After passing through the teleportation portal, Celine finally reached the Capital, Xilaris.
The guards stiffened at her arrival, as she was well known for her icy temper, last time a guard had been rude and had been frozen solid from his feet up to his neck and was unable to move for hours until some fire affinity mages were able to unfreeze him.
She calmly walked through the streets of Xilaris, streets full of vendors and awakeners, much more than in the Dukedom of course.
She ignored it all, and finally reached the castle to request an audience with the King.
When the King and Queen heard of her arrival, they could not help but question her motives, they had essentially shot themselves in the foot with the Voidbane's therefore, why was she here?
The Princess however was of a different mindset, she thought Celine was her to speak with her to understand the validity of her letter, perhaps give her a chance.
This gave Karina a spark, and quickly got ready, putting a nice dress and some light makeup that would not make her look to over the top.
..
In the King's hall, there were five people, The King, Queen, Princess, Minister Kyle, and finally Celine.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, and stare contest between Celine and Karina, the king finally coughed to get their attention.
"Celine."
"To what do we owe this pleasure?"
Celine stopped looking at Karina and looked straight towards Christian, the King.
"Christian we have a problem with the rifts."
"My son went into a C rank rift recently along with his companion, and after going in, the rift suddenly turned obsidian and no one else could enter, if that were not enough, the mana readings jumped from C rank to B rank."
Karina's heart skipped a beat.
Is Calux alright?
She thought for a second about Celine's words and narrowed her eyes.
Celine was deliberate, she didn't mention a party, she mentioned a companion.
Who is this 'companion'?
I need to understand more, I will not allow any other woman to take Calux from me.
She thought while gritting her teeth.
Christian surprised as he was, was the first to react, but his question targeted something everyone else ignored.
"Why is Calux entering a C rank rift, didn't he awaken two months ago?"
Celine smirked at the question.
"Oh my, I guess it kind of slipped, I wanted it to be a surprise for everyone at the academy but oh well."
"My Calux is already at the C- rank."
Like a bomb had exploded in everyone else's mind, they short circuited.
"C- rank? How is that possible."
The Queen suddenly got up and spat.
"No one is that fast, our daughter took four years! How can you say he, in two months has already reached C- rank?!"
Celine once again smiled, as she had ammunition to turn the Queen down a peg.
"Oh... well I mean talent is different in everyone, look at little Seraphiel which is his companion when rifting, she in the same two months is already at the D rank, although not as impressive as Calux, I'd say is very impressive is it not?"
As if one bomb wasn't enough for Karina, a nuke was sent towards her with those words.
Seraphiel.
Who the fuck is Seraphiel to be rifting with my Calux?!
She wanted to ask, question, scream at Celine, but all she did was clench her fists, she didn't want to leave another bad impression on Celine, this time on her own.
Christian gestured to his wife to sit down and stop making him embarrassed.
"Well, it looks like there are some very good talents joining our Kingdom in the near future."
Celine then got serious again.
"This is not all, during his excursion he discovered that the beasts from the rift had been devoured by the Boss, which triggered the evolution, however when Calux reached the boss and the Apex Network revealed the information, it seemed that this beast was originally an SS rank beast, that was sealed and it was as intelligent as an SS rank beast."
Everyone gasped, holding their air.
A sealed SS rank beast, they all knew what this meant.
It meant that if perhaps, in an S rank dungeon a beast did the same thing, or had the same seal and decided to do something like this beast, it could be catastrophic for their Kingdom.
"This certainly is concerning... How long has it been since this happened?"
"I rushed over after Calux and Seraphiel explained the situation to me, we are aware of the consequences of not sharing this information."
Christian smiled at her remark, it seemed even if they were on bad terms because of their decisions, Celine and Calux still would not doom the Kingdom in pettiness.
"Very well, I deeply appreciate your dedication to the Kingdom, is there anything you wish from us?"
Celine just scoffed.
"No Christian, thank you but we don't need anything. I'll be going back home now, let me know if you implement any changes so that I can do the same at the Dukedom."
She turned to leave, but Karina couldn't help herself.
"Wait!"
Both Christian and Madeline looked at their daughter with questioning looks.
"I recently sent a letter to your household, I wonder if Calux had a chance to read it, I have yet to receive a response."
Celine stopped, narrow her eyes and looked at Karina.
"Yes Princess. He read it, unfortunately he is not interested, we thought it best that the best response was no response at all to avoid any more complications between peers at the academy."
Karina clenched her fists, tears threatening to spill, but she steeled her resolve.
"Is it because of this Seraphiel?"
With a big smile, Celine dropped another nuke.
"Hm, who knows? Although little Sera is a commoner and only a B rank potential, I already told her I approve for her to pursue him, she definitely looks interested but in the end, Calux's heart needs to mend, therefore who knows?"
Although she essentially told her that Calux was still not there yet, because of Karina's fault, there was something important in Celine's words.
She had played with her words, with the only goal of letting Karina know a lot of information, but also...
Celine had approved it and actually told the woman to pursue Calux!
While Celine turned away and left the King's hall, a large scream and explosion suddenly rang out in the castle coming from the hall.
"SHE DARES!?"