Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Leanne stood inside one of the waiting rooms of Arcvallen Castle, trying not to let her mind get overwhelmed by the ketricite blocks surrounding her.

She understood that it was necessary for the most important location in the kingdom to be safe from any spies or stray spells, but it didn't change the fact that she felt terrible with the ketricite's effects weighing on her core.

The place really riled up her paranoia. The place negated magic in the first place, and even worse, they didn't even allow for her to stock up on mana in her body. She was well and truly helpless.

If anything happened to her inside the palace, there was nothing she could do to help.

'But… if the kingdom really wanted me dead, then I wouldn't be able to do anything either…' a thought popped up in her head. 'Even if I have access to mana, I wouldn't be able to deal with the High-mages, or any of the King's Mages that lurk the palace…'

The despairing thought actually helped her calm down a little. Leanne felt as if she understood the people who feel at peace, even though they're thousands of gold in debt. When the scale of things get out of hand, it becomes hard to properly wrap one's head around it.. 

But she couldn't be completely calm. With one thing settled, her mind immediately focused on a different worry.  It was the reason the kingdom's soldiers could come in at any moment and arrest her. 

She was, of course, trying to pass on Albin's message to the king as she promised. 

At first, she thought she could just ignore Albin's request, but her paranoia did not allow the easy way out. She realized logically, that it was most likely impossible for Albin to keep an eye on her. But her mind insisted that Albin knew what she was up to. Albin might not know that personally, but he definitely could have henchmen or colleagues working for him. 

He just joined a very powerful organization, so it was impossible for him to be completely helpless. 

He even mentioned that the Capital's castle wasn't completely safe. If that was the case, it wouldn't be so hard to have someone in Ankelite. 

Thus, driven by her fears, Leanne started working on how she could tip the king without being found out.

She wrote up a dummy project/research paper, then encoded a secret message in it, hoping the king would notice it. King Seth was adamant on reading every paper submitted to the government himself, promising funds and attention to the most innovative ideas. 

When Leanne first heard about it, she ignored it, thinking she didn't have anything to do with those studious people. But later on, she realized it was a great chance for her to convey a message to the king, and started working on her plan. 

It took some time, but she managed to write up a legit enough paper, which still contained the secret message she was trying to tell.

As she waited with bated breath, she soon received a summons from the king. Leanne's heart jumped at the news, but she still couldn't be completely sure about what was going to happen.

Did the king really catch the message in the research paper she submitted? Or was she going to get detained by the guards and interrogated for information. The only two possibilities were those two, as she knew the project she pitched wasn't anything world-changing. Only something that Leanne was lately becoming passionate about: divorce settlements. 

When she and Terrence agreed on a divorce and started pursuing it formally. Leanne said that she didn't mind if the two just started living apart and doing whatever they wanted, but Terrence insisted that they do things properly.

Soon, they learned that the process was too tedious and inefficient. To be fair, it was rare for divorces to occur and only the rich possessed the wealth to actually go through the procedure legally, so Leanne could get why things were like that. 

So, when she realized she could pitch a project for the king while also sending him the message, she was overjoyed. And it wouldn't be so odd of her to do something like this as well.

Leanne found herself smiling self-depreciatingly, thinking where it all went wrong.

Half a year ago, she was just a teacher at decently sized city, and now she was playing emissary for one of the most wanted criminals in the world.

"Mage Leanne Lanesbreau, the king is expecting you in his office," a guard, that was most likely a mage, spoke.

'Guess there's no delaying it any longer,' Leanne thought and followed the guard.

They came to a door and the guard declared Leanne. She entered with her hands clasped in front of her and a slightly bowing posture, greeted the king first, introduced herself second, and explained her reason for coming third. As per protocol. The king asked her to raise her head and she was allowed to look inside the room. 

She half expected herself to be brought to one of the ceremonial rooms, with its grand decorations and tall ceilings, but of course, king Seth was a much more practical.

The king's office was large, compared to her own office, for example, but it was still much more contained than what someone would expect from the king of a country. There were the essentials, but not much more. The only decoration in the room was the royal family's symbol etched onto a banner, and the portrait of the founding king.

And fittingly, the king himself was dressed quite modestly. He was wearing a formal black suit that was perked up using a modest amount of golden buttons and threads. It was a much more approachable look compared to when Leanne saw him first, during the coronation ceremony all those years ago. 

At that time, king Seth was wearing a mix of white and silver, the usual colors for the Arcwall family. Of course, at the time, the decorations on the man's body were at least a dozen times fancier than what Leanne was seeing now. 

And honestly, the modest look suited the king. The man's features were handsome, but he wasn't the rugged hero that his father was. King Seth exuded a much softer and gentler aura compared to his father. 

"Leave us," king Seth spoke.

"Sir," the guard nodded and walked out.

The king casually got up his seat, and opened the stack of documents in his hand. Leanne recognized them as her submitted project paper.

"A most useful take on the procedures of divorcing. Honestly, we should've created a law about this a long time ago, but no one found the time to properly word them. Many thanks for doing our job for us."

"It is my pleasure," Leanne replied stoically, but was a bit surprised inwardly. 

First of all, her paper was seemingly not that terrible. And secondly.

'Did he not catch the message?'