As Rhegnight was let on the little trick their Iudex had tried to pull, he felt his lips twitch.

This type of surreptitious behavior was not at all becoming of an Exalted Power, at least not so openly.

Worse, they had gotten caught.

And what was the worst of all was the matter involved someone as high-ranking and eccentric as this old man.

It was little wonder the old man had reacted so violently.

In fact, given his temperament, he actually might have shown restraint when he blew up the gate and not cause far more ruckus.

But of course, Rhegnight was not going to admit to this so openly.

So putting on a brave facade he spoke,

“Master Artificer Parntheos! Please refrain from slandering us. Such grave accusations should be backed up with the requisite proof.”

“Now if you have any specific grievances with the Iudex, please come to the Resplendent Starry Hall with me. You can present your case to His Majesty and he will surely give you a fair judgment.”

That’s right.

Rhegnight decided to dump this Byzantine of a mess at the man sitting at the very top of the ladder.

And by now, his manner of address had become very gentle, as he started to address the old man by his full title- Master Artificer Parntheos.

And he even invited the man to the innermost part of the Absceria Palace, the most luxurious section where the king usually rested and relaxed.

He did not think Master Parntheos was lying about the Iudex’s veiled act.

The old man was widely known to be not that type of man.

But that was also what made the situation so complicated.

Rhegnight’s head hurt just thinking how the king was going to react to learning that his Iudex was trying to sneakily murder his infant son, while his father-in-law blew up their portal and killed at least fifty men and women.

Even that short-haired woman Master Parntheos disgusted himself as, who knew what happened to the real her?

Was she killed or simply knocked away and stacked away in a hidden corner till Master Parntheos did his thing?

All such questions worked to make Rhegnight feel glad for once that he was not the top dog.

But before Rhegnight would be absolved from his duty, he needed the still angry old man before him to come with, so to sweeten the deal, he even added,

“I’m also sure Lady Parthia will be happy to see her father in these trying times. Please, let us,”

Rhegnight warmly gestured.

“Heh! My daughter will be far happier even if I bring the head of the lizard that tried to kill her son!”

But the old man seemed to be still very much fuming as he brushed off Rhegnight’s words like used scrap paper, only turning to glare at his other target.

And then the air around him suddenly appeared to be heating up, as tangible red and golden mana threads started to flow around him, these threads congealing and soon merging into thick tentacles, emitting a dreadful pressure all around.

The old man was very clearly telegraphing his intention to fight.

Something which caused Rhegnight to slightly gasp, “Old man you!”

He could not believe Master Parntheos was still itching for a fight.

But to Rhegnight, Master Parntheos had this to say,

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“Heh! Give me justice? You want me to go and beg that useless son-in-law of mine for justice.”

“Where was he when his son was almost killed just now? Where is he even now?”

“You think all this commotion escaped his notice?’

“The sissy is probably watching all this from afar. Spineless dog!”

“I must have had my head kicked into shit to marry my daughter to that wastrel.”

Master Parntheos really did not hold back on his ‘very open and frank’ opinion about his son-in-law, and finished his tirade by saying,

“If I had not suspected this snake’s treasonous thoughts and came to see my grandson off, he would have surely died!”

“And I would have been even tricked into rewarding you for ‘saving’ my grandson.”

“So I do not want to see that spineless coward.”

“He cannot even protect his own child, how is he going to give me any justice?”

“I will take it myself.”

Saying so Master Parntheos’s aura soared even higher.

While Rhegnight, having his courteous invitation thrown back at him like that actually was more preoccupied with other emotions rather than being angry.

When Master Parntheos put the situation like that, Rhegnight did again feel a bit ashamed as he felt they had done the man dirty and it even trumped the anger he should have felt for someone cursing his king so maliciously and even calling him ‘useless’.

Not even those Rank 8 fogeys would call the ruler of an Exalted Power useless.

Master Parntheos by now had vented enough and waving his sturdy arm around, shouted towards the Iudex,

“Darm lizard, get ready.” as his aura surged even more and started to literally melt many of the structures around turning the surrounding air hazy and ‘wavy’.

The man’s magical power was as fiery as his temperature and his attack seemed imminent.

But the one facing the brunt of this aggression- the Iudex still appeared as cool as an iceberg, and his demeanor mirrored that, as he simply commented in a placid, analytical tone.

“I would advise you against that, Master Artificer Parntheos. As an artisan, your strength lies in your equipment.”

“Indeed, if you had all of your legendary gear, you could indeed handle both of us handily.”

“But we know you have not come here with them. The wards here would have detected them otherwise.”

“So at best, you have one legendary item hidden on you. The others should be locked away in the Weapon’s Matrix at Profound Architect Sanctuary.”

“Meaning most of your strength is locked away in the Weapon’s Matrix at Profound Architect Sanctuary too.”

“You are not even a match for one of us, much less two.”

“Please rethink. I urge you to.”

The Iudex, betraying his usual stoic nature, actually said quite a long piece, in a tone that sounded as if he was giving honest, beneficial advice.

He repeatedly and honestly highlighted the inherent disadvantage the opposite party was in, a disadvantage that he proposed was unbridgeable.

And as a matter of fact, he was right.

Master Artificer Parntheos, if it was not obvious by the word ‘Artificer’ in the name, greatly relied on powerful magical artifacts to fight.

The type of magic he practiced lacked many powerful offensive spells like some of the other branches of magecraft but made up for it by possessing heaven-defying ways to mold and shape various materials into giving them fantastical and sometimes even impossible abilities.

Abilities that when properly stacked and synergized, could defeat two or even three mages of the same rank easily.

And Master Parntheos, being called Master Artificer of course had a set of very personal set of such equipment.

One which complimented him perfectly and possessed incredible offensive, defensive, and movement capabilities.

One that he had made himself and which got him the title- Master Artificer.

But mighty as that equipment was, it did come with some restrictions.

Now, the equipment had no inherent bindings but the organization he belonged to - Profound Architect Sanctuary did.

It mandated all Level 7 and above equipment must be stored in their special weapons vault during peace times, with only a Master Artificer or above-ranked mage allowed access to just one such item to be used for personal protection in everyday day-to-day life.

And though one might think the Profound Architect Sanctuary was here being greedy for doing this, well, not really.

Profound Architect Sanctuary really did not hoard these precious items because they drooled over them.

They confiscated them because Level 7 and above items were very powerful, with each and every one being considered national treasures and strategic weapons by many powerful nations.

These items were so game-changing that even countries as powerful as having a Rank 7 mage leading them lusted after them crazily, for such all encompassing were their abilities- be it offensive, defensive, movement, spying, meditating, healing, etc.

Thus to give multiples of such equipment to any man during peacetime certainly did not seem prudent.

If someone was malicious enough or like in the case of Master Parntheos, impulsive enough, he might use them in the heat of the moment to do something so grave and irreversible that it might cause a massive disaster.

Like a great war between two Exalted Powers.

But although in general, this was a very good policy, in this particular instance it came to bite Master Parntheos on the back hard.

For he was like an unarmored, unarmed knight facing two fully armored opponents.