The civic and military officials assembled in the main hall ten minutes later. They were all taken aback when they saw how unsettled Zack was.
A beautiful thin figure stood out among the crowd. She was dressed in a brilliant yellow gown with golden flowers and hair accessories made of feathers. She was certainly eye candy. The woman was Fanny Windsor. She was Quincy's favorite official, and she was the Guardian of the Hall. Even though it was only a third-rank official, it wielded considerable power. She could take the Empress' place and handle the government affairs while the Empress was unavailable.
Fanny stood quietly in front of the throne seat. All the civil and military officials stood respectfully and did not dare to be presumptuous. On the other hand, Zack had a disdainful expression on his face.
He needed to rush back to the Royal City for several reasons, one of which was to get rid of Fanny. She was the Empress's confidante and had a position of great power. Zack would not allow Fanny to live to see another day.
Fanny looked at Zack, trying to conceal her anxiety. "Zack, you accompanied Her Majesty and the soldiers on their mission to eliminate the pirates. Why are you back alone? Where is Her Majesty?"
Each statement was uttered clearly and authoritatively, as expected from someone who kept the Empress company. All the officials stared at Zack, waiting for his response.
Zack looked around as he purposely did not look at Fanny. He acted like he was in grief. "Something happened to Her Majesty."
'What?' All officials were shocked to hear it, especially Fanny. Her body trembled. She thought she had misheard it and shouted at Zack, "What did you say? Did something happen to Her Majesty? What happened?"
Zack continued to ignore Fannie. He took a deep breath and said, "When Her Majesty and I surrounded the Dragon King Island with the army, we thought we would win with our formation. However, the pirates' female leader knew every detail of our plan. They broke through our formation, and Her Majesty fought with the leader of the pirates. Her Majesty was eventually wounded and sunk to the ocean's depths. Our army had been defeated, and the majority of our troops had fled."
The main hall remained quiet. Fanny and the officials were shocked to hear that, and their heads buzzed for quite a while before they could think clearly. The plan to kill the pirates had failed, and they were defeated so mercilessly.
Then, one of the officials asked, "How was that possible? We deployed more than ten thousand soldiers. How could they not match a mere small pirates group? Furthermore, Her Majesty had always been good at tactical skills. How could they predict her strategy?"
"That's right!"
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