Seeing that the situation was taking a turn for the worse, Mordred took a step forward and blocked Aina to her back, feeling slightly protective of this young girl.

"Aina is not tied with us, she is only here as a helper." Mordred tried to explain.

Nile's gaze remained locked onto Aina.

Aina felt her vision swimming, her feet feeling somewhat unsteady. From an outsiders perspective, it seemed as though she was feeling pressured by Nile's gaze. But, the reality was that her body seemed to want to shut down at this moment.

After several minutes of trying to force her ability to activate, her situation only got worse. In fact, it seemed as though the repressive effects of her scars was getting fiercer.

Without the energy she needed to fight back against it, the situation she was facing only grew worse.

"The reason she is here is irrelevant. The fact that she is here at all is already a challenge to His Majesty's sovereignty."

The momentum of Nile and the four wolf riders to his back grew.

In the Ascension Empire, there were only a handful of titles without a democratic prefix attached to it. The reason behind this was clear, other than the royal family, others had to constantly scratch and claw for their positions. Any failure to do so would result in the destruction of countless generations of effort.

Due to this structure, The Empire had fostered a sense of complete and unquestionable loyalty. Those who failed to meet such standards could just as easily be ostracized during the next cycle of elections. It was also exactly because of this reason that there were no noble families with useless heirs as useless heirs would only drive the effort of the family into the ground!

If Nile was found to have been aware of a traitor to The Empire yet hadn't taken action, the consequences would be unimaginable.

To begin with the Bryermuthe family didn't hold control over a powerful province. In fact, his Evergreen Province was located in harsh wintery climates year 'round, resulting in an economy that was somewhat crippled. They lacked resources or tourist worthy locations.

To compensate for this, the Evergreen Province was, ironically, a Province filled with factories and was as such ranked eighth amongst the Provinces. And, unfortunately, the only reason they were not ranked ninth was because Dark Cloud Province, the location of Dark Cloud Prison, was considered unranked.

It could be considered a blessing to the family that Nile had awakened as a Variant and had had the opportunity to stay by the Prince's side for the past year. But, he was also aware that his standing even compared to some Secretary Marquisette families was lacking.

As such, he couldn't afford to make any mistakes. He had to uphold the justice of The Empire properly.

By this point, though, Aina's mind was far too foggy to consider her surroundings. She stumbled and fell backward, only to be caught by Mordred who realized that something had gone wrong.

But, Nile had yet to finish speaking.

"And, I also hope that as a power soon to be under the jurisdiction of The Empire, that you wouldn't be harboring a criminal.. correct?"

Nile's gaze landed on Mordred and Arthur once again, his words far more forceful.

In the distance, Noah remained unmoved by it all. The distance was only a hundred meters, so with his newfound strength, he could easily hear the words Nile was speaking. Since he didn't find anything wrong with Nile's approach, he didn't make any moves.

'Aina Brazinger, is it?' Noah's jaw steeled.

He recognized this name. Could she be from that family? But she didn't have the signature hair and eye color..

Though Earth couldn't be considered as large as the universe, obviously, there were still many instances of unrelated people having the same last names. Knowing this, it was no wonder even those who were aware of the Morales name didn't automatically assume Leonel's origins.

But, in a world as small as Earth, especially after the eradication of over 99% of their population, such instances should be much rarer. Was there really such a coincidence?

It was no surprise that Noah was sensitive to the names of these hidden families. His grandfather had said that there were many enemies eyeing their Earth, and these hidden families were no exception.

Noah wasn't quite sure of the origin of these families. But, there were two running theories he had come up with under his own research and a bit of Jessica's help.

The first possibility was that these hidden families were existences that once vied for supremacy over Earth like their Fawkes family had.

Though it was easy to ignore it.. but didn't their Fawkes family also all have the same white-gold hair and emerald green eyes?

When Noah realized this on a certain day not that many years ago, he felt as though his whole world had been flipped upside down. Could it really be that their Fawkes family was just another hidden family that happened to claim victory?

It was possible.. But there was also a second possibility as well.

This possibility was far more sinister. And, if this was true, Noah would stop at nothing to eradicate these hidden families.

With so many higher Dimensional worlds eyeing them, could it really be possible that none of them took any measures to claim a piece of Earth for themselves?

What if the hidden families were actually branch members of higher Dimensional worlds that sent their people here in order to reach the fifth generation as quickly as possible?

If that was the case.. wouldn't that mean that those higher Dimensional worlds weren't as far away as they all thought..?

historical

As for which of these two theories was correct, Noah had no idea. But, what he did know was that he couldn't allow someone with the Brazinger family name to run around freely. And, even if Aina's last name wasn't Brazinger, her crimes alone would have definitely warranted detainment.

"Seize her." Nile said coldly. "We'll take her back to The Capital for trial after all of this is over."

--

[Author's Note Below: 12/20/21]