Seeing the messenger fumble, Corvinus laughed.

Then he gazed at the Tower Masters.

"A bunch of cowards. Not even daring to approach a fog." He caressed his long white beard and began to speak. "I thought the Storm Tower sent someone to investigate. Is there no one with a spine among them? How could they fail to give us any useful information?"

His mocking voice made the messenger shudder. The rest of the Storm Tower mages clenched their fists.

Corvinus was acting out again. He showed no kindness to them.

"Why can't they get through the fog? Did they say anything about that?" Zolt ignored Corvinus and asked.

"No…"

The messenger wished to just disappear from there. But he had to respond to every question.

"Why not?"

"Um…"

"Is there anything else?"

"No."

Zolt frowned.

The answer made him look at the Master sitting next to him. A seed of suspicion started to sprout in his mind.

"That's odd." He said.

"Yes, it is." A gentle female voice spoke.

Elena was the only female among the five tower masters. She was a curvaceous woman in her forties who still appeared as if she were in her twenties. She was a beauty, but not one that could shake the foundation of a nation.

Like Zolt, she too showed suspicion of the message's content.

"What is?" Duke Forest asked.

His life depended on what was about to happen.

Tensed, he asked. "Is there something wrong with the message?"

Zolt paused and then nodded.

"There is…"

"What is it? Don't keep us in suspense."

"Someone is interfering with it. No mage of ours would send a message like that unless he is being forced to."

Someone was forcing the mage to send a message.

Everyone in the great hall frowned. The room went silent for a few seconds.

Zolt watched their expression turn sour as he continued.

"Who and why is impossible to answer. But I can say for sure that someone is interfering with the message or with the person who sent the message." Turning to the messenger, he released a torrent of mana, frightening the young man.

Zolt was a 9-star mage, someone at the peak of the entire Kingdom. Just his aura could make normal mages tremble. So, the mana he casually released made the mage fall back onto the ground.

He couldn't move an inch.

"Give me the full transcript." He ordered.

The mage took out a paper from his robes and sent it to Zolt through magic.

Zolt snatched it and began to read.

"The west coast near the lighthouse is covered in fog. I believe the fog is created with a high-level fog formation. We tried to go into the fog, but couldn't find a way through to the lighthouse or the village next to it. We request assistance as soon as possible."

The message wasn't long, and it said the exact thing the messenger on the ground said.

"See, that's the problem," Zolt said.

Elena and the rest of the tower masters nodded in agreement.

However, no one else could understand what they were talking about.

"What is it?" Corvinus stepped in and asked the question going through their mind.

"He suddenly stopped using 'I' and began using 'We'. Can't you see it?" Zolt raised an eyebrow.

"So, what?" Corvinus questioned.

"None of the mages of our tower would say 'We request assistance'. It would always be 'I request assistance'. That's called owning up to what we say. But this person we sent seemed to have been swayed by someone else and deliberately used 'we' in the message."

Zolt paused and looked at the people around him.

"This must mean only one thing. He is being threatened to send the message."

"And if you need one more reason, it is the information density of the message." Elena began to speak. "The mage of our tower would send clear information about everything he had seen when sending a message. If there were a fog formation, he would have sent information about the type of fog, the quality of mana in it, and much more. However, he didn't. So, there is clearly something wrong with the message." She ended her words on a grim note.

"The viscount and the mage we sent could both be dead," Zolt added.

"And there could be a fog formation or no fog formation at all. Either way, we should take this as a serious issue. Someone is attacking our kingdom." Elena joined in. "It would be best if we could send more than one master to the location." She suggested.

Corvinus and the rest didn't try to add fuel to the fire this time. He paused to think.

The king sat straight on the throne, waiting for him to speak. And just as he expected, Corvinus raised his head and said.

"I will go." He said, looking at the men around. "If Zolt goes with me." He added a short while later.

"What kind of childish demand is that?" Zolt was exasperated.

Both of them were men in their eighties with white hair.

"It's not childish. We could reach the West Coast in a day if we flew. Then, we could power a teleport formation together to bring the army if it were a demon invasion. It makes sense." Corvinus suggested and shrugged.

The Storm Tower's leader was currently not available. So, Corvinus and Zolt were the two most powerful mages within the kingdom. When faced with an existential crisis, such as a demon invasion, it was their duty to protect the kingdom from the dangers that threatened it.

They were bound by duty to go.

However, Elena interjected before their conversation could go further.

"I don't think it is a demon invasion. An army would not be necessary." She stated.

"The demons don't have the influence or the shrewdness to plan an invasion like that. And if they were planning to destroy a lighthouse to invade, they would choose one closer to the north, where the continents are closest."

"This time, it's not the demons." She said firmly.

"Yes, that's what the demons want you to believe." Corvinus paid no attention to her and looked directly at Zolt.

"Are you coming?" He asked.

Zolt thought for a second and nodded.

The King and nobles relaxed a little, knowing that two of their strongest were about to leave to guard the border. The old men were very competitive. If there really was a demon army, they might hunt them down before their army could reach there.

They let out a relieved sigh.

In that manner, the meeting concluded, and the council was dismissed for the day.

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