Chương 118: Chapter : 118

"From Naomi," Luna sighed, closing her eye again.

"She is currently on the absolute edge of a complete mental breakdown. If you crack one more joke about glowing rocks or stale bread, she is going to beat you into a pulp. And I am not going to stop her." Ken looked over at Naomi. The fierce, red-haired warrior was literally shaking with anger. Her teeth were gritted together, and she looked like she was about ready to launch herself across the room and strangle him with his own crooked tie. Ken's eyes widened in fake, highly exaggerated panic.

He quickly dropped the sandwich back onto the plate and took three massive steps backward.

"Whoa! Okay! Message received!" Ken yelled, putting his hands up in a totally comedic surrender.

"Hostile work environment! I am calling a timeout! You guys really need to learn how to take a joke!" He quickly scurried backward, looking frantically around the strategy room for a safe place to go. He spotted a tall, heavy wooden bookshelf standing in the back corner of the room. Without hesitating, Ken practically dived behind the piece of furniture. He pressed his back against the wall, peeking just his head around the side of the bookshelf so he could still see the team.

"I am just saying," Ken muttered from his hiding spot, keeping his voice a little quieter but still completely annoying.

"This entire scavenger hunt was totally unfair! The Emperor didn't even give us a map! How are we supposed to win a race when random ninjas can just drop from the ceiling? It is totally against the rules of good sportsmanship! I demand a redo!"

"Stay behind the bookshelf, Ken," Naomi hissed through her teeth, not even turning to look at him.

"If you step out, you are a dead man." Ken immediately pulled his head back, hiding completely out of sight. A few seconds later, the loud, crunching sound of him eating another sandwich echoed from behind the wood. Princess Iris let out a long, quiet sigh. She didn't have the energy to scold Ken or calm Naomi down. The reality of the situation was finally settling in, and it was much worse than just a bruised ego or a lost prize.

The heavy wooden door to the strategy room opened again, and Grandmaster Finlay walked in. The giant, imposing knight ducked his head to fit through the doorframe. His massive silver armor clanked loudly in the quiet room. He looked at the exhausted girls, and then he looked at the Princess. His face was completely grim.

"The jokes are over," Grandmaster Finlay announced, his deep voice rumbling like thunder.

"We need to face reality. The Upper Council has just sent the official ruling on today's mission." Sayma sat up straight, pushing her notebook to the center of the table.

"Grandmaster, please tell me they are voiding the results. A fourth party interfered with the race. That has to be against the rules." This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Grandmaster Finlay shook his head slowly. He walked over to the table and rested his heavy, metal-plated hands on the wood.

"There are no voids in the Succession War," Finlay said coldly.

"The rules are absolute. We have a very serious problem to discuss, and the mathematics are not in our favor." Behind the bookshelf, Ken quietly chewed on his sandwich, completely ignoring the serious tension. He was totally happy to stay hidden and let the serious people talk about numbers and rules, as long as it meant he didn't have to do any actual work.

The strategy room felt incredibly cold as Grandmaster Finlay stood over the table. The giant knight did not bring good news, and everyone in the room could feel it. Princess Iris looked up at her Advisor.

"Grandmaster, what did the Upper Council say? What is their official ruling on the mission?" Finlay crossed his massive arms over his chest plate. He looked at each of the girls, ensuring they understood exactly how serious the situation was.

"The Upper Council does not care that masked thieves interfered. They do not care that we fought a Lamia boss, and they certainly do not care that the 9th Unit used stealth gadgets. The Emperor's rules are completely black and white." Sayma quickly opened her notebook and grabbed a pen.

"The objective was to find and secure the Core of Luminus. That was the only parameter of the mission."

"Correct, Vice-Captain," Finlay nodded heavily.

"The objective was to secure the artifact and bring it back to the palace. Because the 13th Unit engaged in the mission and failed to return with the target, the Upper Council has officially marked this as a mission failure." Zinia slammed her fist onto the table.

"That is totally unfair! We didn't just fail! Nobody won! The 16th Princess and the 9th Prince didn't get the Core either! The thieves took it!"

"It doesn't matter if the other Royals failed too," Finlay explained, his voice stern and unrelenting.

"We are only responsible for our own score. And because this was a highly competitive, multi-unit race, the Emperor attached a specific penalty to this task." Sayma's face turned visibly pale. Her pen stopped moving across the paper.

"The penalty. I remember the briefing from this morning. You said any team that participated and failed would suffer a deduction."

"Yes," Finlay confirmed quietly.

"A mandatory five-point penalty." The number hung in the air like a dark cloud. Five points. In the brutal game of the Succession War, a single point was incredibly hard to earn. Losing five points all at once was absolutely devastating.

"Let us review the mathematics," Sayma said, trying to keep her voice steady, though her hands were shaking slightly. She started writing the numbers down on the paper so everyone could see.

"Yesterday, we successfully eliminated the Curse Organization leader, Vane. The Upper Council rewarded us with twenty points for completing a B-rank mission. It put us tied for first place on the Royal leaderboard." Sayma drew a dark line under the number twenty.

"However," she continued, her voice dropping.

"With this mandatory five-point penalty, our total score is immediately dropping to fifteen points."

"Fifteen points," Naomi repeated, staring at the number on the paper. All the fighting energy drained right out of her. She slumped down into her chair, looking absolutely crushed.

"We fought for our lives in the slums yesterday to get those points. We almost died. And today, we lose a quarter of our total score just because some random guys in masks threw a smoke bomb." Laxmi leaned back, staring at the ceiling.

"This is terrible. If we drop to fifteen points, where does that put us on the leaderboard?" Sayma adjusted her glasses, looking at the fresh data she had received earlier.

"It drags us down significantly. Remember, Princess Hestia also completed a twenty-point mission yesterday. Assuming her team also gets hit with this five-point penalty today, she will drop to fifteen points as well. But other Royals who did not participate in this race are still safely sitting at twenty points."