Capital Watch Tower

Further away on the city walls where a watch tower was built and a little time before the battle started to take place on the mountain, many guards were gathered together overlooking the outside and inside of the capital.

Although they could not see beyond a certain point, it was very difficult for anyone to get away with recklessly acting within or outside of the confines of the city walls.

They needed to be highly trained and capable to be able to hold such positions.

Each person stationed there followed strict hierarchies, rules and structure combined with a tight rotation of duties allowing for there to be less weaknesses shown within those that were supposed to be the capital's line of defence.

Among them was a man who looked to be in his twenties who had firm muscles showing underneath his animal pelt clothes.

Despite there being a strong and slightly rural look to him, there was something that was much different to the others gathered around him.

In terms of elegance and aura, he overpowered everyone in the room making it clear that he was above them in terms of status and power.

On his clothes was a stitched pattern engraving that was in the shape of a blue bird spreading its wings towards the sky with its head raised.

A deep coldness seemed to emanate from within his bones as he coldly sat before everyone like a living block of ice.

It was not until another figure entered that he begun to show a slight change in expression and movement.

His icy blue eyes moved to the side as his icy lips that had lost their colour opened. "How is it?"

A familiar figure entered the room who Ki had met before at her coming of age celebration.

An older man walked inside who had similar icy blue eyes and silvery white hair, he heard the words of the person before him and bowed slightly to show his respect. "Crown Prince. The scheduled report has failed to come back once again. I am afraid that.."

The Crown Prince ran his fingers through his silvery white hair as he leaned back in his seat with an indifferent and cold expression on his face. "Continue."

The way he spoke was like he did not really care about what was about to be reported almost like it had no effect on him.

Any result of anything happening around him seemed to be insignificant.

Even the imposing man in front of him seemed to hold little attention to him.

The only reason why he spoke was to hurry things up so that they he no longer needed to be bothered by the nuisances that caused disturbances to his time of peace.

Darius Frost let out a sigh and thought to himself. 'When the Crown Prince gets like this.. it really does become difficult to understand his thought process.'

There was little that interested the Crown Prince and he rarely showed his emotions or true motives to others.

It was unknown if he had always been like that or if it was the influence of the Ice Phoenix Sect that had made him turn out that way.

Darius wasted no time in explaining the situation. "The precautionary measures put in place for the event have not come back on schedule for the second time. The first time I would say that it could just be a mistake but the second time can only mean something is wrong."

The Crown Prince sat silently and looked off into the distance with a cold stare then spoke again. "Not yet. Wait until the third.."

Darius stood there with a shocked face as if he had heard wrong. "Your highness, if we wait.. there could be many casualties."

He had been strict with his family and others related to him had done the same to not allow anyone important to participate in the event on the mountain.

If there was anyone that joined the event then they were either unimportant to the family or they had snuck out anyways despite being told not to.

It may have seemed like an ordinary gathering for the youths of the capital but accidents always happened at such events.

It was even more likely something would happen up there due to there being conflicts of interests between the families within the Capital.

There had to be some sort of safety measures put in place if there was to be some kind of guarantee to everyone's safety.

Even if there were some internal problems and plotting being done behind the scenes to allow the event to be taken advantage of by other forces, there were still safety measures put in place in secret to allow for a swift response.

The people who had been implanted that were the most loyal to Darius would watch over the event and work with others to pass on messages or signals back to the Capital at a set time.

So long as he received a confirmation from them, Darius would know that there were no problems unless a message came reporting on whatever had happened.

The first missed message may have been a warning of there being a problem or something that delayed it but a second one meant that it could no longer be ignored.

Even if it meant sending a small and capable squad up the mountain to investigate, it was something that had to be done.

Unfortunately the Crown Prince had forbidden him from taking action so he bowed again. "May I ask your highness why your highness has come to make such a decision?"