Weapon seller in the world of magic
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Weapon seller in the world of magic - Chapter 89.1: The Crown Prince's conspiracy against Mark
Lin Mansion, Imperial City;
Allen was seriously sparring with Lin Xue, who was covered by sparks of lightning. As the former upgraded a rank, his strength increased. So, a four-circle realm swordmaster like Lin Xue couldn't defeat him but she was also managing on her own through the newfound power of lightning, not only making her movements fast but even her attack was also as strong as a peak-stage 4-circle realm expert.
Allen and Lin Xue's swords clashed for the umpteenth time. Allen suddenly kicked the ground and leaped back, exiting the dueling platform. "Lady Lin, the sparring hours are over, I need to get back to the store."
As he turned around and walk away, Lin Xue took out her pocket watch again, "11:18. Exactly 3 hours. Just how punctual is this guy."
She couldn't help but stare at his back until he disappeared from her sight.
By running on the streets and jumping on the roofs, Allen returns to the store. However, to his surprise, the shutter was opened.
"Someone broke in?" Allen's eyes turned cold as if he intended to kill the culprit before something else clicked in his head. "Is it Big Brother?"
He rushed towards the store. As he reached the entrance, he saw Mark was sitting there in his original spot but to his surprise, there was a stranger who was leaning on the wall and is reading a novel.
He ignored her and greeted his master. "Big Brother, you are finally back."
"Allen, it's good to see you too." Mark let out a smile. He felt as if he saw his younger brother after a while. "What have you been up to these days?"
After Allen enthusiastically reported to him his new experiences, Mark introduced Alina to him.
Two days later, Imperial Palace;
In the courtroom, the six ministers, officials of the three departments and six ministries, Chief Eunuch, Grand Secretariat, the third prince, the crown prince, and a few scholars were standing before him in two sections.
"Grand Secretariat Li, you can start the proceedings of the court," spoke the Emperor after taking his seat on the throne. He looked majestic and his voice contained charisma.
As for his physical traits, one can say he and the second prince resemble each other, a lot, except for the obvious age difference.
The Grand Secretariat of the Empire ranks third, after the Emperor and the Supreme Commander, and oversees all the three departments and the six ministries. One can say he's the most influential politician within the Empire.
It's ironic that a commoner that every noble looks down on had the power to step on all these major clans at any time. It's not that Li ZhenKang works hard and schemes against the people to get to this position.]
It's just that the Emperor wanted the Grand Secretariat to be neutral. This is the reason a commoner working as an official in the Central Secretariat was suddenly promoted to the highest position in politics by the previous Grand Secretariat.
And later, when he decides to step down, Li ZhenKang should also choose a commoner as his successor.
It has been this way in the past ruling of the Shang Dynasty for nearly 600 years and the current Emperor hoped it would be this way in the future.
Li ZhenKang stepped forward and bowed as he informed, "Your Majesty, Royal Inspectors Yang Huan, and Weng Bo are here to report about the matter which has importance."
The Emperor nodded, "let them in."
The two investigating officers entered the courtroom and stood before the Emperor. As they greet him, the latter asked, "What is it that you want to report? And who commissioned the two of you?"
Before they gave an answer, the Crown Prince Shang Zexi had interrupted, "it's me, Your Majesty. I sent them to investigate a person named Lu Zhen, who runs a small weapon store in the Hanga district and is the one behind the demolition of the Song clan's Mansion and is responsible for former minister Song Yun's deep sleep state.
The most interesting thing about him is that he sells unique weapons called firearms. As for who makes them, it's still unclear but we suspect it is the Dwarves."
As Shang Zexi took out a single-shot pistol from his inventory and showed it to his father, the latter's eyes lit up for a second. The Emperor appeared to be curious as he had never seen such a thing in his life.
"Continue." He pointed to the Crown Prince, instead of the inspectors, making them wonder why they are even there for. To become decorations?
The Crown Prince continued, "A few weeks ago, this man named Lu Zhen had a conflict with Song Yun and injured the latter because of baseless reasons like a security check.
Song Yun's daughter, Song Yue stopped the Prefects to put the matter to rest because she was rescued by him when she was abducted by some people from the Xu Sect. The reason for her abduction is unknown and unfortunately, the only culprit that was alive ended up dead in the prison due to the torture."
"Xu Sect?" The Emperor's facial expression changed within a second. The others who are unaware of the matter looked at each other and started to murmur.
Meanwhile, the Crown Prince continued, "Yes, Your Majesty. It's the same Xu Sect, which was banished from our Empire.
Now, the strangest thing here is that just a week before this incident, three members of the Xu Sect tried to ambush, Prince Wei during his trip to the Bloodhill forest.
Judging by the two incidents, it perfectly makes sense if Lu Zhen is a member of the Xu Sect. When the secret ambush failed, he attacked Song Yun but didn't kill him because he was afraid that the Imperial palace will not leave him.
As for rescuing Song Yue, he probably wanted to win her trust and he also successfully managed to do that too. Not only did he save himself from the trial, he even managed to break the relationship between Song Yue and Zhang Kong.
What's more, he's listed on the watching list and it is confirmed that Commander Bai personally made a visit and informed him. And yet, he successfully slipped past our spies and escaped the Imperial City without an escort."
"You cannot twist the facts to your convenience with half-truths and half-lies, Crown prince Zexi." A voice was heard from the left, interrupting an imaginative novel that he was narrating. Everyone turned towards the third prince.
"Your majesty, forgive me for interrupting but I don't want to waste the time of the court with such nonsense things spouted by the Crown Prince.
"You…" Shang Zexi clenched his fist in anger but he controlled it because of the place he was standing at.
The other spectators who are in favor of the third prince felt excited. After all, whenever the third prince opens his mouth, the Emperor gets impressed and the Crown prince will only get humiliated.
Meanwhile, the Emperor was calm as he said, "State your opinion, Prince Wei."
Shang Wei bowed and thanked him, before he stared at the Crown Prince, "you were narrating a good tale but judgments won't be made from speculations. We need solid evidence to prove that Lu Zhen is a criminal of the state.
And if I'm right, aren't you the one that's responsible to watch him? What are your subordinates doing when Lu Zhen left the city? What kind of subordinates did you deploy? How can a Crown Prince, the next King of the Phoenix Empire be this irresponsible?
Secondly, the Crown Prince needed to get facts, right. Song Yun was injured by the attack of a unique weapon that we aren't aware of. It's not the direct attack of Lu Zhen.
Thirdly, the Crown prince needs to be reminded of the constitution. Whatever happened at the Song Clan Mansion, didn't implicit the whole clan and is just between Lu Zhen and Song Yun.
It is entirely their personal business and even the Emperor doesn't have the right to interfere unless the Song Yun's immediate family requests to. Song Yun's wife and daughter were clearly against it.
How could you forget it? Several nobles including yourself allegedly used such a rule to your advantage and saved yourselves from the trial.
However, the Song Clan's mansion still belonged to the Song Clan. So, the current Minister Song can press the charges against him for damaging the property.
Fourth and final, Song Yue and Zhang Kong's engagement was broken because of the Zhang clan. Isn't it all because the Zhang clan now had an Exalt realm expert (7-circle) and looks down on Song Clan?"
After hearing the counter-argument from the third prince, everyone stared at the Crown Prince who appeared a bit angry.
Originally, the third prince doesn't want to defend Lu Zhen because of Lin Xue's closeness with Allen. However, more than loving Lin Xue, he hates this eldest brother of him who sent assassins after him so many times.
In fact, before the prisoner dead, he already found out that the Crown prince is behind the ambush at Bloodhill forest. However, before Shang Wei gets to reveal it to the public, the prisoner of the Xu Sect, the bald monk was assassinated, possibly by the men of the crown prince.
Putting everything on Lu Zhen will close this matter and the Crown prince will escape without any investigations. So, despite disliking Lu Zhen, he still tried to defend him in court from all the accusations.
But, it was then he saw the crown prince's lips curled up with a sneer before the latter spoke in a bit of loud tone as if he was announcing something important. "I knew that you keep trying to shut me down in whatever I say just like every time, but today is different, Prince Wei."
He turned towards the Emperor and bowed and pointed at his two subordinates, "Your Majesty, the Royal Inspectors will reveal their investigation results, regarding Lu Zhen's atrocities against the nobles."
