Chapter 353: Did He Figure It Out

The messenger blinked in shock.

Adrian ignored him. He cracked the wax seal, unrolled the parchment, and quickly read through the fancy, overly-wordy imperial demands.

After reading for a few moments, he rolled the scroll back up and looked up at the messenger on the horse.

"Tell the Emperor that we are not hostile," Adrian said calmly. "Tell him I do wish to talk to him and negotiate a proper arrangement."

He paused, letting his eyes turn cold.

"And of course, tell him that weapons are not allowed inside my camp. My men will be searching his group at the gate to make sure no one brings a single blade inside."

The messenger just stared down at him. The man slowly turned his head and looked at the thousands of Oresfall soldiers standing in tight formation behind Adrian. Every single one of them had their swords drawn or were pointing their weird looking sticks at him.

The hypocrisy was blinding.

But the messenger didn’t say a single word. He knew better than to argue with a man who had thousands of armed troops at his back. The decision wasn’t his to make anyway. He just tightly pulled on his horse’s reins, turned around, and rode back to the Emperor’s carriage.

Adrian watched the distant conversation happen.

To his mild surprise, Emperor Maximilian actually nodded. He waved his hand, and the royal knights began dropping their weapons right where they stood.

They left their broadswords and spears behind as the Emperor led his personal entourage forward toward Adrian’s camp.

Maximilian walked with his chin held high. He strutted forward with Roderick walking closely by his side, fully expecting Adrian’s men to part for their ruler.

Instead, two large Oresfall guards stepped directly into his path and crossed their arms.

"Hold up," one of the guards grunted.

Emperor Maximilian stopped dead in his tracks. His face instantly contorted into a look of deep offense.

"I’m sorry, Lord Maximilian," the guard said in a tone that didn’t sound sorry at all. "But we cannot allow you to pass before we check if you have weapons on you or not."

Maximilian’s face went bright red from sheer humiliation.

These commoner soldiers hadn’t bowed. They hadn’t stepped aside. And worse, they had just casually called him ’Lord’ instead of ’Your Highness’. They were blatantly disrespecting his authority right in front of both armies.

Maximilian opened his mouth to scream an order for their executions, but he suddenly felt a heavy hand clamp down hard onto his shoulder.

The grip was incredibly strong.

He glanced to the side and saw Roderick staring at him. The Financial Minister’s eyes were dark and the gaze was familiar. It was a silent demand to not do something stupid and ruin his plans.

Maximilian swallowed his anger. He immediately straightened his posture and glared at the guards.

"Fine," the Emperor spat.

The two Oresfall guards didn’t hesitate. They stepped forward and aggressively started patting the Emperor down. They ran their hands over his robes, checking his boots and his waistline.

Within seconds, they confiscated two hidden daggers from his sleeves and forcefully pulled the spatial storage rings right off of his fingers.

They did the exact same thing to everyone else in the group.

They patted down the royal knights, taking any hidden backup weapons they had tried to sneak past the initial drop and they also took Roderick’s rings.

And finally, they moved to the last guy standing in the back of the group.

This person clearly didn’t look like he belonged in the army, and he definitely wasn’t a part of the royal family. He was wearing weird, baggy clothes. He had a strange cloth shirt on that had a soft hood attached to the back of the neck, and his hands were stuffed into a front pocket across his stomach.

The guards didn’t recognize the style but it looked pretty similar to the hooded cloaks that a lot of people wore. The only difference was this was much smaller and also had weird pockets in the front.

They patted the strange kid down, confiscated a small hidden blade, and stepped back.

"Clear," the guard called out.

With the checks finally done, the guards stepped aside and gestured toward the center of the camp. They sent the disarmed and humiliated group walking toward where Adrian was waiting.

Adrian stood at the front of the camp and watched the Emperor’s disarmed party walk toward him.

He scanned over Emperor Maximilian, noting the man’s red, humiliated face, and then glanced at Roderick, whose eyes were already analyzing the surroundings.

But Adrian’s gaze didn’t linger on either of the powerful men.

He couldn’t help but notice the guy walking in the back of the group. It wasn’t because the kid looked uniquely powerful or anything like that. In fact, compared to Roderick and the Emperor’s lavish royal robes, the guy looked pretty much like a peasant commoner, and his looks were average.

But what caught Adrian’s attention immediately were his clothes.

The kid was wearing a hoodie.

It was clearly clothing from Earth. Hoodies hadn’t been invented in this medieval fantasy world yet, and even the people of Oresfall didn’t have them since Adrian had a lot of things to do and didn’t have the time to design a hoodie and try to make it popular. The people already had their clothes and they didn’t have any problem with those so he didn’t really see a point of introducing hoodies.

Adrian just stared at him. He didn’t say anything, but he slightly turned his head and looked to his side where Wang Lei was standing nearby.

Wang Lei felt the gaze, turned to look at Adrian, and followed his line of sight toward the group.

Wang Lei immediately leaned over and whispered something into Adrian’s ear.

Roderick saw the subtle exchange from a distance and frowned slightly. He wondered what the reaction was about.

’Did he figure out that this kid was summoned?’ he thought to himself.