including but not limited to the future of House Maell, the future and legal status of our church, the number of soldiers under our command…

I dealt with lawyers far more cutthroat than an upstart diplomat that spent most of his time swinging his sword and a couple of priests. Refuting their arguments without admitting anything was trivial, which kept the talk pointless and frustrated them.

I could understand. They were here to take over Town Maell, and they had already failed on that. Now, they were doing their best to have any kind of success that they could redeem their name with, but they were failing at that as well.

I was willing to play along…until I received an emergency alert from Limenta. A team of cultists had revealed themselves and attacked the princess and the young duke Yoentia, who was with them. He was already doing his best to defend her, but wards were preventing them from asking for help.

A quick message to Zolast solved that problem. I turned my attention back to the diplomat and his retinue, ignoring my desire to run to the Wall to support them.

The languid and circular discussion we were having wasn't any less important than the battle itself. I stayed, letting them think that their efforts to isolate me was working.

I didn't change that even when the town guards had caught two more assassins in town — thankfully not as strong as the ones I dealt with earlier — searching for Baron Maell. Their last hope of turning the situation had failed, and I didn't even need to do anything.

"Are we going to waste all day here?" I finally said, acting bored. "We have already acknowledged the kingdom's right to forgive treason, yet refuse to readmit this waste of space back into the family," I said. "The other topics don't require the constant threat of battle," I said.

"That's the prerogative of the Ralum Kingdom —" the diplomat declared confidently. He wasn't smug, but it was a close call.

I interrupted him again, this time with a blast of Charisma that put him to his knees before the priest of Hephaestus could intervene. "If that's the position of Ralum, we're happy to take it," I declared. "We have already killed many cultists wearing your military uniform."

Said priest stepped between us and used his Charisma once again. "There's no need for that, Lord Steward," he said calmly. "No need to escalate just because of a misunderstanding. As you mentioned, everything important has already been discussed. We can end the parley."

"Excellent," I said as I turned my back, ready to leave the tent.

"Just, one thing," he added before I stepped out. "We fear that some weapons made by unqualified blacksmiths have been circulating in the market. Our church takes that very seriously, and will find them. No matter where."

"I don't know why you chose to mention that now, honored priest" I said. "Are you trying to imply something?"

"Of course not. I wouldn't dare to imply that your church dares to stand against the decree of the Blacksmith Alliance and covet illegal products."

There were many answers I could give, but I decided to throw him a nugget, which hopefully would be enough to throw him the opposite direction. "Naturally. There's nowhere on this planet that could avoid the attention of the Blacksmith Alliance," I said, changing my voice slightly as I delivered the words "this planet".

It was a subtle trick, almost obvious, but that didn't mean it was ineffective. One benefit of living a life steeped in crime was that I knew how different types of criminals reacted to being challenged. Some were content in hiding in shadows and treating it as a normal job, but for most, it was a chance to strike back.

Ironically, that was a trait that was shared by politicians and successful businessmen as well.

Therefore, from his perspective, the subtle focus I put on that particular pair of words could be an innocent statement or a deliberate misdirection, but the risk of it being true was high enough.

It was never a bad idea to add some confusion against the enemy, particularly one that was already on the move. I didn't know what he had been aiming for when he first arrived, but whatever it was, it had already been foiled.

With that, I left the tent and walked back to the town at a leisurely pace, like I wasn't still in a range that I could be attacked by a flying castle if they changed their mind. However, I had spent hours building a confident facade, and I didn't want to ruin it.

There was no hiding the anger on their faces as they walked to their flying cart and floated away, but they didn't try anything. I would have loved to take the opportunity to deal with the threat against House Maell.

However, once the castle started to move away, and the blocking wards that had been impeding the communications had been removed, I was glad for it. I received a message from Mahruss.

Karak was found unconscious. And, Jertann was missing.