It was a few days after the empress, Heliana visited the villages that were attacked by demons. In the past two weeks, the nobles put on a low profile, none of them talked to Kai or requested an audience with the empress. All of a sudden, a dozen nobles of varying ranks requested an audience with the empress regarding Kai.

"Your Majesty, please reconsider that man's presence! We are already being assaulted by demons from who knows where and to top it all, we have another kingdom's S-class in our palace!"

"Watch your words, Marquess Owen. Sir Kai is currently an indispensable asset to our Empire."

One of the nobles tried to plead with the empress but was immediately shot down.

"We've no knowledge of his origins! The Alteria Kingdom may be one to take risks in making a person like that a member of their royal guard but we shouldn't take the same risk!"

"Viscount Roy, We care not for his origins. We judge based on character and integrity, so far he has proven that he possesses both a good character and trustworthy integrity. If we are to judge based on origins, then what of the nobles that climbed their way up from being commoners? Do we place them beneath us? The answer is no, we treat them as if they are nobles from the start."

(A/N: 'We' refers to the empress while 'we' refers to the actual we. Might be a bit confusing.)

A second attempt by the nobles yet the empress quickly countered him.

"Your Majesty, think about your image. Your entire life, only one man who is not related by blood has been allowed close to you and that is the aide that has served for over three generations. Suddenly inviting over a younger man without consent from the nobles makes it look like you-"

"Impudent! We expected better from you, Duke Mont. You dare accuse this empress of adultery?!"

Seeing as how the empress was angered enough that even her veil couldn't conceal it, the duke shrunk back. They all came here with the goal of driving out Kai yet they can't even come up with irrefutable arguments.

"M-my apologies, Your Imperial Majesty I worded it wrongly! It's just that you're both of proper age to marry, if you were to suddenly fall for a commoner from another kingdom, we would have trouble!"

"..."

The empress fell silent to his words. That was true, Kai had no royal blood in him so if Heliana, the empress were to marry Kai, he'd become the emperor though only in name. Nevertheless, this was still a matriarchal kingdom. Even if Kai were to become the emperor through marriage, he would only hold power beneath the empress.

"All of you need not worry. We know what would happen if this empress were to be smitten by someone. We will only take the finest as our husband, nobody else. Not a commoner or a measly vagabond."

Some of the nobles seemed appeased by her answer but they had another goal.

"My apologies, Your Majesty. We know that you definitely know what to do in these situations but we can't say the same for Sir Kai. We're all forgetting the fact that he's an S-class mage, the sword and shield of a kingdom. If he wanted to, he could take the empress in bed and none the wiser! It would be different if the Empire's own S-class were here but right now, he is the strongest presence in the entire kingdom. If he wanted to, he could destroy the entire capital, he could kidnap the empress, he could sweep the treasury clean!"

Another duke spoke. His words were offensive but at the same time, they were true and nobody here could refute those statements.

"...Your words hold truth in them, Duke Gilbert but this empress believes that-"

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"Your Majesty, forgive my impudence for interrupting but if you simply believe without concrete evidence, you'll be used by him eventually."

"..."

The empress fell silent. The nobles were surprised but immediately regained their bearings.

"That's right Your Majesty, we must at least add some measures for him to stay!"

"What about we force him to seal part of his magical power with the nobles as a key?"

"That's a great idea!"

She wanted to stop them but the empress already lost momentum, how would she take back the higher ground in this argument? Her opponents were people that lived longer as nobles than she's lived her entire life.

"I see, so you want to restrain me."

Without anyone's knowledge, the shadow created by the empress' throne rose and formed the silhouette of a man. Seconds later, Kai's body appeared.

"Your Majesty, this is exactly what we're talking about! He dared eavesdrop on a conversation between nobles!"

"You're all just so loud I could hear it from my room."

Kai spoke in an annoyed tone as he covered one of his ears.

"Silence you commoner! This is a sacred talk between nobles, not a place for hedge-born such as you to flap their mouth!"

Kai didn't respond and yawned in disinterest.

"Alteria Kingdom's captain of the third princess' royal guard, Kai. To your eyes, I may be a commoner but let's not forget my other identity."

Immediately after his words, Kai released an overwhelming pressure of mana, enough to be visible. The empress looked on with wide eyes while the nobles struggled to stand.

"Boorish-"

"In the face of power, your noble blood won't do anything. I'd suggest you all change your words."

That's right. An S-class was someone equivalent to a monarch of a kingdom, they might even be more important depending on the situation, they just underestimated Kai because he was young and not much of his prowess was known.

"Empress, how could you let a man such as this near the kingdom?!"

Duke Gilbert, the one with a glib tongue spoke. When Kai heard his words, he felt the puzzles connect.

I see, they're trying to drive me away so that they can manipulate the empress and in the case that they fail, they can always lower the empress' position by saying she had committed adultery- what a bunch of vain fools.

Familiar with these types of happenings, Kai released his pressure, some of the nobles fell down due to the sudden change but most of them only struggled to stand straight.

"In the first place, why are you all calling me a peasant? None of you know where I came from, I can be from another continent or a commoner, why a peasant? Seriously, this is why ignorant nobles are annoying..."

Kai unintentionally muttered the last sentence but it looked like the person himself didn't notice.

There were several ways to stop the information here from leaking outside. The first option was through negotiation, Kai could provide them compensation in exchange for keeping their mouths shut, another option was to kill everyone in the room- naturally, Kai immediately ruled this out, another and also his most favorite option is...

"Then, let's settle it this way."

Kai walked forward and sat down without a chair, darkness materialized and allowed him to sit on it. The chair looked like a throne of bones and even had skulls made of darkness. Then, Kai took out a wine glass which magically filled itself. He took a sip before placing it next to him, it looked as if he was placing it in mid-air but just as he let go, a table made of darkness materialized where the wine was safely placed.

"You all keep your mouths shut about today's events and never bring it up to anyone- including the empress again. She has far more important matters to attend to than listen to your idiotic complaints."

"Sir Kai what will you do if they were to spread this information?"

The empress asked meekly.

"Of course, I won't kill them."

Saying so, Kai took the glass from the table and held it in between his middle and ring finger, he began swishing it around as he drank sips.

"You're scared of the consequences! If you were so scared then don't act so tough in the first place, just leave the kingdom right now-"

"I'll just torture them to the point that nobody would be surprised if I told them they were killed many times over."

Intimidation. His favorite way was intimidation.

"Aside from being a good warrior and mage, I'm actually quite the proficient healer, I've yet to meet anyone who can best me. I can cure fatal wounds in a few seconds, if I were to say, heal them before they died then nobody would be able to complain about their deaths."

Nonchalantly speaking, Kai used [Soul Aura] but only enough to pressure them. If he unleashed it to its limits, everyone in the room would faint so he only used it to plant some fear inside their hearts. Naturally, he excluded the empress.

That day would never be spoken of by the nobles or the empress' secret guards. Not even a word escaped from their lips about the day's events.

As a side note, Heliana asked Kai on a later date.

"Sir Kai, how much of what you said to the nobles were actually serious?"

"All of them, I'd have tortured them to the point that they wish they were dead if they spoke."

"..."

Heliana was once more reminded that the apathetic youth in front of her was a cruel and merciless being.