The Imperial Visit

With the speeches concluded, the award ceremony began.

The Old King and Hogg personally presented medals to those who had made outstanding contributions during the incident.

The recipients included academy teachers, the City Guard Captain, several City Guard officers, senior student representatives, as well as Setis and Reinhardt.

The Old King personally pinned silver-blue medals onto each of them.

Hogg stood to the side, watching the people on stage with a sense of relief. Once the award ceremony ended, the atmosphere finally relaxed.

The members of the Special Class quickly swarmed around Setis.

"Setis, you were so cool just now!"

"Yeah, for a second I thought that wasn't even you on stage."

"You're not wrong, but maybe don't say that next time."

Mila circled Setis, her gaze falling on the medal on her chest.

"This medal is really beautiful."

Setis gave a soft huff.

"Of course it is."

A bold boy nearby suddenly asked, "Why didn't we see Mr. Li today? Didn't Setis say she was going to invite him? Did he show up?"

Setis's expression froze instantly. Mila's eyes lit up, and she immediately chimed in.

"That's right! Why isn't he here on such an important day?"

"Did you forget to invite him?"

"How could she forget?" another girl said, lowering her voice and intentionally dragging out her words. "Maybe someone was afraid of Boss Li seeing her acting all serious and deliberately didn't invite him? Oh my~ most guys don't really like girls who are too bossy, you know~"

"Nonsense! I—I... I invited him! He just didn't come!"

The tips of Setis's ears turned bright red instantly.

Thor pushed up his glasses and provided a serious analysis. "Actually, from a psychological perspective, if someone cares deeply about another person's opinion, it's perfectly normal for them to show obvious displeasure or even irritation when that person is absent—"

"Thor!"

Setis's gaze turned cold as she snapped her head toward him.

Thor wisely shut his mouth and quietly hid behind Mila.

But the others could no longer hold back their laughter.

Mila covered her mouth and took two steps back, her eyes dancing with amusement.

"Look, look, she's getting defensive!"

In her flustered state, Setis raised her right hand, and a fireball instantly flickered into existence in her palm.

Although the fireball didn't look particularly powerful, it was enough to make everyone's expression change. With a flushed face, Setis shot a quick, threatening glare at the group.

"Try saying one more word!"

"Run!"

The moment the word left her mouth, Mila was the first to turn and bolt. The others followed suit, scattering in all directions with loud laughter.

Thor was the slowest, left behind by the group and nearly tripping over the hem of his robe.

Setis stood where she was, the fireball in her palm slowly dying out. She looked down at the medal on her chest; the heat in her cheeks hadn't dissipated. If anything, it felt like it was getting hotter.

After a moment, she gave a soft huff.

"Who cares about his opinion..."

...

The Royal Palace.

The Old King and Hogg had just returned from the academy and hadn't even had time to rest when Marz hurried in to find them.

He held a formal document stamped with the crest of the Casnoe Empire, his expression far more serious than usual.

"Your Majesty, Teacher."

Hogg glanced at him. "What is it?"

Marz handed over the document. "An imperial delegation is about to visit the kingdom. The formal notification just arrived."

The group went to the council chamber. The Old King sat in the main seat and opened the document.

His relatively calm expression gradually grew somber as he saw the size of the delegation.

"An entourage of... over a hundred people?"

Hogg frowned and took the document to read it himself.

The content was polite enough.

It first congratulated the Kingdom of Kajinson on successfully weathering the Blood Moon Cult crisis and expressed the Empire's concern for the kingdom's post-disaster reconstruction. It then mentioned that Emperor Kevinlit would be sending a formal delegation to visit the kingdom to discuss bilateral exchanges, trade, academy cooperation, and defense against abyssal monsters.

All of that was fairly standard. What truly made Hogg's expression turn grave was the person serving as the ambassador for this delegation—

—Venus Basal Polivik.

The Old King let out a long sigh and rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

"Why her? Doesn't she usually hate getting involved in these tedious matters?"

Marz said in a low voice, "The document states quite clearly that the Imperial Great Sage, Venus, will personally serve as the ambassador. I don't think there's any mistake."

A brief silence fell over the council chamber. The reason was simple: that prominent name on the document—Venus Basal Polivik, Great Sage of the Casnoe Empire.

At only a hundred and forty years old, she had long since achieved the rank of a Heroic Spirit-rank Sky Knight and was one of the five strongest individuals in the world.

She was one of the few people on the continent whose mere name appearing was enough to make national intelligence departments work overtime through the night.

She held many titles: Sky Knight, Great Sage, Wings of the Empire, Knight King...

But in the private intelligence reports of various nations, there was another shared moniker for her—

The Human Calamity.

This wasn't because she was cruel, but because her style of action was far too direct.

It was said that during a border negotiation, when a small country refused to hand over a hidden abyssal monster, she alone with her spear smashed through three lines of the capital's defenses and held her sword to the king's throat to demand an explanation.

It was also said that in her youth, during a battle to seal an Abyssal Rift, she found the front line's progress too slow. She personally led three hundred cavalry in a dive from above the rift, scattering the emerging monsters so thoroughly that not a single intact corpse remained... and she incidentally carved out another "abyssal rift" with a single swing of her sword.

While the results showed she never made major mistakes and wasn't a bully, the process always left behind a massive mess for others to clean up.

Hogg set the document back on the table, his expression uncharacteristically serious.

"The people the Empire is sending this time aren't just coming to talk about cooperation."

The Old King nodded. "A delegation of a hundred people led by Venus herself... this is no longer a simple diplomatic visit."

Marz opened the appendix that came with the document. "The delegation is expected to arrive in the royal capital in ten days. The entourage includes representatives from the Imperial Inquisition, Intelligence, the Royal Academy, and the military, as well as three professionals of Rank 7 or higher. The full list has not yet been made public."

When Hogg heard the words "Inquisition," he looked at Marz in surprise.

"The Inquisition is coming too?"

The Empire's Inquisition was notorious. It was rare to see them appear so openly in such a formal document, and that organization had nothing to do with diplomacy... This was quite intriguing.

"Yes."

Marz nodded in confirmation. The document stated clearly that not only was the Inquisition coming, but they were sending two Inquisitors and eight Adjudicators—a significant force.

The Old King turned to Hogg. "What do you think their true purpose is?"

Hogg was silent for a moment. His mind immediately went to Li Yuan.

But as soon as the thought appeared, he dismissed it, yet he couldn't help but continue to connect the two possibilities.

Could the Empire have already noticed Li Yuan's existence?

It wasn't impossible.

After all, while he didn't know the details of what happened in the City of Divine Grace, the Empire had suddenly sent such a massive delegation so soon after Li Yuan left that area... No matter how he thought about it, something wasn't right.