"Mia, how did your mission to subjugate goblins go?" Asked the King.

"Yes your majesty, I can give you a full report, but would it be possible for me to speak to you privately?" Said Mia.

"Of course" said the King, and Ethan and the others left the throne room.

"There was no remote village being attacked by goblins where Von Geld described. There was only the Red Dragon of Calamity." Said Mia.

"Red Dragon of Calamity?! So Von Geld tried to have you killed! I will jail him at once for treason." Said the King.

"There is no need to jail him. That will only cause internal problems in the Vorbei Kingdom and we especially can't afford that right now. Don't worry. He was just removed from his position and my dad will deal with him." Said Mia.

"So that vote just there was your doing then. I suppose that that's understandable given the circumstances and I won't ask any questions about how your dad will deal with him, just try to get him to not create too big of a mess in the capital. Anyway, how did you survive the dragon? According to our kingdom's archives, even the legendary heroes of ancient times couldn't kill a Calamity Dragon." Said the King.

"Five of my knights didn't survive but the Dragon was distracted by that young man, Ethan, who was just here, the guy with the high mana capacity, although at the time he had not even a trace amount of mana. We drove the dragon away when it was distracted." Said Mia.

"I do have a few questions about how someone could survive without mana and why he was in the Ancient Forest, but presumably that wasn't the reason why you wanted to speak to me privately without your knights hearing. What is the truly sensitive information that you wanted to tell me?" Asked Karl

"I have credible information to suggest that the Western Empire is going to invade in just a little over two months." Said Mia and then showed the king the new use for 'delayed spark', and showed him how the conclusion that the Western Empire would invade was drawn.

"Ethan came up with this use for this spell. I don't think that I need to tell you how dangerous this use for this spell could be. Humans should not predict the future anyway, and if the Western Empire gets its hands on this new use for 'delayed spark', the Kingdom would be destroyed. I have already gotten Ethan to swear to never speak of this use for the delayed spark spell, and my dad will keep a close eye on Ethan given that Ethan was recently appointed the Baron of Kastell. I humbly advise you to act on the knowledge that the Western Empire will invade, but do nothing further with this new, dangerous use for this spell." Said Mia.

"I see. I will follow your advice, but this Ethan is getting more mysterious by the minute. He seems like a very dangerous person who could spell the end of this kingdom if he had any malice, and we weren't careful about him. I'll trust your father to keep him in line for now, but is there anything else that I should know about him?"

"Yes. He created a new and powerful weapon when we stopped in Verafgelegen. You see, there was a traitor against humanity, an alchemist named Johan Alchemis whom you also need to pass judgment on. He had 300 lizard-people lay siege to the village of Verafgelegen in the Ancient Forest after his proposal to the daughter of Lord Verafgelegen was rejected and he fled the village with all of his potions. He may be just a simpleton, but all the same he is a traitor. We defeated the lizard-people with no human casualties with Ethan's help. We were low on mana and couldn't use much attack magic. Ethan made for us a substance that can cause explosions without magic, called gunpowder. I believe that with the right application it can be used to equip soldiers who are not armed with magic. Ethan later drew out diagrams of weapons that use this substance to propel metal projectiles forward very fast. Here are some copies of the diagrams that my dad had made, as well as a recipe for gunpowder." Said Mia as she handed the king some sheets of parchment.

"Charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter ground into a fine powder? Not even any uncommon substances. This should be easy enough to manufacture, and I believe that you wouldn't have shown it to me if it didn't work. I suppose that we'll start equipping those in the regular army who can't use magic with these weapons, and I assume your dad is doing the same with his soldiers who can't use magic. We only have two months though. I will have all of the blacksmiths, alchemists, and craftspeople working on making gunpowder weapons until the war starts. Anyway, regarding that traitor Johan, I really dislike traitors, but I had already heard a little about him from his dad this morning. It does seem like he's just an idiot who didn't know better, but that still doesn't totally excuse it. I guess that I'll just sentence him to a life of indentured servitude rather than death."

"I understand, your Majesty." Said Mia.

Mia and Karl talked for a while about how they were going to defend against the Western Empire in the next war and coordinate the kingdoms forces, and then they were ready to call in the others.