The Dungeon Conquerors: Journey to the Peak

As soon as Rein learned that Luna was attacked in her home visit, he immediately went to the royal palace to meet with her. Obviously he went their after dropping Flora and Mertha in the academy. With the information network of the Leonance family, Lapis also became aware of this major matter in no time. So she also came to the royal palace with her grandfather to seek justice for her best friend.

Suddenly after this incident, the royal palace became a heated place. As Anton was also related to the Ducal family of Gontham, they also gathered in the royal palace to support him. The relationship between the Leonance family and the Gontham family was not very good. So with both of them gathering together, the atmosphere between them was not pleasant.

If only some members of the ducal family were here, then the situation would not be as terrible. But as both of the maguses of the family were here, the situation was extremely dangerous. So in order to keep the two meguses in check, the magus of the royal family also had to make an appearance.

With so many high profile people present, Rein had no need to show his face. Even though Luna's mother's family would have been powerless while facing a duke, with Lopas' grandfather on their side, they did not need to worry about this matter. So instead of needlessly inserting his nose between these bigwigs, Rein spent his time having a nice chat with his mother in law. Lopas and Luna were also with him.

It was not Rein's first time meeting with Katy but last time when they met, Katy was still in her depressed state. So they were unable to have any meaningful conversation. But now that Katy had managed to get her vigor back, she and Rein were finally able to have a heart to heart talk.

Katy was extremely relieved to see that Rein's love for her daughter was very very high and was grateful to him for giving her the courage to express her true self. Her recovery was also very much influenced by Rein. Katy always wanted to thank Rein for all his help but getting out of the royal palace was extremely difficult for her.

So she had never gotten the chance to thank him in person, even though in her heart, she was always thanking Rein with all her might. So after finally getting the chance to thank him, Katy was feeling very good.

...

As Rein, Lapis and Luna waited for the result, the meeting between three parties got heated up. Those parties were the Leonance family who were supporting Luna, the Gontham family who was supporting Anton and the royal family who were a neutral side and would be giving the final judgement.

Since the very beginning, the Leonance family were pushing hard for the Gontham family to pay a huge sum of money as reparation and for Anton to get a harsh sentence. On the other hand, the Gontham family were trying to push this matter under the rug with their influence.

But this matter was a big deal so pushing it under the rug was almost impossible. So the main objective that the Gontham family had was to get the most favourable outcome for the family. They were willing to pay some reparation but the amount that the Leonance family had demanded was too much according to their opinion. And in the matter of Anton getting punished, they were completely against that.

The reason for that was simple. If Anton was punished, then the prestige of the Gontham family would be damaged. So what they wanted was to make a deal with the royal family and to take care of this matter in a private setting.

In normal situation, the royal family would have given the Gontham family some face and would have followed their suggestion. But now with the involvement of the Leonance family in the mix, that was no longer possible. The royal family wanted to displease the Leonance family even less. As in the current time, the Leonance family had definitely surpassed the Gontham family in terms of influence and power.

The maguses from all three of the sides were not taking part in the discussion. From the royal family, it was the current king himself who was sitting in the meeting table. As the people involved in this matter were his own children, that made perfect sense.

As for the person who was representing the Leonance family, it was the Lapis' eldest brother. He was the current head of the family relations and the duke had sent him on the table to get some experience dealing with family of similar standing. Obviously in a tense situation, the current ducal heir, Lapis' father was also their to help him. As Luna was not directly related to the Leonance family, the duke heir was not representing the family directly here as that would not be very appropriate.

And from the Gontham family, their current head, the duke himself was sitting on the meeting table. Old magus duke did not wanted to bother with the mundane task of managing the domain, so he had handed it over to his eldest son a few years ago. And currently the Duke himself was representing the Gontham family. As Anton was his blood related nephew, his presence on the table was justified.

...

Two ducal family debated for a long time but failed to reach any conclusion. The Leonance family were unwilling to compromise with Anton not getting punished but the Gontham family were also unwilling to get him punished as that would look very bad for the family. So the amount of reparation was not a problem anymore and the two families needed to come to a decision regarding Anton's punishment.

After seeing that the discussion between the two families were not going anywhere productive and the two sides were almost ready to start fighting, the king proposed a solution. He told both of the party that he could give a harsh punishment to Anton and would not announce it to the outer world. In this case, the wish of both sides would ne fulfilled.

The Gontham family was pleading for Anton's mercy was not because they care about him but because his punishment would bring shame on the family. But if that was not leaked to the public, then the Gontham family had no need to worry about their reputation. In that case, they did not care what kind of punishment was given to Anton as long as the family was not affected by it.

The Leonance family did want to target the Gontham family in this situation but the king's proposal was solid and opposing it would make them look bad. So they were also on the side of this proposal.

So what kind of punishment would be given to Anton ?