Alford sighed and walked to his seat.

The hall was wide, with a table in the middle, and round the seats, and a different, elegant chair at the end of the table for the president, on which no one had yet seated.

The first, at the age of twenty-five, was comfortably propped up in a chair with red hair and gray eyes.

The other sits in moderation, with brown hair, hazel eyes, and calm features, at the age of nineteen.

Alford: "So...?" He passed his eyes between them.

So the first said, scratching his head: "A group of scum has entered the palace."

Alford snorted and looked at them in...