True King's Ecstasy

Lyra stood in the dimly lit room, her eyes fixed on the two spies who lay writhing on the ground in front of her. Both of them had several grave wounds on their bodies, but it was rather gruesome to see how Lyra treated them.

They had tried to harm Velian, her beloved brother and lover, and she was not going to let them get away with it.

Besides, a side of her she didn't know started coming out as soon as she these pathetic spies lying beneath her asking for forgiveness for what they tried to do to his beloved.

One of the spies groaned in pain as Lyra calmly applied pressure to his wounds.

"Ahhhhh! Please, have mercy!" he begged, but Lyra showed no sign of relenting.

"Mercy?" she scoffed.

"You should have thought of that before you tried to hurt the ones I love and do you know why both do you're special than others?"

They shake their heads showing, they didn't know causing Lyra to apply more pressure to their wounds.

"Others were just collecting information, but you two tried to kill Velian, I will kill you thousand times for it,"

The other spy let out a guttural scream, his body convulsing under the force of Lyra's ministrations.

"I swear, we didn't know who he was, we didn't know he was important!" he gasped. "We were just following orders!"

Lyra raised an eyebrow, her expression unreadable.

"And whose orders were those?"

The spy hesitated, but Lyra's grip tightened on his wounded arm.

"Speak," she commanded.

"It was... it was a noble family of the Montero kingdom," the spy stammered.

"They... they wanted to eliminate any threats to their kingdom and for that, we were hired."

Lyra's eyes narrowed. "And Velian was a threat to the kingdom even though we sent all alive soldiers? I knew they would come for war, but considering Velian as a threat looks like they need some punishment,"

"But for you two..."

The spy shook his head frantically.

"No, no, we were given the wrong information! We didn't know it was him!"

Lyra let out a deep breath, her fingers loosening their grip on the spy's arm.

"Very well," she said. "I believe you."

The spy looked up at her in disbelief, his expression one of mingled relief and confusion. "You do?"

Lyra nodded.

"Yes. And in return for your confession, I promise you a swift and painless death."

The spy's eyes widened in fear, but Lyra showed no mercy. She stood up, turning to Naomi, Velian's loyal wife and their new sister, who had uncovered the spies and brought to her asking for permission to carry out the execution.

But Naomi didn't want them to die since she wanted to check their new weapons and poisons on them, so when she suggested that even though hesitant Lyra decided to go along with it.

And when Velian entered the room, all the prisoners either fainted or were exhausted, so Naomi took it upon herself to explain everything.

"The empire and Montero kingdom are the main two culprits," Naomi said after taking a look at the papers.

"Even though orders are not from the crown, we believe most of the nobles put forward all these requests,"

Velian wasn't bothered by the spies, but what bothered him most was the Dukas Union.

"Any signs of lying?" Velian wanted to confirm one last time before taking action.

"Lyra's torture was on the boundary of killing them, so we won't be able to extract any more information, even if we attack them, best possible way is making them slaves,"

Velian didn't look interested as he decided to let them do whatever they wanted with them and decided to search about Dukas union anyway.

But the question was who can he send.

Even though his doppels were weak, they were still strong enough to survive just like an A-ranked adventurer. And he still doesn't understand how their deaths went unnoticed by his senses.

"I can't send any girls or newly trained knights, Naomi is the only one that has the ability, but I can't send her and put her in danger," Conflicted he wanted to go there by himself, but he knew that it also a bad idea in this turbulent times.

"What are you thinking about, master?" Seeing his worried face, Naomi questioned. She thought Velian was dissatisfied with the information.

"Naomi, what do you think about me going to spy on someone?"

"No way! I can do that for you, who do you want to spy on? You trained me for this," Naomi felt sad when Velian didn't rely on her, but she didn't know how hard this situation was.

Conflicted by the whole situation Velian got ready to leave the prison, and he decided to find someone that is capable of taking the role of a spy, that was not from his family.

But before he could do that, Delviny and Juno burst into the room where Velian had just emerged from the prison, looking harried and breathless.

"Velian, we have urgent news!" Delviny exclaimed.

"What is it?" Velian asked, noting the urgency in her tone.

"The commoners are getting restless," Juno spoke up.

"They've gathered at the town square and are demanding an audience with you."

Velian frowned. "What do they want?"

"We didn't ask but apparently, all the merchants also support them," Delviny replied.

"Representatives are already in front of the gate,"

Velian sighed, rubbing his temples. "I'll address their concerns as soon as I can. But right now, we have more pressing matters to attend to."

"What could be more pressing than the people's discontent?" Juno asked, looking bewildered.

Velian turned to Naomi, who had been standing quietly by the door noticing the problem.

"Lyra is still in the prison. I need you to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't hurt herself or anyone else."

Naomi nodded, her expression serious. "I understand."

Velian turned back to Delviny and Juno. "I have to go. But I'll deal with the commoners as soon as possible."

With that, he strode out of the room, leaving Delviny and Juno to exchange worried glances at what was waiting for them.