“Explanation?” Ketal asked, his eyes narrowing. It was clear that the mage before him was not here to fight. “Does that mean you came here to have a conversation?”0

“For now, yes,” Adamant replied, shifting his gaze to Elene. “I knew you were a bit of a troublemaker, my lady, but this is quite the spectacle.”0

“Adamant, even you’ve come to stop me, haven’t you?” Elene said.0

Adamant Lagesh—the chief mage of the Lutein Kingdom and the kingdom’s sole Transcendent mage—shook his head. “I haven’t come to stop you. I am here to explain. The knights are too tactless to convey anything properly.”0

“If explaining doesn’t work, are you going to stop us?” Elene countered, her tone sharp.0

“That’s true,” Adamant admitted with a slight shrug.0

Elene bit her lip, her frustration evident. “Of course. You must be terrified of the king of the Denian Kingdom making the Declaration of Humanity. They must be desperate if they’re sending you.”0

“That doesn’t concern me,” Adamant replied quietly.0

His words caught Elene off guard. “What?”0

“I know that the king of Denian can invoke the Declaration of Humanity, but that is not the reason I’m here. I came here because if you attempted to cross into another nation without any formal announcement to the royal family,” Adamant explained, letting out a weary sigh.0

“You are the noble First Princess of the Lutein Kingdom. The weight of your...0