Spending My Retirement In A Game

It was early in the next morning. The envoys had gathered in the meeting hall for breakfast, doing some small-talk before the treaty meeting itself was said to continue.

Though, to their surprise, none of the 'originals' were here. The half-dragon knights were standing along the walls, but nobody else was here. Somehow, it made the envoys feel rather tense, as if something was wrong.

There were a few envoys here in particular that seemed nervous about something, and despite eating quite well the evening before, they were barely touching their food now, as if they were nervous.

And it wasn't just the envoys from the central continent; surprisingly, the cloud giants were acting the most suspicious, something that didn't get past Eisen and the others as they watched from the other room.

"Do you think the Cloud Giants had something to do with it?" Xenia wondered, and Eisen silently stared at the screen for a few moments before letting out a long sigh.
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"Maybe, but I really don't know. They're acting weird, but that could also just be them getting sick of having to interact with those they consider 'lesser'... The thing is... so many of them are acting weird, but we don't know if it's just tensions getting higher, or if it's because they realized that their summoning didn't work last night," Eisen pointed out, looking at the screen.

He tapped his foot on the ground anxiously.

"So... what's the plan after we figure out who tried to summon the Filth?" Jyuuk wondered. Eisen looked over toward him and hesitated to reply right away. The thing that he wanted to say was that they would just 'take care' of, or rough up whoever was responsible, but that literally wasn't possible here.

They were hosting a peace treaty summit, and them messing with the envoys directly could cause some major issues.

"We'll probably just have to let it be for now and watch whoever is responsible a bit more closely. And then, once they're all back in their homes, we investigate those countries more closely. I would like to question them right away, but I don't think we really can," the old man sighed.

"Well..." Evalia started, scratching her cheek, "I could get them to talk to me about a thing or two. I can be very... convincing when I want to be."

Eisen raised a brow, looking at the young woman next to him, "Are you sure? You don't have to lower yourself like that."

"Nah, it's fine. I mean, frankly? For most of these guys, it's enough to just wear a slightly shorter skirt than usual, touch their arm, and pitch up my voice a little," she pointed out smugly, "Don't worry, I won't do anything that makes Benji uncomfortable."

The old man smiled, patting Evalia on the back, "I'm very glad to hear that. We will see what the best course of action is soon. For now, we need to figure out who it is we're dealing with in the first place."

"Should we get started then? The illusion magic drains a ton of mana," Xenia pointed out, and the others quickly agreed. The group of five left the room they were in. In the hallway, the others, particularly Satel and Ambriel, who were waiting in front of the door so that they wouldn't be left alone with the envoys.

Without Eisen there to keep them in check, they were worried that the envoys would bombard them with questions. While Satel could handle matters like that quite well, it was probably too much for Ambriel right now.

The two of them followed the Originals into the meeting hall, and a handful of the envoys tensed up the moment they looked at them.

"I hope you were able to rest well," Eisen started, smiling lightly, "Please feel free to continue eating, but there is something we would like to discuss before the meeting."

The old man slowly turned his head toward Evalia, who stepped forward with her hands interlocked, slightly lowering her head, "Last night, there was an incident. There are still many things that we don't truly understand about the powers within this world, and particularly the islands of our kingdom are quite unique.

Due to our own oversight and carelessness, a powerful monstrosity was allowed to spawn on this island."

Evalia spoke with grace, and even Eisen could feel her charisma-based abilities and skills infused that were infused into her voice. They really just made sure that whatever Evalia was saying was taken in the best possible way.

Everyone was staring right at the young woman, who seemed truly apologetic about potentially putting the envoys in danger, and Eisen was positive that there wasn't anyone here that could avoid falling for Evalia's charisma. This was one of her fortés, after all.

As Evalia spoke, Xenia waved her hand, pulling the currently invisible cube over toward them, slowly releasing the illusion.

"However, we were luckily able to trap this creature," Evalia explained, pointing at the cube with a smile. The moment she did, Eisen glanced around the room. They each had their own methods of doing so, but they all had quite some insight into other people's thoughts. At the very least, they could tell when someone was anxious or worried.

Of course, they couldn't just use this as a basis, since all the envoys quickly grew anxious. Their hosts were admitting to a mistake that caused a dangerous monster to appear, and the monster in question was incredibly... eyecatching. It would be weirder if they weren't nervous in front of that creature.

A mound of hands that was trying to climb on top of each other, grasping at the walls of the cube. Of course, the Filth was playing it up a little bit here, but even without that, their appearance was nothing if not unusual and 'weird'.

However, there were of course a few individuals that were a bit more suspicious than others. Those from the holy empire, and the cloud giants were amongst them, which felt... weird. How could both of them be related to this?

The holy empire despised all monsters, and the cloud giants despised all those that weren't them, and that counted doubly so for any non-giants. Not to mention, what would the cloud giants have to gain from this? Why would they want a war to start?

Eisen stared deeply at the people in front of him, quietly tapping his foot on the ground. He was looking at everyone with his truth-seeing eyes, inspecting the flow of their mana. There were slight ripples in mana that appeared alongside one's heartbeat, and he could see almost everyone's heartbeat speed up.

Only a single person was sitting at this table who, while outwardly acting confused and anxious about the appearance of something like the Filth, was inwardly completely calm. Their heartbeat had not changed for even a moment. That was even more suspicious than growing extremely anxious.

'Why would..?' Eisen thought to himself. There wasn't even any surprise in this person. That could only be the case if they already knew that the Filth had been found. Either that, or they had impeccable control over themselves, but in that case why would they outwardly act like they were surprised?

Confused, Eisen looked at his friends, who also seemed just as confused at this individual's reaction as him. Brody stepped up closer to Eisen for a few moments, "What's going on? Why is he acting like that? There's no way he did anything... right?"

Eisen silently looked back at his friend. He didn't know what to say. This was confusing; shocking, really. Looking into the eyes of the young man, who was acting in a way that was completely opposite to what he was truly feeling, was almost scary. The fact that he was a good friend to Eisen's grandson didn't help here either.

Why would Aaron, litgern's crown prince, have something to do with this? He had always acted like an honest young man; he had always been someone that Eisen felt like he could trust, particularly here.

He was at the forefront of trying to stop this war from happening; he was even the central continent's representative and actively worked to convince many of the other envoys to be more open to new options.

Eisen did not like this at all.