Chapter 536: Lord Vespera’s Presence [Bonus - ]

Chapter 536: Lord Vespera’s Presence [Bonus Chapter]

He swept his gaze over the tiered seating where the young heirs and scions sat.

"The rules are simple. Each of the Nine Major Powers may enter two representatives. They must be blood relatives, recognized heirs, or sworn vassals of your respective houses, aged twenty-five or below. The nation whose champion stands victorious at the end of the exhibition shall receive the exclusive unhindered primary drilling rights to the contested northern rift for the next five years."

The room went completely still as the rulers absorbed the decree... What the King wanted was a tournament.

A blood-showcase of the next generation to settle a multi-trillion-credit territorial dispute.

"Furthermore," the King added, his tone taking on an unusually conversational edge, "this exhibition will not be conducted behind closed doors. It shall be broadcast live across the global networks. The Crown intends to get in on this... ’streaming’ phenomenon... that seems to dominate the civilian communications sphere these days."

The delegates blinked in utter bewilderment.

A stream? The Supreme King of the World hosting a live internet broadcast of a high-stakes Lord tournament?

Before anyone could process the absurdity of it, Princess Kiera shifted upon his lap.

Her face lit up with a brilliant smile, her golden eyes sparkling with genuine girlish excitement as she looked up at the King’s severe profile.

"Father... really? A stream?" Kiera asked, her voice sounding melodic and carrying cleanly across the quiet pit. "Streams are like... one of my favorite things to watch! The duels, the live chat feeds, the ranking ladders... it’s so exciting!"

The King looked down at her and right there, in front of the entire governing body of the human race, the terrifying tyrant of the world smiled.

He raised his heavy hand and affectionately patted Kiera on the head, his fingers smoothing her sapphire hair with tender care.

"Then you shall have your stream, my dear," the King murmured warmly.

Aki felt a sharp burning knot tighten in her throat.

’Look at that,’ Aki thought with her nails digging into her palms until she felt the skin break beneath her velvet gown. ’He doesn’t care about media engagement... He doesn’t give a damn about global streaming culture either. He’s doing the entire thing just to indulge his favored daughter.’

Essentially... the whole world is dancing to her tune.

The King looked back up, the warmth vanishing instantly from his face as he addressed the noble houses.

"In the interest of true competition," the King declared, "the invitation is not limited strictly to the Nine Powers... Both House Sterling and House Bloom are granted entry into the bracket. Should a scion of either noble house emerge victorious, the northern drilling rights shall be transferred to their respective family enterprises."

Lohan Sterling’s eyes flared with intense corporate hunger, while Etilga Bloom’s grin widened, her ruby eyes blazing with excitement.

Up in the mezzanine, Seraphina reached down, resting her palm against the hilts of her twin hunting daggers, while Valerius let out another long resigned groan.

Then, the King’s sapphire gaze slowly turned but he didn’t look at Alexander.

His eyes drifted down to the lowest tier of the royal guest arc, locking directly onto Aki.

Aki flinched.

It was a microscopic movement, barely an eighth of an inch, but her entire body went ice-cold.

The King was staring straight at her with his eyes steady and lacking any sort of pity.

’No...’ Aki’s mind screamed, her pulse spiking into pure panic. ’What is he doing? Why is he looking at me?!’

She was Unawakened and she had no core but she was twenty-five years old.

...The exact upper age limit of the tournament.

’Is he going to put me in this... tournament?’ the horrifying thought exploded behind her eyes like an artillery shell. ’He’s going to put me in the sand against Awakened monsters to settle Vanderbilt’s grievance... He’s going to let them slaughter me on a live global broadcast just to clear my name off the ledger—’

The King drew a breath with his lips parting to speak.

"THE MEETING IS IN SESSION! YOU ARE NOT ALLOW—"

A muffled panicked shout echoed from beyond the massive reinforced double doors at the primary diplomatic entrance.

BAM!

The sound of a heavy combat boot striking titanium rang through the vestibule.

Before the twelve World Council Enforcers stationed at the threshold could even raise their halberds, the colossal five-ton star-iron blast doors were casually shoved open.

CREEEEEEAK... SLAM!

The heavy doors hit the reinforced stone stops with a deafening shuddering crash that sent a shockwave vibrating through the floorboards.

The entire Great Assembly Chamber snapped its attention toward the shattered entrance.

Fifty high-tier rifles came up in unison with the targeting lasers painting the smoke-filled doorway with a web of red beams; however a figure stepped through the threshold.

"Gods above..." a smooth feminine voice complained, echoing lazily through the room. "You people really need to oil those hinges. That was embarrassing."

The smoke cleared and standing at the top of the grand marble staircase was a woman.

She was lithe and breathtakingly striking, possessing a pale, flawless complexion framed by shoulder-length jet-black hair that fell in casual, slightly messy waves around her sharp jawline.

Resting on the bridge of her straight nose was a pair of thin wire-rimmed reading glasses that gave her an infuriatingly calm air.

She wore a bespoke double-breasted suit of charcoal-black wool, tailored to perfection, with crisp white cuffs and a loosened black silk tie resting against her collar.

Her right arm was casually extended, holding a half-eaten paper bag of roasted nuts while her left sleeve was completely empty.

The dark wool fabric of the left arm was neatly pinned against her ribcage, the empty cuff drifting lightly in the air currents blowing from the ventilation flues and making her silhouette look amazing.

Beneath the clear lenses of her glasses, her eyes were glowing.

WHOOSH!

They were a deep terrifying violet that pulsed with a spiritual power that made the air within five paces of her leather dress shoes visibly warping, bending the white hall light into jagged purple prisms.

She simply raised her single right hand, offering a lazy two-fingered wave to the five hundred frozen petrified people staring at her in dead silence.

"Afternoon, everyone," Kara said, she was completely unbothered by the fact that she had just breached the most secure room on the planet. "Sorry about the door. You can call me Lord Vespera... or Kara White from Valoria City. Whichever one rolls off the tongue easier..."

Aki’s jaw dropped. The breath died entirely in her throat, her blue eyes wide as dinner plates.

’Silas..?!’

Up in the mezzanine, Seraphina Bloom’s ruby eyes dilated into tiny pinpricks of pure shock with her grip freezing solid over her daggers.

Beside her, Valerius Sterling’s jaw hung low.

At the Grand Table, the King slowly rose from his throne.

His sapphire eyes locked onto the black-haired woman on the stairs with his immense suffocating presence rising like a tidal wave.

"Lord Vespera," the King spoke, his voice carrying the weight of an angry god. "You enter the World Council unannounced... You breach the outer perimeter and you arrive alone."

The King’s gaze flickered past her shoulder, looking into the empty dust-choked corridor behind her.

"Where is Lord Sky?"

Kara stopped at the top of the stairs, popping a roasted nut into her mouth and chewing slowly.

She pushed her glasses up her nose with her right thumb, letting out a small tired sigh.

"Yeah, about that," Kara said, her voice sounding flat and deadpan. "Lord Sky won’t be joining us today... He came down with an extraordinarily tough sickness about several hours ago. He’s terribly bedridden with high fever and chills."

Kara let out a sigh.

"Oh what a tragedy~"

’Well, she did say that she needed to go on a date somewhere... They definitely don’t need to know that,’ Silas thought dryly.

Kara stepped down the marble stairs with her single right hand tucking into her trouser pocket as her leather dress shoes tapped rhythmically against the stone.

Click! Click! Click!

She casually strolled past the frozen guards, completely ignoring the King’s rising aura, her violet eyes scanning the seating arrangements until they landed on the western arc... specifically, on Chancellor Henri de Montmirail of Europa.

"Oh, hey, Chancellor," Kara said, offering a friendly familiar wave with her right hand toward the bespectacled diplomat. "Good to see you. Valoria City’s infrastructure has been holding up pretty well lately. Thanks for funding the new transit line out in Sector Two, by the way. Made getting to the high-speed rail much easier!"

Chancellor Montmirail blinked, his face flushing a bright furious crimson as the sudden blistering spotlight of the entire world swung directly onto him.

"Ah... Y-Yes, of course, Lord Vespera!" Montmirail stammered, frantically adjusting his glasses. "Europa always prioritizes civic infrastructure for its... distinguished citizens!"

Instantly, seven heads of state turned, shooting burning glares straight at the Europa delegation.

The United Hegemony had just received massive trade concessions because of an imperial bastard, but this?

Having the most terrifying viral Awakened on the planet... humanity’s supposed sole Gold Core born, raised, and casually paying taxes within Europa’s borders?

That was a checkmate of astronomical proportions!

If Blessed Land formally aligned with Europa, the global balance of power would shatter overnight.

Kara walked over to the foot of the Grand Table, stopping directly in front of the high chair draped in violet velvet marked [LORD VESPERA].

She pulled her right hand from her pocket, grabbed the back of the star-iron chair, and pulled it out, sinking into the plush velvet cushions with a long sigh.

"Haah~ Good to be here..."

She leaned back, crossed her long legs, and let out a tiny delicate yawn, covering her mouth with her right knuckles.

"Lord Vespera," Magistrate Bloom boomed from the Council bench, his voice laced with cold fury. "An imperial summons is scheduled to the minute! You are nearly an hour past the opening bell! What conceivable justification do you have for delaying the governing bodies of humanity?!"

Kara tilted her head, looking up at the Magistrate through her wire-rimmed lenses with an expression of mild deadpan annoyance.

"I overslept," Kara said bluntly.

Aki felt a drop of cold sweat roll down the back of her neck.

’She... she overslept?!’

"And honestly?" Kara continued, gesturing casually with her right hand toward the high ceiling. "I didn’t even have a proper suit for this circus... I spent forty minutes running through three different boutiques in the commercial district just trying to find a double-breasted cut that didn’t look completely ridiculous with only one sleeve. Plus, you people didn’t even book me a private transport. Do you have any idea how many administrative security checkpoints I had to sit through while I rented a plane? How did you expect me to get here on time?"

The entire chamber stared at her in stunned disbelief and Aki stared at the black-haired woman with her heart doing somersaults behind her ribs.

’Silas is being blatantly disrespectful,’ Aki realized, a mixture of terror and hysterical amusement bubbling in her chest. ’In front of the King... In front of the World Council... She’s treating the most terrifying summit in human history like an annoying trip to the post office.’

But as Aki looked around the room, she saw the truth dawn on the faces of the other rulers.

Nobody was moving to strike her down.

Even the King, whose Destruction had atomized an Amazonian guard for a mere sideways glance twenty minutes ago, was simply standing there with his sapphire eyes narrowed, absorbing her words without raising a finger.

Because everyone in the room knew what she was worth.

...A Gold Core.

The apex of being a Lord. If she was truly what the world believed her to be, then normal laws, diplomatic protocols, and royal etiquette simply did not apply to her.

There was nothing they could legally or militarily do to touch her without risking a catastrophe of the highest order.

And she clearly knew it.

President Julian Vanderbilt Senior let out a deep frustrated sigh.

’Why can’t these damned anomalies ever be obedient corporate assets who dance to the will of the markets?’ he thought, his jaw tightening as he stared across the floor.

Yet, as the quiet dragged on, a subtle cold skepticism began to bleed into the eyes of several rulers.

Tsar Volkov frowned with his heavy brow furrowing while King Zhao tilted his head, his eyes squinting through his white eyebrows.

Where was the pressure?

When the King spoke, the air turned to lead.

When the Council Member intervened, the room drowned in crimson gravity but Kara White was just sitting there in a tailored suit, eating roasted nuts out of a paper bag.

Sure, they could sense that she had mana... the purple glow in her eyes and the distortion around her shoulders proved she wasn’t an ordinary human but where was the suffocating spiritual signature of a Lord with a Gold Core?

Why couldn’t they feel the crushing weight of a core that supposedly surpassed the Purple rank?

Was she a fraud?

Had Blessed Land staged the entire Unmovable Wall broadcast using high-yield explosives and synthetic broadcast filters to fabricate a legend?

The King took a slow step forward, resting his hands heavily against the celestial marble of the table.

"Lord Vespera," the King spoke, his voice dropping into a dangerous rumble that vibrated through the floorboards. "You claim a seat at this table but diplomatic leverage in this chamber is not granted by reputation or public broadcasts... It is determined by the power of the core beating within your chest."

The King’s eyes locked onto her violet lenses intensely.

"Show this assembly what you are."

Kara looked at the King but she didn’t flinch, hell she didn’t look offended.

Her lips slowly curved into an amused smile.

"Right now?" Kara asked softly. "Before lunch?"

She let out another quiet resigned sigh, resting her single right elbow on the table.

"Fine but someone bring me a glass of wine first. Flying through those air corridors was remarkably dry."

A terrified junior attendant from the service station scrambled forward, his hands trembling so violently that the dark red sparkling wine sloshed against the rim of the crystal flute as he set it down before her.

Kara reached out with her right hand, taking the stem of the glass between two slender fingers.

She swirled the dark red liquid once... Twice then, she took a slow, leisurely sip.

CLINK!

She set the empty crystal flute down onto the marble coaster, running the tip of her tongue lightly across her lower lip to catch a stray drop of crimson wine.

Then, she exhaled.

"Sure..."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The world seemed to fracture inside the room as a detonation of pure suffocating golden erupted from her chest like a collapsing star.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The reinforced quartz domed skylight fifty feet above shrieked with spiderweb fractures blooming across the glass and the hexagonal barriers surrounding the area instantly shattered, collapsing into rain of glittering blue sparks.

[Author’s Note]

The more I write about the King Of The World, the more this guy pisses me off.... Haah...