Seeing Luke agree, Tianna smiled, then added, "Since you're serious about building a personal guard unit, pick a time and go to the barracks first. Choose three hundred guards."
Luke nodded. "Tomorrow, then."
It really was something he had to do personally. If nothing unexpected happened, these people would be following him for a long time.
Jarvan IV already had a personal guard of five hundred—handpicked back when he moved out of the palace.
Strictly speaking, Luke should've formed his own unit a long time ago.
If he'd had a personal guard with him on the Edessa trip, a lot of things might not have spiraled the way they did.
But Luke was lazy by nature. Forming a personal guard meant he couldn't just ignore them.
Responsibility went both ways. They stayed at his side and protected him.
He, in turn, had to be responsible for them.
Still, since he'd made the decision, there was no point dragging his feet anymore.
He'd said what he needed to say to Tianna, so he was ready to slip away.
Right then, a soldier's voice came from outside the door.
"High Marshal, His Majesty is convening a council. Please attend."
"And Prince Luke as well."
"Understood," Tianna replied, then glanced at Luke. "Come on."
Jarvan III calling a meeting at a moment like this—no one needed to guess what it was about.
A few minutes later, they reached the council hall.
Some ministers who worked in the palace were already seated, while the rest were still hurrying in.
Jarvan III hadn't arrived yet.
Tianna took her seat. Luke remained standing behind the main chair, waiting.
About forty minutes passed, and most of the key figures had arrived.
Every seat around the octagonal table was filled—except the central chair at the head, which remained empty.
Luke and Jarvan IV stood behind that main seat. The brothers hadn't seen each other in a long time, so they spoke quietly.
Then the doors to the hall opened.
Jarvan III entered with a flat, unreadable expression.
The room went silent at once, everyone's gaze snapping to him.
Normally, Jarvan III wore a gentle expression, giving people the sense of a kind, benevolent king.
Now, even this cool neutrality made everyone feel the anger burning under his skin.
He sat down slowly, his gaze sweeping across the room with a pressure that needed no raised voice.
Then he spoke, low and heavy.
"Near our capital, a heretical faction stirs chaos. A beast-swarm assaults a city. You all know what happened. One wrong step—one mistake—and tens of thousands could have suffered."
The ministers remained silent.
Most people here already knew about Edessa. No one had expected something like that to happen in a city so close to the capital.
Even fewer had imagined a cult would brazenly target a prince of Demacia—at the cost of unleashing a beast-swarm.
If any link in that chain had snapped, it would've become a disaster that shook the entire nation.
Even with the prince returned safely, the incident was still enormous.
Jarvan III spoke again. "Now, the person involved has returned. You may hear the full details—from his own mouth."
No one knew the truth more clearly than Luke.
Even though Edessa had sent riders back at full speed with reports, they didn't have the same level of detail Luke did.
When Jarvan III finished, every gaze in the room fell onto Luke.
Luke had known this meeting was coming. Jarvan III wouldn't summon everyone like this for any other reason.
So he'd prepared.
He met their eyes, cleared his throat, and began from the beginning.
He spoke from his own perspective—everything that had felt strange after arriving in Edessa, one piece at a time.
When he reached the part about leading troops to raid the Shadow God cult's headquarters—
At the far end of the table, Eldred hesitated, then raised a hand, making Luke pause.
Eldred looked directly at Luke and asked what he'd been holding back.
"I have a question. How did Your Highness discover the Shadow God cult's base?"
It wasn't just Eldred who was curious. Quite a few people in the hall had been wondering the same thing.
Why had Luke suddenly found their headquarters?
Luke looked at him like the question itself was bizarre.
"Why are you asking me that instead of asking your own people?"
Eldred froze for a beat.
Then he understood what Luke meant.
And the rest of the room wasn't slow either.
Once they caught the implication, it sounded painfully reasonable.
Right.
Why didn't the leader of the Mageseekers ask himself why the Mageseekers failed to find the cult?
The prince finding it was the prince's achievement.
The Mageseekers were the ones whose job it was to hunt this kind of thing down—yet they found nothing. That was the problem.
Eldred immediately stood, placed a hand over his chest, and bowed deeply.
"My deepest apologies, Your Highness. We were severely negligent in this matter."
He truly hadn't expected that in a place like Edessa, a cult with hundreds of members could be hidden.
And that the local Mageseekers hadn't uncovered it at all.
It was a serious failure.
The Mageseekers' reputation was already poor. After this, it would sink even lower.
Luke glanced at him, then continued evenly.
"How I found their base begins with Edessa's missing-person reports."
Everyone refocused on Luke.
Eldred remained frozen in that bowed posture, expression unchanged.
"At the time, Edessa's sergeant major told me that in previous years, the city's annual number of missing-person cases hovered around fifty.
"However, when I looked deeper, I found that in the most recent month alone, the number of missing-person reports had already reached thirty-eight.
"I suspected it might be connected to a wraith mage, so I increased the city's alert level and temporarily detained relevant suspects.
"As expected, not long after, I intercepted a secret letter addressed to the Shadow God cult. Following that lead, I naturally found their headquarters."
At that point, Luke had no choice but to adjust a detail or two.
There was no way he could explain the tracking decree.
And that letter—sent from Edessa to Kerr Village—was something almost no one knew about.
It was perfect to use here.
The ministers' eyes widened with surprise.
Luke's frightening instinct for danger really was enough to make people uneasy.
After the Wraith Cave incident, he'd immediately written two letters to the capital—one of which requested the Dauntless Vanguard send troops.
Without that letter, Edessa's tragedy would've been inevitable.
A beast-swarm breaking through the walls, and no Dauntless Vanguard arriving in time…
And now, simply from missing-person numbers being a bit too high, Luke had sensed something wrong, followed the trail, and uncovered the cult's base.
Even Jarvan IV, hearing this, couldn't help but feel admiration for his younger brother.
If it had been him, he wasn't sure he could've done it to this degree.
As people stared at Luke, they realized something.
This prince—who'd shown his face to the public once and then seemed to fade into the background—wasn't nearly as ordinary as they'd assumed.
Luke continued.
By the time he reached the end, the hall fell into another stretch of silence.
Because the pig blood detail made everyone's brains stall out.
How did something so absurd pop up in the middle of something this serious?
Tianna looked openly helpless.
Jarvan IV's mouth curled into a small grin, thinking, That's my brother.
Even Jarvan III's eyes flashed with the faintest hint of amusement.
People knew that in the end, Luke led the Dauntless Vanguard and wiped out the remaining cult remnants.
What they didn't know were the smaller details in the middle.
Hearing how Luke used pig's blood to ruin the elder's ritual left many of them feeling a little embarrassed for reasons they couldn't quite articulate.
No wonder that detail hadn't been shared at the time.
It clashed with Demacia's image way too hard.
But after hearing the full process from Luke's mouth, everyone still felt their emotions churn.
Just as Jarvan III said—one misstep, and the consequences would've been unthinkable.
Jarvan III's faint amusement vanished. His gaze swept the room, then settled on Eldred.
"In this matter… don't you owe me an explanation?"
His voice sharpened, anger pushing through.
"Near the capital, a cult with hundreds of members existed—hidden for years. Are your Mageseekers all blind incompetents? You couldn't see it? Were you waiting until they marched right up to the palace gates before you'd notice?
"These years, who knows how many Demacian citizens they've harmed. What exactly have you been doing?"
The weight of his anger filled the hall. No one dared even breathe too loudly.
Eldred dropped to one knee immediately, head lowered.
"Your Majesty, please calm your anger. This is the Mageseekers' incompetence. It is my incompetence. I am willing to accept any punishment."
Expressions shifted around the room.
Jarvan III snorted. "From this day forward, the Mageseekers' budget will be cut in half."
Then he added, coldly, "And I do not want to see something like this happen a second time."
Half their operating funds—gone in one sentence.
Eldred said, "I request Your Majesty's order to begin a nationwide sweep."
Jarvan III considered for a moment, then spoke with force.
"Granted. The Mageseekers will begin an immediate nationwide purge. You will not overlook a single black mage."
Eldred accepted at once. "Yes, Your Majesty!"
Everyone present understood what that meant.
Soon, Mageseekers would be everywhere again.
The Mageseekers had existed for many years, but under Jarvan III, their presence had diminished.
Because his stance toward mages wasn't as harsh as Jarvan I or Jarvan II. He'd been considerably more lenient.
So the Mageseekers hadn't been as active.
But now, with this order, they had no choice but to move.
Luke didn't have much ground to argue on. From the moment the Shadow God cult became known, this outcome was unavoidable.
Then Jarvan III spoke again, his tone calm, as if he hadn't just shaken the entire room.
"In the Edessa incident, Luke Lightshield's merit is exceptional, his performance outstanding. He is hereby granted the rank of major general."
The room jolted.
Yes, as a prince, earning a rank sooner or later was expected—but wasn't this starting point too high?
Above major general came lieutenant general, then general, then marshal.
Even Jarvan IV had trained in the military since childhood, and his rank was only lieutenant general.
Luke starting at major general—
Tianna spoke up. "With what he accomplished, he deserves the title. I support it."
Her words made people realize something else.
This incident wasn't ordinary.
A cult of hundreds operating near the capital, and a beast-swarm that was practically a disaster.
In the last ten years of Demacia, this counted as a major event.
And throughout the entire chain of events, Luke had played a decisive role.
If the whole crisis had been resolved at minimal cost, Luke alone accounted for at least seventy percent of it.
Put that way… the major general rank was justified.
"I support it."
"I support it."
Voices followed one after another.
From this moment on, Luke was no longer "just" a prince.
He had another identity.
Major General of Demacia.
But honestly, the title didn't do much for him.
He wasn't going to go grind experience in the army. Even if someone made him a marshal, he'd still lie down whenever he felt like it.
"All right. That's enough. Meeting adjourned."
Jarvan III rose and left, his eyes flickering as he turned thoughts over.
Originally, he hadn't wanted to grant the Mageseekers more authority—not even a little.
But this incident had struck a nerve he couldn't ignore.
He hadn't expected that even this close to the capital, Luke could still be put in danger.
The existence of that cult filled him with fury.
Not only because of the Mageseekers' incompetence, but because he suspected something else:
That in recent years, he'd been too tolerant of mages.
And that tolerance had emboldened some of them.
To him, that was unforgivable.
If Luke had been harmed in even the slightest way…
then the wrath he poured down on Demacia's mages wouldn't have stopped at black mages alone.
After Jarvan III left, the tension in the hall finally began to dissolve.
Ministers quietly exhaled.
Tianna stood, patted Luke's shoulder, and smiled. "You might be the youngest major general Demacia has ever had."
Jarvan IV had been promoted to major general at twenty.
Luke was eighteen.
It was a first in Demacian history—even if part of it was helped along by his status.
But nothing could erase what he'd done in Edessa.
And Tianna couldn't deny she felt a small, smug satisfaction in her own judgment.
She hadn't been wrong about him.
"Congratulations, Your Highness, on your appointment as major general."
A cluster of ministers surrounded Luke, offering congratulations nonstop.
Luke responded politely, edging toward the exit.
When he finally made it out of the council hall, another figure swept in—warm, energetic, and hooking an arm around Luke's shoulder with a broad grin.
"As expected of my brother! That whole Edessa situation—you handled it beautifully. I'm honestly impressed."
He meant it.
He was happy Luke had beaten the trap set for him, and proud of how he'd performed.
Luke smiled. "You're exaggerating."
"Hey—no need to be modest. That major general rank is well-earned."
Jarvan IV was all smiles.
The rank itself was small.
What mattered was the tens of thousands in Edessa that Luke had saved.
As they spoke, a man approached in a dark gray cloak. A gray-stone emblem rested on his chest—the sign of the Mageseekers. His eyes were deep-set, his face stern, his presence low-key and controlled.
Eldred.
He saluted Luke, then asked, "Your Highness, there is something I wish to ask."
Luke looked at him. "What is it?"
Eldred said, "The secret letter you mentioned—did you bring it with you?"
Luke shook his head. "It was disposed of long ago. The cult's been wiped out. Why would I keep that letter?"
"I see." Eldred bowed again. "Forgive the interruption, Your Highness."
"No problem."
Luke withdrew his gaze and continued walking with Jarvan IV.
Behind them, Eldred straightened, watching Luke's back with a thoughtful expression.
To Eldred, there were still a few strange points in all of this.
No matter how he looked at it, something felt slightly off.
The prince's performance was flawless, but everything had been handled almost too cleanly.
And that instinct for danger was too sharp.
Sharp to the point of being abnormal.
Was it possible the so-called secret letter had never existed at all?
Listening to the full story, Eldred had the growing sense that behind this prince…
there was someone else assisting him.
And who might that be…?
Eldred already had an answer in his mind.
It was said that the one who sent the prince to Edessa in the first place was Tianna.
What was her intent?
To raise a second Jarvan IV—or someone even better?
A major general at eighteen, starting that high…
Where would he stand in the future?
Eldred's gaze grew darker, deeper.
No matter how he looked at it, things were starting to get interesting.
And at the same time, from more than one direction, other eyes watched the brothers walking away—shoulders close, steps in sync.
"Brother, I'm heading out. When you've got time, come by my place sometime."
At the palace gates, Jarvan IV waved in farewell.
Luke nodded. "Sure."
He watched Jarvan IV swing up onto his horse and ride off.
Then Luke turned back, climbed into his own carriage, and let his whole body loosen.
"Home."
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