The throne room was in chaos.
"Such Impudence!! We can't abandon our cities!"
"You expect us to harken the words of a mere child?!"
"If we focus only on the capital, we'll lose everything else!"
Damian stood calm in the middle of the noise, hands behind his back with eyes locked on the king. His plan was clear with an unshakable resolve.
"We defend the capital," he said, voice low, yet firm.
To some of the nobles of high rank present, his stubbornness proved to be rather insulting on a grand scale.
One of such nobles snapped and stormed towards him, raising a hand to grab his shoulder.
"Your bickering has gone on fo—"
Before he could touch him, a hand slapped his away, swift and cold.
"Excuse me your grace..." Lyra cut in with a cold piercing glare from behind. "...But I cannot allow that."
"H-how dare—!"
But just as the throneroom was bout to burst into another bout of disorder, King Elric's voice cut through the clamor like a blade as he voiced out his mind.
"Enough!"
The hall fell into complete silence instantly.
Elric rose slowly from the throne, His face looked looking pale and tired than ever, but he voice still carried the weight of a man who couldn't afford mistakes. Although his annoyance was clearly still visible on his face.
"Damian... I don't know what scheme you're trying to pull here, but if you have a point, say it now." Elric stated.
Damian didn't flinch as he made sure to look as serious as possible this time around. Then he called out to a random guard.
"Bring me a brush and a map of Aureon... I see there is a need for me to prove my point."
Moments later, knights brought out a massive parchment and laid it on the floor according to Damians orders.
"Lyra..."
"Of course..." She nodded, conjuring icw that held the parchment in place on all fours corners.
'Now let's get this over with.'
By now, the king had stepped down from the throne, standing just beside Damian in silence, while the nobles cautiously gathered around with curiousity in their whispers.
With the small calligraphy brush in hand, Damian crouched and began his presentation.
"State your cities. And tell me the status given to the surrounding mana in your cities."
There was hesitation at first, as everyone was confused at the boy's request.
As a former researcher, Damian was well aware that when measuring surrounding mana, it was usually graded from thin, mild, normal, uncommon, high, very high, and toxic, lethal.
In this case, the reports showed maa signatures variating from uncommon to very high surrounding mana. But die this time work, Damian needed the exact reports for each city.
"Didn't you hear him?" Elric muttered with his already annoyed tone causing the nobles to shift in unease while Damian smiled a little.
"E- Eravia, high mana signatures." A noble voiced out while Damian nodded in response and marked it's location on the map.
Then another person spoke up.
"Drynor, high mana signature."
And another.
"Kraigville, very high mana signatures."
"Dorien, Uncommon mana signatures."
"Garion, very high mana signatures."
Each location was marked with symbols representing their mana density one after the other with fluid precision. By the end, he had already marked more fifteen cities across the map.
He finally stood up then slowly clasped his palms with a smile, like an artist that just finished a master piece.
"Hmm...." Elric hummed in curiosity.
Other than that, no one so much as made a sound as everyone already expected an explanation from the young prince.
"With all due respect, while you've all been watching your own cities and panicking over each surge. I'm afraid that you might have missed something important...."
Then gesturing to the parchment before him he concluded with a small smile.
"...You missed the pattern."
"Pattern? Winston muttered as he stared intently at the map."
"Yeah."
He pointed toward the outermost dots, leaving behind faint scorchmarks from his fingertips that continued spreading outward on contact.
"Lyra, can you give me a hand?" he asked sheepishly. "It's a bit too much than I expected."
"Of course young master." she smiled in agreement.
She assisted him by leaving Frost marks behind that continued spreading from their point of contact after she tapped on the cities.
"Notice that the Mana density is highest on the outskirts of the epidemic."
"But that doesn't prove anything" stated a noble.
"You're right " Damian agreed as he and Lyra continued marking the cities on the parchment. "I take it you all remember that according to the reports, the mana spikes happen in pulses, meaning that it always spreads out from the center. And what were doing right now is just a simple replica of that."
"But get this, the closer we get to the heart of the kingdom, the lesser the mana concentrations are..."
"That is correct young master, but if thats the case, why withdraw the troops?" Winston inquired as Damian's explanation looked intriguing to him.
"Yes, yes... I agree with you, there's really no point to even so much as put a soldier at the safest spot in this crisis am I right?" Damian teased.
"Imagine this," he explained. "If each surge from the outer cities are like waves, from a raindrop, then what would happen if those waves continue travelling towards the center?"
"Their signatures add up" Winston muttered.
"Bingo..."
Damian drew his finger from the kingdom's outskirts towards the center, the sole point on the map still untouched by neither scorched nor frost.
"Now, where do you think all those sna signaturs are going to converge?"
He asked, casting his father a side glance just in time to see the surprise on his face while he picked up the remaining piece of parchment and showed it to King as Elric whispered the answer in his rough grumpy tone.
"Edelgard..."
He looked up, with sharp unmoving eyes white he stood there in deep thought.
A few nobles looked pale.
Damian continued nonetheless. "And that's why I suggest we defend the capital Father."
The room was silent now.
Elric stared at the map, then at Damian and spoke up. "And if this is a false trail by any chance?"
"It isn't" boomed a voice from the door as everyone looked back to see the dashing blonde haired first prince walk in with a certain noble stride with that ever present calm yet high and mighty demeanor.
"Father, this isn't a wide scale dungeon outbreak,..." He paused. "...We're looking at the formation of a super dungeon."