Upon walking into the room, I see a blond man with jewel colored eyes. He resembles William and yet he isn’t as tall nor strongly built. He seems more of an administrator than a warrior. This information disappoints me.

It looks like I will not meet a person of worth.

“Greetings James Asherton De Allonia. I am Michael De Arria, I hope these peace talks will come to a satisfactory conclusion.” I hardly spare him a glance. My attention is instead caught by his companion.

Her silver hair denotes Arrian heritage and yet the purple eyes reveal the taint of Allonian. She would have been considered a great beauty if not for the purple eyes. James seems to introduce himself because Luca glares at him.

“I would like to offer you the land in return for monetary concessions.” The money hurts. I have just amassed some wealth and now I am going to be spending it again. “In addition, we would be willing to give you Harold.”

“Who is Harold?” I raise my eyebrows confused. I do not know how this Harold would be important. All I want is the ability to make it look like we won. So long as the land is given to us to do with as we see fit nothing else really matters.

“He is the King of Aveven.” I have the urge to punish him for the stain upon my honor. The idiot is of no concern to me. I will simply choose to forget the comment was ever made.“I am taking that as a no to Harold.”

“James, he clearly wouldn’t want anything to do with him. The suggestion is a silly one.” The woman behind him informs him. She is probably a member of his harem. My blood boils at the slight to each and every woman inside it. Her Arrian sounds natural, almost as if it is her native tongue.

To have multiple wives is a detestable notion.

“I shall relent. Instead I ask for a couch, only the finest of Arrian couches.” I nearly couch in response. He wants a couch? Is he not taking this seriously? How can this person run an empire?

“Consider it done.” Something shines in his eyes. I have probably played into his plans but that isn’t of any concern to me. I have my own issues back at home. I do not need the Arrian-Allonian war to start again while I deal with the Pirates. I have been at war for too long, I would like some peace.

“Then let us talk of money.” I am not surprised this is the issue he brings up. All Allonians care for is money. He rattles off a couple of numbers and I argue against it. I am not willing to spend that much money on the land.

Listening to him talk about the worth of the land causes me to have a new understanding of him. He is a very intelligent person. He knows far more on this subject than me. Though I refuse to admit it out loud. No reason to stroke their ego.

“It is settled. May I say that it has been a pleasure. I hope that peace shall reign between our two great nations.” I smile at James. With this Issue settled I can focus on more internal affairs. “My condolences for your father, it was a duel to the death. It was regrettable that he had to die.”

“Yes, it was a pity. Wasn’t it?” He looks at me with emotions that I cannot comprehend. To say that the death of his father didn’t affect him would be a lie but I am not entirely sure that he is saddened by this outcome. I guess I can slightly understand where he is coming from. The death of my father was a joyous day for me. But I can't help but think that he reminds me of Lucifer.

All means are justified by the end result.

I am beginning to look forward to the future. It seems change is on the horizon in Allonia. “I shall see you at the feast, may God grace your way with light.” I have found that mentions of religion tend to creep Allonians out. If not for this being the case I wouldn't have mentioned anything.

“And may he do the same for yours.” To his credit he just accepts it graciously. Upon finalizing the treaty, we reveal it to the Aveven king. He just throws a fit and leaves. It was good that I didn’t take him. I would rather him sit on the throne of my enemies than remove him.

“I do not like him. He is clearly planning something. No leader would have simply given up the land in a position like his.” Luca informs me and I can’t help but agree. Those are my thoughts exactly but war would be bad for Arria. We need to work on healing the scars left not on creating new ones.

“Let us play along with him. It advances our plans anyway. Although I am interested in what he wants the money for.” Seizing money only means a couple of things. Either one wants to build industry, increase the army, or increase the navy. Allonia needs not worry about two of those things which leaves only one reason.

James wants to increase the size of his army.

This might have worried me if he were planning on invading Arria but since he pushed for a long truce period, I doubt that is his plan. “I do not like this but we shall do as you wish.”

“Their Arrian was good for Allonians. Especially the woman, what was her name?” I ask because I wasn’t paying attention at the time.

“I believe she said her name was Elizabeth Goldwell De Tonsia.” The Goldwell family. I have heard about them; they piqued my interest lately. That would explain her silver hair. “She is currently married as the empress of Allonia.”

“A pity that she lives in the harem.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” I am not surprised by the lack of loyalty. I wouldn’t consider it a trait found among them. I guess they are better than the Yanzhou. They allow any person to have concubines, even commoners.

“I wish to go home. I miss the familiarity of Arrian architecture.” That wasn’t the real reason but it was a good excuse. I merely wish to be by my family’s side instead of out here in the middle of nowhere. The country might speak a familiar tongue but it lacks the luster that seems to surround all things Arrian.

“We shall be heading back soon.”

W/N: This story has just improved by a large margin. It was obviously missing the best character, Michael De Arria, and clearly suffered as a result. This is the end of the Arrian-Allonian war officially. What do you guys think of Michael's opinion and views on James? I dare say that Michael is a more reliable narrator than James. I am sure this is an interesting insight on James's character from another POV.

As always, thank you for reading.