Chapter 81 81:Under Suspicion[2]
"Director of Valhalla."
"You know better than anyone else that when there is a conflict of interest, the one that prevails should be a matter of the Empire as long as we are doing nothing bad."
A cold, chilling voice sounded.
Following a deathly silence, the temperature of the chamber went down by a few margins.
"I understand, Your Highness."
Julian folded her long legs, and sitting down on her seat, stared down at the crow-masked man kneeling before her.
Her gaze lacked empathy, making the person facing her tremble.
Generally, a Princess can't put political pressure until she is a candidate for the crown, but when it comes to the Princess of Cyprus, it is different.
Her words were law. If she wanted something, The Emperor would push forward irrespective of the circumstances without holding back, and even the Two Princes fighting for the Throne would support her notion wholeheartedly.
Such was the place she occupied in everyone's heart.
Noticing his trembling knees, Julian pressed him further.
"With the Authority of the Royal Family, I order you."
"I don't want you to search him or divulge much. Tell me a bit about his appearance. His height, age, and his body structure. We will take care of others."
Taking care of the mess inside the Academy, Julian began searching for the guy. From the bits of information, she was sure that guy wanted them to look for him.
Maybe he is in a troublesome situation or perhaps his identity doesn't allow him to step forward, so he is indirectly asking the other party to advance.
She then looked at the person who was still in dismay and scoffed"If you don't want to comply, then leave, but remember one thing. Next time, what awaits you is a Royal Decree, and you should know what it means to defy a Royal Decree."
"I…I will comply…." The man spoke trembling and provided the details.
Julian, after taking a look at the details, sighed.
Nothing much can be discerned from this. It was like searching for a needle in stacks of hatch. However, there was one distinguishing feature.
That was, black hair coupled with golden eyes.
Golden eyes were even rarer than blood eyes, but were often hard to distinguish from those having blonde hair and yellow eyes.
She guessed that it would take a long time.
However, on that day, she was lucky enough to witness a fight between the boy and a dark-robed woman.
There seemed to be two corpses, out of which seeing one, she couldn't even find words to describe. There was also that guy who ranked first in the 1st Year.
Oddly enough, when that 3-Star guy was knocked out, the 2-Star boy, though beaten and battered, was holding well.
The more she noticed the fight, the more surprised she became.
That guy was thoroughly ruthless. To win, he even risked his life by letting the enemy stab his chest, after which he stabbed her near the neck and started to torture her.
Observing the situation, she felt she should watch more and act only when something happened. That's how she learned about the conversation.
Even in the darkness one could see the beautiful golden glow reflected from the boy's eyes coupled with black hair.
That was when a realization flashed in her mind, so she decided to use this opportunity to speak with him.
.............
Lucas closed his mouth, pondering inside.
He can only guess the overall situation.
Lucas wanted to narrow down her searches, so he deliberately did not cover his eyes or use a wig to change his hair.
He was sure that Julian would use her authority to investigate him.
According to his prediction, she would take a month or more to pin him, unless she happened to stumble across him.
However, because as an asshole, she might have tracked them down early, and she was the one who saved him.
She had seen his fight and his embarrassing moments, thinking about this, he wanted to die by drowning in a bucket of water.
However, what worried him more was that all this might be his guess? What if she had not found that he was the guy who passed the knowledge?
He needs to come up with a reason and a plausible one, while hoping that she knew he was the one who passed the information.
Trying to pacify the situation, Lucas opened his lips.
"Your Highness, since you have the authority, I don't think I need to hide this from you."
Lucas's eyes turned solemn.
"If you track my movements, you will know about the scenario of me being trapped in a weird dungeon."
Julian asked him to continue.
"Inside it, I found several illegal research papers and other things, which I handed over to the Hunter Association. Miss Ami can vouch for that. In that dungeon, I encountered someone who seemed to have lost his mind and blabbered about the attack on Horizon, so after knowing that, I just could not still."
"Hmm....but what about your declaration of knowing about inside information and how do you know about the channel."Julian's face hardened.
"From a guy named Sam. " Lucas answered in a grave tone.
Julian flinched back.
'I can't believe I am using the name of a dead guy. If she asked me to take a mana oath, I would be dead.'
Fortunately, a certain incident had taken place around his hometown.
"I met him during the Cavalier monster attack. While rescuing the town, he said that if I need any help, I should message this channel. And, I only knew about Miss Ami's charge of that channel from Uncle Sam."
Sam was one of the retired knights who served Julian, who died in a dungeon outbreak a few years ago.
"And about inside information. I was just bluffing,"Lucas pretended to be embarrassed again.
Julian blinked her eyes a couple of times and calmed her breathing.
"I just wanted to piss her off. You also know how these people are. She might be just trying to make me lose my guard."
"Your personality seems way different from that day."
Lucas wanted to run away, noticing her sharpened gaze.
'Did she have to stab me at that point?'
"I know I am not a good guy, but at least I respect everyone unless they mess with me. And it may not look like, but I am a bit hot-tempered. I lose myself easily in anger. Pardon me for showing you such a sore sight." Lucas gave a small bow.
He knew many things, but he just needed to hide them now so that her curiosity in him doesn't diminish.
Julian's lips twitched. She opened her lips to speak, but for a moment, she was unable to.
She could notice that this guy was hiding something, however there was no lie in his words except he twisted some facts.
Still, she knew that the facts he was hiding were crucial and might be beneficial in the future.
Pondering about the pros and cons, she made the final decision.
"Lucas, congratulations, you are hired." Julian's lips curled upwards.
"Huh… What?"
Glancing at that professional smile, Lucas felt like an employee hired by a company that was going to make him work until exhaustion.
"But why? I am?"
"You are quite capable. I am enlightened just by exchanging a few words with you."
"I am n…."
"I know you are pleased hearing this."
"No, I..."
"Even if you aren't happy, you have to work under my watchful eyes."
Julian cut Lucas's sentence without giving him a chance to refuse.
There was a subtle threat in her words, signifying that he had no choice.
'I wanted to come under your wing, but not like this.' Lucas cried inwardly.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself.
"What if I betray you?" Lucas asked.
The tension rose again. Julian glanced at him deeply before answering with a smile"If you can pull tricks under my eyes that means you are a capable guy while I made a mistake and a fatal one moreover. So, I just need to erase it."
'Erase… What will you erase?'
"President, I will accept the invitation, but can you help me with something."
"What is it?"
"This letter, we should find this atrocious person who wrote such an absurd thing, destroying the decorum and etiquette of a resume."
"Okay,I will try to look into that."
"Thanks."Lucas grinned.
With her permission, he can teach someone a lifelong lesson.