The Veil of Darkness
Chapter 106: The Incident of Portal Hall

Chapter 106: The Incident of Portal Hall

Annalise spared a quick look in Valerius’ direction but as soon as their gazes collided, she hurriedly looked away. The man didn’t seem angry at her but he sure had something to say to her.

She returned her attention to the City Governor before she spoke, "On our way to the city, we stopped by the Portal Hall but found that it has been completely abandoned and it seems like it has been for decades if not centuries."

No one failed to notice as the expression on the City Governor’s face changed immediately, he seemed hesitant about something as he turned to look at his wife and the rest of his people that were standing nearby.

"Madam, how about you take everyone back to their work and bring some tea and snacks for our guests?"

Everyone took the cue as the Governor’s wife immediately nodded her head and headed out of the pavilion along with her daughter-in-law and the rest of their men.

Once everyone had left, the City Governor finally turned his attention back to Annalise as she questioned, "Your Highness, aren’t you His Majesty’s cousin and the Grand Duke’s daughter? Is it that you haven’t already heard about this issue?"

Annalise shared a confused look with her husbands who also seemed to be unaware of whatever the Governor was trying to imply with his questions. "What are you trying to say?" It was Kenric who asked the question.

"It’s that... we already sent a message informing the late King and the current Sovereign about the Portal Hall’s issue when that thing happened two decades ago." The City Governor informed and looking into his eyes, it seemed like he was speaking the truth. However, his words were pretty confusing.

"Are you trying to say that His Majesty already knows about the abandoned Portal Halls?" Damien questioned the Governor who immediately nodded his head in response. "Exactly. I personally wrote the message and sent my men to deliver it to the Palace and the late King replied that the case would be taken care of by the Crown Prince, meaning the current King."

This time, it was her who was at the attention of all the four men as they looked at her with questioning eyes. She hurriedly shook her head before speaking, "Impossible. His majesty wouldn’t have asked us to inquire about this case if he already knew about the issue, or maybe..."

She trailed off as her head started buzzing with questions. She was pretty confident that the King wasn’t playing any trick on them. Even though she was never that close to him after he got crowned as the successor of the throne, she had always observed him from afar. He’s indeed crafty, sharp, and knew how to lie without batting his eyes, however, he was a true monarch who wanted the safety of his empire and people above everything.

She took in a deep breath before returning her attention to the City Governor. "Don’t worry about other things, just tell me the story of the Portal Hall. What exactly happened to it two decades ago?"

The City Governor spared a quick look in her husbands’ direction but none of the three dark lords said anything, they just sat there in silence while looking back at the Governor as if they were waiting for the old man to start with the story.

Coming to the same realization, the Governor took in a deep breath before he began. "It was back when I got newly appointed as the new Governor of this city, around twenty-three years ago or something. The Portal Hall of our city was guarded by the descendants of the Azura family but then one night, people heard some sort of disturbance going in the Portal Hall."

"A team of city guards headed there to take a look but we received the information that the entire team got killed. So, I personally went there with more guards to see what was happening, only to find that the Portal Hall was in shambles and everyone from the Azura bloodline had disappeared while everyone else was found dead."

Annalise shared a look with her husbands and realized that they were also pretty surprised to hear about the Portal Hall incident.

"We searched the entire city and the nearby areas but there was no clue about anyone from the Azura family. Finally, I sent the message to the late King, and when the case was assigned to the current King, I closed down the Portal Hall and just focused my attention on other works. Nothing abnormal happened in the city after that day, so people eventually forgot about it."

There was a long silence following the Governor’s words before Kenric finally broke the ice and asked, "Have been there similar incidents around other cities too?"

The question immediately piqued everyone’s interest as they all looked at the City Governor, waiting for his response. The old man slowly nodded his head as he replied, "Nothing similar happened in the Seelie Empire, or at least we haven’t heard of it even if something did happen, but a similar incident happened in the Mortal Realm recently, maybe three or four years ago. Most importantly, it was the Raven family who disappeared - the guardians of the biggest portal in the Mortal Realm that opened both in the Seelie Empire and Midnight Realm."

Annalise slumped down in her seat as her brain started buzzing with so many questions. The disappearance of the guardian families was in no way a mere coincidence or an ordinary thing, there was undoubtedly something deeper and darker going on that they all were not aware of.

Besides, it seemed like the Royal family was also involved in this case and if it was not the current King then at least the late King definitely had something to do with it.

"Anything else that you can tell us about these incidents?" Damien asked the Governor who appeared to be thinking for a while before he finally gave them the last piece of helpful information.