BXBX NOVEL Chapter 463 The Hunting Activity (1)
When Crown Prince Ranon's brows raised slightly in surprise. Clearly, he did not expect the frivolously famous Kazimir to retaliate eloquently.
But he still kept a calm disposition and smiled as if he did not see the masked blades on Kazimir's words,
"That is a relief to hear then, First Prince. The standpoint of His Majesty Emperor and his predecessors has always been admirable and astonishing. My mind is broadened!"
Leon silently watched the entire farce and could not help but foresee that the moment the Imperial Family and the Seirende Temple interacted with the Crown Prince, a tiring game of charades ensued.
He could not help but feel his heart turn cold thinking about how he must put up with his presence not only during the Crown Prince's time in the capital but until they conclude their journey to the Holy Island.
Nevertheless, all these troublesome hardships and work must be done to achieve the piece his family and people deserved.
After the exchange, the rest of the banquet was uneventful.
The officials also did not stay for the entire day so as to give Crown Prince Ranon a chance to rest and prepare for the hectic activities in the next few days.
The next day, the palace is filled with the bustling presence of all the officials and council members due to the Crown Prince's visit to the palace.
The second day was meant for the Crown Prince to have an audience with the Emperor and the select Leaders of the Green Wave Non-human Government.
The audience with the Emperor is quite fast, only for a good half an hour.
During this time, Leon is still as vigilant as ever.
While his sneaky attempt to scan Crown Prince Ranon and his entire entourage has been running non-stop, he did not dare to rule out the possibility that he had connections with the curse users as well.
'As expected, we might not find something when they were just idling. We really need to see them use their mana and strength to see if there are traces of curse magic hiding in them…' Leon thought deeply to himself.
Fortunately, various activities were also planned both to inform and entertain the two foreign delegates. One of them is a hunting trip in the forest just a few minutes away from the Capital.
Observing Crown Prince Ranon's gestures and actions, it seems like none of it was suspicious and he is genuinely doing his best to properly represent the Main Temple.
But who knows if it is so on the hunting grounds?
With everything set beforehand, the Imperial Palace arranged for heavily secured and guarded carriages to transport the Crown Prince, the Emperor, and the select Leaders of the Greenwave Continent to the hunting grounds.
The moment they reach the hunting grounds they would be welcomed with the guarded tents and the ladies of the various households in the Empire waiting for the men to arrive at the place.
Leon has already installed concealed detector orbs in different places in the hunting grounds, all of which were even guarded not by concealment barriers but physical camouflages to prevent Crown Prince Ranon and his party from detecting any traces of mana workings.
Furthermore, he has set the orbs not to alarm once curse magic is detected, it will only record the traces of the person who exerted the corrupted mana.
Of course, to make this hunting activity become successful, the Seirende Empire has to offer a prize pool that is irresistible to both the curse users and even the rest of the participants.
So when all had arrived and everything was set, the Emperor immediately opened the hunting activity with a short speech to save time for the actual hunting.
"Greetings, our distinguished guests and gentlemen. To honor the presence of the esteemed people with us today, we are opening this hunting activity with great excitement!
Now, to make it more pleasant and thrilling for everyone… the winner of this hunting trip will receive the price we have carefully prepared…"
Emperor Valentin gestured to his aides to take out the array of items that were covered with cloth.
They lined up in an orderly manner in front of the people on the assembly grounds and one by one, the aides revealed what was hidden underneath the cloth that conceals the items they were holding.
The moment the items were revealed, the crowd which could not help but let out astonished gasps. The items were indeed irresistible!
Emperor Valentin scanned the reaction of the crowd and introduced the prize pool,
"As you can see dear gentlemen, the prize for the winner of today's hunting grounds is five pieces of supreme mana stone and one vial of the purest grade of cure potion that was blessed by the paladin herself before she departed right after the war!
These supreme mana stones were something that I cherish the most in my treasury but because it is such a rare occasion that all the three great continents of Prasinos are well represented, I think that it is worth offering it as a prize.
The vial of cure potion was bestowed upon me by the paladin herself. You all know that the Empire is not lacking in the production of normal cure potions, but the potions blessed by the paladin herself are known to only exist in this empire.
And so I share the joy of being able to see the paladin herself by bestowing her relic to the winner of this friendly competition!"
After the Emperor's explanation of the prizes, the participants felt that he was not joking about the prize pool and was seriously offering it as the ultimate goal for the hunt.
At this point, not even Crown Prince Ranon nor the select leaders of the Green Wave institute could keep calm.
One supreme-grade mana stone alone is extremely rare. It could effectively replace the power of 10 high-grade mana stones, how much more with the lowest-grade ones? And to offer five pieces at once… when did the Emperor of Seirende become this rich?!
Even Kazimir and Antoine were shocked to see that there exist a few supreme-grade mana stones in the empire's inventory. They thought that their father was being too generous with the price and was sacrificing too much because of the diplomacy but did not dare to express it outwardly so as to not put him on the spot.
Most importantly, the vial of cure potion with the paladin's power is enough to catch the attention of the crowd.
Nobody knew how many vials were bestowed to the Emperor in this empire, but then he is offering it nonetheless!
Crown Prince Ranon was now motivated to get this item because he wanted to know the so-called power of the paladin.
Granted that he could possibly find a vial to the High Priest of the Seirende Temple as well, but in public, he was only an envoy to the Main Temple and a Crown Prince of a foreign Empire.
And whether the Pope forced him to demand a vial from the High Priest, it was still inappropriate for him to hold such a relic while carrying out a dangerous mission with the criminals in tow. In the end, it will not be his property but the Pope's, so he would not take such an unrewarding task.
Effectively catching his attention, Leon and Emperor Valentin knew in their hearts that Ranon's party would probably go all out for this activity.
"Everyone will have the time to hunt until the second to the last hour of the afternoon. So without further adieu, gentlemen I pronounce the commencement of the hunting activity!!!"
Pak!
The muffled sound of a blank gun echoed in the assembly area, signaling the commencement of the hunting.
On the surface, all the participants were dead set on getting the prize for themselves and also offering their hunts to the lady they had chosen.
On the other hand, Leon had a different objective. With the godparents of his son being the financier of the supreme grade mana stones, his best friend is the inventor of the cure potion, and finally, his fiance being the paladin, how could he waste time to eye the measly price?
The price he wanted was to verify if the Crown Prince's party is clean and free of the curse magic, and so he is dead-set to know if they were clean or corrupted.
Taking out the notification papers, he sent the signal to his men… "Release the monsters… Concentrate on the target's party."
On the receiving end, the Roaming and the Crimson Blades were positioned strategically in the hunting grounds.
As soon as they received the signal, they triggered the paper spells made by Leon himself and triggered a small portal from the spatial void.
The void is connected directly to the northern mountain range where another platoon was waiting on standby with several cages of ferocious mountain beasts that were strong enough to significantly increase the difficulty of the hunting!