Chương 128: Chapter : 128

Princess Iris sat at the head of the table. She looked at her two siblings. Prince Hephaestus looked like he had not slept in three days. He was wearing his usual grease-stained shirt, and his heavy welding goggles rested on his messy brown hair. Sitting right behind him was his Vice-Captain, a tough, practical-looking girl named Heart, who was currently drinking black coffee out of a metal thermos. On the other side of the table sat Princess Hestia.

She looked absolutely flawless, wearing a pristine, flowing white dress that didn't have a single wrinkle on it. Standing behind her was her bitter Vice-Captain, Zaima, who was currently glaring daggers at Sayma across the room.

"Thank you both for agreeing to meet with me today," Princess Iris began, her voice calm, clear, and perfectly steady.

"I know this is highly unusual. But yesterday, we all suffered the exact same humiliation. An unknown, masked fourth party dropped into the Blood Fault Dungeon, threw a smoke bomb, and stole the Core of Luminus right out of our hands." Princess Hestia crossed her arms over her chest, letting out a sharp, haughty scoff.

"Do not group me in with your failures, Iris. My team had the entire situation completely under control. If your messy, disorganized little unit hadn't been blocking the hallway, my girls would have caught those thieves easily."

"Nobody caught them, Hestia," Prince Hephaestus mumbled, rubbing his tired eyes with a grease-stained hand.

"They took the rock, and they vanished. The Upper Council hit all three of our units with a mandatory five-point penalty. We are all sinking on the leaderboard right now. Arguing about who looked better while losing isn't going to fix our scores." Princess Iris nodded in agreement with her brother. She leaned forward, placing her hands flat on the polished table.

"Exactly," Iris said.

"And that is why I asked you both to come here today. The Upper Council has not officially closed the mission yet because nobody has delivered the artifact to the palace. The prize is still in play. I propose that our three units form a temporary, strictly business alliance. If we combine our resources, track down the masked thieves, and recover the Core of Luminus together, we can erase the penalty and secure the points." The room went totally silent.

Zaima, standing behind Hestia, actually let out a loud, mocking laugh.

"An alliance? With you? That is the most pathetic thing I have ever heard." Princess Hestia stood up from her chair, smoothing out her spotless white dress. She looked down at Iris with an expression of pure, unfiltered pity.

"Iris, you are truly desperate," Hestia said, her voice dripping with absolute condescension.

"You think I would ever stoop so low as to cooperate with your pathetic unit? Look at your people! You have a vanguard that trips over their own feet, a Vice-Captain who prefers reading to actual combat, and a servant in the corner who cannot even dress himself properly!" This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. She pointed a perfectly manicured finger directly at Ken, who was currently trying to balance a round cracker on his nose.

Ken blinked, letting the cracker drop into his hand, and gave her a goofy wave.

"I would rather accept the five-point penalty and drop down the leaderboard than ever agree to work with such a complete joke of a team," Hestia declared proudly, lifting her chin.

"The 16th Unit does not share victories. We certainly do not need your help to fix a problem."

"Wow, she is really mean," Ken whispered loudly to Naomi, shaking his head.

"Does she practice those speeches in the mirror? She sounds like a villain from a cheap soap opera." Naomi quickly slapped her hand over Ken's mouth to keep him quiet, though she couldn't hide a tiny, amused smile from forming on her lips. She forcefully pulled his hand away from the snack bowl.

"Stop talking before you start a war," she hissed softly.

"My sister's proposal is not a joke, Princess Hestia," Sayma spoke up politely, adjusting her glasses. She refused to let Zaima's glaring intimidate her.

"It is a highly logical solution to a mutual problem. If we search the capital separately, we will simply get in each other's way again."

"I do not care about your logic," Hestia snapped, turning her back toward the table.

"This meeting is over. Zaima, prepare the car. We are leaving. I refuse to entertain this ridiculous idea for another second."

"Hestia, sit down." The voice wasn't loud, but it was incredibly firm. Everyone turned their heads. Prince Hephaestus had stopped rubbing his eyes. He leaned forward in his chair, resting his heavy, calloused hands on the table. He didn't look like a tired, grease-stained mechanic right now. For the very first time since Ken had met him, Hephaestus actually looked like a Prince of the Belmontia Empire. Hestia paused.

She looked over her shoulder at her older brother, her perfectly styled eyebrows pulling together in a deep frown.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, sit down," Hephaestus repeated, his voice practically rumbling with authority.

"Iris is right. And you are letting your ridiculous, inflated pride blind you to basic military tactics." Hestia slowly turned back around, looking absolutely offended.

"Are you taking her side, Hephaestus? She wants us to hold hands and sing songs together! We are in the middle of the Succession War! We are supposed to be destroying each other, not forming clubs!" Hephaestus let out a massive, exhausted sigh. He reached back, and Heart silently handed him the metal thermos of coffee. He took a long drink before looking back at Hestia.

"Collaborating right now isn't a sign of weakness, Hestia. It is a necessary tactical maneuver," Hephaestus argued, his tone dropping into a serious, practical lecture.

"Forming temporary alliances to crush a common enemy is a standard practice in actual warfare. If you want to sit on the Imperial throne, you need to know when to swallow your pride and make a deal." Ken nodded eagerly from the corner, finally managing to chew up the last cracker.

"Exactly! Teamwork makes the dream work! Plus, if we all work together, everybody gets to take longer snack breaks. It is basic math!"

"Stay out of this, you messy idiot!" Zaima yelled at Ken, pointing a sharp finger at him.

"He might be messy, but he isn't wrong," Heart, the 9th Unit's Vice-Captain, chimed in. She leaned against the back of Hephaestus's chair, twirling a metal wrench casually in her hand.

"Look at the numbers, Princess. The 1st Prince and the 5th Prince just secured their twenty points yesterday. They are pulling ahead. If we all sit here holding onto a five-point penalty just because we are too stubborn to share a victory, those two are going to leave us in the dust." Hestia clenched her jaw. She hated it when people used logic against her. She looked at Zaima, hoping her own Vice-Captain would defend her honor. But Zaima was silent.

The bitter, scowling girl was quickly doing the exact same strict mathematics in her head. She knew Heart was completely correct.