I'm Trapped Inside a Prince as the Most Powerful Entity-Chapter 178: Father’s Burden

The moment Adam left the office the heavy charged atmosphere in the room seemed to lighten. A profound sense of bewilderment remained. The Emperor David watched the door close behind the boy.

His expression was a complex mixture of frustration relief and a dawning reluctant admiration. He then turned to look at his old friend the Principal Logan.

Logan in turn looked at the Emperor. A faint knowing smile was playing on his lips.

"I thought," he began his voice laced with a gentle teasing irony "that you would not give in so easily my old friend. This is the first time in many long years that I have ever seen you bend David."

The Emperor let out a long weary sigh. He walked back to the plush sofa. He sank into its soft cushions.

The weight of his entire empire seemed to be settling upon his shoulders once more. He looked at Logan his expression now one of profound bone-deep exhaustion.

"You don’t understand Logan," he said his voice a low tired murmur. "This incident with Cian... it wasn’t just one noble family putting pressure on me. It was all of them."

He leaned forward his elbows on his knees. His hands were clasped together.

"Every single family in the Empire every noble house that holds even a sliver of influence at the Royal Palace they have all been exerting a constant unrelenting pressure on me since the news of Cian’s punishment broke."

The Principal was genuinely surprised by this. He had known the political fallout from his decision would be significant. But he hadn’t realized the full extent of it. He too sat down taking the sofa opposite the Emperor. His own expression was now one of a more serious scholarly concern.

The Principal’s face was a mask of confusion. There was one piece of the puzzle that he simply couldn’t understand.

"David," he asked his voice now that of a friend seeking clarity not an subordinate questioning his ruler

"there is one thing I don’t understand about your condition for Eric. Why did you ask him to take your daughter Monica out of the Golden Group?" fгeewёbnoѵel_cσm

He leaned back his gaze steady.

"As far as I know," he continued

"for generations every single member of your royal family has graduated from the Golden Group. It is the most powerful and prestigious faction. Your eldest son a warrior of immense renown a hero of the Empire graduated from the Golden Group. Your eldest daughter a brilliant military strategist graduated from the Golden Group. It is a tradition a legacy for your family. So why," he asked his voice filled with a genuine profound curiosity

"would you place such a strange condition before Eric? Why would you want your own daughter your potential heir to leave the most powerful faction in the entire Academy?" The question hung heavy in the silent room.

It was a mystery that seemed to defy all logic and all precedent. The Principal could not understand his friend’s reasoning at all.

Hearing the Principal’s question David leaned back on the sofa. The plush cushions sighed under his heavy weight.

He tilted his head back. His gaze was fixed on the ornate painted ceiling of the private office. His expression was now distant and contemplative. He seemed to be looking at something far away.

"Times are changing Logan," he said his voice a low somber murmur.

"They are changing very quickly. And I want to warn you too. A great war is coming to our lands. It is a war unlike any we have ever faced before in our long history."

The Emperor’s words were so heavy. They held a grim prophetic certainty. They sent a cold chill down the Principal’s spine. Logan stared at his old friend.

His brow was furrowed with a mixture of confusion and a dawning profound sense of unease.

"A war?" he repeated his voice laced with disbelief.

"David as far as I remember as long as you are ruling this continent there will be no war. Your power your authority it is absolute. Who would dare to challenge you? No kingdom would be so foolish."

The Emperor slowly lowered his head from the ceiling. His gaze once again met the Principal’s. His eyes usually so filled with a calm imperial authority were now dark.

They were dark with a troubling almost fearful intensity.

"And what if I were to tell you my old friend," he said his voice a low dangerous whisper

"that this time the war will not be started by the people of this continent. It will be started by people from... outside this continent?"

The Principal was stunned into silence. He stared at the Emperor. His mind was struggling to comprehend the implications of his words.

"Outside the continent?" he finally managed to say. His voice was a mixture of deep shock and profound skepticism.

"David that is impossible. The continent cannot be crossed. Our magical abilities as advanced as they are are not so advanced that we can traverse the deep treacherous oceans that surround our lands. The sea is filled with unknown monstrous creatures. They are beings so powerful that they could defeat even our strongest warriors in a matter of seconds. And you are telling me," he continued his voice rising with a mixture of disbelief and a dawning terrifying horror

"that there are people from another continent who have managed to cross that ocean to bypass those monstrous sea creatures and are now planning to attack us here on our own land?" The idea was so far beyond the realm of possibility.

It was so completely outside the bounds of their understanding of the world that it seemed like the ravings of a madman.

But the look in the Emperor’s eyes the grim certainty in his voice told the Principal that this was not madness.

This was a terrible an impossible truth. And it was coming for them all. The world was about to change forever.

The Emperor remained silent for a few moments after the Principal’s skeptical outburst. His gaze was distant. His expression was grim. He then let out a long heavy sigh.

The sound was a testament to the immense weight of the knowledge he was about to impart.

"Actually Logan," he began his voice low and serious "some time ago Sir Kashi the chief magician of the Royal Palace detected a very large very unusual energy fluctuation on our western coast."

The Principal’s focus sharpened instantly. Sir Kashi was not a man given to flights of fancy or to making mistakes. He was the most powerful and respected magician in the entire Empire.

He was a figure of immense wisdom and great skill. If Sir Kashi had detected something unusual it was a matter to be taken with the utmost seriousness.

Logan leaned forward on the sofa his earlier skepticism replaced by a new intense curiosity. He tried to listen more closely to his friend’s words.

"To investigate this strange fluctuation," the Emperor continued his voice now a low almost conspiratorial whisper "we dispatched some of our most discerning and powerful magicians. And we sent Sir Kashi himself along with them to the western coast to see what it was."

"And what did they find there?" the Principal asked. His voice was now filled with a sense of foreboding a feeling that something bad was coming.

"What they found," the Emperor replied his voice grim and heavy "was a cause for great alarm Logan."

"What was it?" the Principal pressed his own sense of unease growing with each passing second.

"What did you find on the coast?"

The Emperor paused for a moment as if gathering his thoughts before continuing his story.

"We found a destroyed ship," he said his voice now flat almost clinical.

"And it was... a very strange ship. It was not like any ship we have ever seen before. It was not designed to just sail on the surface of the ocean. It was also designed to travel beneath the surface of the water as well."

The Principal was taken aback by this. A submersible vessel a ship that could travel underwater... it was a concept straight out of ancient half-forgotten legends. It was a technology far beyond anything their own continent possessed.

"And all the people who were on that strange ship," the Emperor continued his voice now a low somber murmur "they were all dead. There were no survivors. But they did not die from battle. There was no sign of any violence on their bodies. They had died from starvation."

He paused again letting the weight of his words sink in.

"And as we investigated the ship itself," he went on "we found that its technology its strange weapons everything about it... it was not from this continent. It was alien to us. And we also found something else on that ship something... far more disturbing."

The Principal was now completely and utterly captivated. His mind was racing with questions.

"Were they exploring this continent?" he asked his voice a mixture of awe and a dawning terrifying horror. "What were those people like? Were they human? I need to know more about them David. You must tell me."

The Emperor leaned back on the sofa. A faint almost imperceptible smile touched his lips.

"Sir Kashi," he said his voice now a little more relaxed "has forbidden anyone from sharing this information or any of the strange artifacts we recovered from the ship. You are my oldest and dearest friend Logan which is why I am telling you this. But otherwise this information is known to very few people in the entire continent. It is a state secret of the highest level."

The Principal was stunned into silence. He knew that if Sir Kashi a man known for his great caution and his unwavering commitment to the safety of the Empire was trying so hard to conceal this information then the threat whatever it was must be far greater than anything the Empire or even the entire continent had ever faced before in its long history.

A new terrifying era was dawning. And they were all whether they knew it or not standing on the precipice of a great and final war. The world was about to change in ways they could not even begin to imagine.

And they were not ready for it. Not at all.

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