142 Lloyd's problem

"Believe it"? Asked Rebecca.

"This is the raging news in the capital. Much less believe it, the people here seem to have taken it as fact!"

As Rebecca was saying this, Dante seemed to realise something.

'Don't tell me this is their best plan?" Thought Dante.

Dante already knew that the marriage proposal between him and Princess Levina would definitely be met with fierce resistance from the royal courts.

From the start, the biggest hurdle to getting his marriage with the Princess to go through was never Dante and the Princess's comparability, it had always been the hurdle of the Royal courts.

And if Dante's guess was correct, then he seemed to have an idea of the plan of Hendrix and the others.

it seemed as if their plan was to use the excuse of Dante and Levina being madly in love to try and push this engagement through the courts.

Now, if most people attempted to pull this off, it would probably never work.

While a silly rumour like this might be able to Gogol the general public, the people who had the right to attend the royal court meetings weren't stupid, they would easily be able to spot this as a lie from the very start. But if a legend like Minister Hendrix was to personally beg the King, then the result would be very different...

Thinking about it this way, then this marriage proposal might actually stand a chance

But even if the marriage did go through, it wouldn't change the feelings of the people involved.

Just because some other people were trying to get the world to believe that Dante and Levina were in love did not mean it was true!

"Rebecca, if I'm being honest with you, there's no chance that rumour is true. 

We're both smart people here. The toxic personality of the princess is known throughout the whole Kingdom and yet you actually believe it was possible for there to be real affection between us?"

faced with Dante's stone cold expression, Rebecca was briefly stunned before hurriedly replying.

"Well, of course not!" Stammered Rebecca

"I just had to confirm with you if it's true."

seeing Rebecca's shaky response, Dante just shook his head.

It was clear that Rebecca was lying, but Dante wasn't in the mood to argue anymore.

slowly Rebecca and Dante started walking through the halls of the towards their carriage... 

...

meanwhile, as Rebecca and Dante were making the journey to the Hidden Dragon Academy, Lloyd was storming through the royal palace.

Today was the day of the royal court meetings and Lloyd was in a terrible mood.

Due to the icy relationship between King Raiden and Princess Levina, despite being the eldest daughter, Levina rarely ever attended The Royal court meetings.

With Lloyd's position of the eldest son, He was as already privileged enough to start attending the royal court meetings and familiarising himself with them.

For Lloyd, today was meant to be just like any other court meeting he had been to.

but just as Lloyd woke up this morning, he was greeted with terrible news.

his biggest competitor for the throne and his Rival Dragon Son of War had now become an item!

Hearing this, Lloyd was furious!

It was as if his previously smooth road to the throne was now suddenly blocked with countless thorns.

No matter what happened today, Lloyd couldn't let the marriage between Dante and Levina go through. If it did, it would just be too much of threat to all his plans!

As Lloyd was thinking all this, he started paying less and less attention to his surroundings and ended up walked straight into another person!

Getting himself together, Lloyd quickly apologised

"I'm so sorry for what happened just now. I wasn't paying attention-"

but before Lloyd could finish speaking, the old man looked at him and cut him off

"It's alright boy. There's no need to apologise."

but instead of being grateful or happy, once Lloyd heard who was speaking, his mood turned at least 100 times worse! 

"Minister Hendrix." Said Lloyd hatefully

"What boy?" Asked Minister Hendrix "Don't tell me you're unhappy to see me."

For Lloyd, this man was truly the route of all his problems.

It was his connections and status as The minister of War that allowed for Levina to stand on equal footing with him and compete with him for the throne. 

If anything, Lloyd wanted nothing more than to rip out this man's throat, ending his problems once and for all!

But Lloyd wasn't stupid. He wasn't fooled by this 'kind old man' image Hendrix was putting on.

This very same Kind old man was the same person with mountains of corpses to his name.

The amount of lives he had claimed alone were enough to form a line from here to the city gates at least three times over! 

Hendrix hadn't gotten his title god of war for nothing. Only through countless bloody battles could Hendrix finally claim the title of the War God of Vaenam.

So despite all the hatred Lloyd had for the man, Lloyd could only politely greet the Hendrix as he continued

"No, not of Course minister Hendrix, it's always my pleasure to meet you." Replied Lloyd 

"tch!" Remarked Minister Hendrix 

"Such a fake smile. With all the fake smiling you do, you need to be careful your teeth don't fall out one day."

Seemingly annoyed by Lloyd's fake persona, Hendrix soon turned away and carried on heading towards the courts.

Meanwhile as he left Lloyd was still standing there sending a burning glare into his back.

Leaving Lloyd behind him Hendrix slowly made his way up to the last pair of doors before he would ensure the courts.

Without even slowing down Hendrix gracefully swung the Doors open and walked inside.

As Hendrix entered, he suddenly found everyone staring at him.

He was used to the cold looks he was getting from the normal ministers, after all, he was from the Military faction. 

But what surprised Hendrix was the strange looks he was getting from the military faction he was a part of.

Although he didn't consult the military faction before he went ahead with the attempt to join Levina and Dante through marriage, he didn't think the military faction would be that bothered by it.

But from the looks alone, he could clearly see that some members of the military faction.

But even when facing the discontent of both parties, Hendrix merely sneered.

'Tch! And to think that I've done so much for those idiots,' thought Hendrix as he looked towards the Military faction.

'I just solidify my hold on the faction a bit more and now they're all scared . Truly a bunch of ungrateful dogs!'

But before Hendrix could curse them any Milo get his thoughts were interrupted by somebody loud calls 

"All rise for the Greeting of the King!"

Suddenly a loud cry resounded through the halls as all people present, regardless of their political faction rose to greeting.

Even Hendrix was no exception and rose to his feet to for the arrival of the king.

it didn't take much longer for the man everyone was awaiting for to finally arrive.

suddenly a tall cold faced man walked in.

Bis hair was the signature sky blue of the Royal family with only his beard being a slightly darker shade.

but despite his slightly daunting physical appearance the thing that definitely stood out the most was the robes he was wearing a gollden robe with depictions of lightning and thunder running across the whole outfit, whilst his burning Violet eyes scanned the whole room.

This man was the current ruler and supreme monarch of the Vaenam Kingdom.

King Raiden!

King Raiden slowly made his way up a short flight of stairs up onto his throne which was ina slightly elevated position that allowed him to watch over the court.

after sitting in his chair, Raiden waved hi hand and spoke.

"You may be seated."

with those words, the crowd of ministers gave a light bow before going to take their seats.

The King was here! The courts had begun!

Hendrix had only sat down for a few seconds before he heard a familiar, annoying voice call out.

"My king, I know may be unpleasant to start the court with such news, but I think this matter is something urgent and needs to be spoken of.

........

The man who was speaking was non other than One of Hendrix's biggest rivals from the Opposing faction of civil officials.

He was the Minister Galant, the Minister of the Right.

he was one of the big players when it came to court politics and him and Hendrix have butted heads here on more than one occasion so Hendrix didn't even have to think to know where Galant was going with this.

"My Lord this servant is aware of some strong rumours circulating through the capital, Princess Levina and The New Dragon Son of War are