"Okay~~~" The Spatial King grinned happily as he hovered among the stars.
"Playmate… playmate!!! I'll have a playmate soon~~~" His childish voice rang in the spatial void as his image faded from Leon's vision.
Giggles…
The spatial fairies around seemed to also delight with the Spatial King as he happily chanted having a new playmate.
Leon did not show any annoyance towards the spatial king. Since this was the void, time did not flow for the citizens inside the dimension. And so, the Spatial King has always been a child from its first creation.
Living for who knows how many years, the Spatial King remained with the mentality of a child.
As the Spatial King's first master, which was actually an impossible feat until Leon managed to contract him, Leon treated him kindly and was patient to teach him the ways of life.
The only thing that would make the Spatial King angry was if there was someone who would try to desecrate his territory.
After meeting the Spatial King, Leon immediately went back to the earthly realm. He stared blankly at the sky, letting out a deep anxious breath.
He is worried.
Extremely worried.
That he might not be able to handle everything that was on his plate right now.
He looked down and stared at his two hands and silently mumbled, "I can only do this much with my own hands…"
Then he looked up to the heavens once again as he continued, "I just entrust to you everything… Oh, Heavens…."
As if answering his prayers, a cold gentle breeze danced around him.
Only then did he proceed to go inside.
The night is quite short for him and his family these days, and so, he hastily changed his clothes and joined the two lovely people in bed, sleeping beside Little Han while his arm extended to cover Eli warmly.
–
It was as all had expected, the first wave of guests started to come as early as the next two days.
As early as midday, countless reports had been encountered on the Empire's borders. The esteemed guests and delegates from other territories were shocked by the very stringent security inspection.
"This is ridiculous! My master is the 4th Prince of the Medrod Kingdom! We are even a part of the allied nations for the Seirende Empire! How could you treat your ally like this?!!" A butler has been angrily growling at a knight at one of the border inspections of the Empire.
"We've traveled quite far just to support your Empire! To treat us like this!"
"Sire, forgive us if this inconvenienced you but we really cannot give you and His Highness a leeway for this. If you refuse, I could only deny your entry and let you camp outside the borders until you make your decision." The Commander of the Platoon already stepped forward to mediate the situation.
As one of the senior knights of the Imperial Sky and a direct student of General Farauld, his aura is mighty and strong. With just him standing in front of the Medrod Knights, everyone around was already intimidated, even the guests from other territories who were joining the Prince of Medrod's protest.
The commander looked at the agitated crowd calmly, but his aura was cold, "Do not worry about lacking any provision in camping outside the borders, our Emperor ordered that we make sure the basic provisions are provided."
"However, if you really wanted to see if the Emperor would change his mind, it's better now to start your journey back."
"What!?!" All of the guests became more agitated when the commander announced this.
"We are delegates representing our own territories! It is unfair to deny our entry to the Tournament Area!"
"That's right! We will completely blame the Empire if we would not able to come to participate in the Tournament on time!"
"Yea!!!"
"If we arrive late, it's all your fault!" The crowd roared angrily and tried to even forcefully find their way in.
But the commander didn't even show any sign of wavering. Instead, he lifted his hands up. Instantly, countless magical attack arrays that could be rated at A-level were conjured behind him, and all of them were ready to execute at his command.
"Forcefully trespassing the Empire is considered an assault on our territory. We will have no choice but to apprehend you immediately."
"Y-you dare!" The elders and teachers, and even the butler stared at the hostile array in disbelief.
How could the Seirende Empire act like this? It was so aggressive and intimidating. They were like an irritated lion that was about to leap and attack once it was agitated once more.
"We dare… Our Emperor dares! Do not be too foolish to neglect the fact that we have just suffered a grave attack. Now everyone outside can be our enemy." He squinted his eyes and looked at a few people who were keen to instigate the crowd and maintained eye-to-eye contact with them, which made the others shudder.
"Though I understand your concerns, everything would be resolved when you obediently follow our security procedures.
If you are still hesitating then I sincerely suggest that you camp for a few days in the area until you come up with a decision. You also don't have to worry about being late for the Tournament.
As soon as you agree, the Emperor arranged that all of those who decided to comply beyond the designated travel time will have to be teleported half a day before the Tournament!" The commander announced with his might.
The faculty representatives and even the royalty's party could not help but grit their teeth. The Seirende Empire was really keen on not giving the outsiders any face.
The arrangement also ensured that they could never take advantage of the time they could have been there in advance should they hesitate to comply with their security standards.
"Butler…" Just as the butler was about to engage in another argument, a young man's voice sounded in the carriage calling him back to his post.
"Your Highness…" The butler jogged back and waited for his master's instruction.
"Leave it be… I'll have to contact my father and inform them of the situation. We may not even need to camp should everything go right." The Fourth Prince of Medrod answered.
"As Your Highness wished."
Similar cases happened to the other entry points of the Empire. They were also handled by the commanders in the same way as the former. Leaving all the prideful guests unsure.
To those who were not minding to be subjected to the security check, the knights no longer gave them a hard time and allowed them entry as long as they passed the security procedure.
The security procedure was actually quite shocking for those who experienced it. The first was actually the documentation scan, in which they would have no problems as the Seirende Empire had long announced their diplomatic requirements for entry.
The second stage of checking was actually a spatial scan. Which no territory would dare to implement in such a large area like the Empire. A spatial scan will actually check all of their physical and dimensional storage to ensure that they would not bring any banned items inside the empire.
Even the doctors and healers were required to submit their proof of profession should they detect them carrying substances.
Finally, was a mysterious mana test, which no knight was willing to explain. This left those who entered curious about the mana scan. However after they injected a drop of mana, the crystal ball would just project the word cleared and nothing more.
And so they were not able to really figure out how it works. But they could easily guess it. It seems to have something to do with curse magic, they thought.
These people were actually the scouts of other territories. Immediately after they entered the premises, they directly reported it to their masters who were curious about how the Seirende Empire would present itself after being suddenly hurt by an internal war.
Somewhere in the Vanderford Empire, Lord Raven was lazily lying on a couch while he continued to admire the sparkly gems in his hand.
Suddenly, his movements paused as he felt another presence in the room.
"Report…" He ordered.
"The security of the Seirende Empire is overwhelming and peculiar. The gate inspection includes a spatial scan and mana scan… The scout believed that the mana scan was actually something that detects curse magic within the mana of a person. Although he had no idea how it works."
"Hmmm.. curse detection… How futile? Does the Emperor think that I could only send curse users to infiltrate his little territory? Hahaha!" He laughed mockingly as he finally got up in his chair and walked towards the raven that was waiting on a perch.
"But I am quite curious about that device…" He let out an interesting chuckle.
He looked at the shadow who was reporting to him and ordered, "Use some of our disposable mages, let them be guinea pigs to see if that thing works…"
His deep purple eyes sneered playfully as he grinned, "If it actually works…"
