Halstatt Palace, south western of Castall Kingdom.
One of the rooms had a kind of heat typical of the number of people gathered inside. Though that number was not high by any means, the room wasn’t spacious either. The point was, the people in that room were so serious and occupied with their tasks that they had begun to raise the temperature of the room bit by bit.
In the center of the room sat a rectangular meeting table and situated on the most important seat in the room was Charlemagne Carolingian. Sat to his right was the second most influential person in Castall, Marquis Moriham Obilic, and the rest of the seats had been filled by his right hand men, Velja Mironic and Jovan Nenad and another two men, Behl Harviala and Zierro Ujlaki. Due to the fact that they were all advanced in years, if you were to take a look around the room, all you would see were white hair on white heads and shiny bald heads except for a teenage girl, Demia Harviala. Demia is the daughter of Margrave Behl Harviala.
If this was a normal situation, everyone except the king would have stood up to pay their respects and then properly initiate the meeting — this was the protocol after all — but that was not what had happened. Each one of them had a cup filled with tea in front of them, signifying the grave consequences of this meeting.
After confirming that everybody had received the materials they had prepared, Moriham said loudly,
“Let’s start the court meeting then. The topic of this meeting will be the declaration we have received from Hezri Kingdom."
The truth was, the teenage girl, who was around the age of the princess, had the most displeased expression out of them all. It seemed that she was deeply anxious about the emergency.
Moriham took a stealthy glance at the side of the old king’s face. He was worried the most about the king’s judgment. Was the sick king still capable of fully understanding how dangerous this situation could be and take appropriate actions against it?
"He probably has some convictions against the Sorcerer King who had abducted his beloved daughter" He thought.
He had heard that after the King received news of her daughter, Scarlet’s abduction, he was shaken to his core and couldn’t think straight. After it was explained to him how resurrection was not possible, he flew into a rage that had never been seen before. Moriham bore witness to it all as he was there with the king when it occurred.
Since then, the king appeared to have aged quite significantly. He had lost all motivation and was as lifeless as a mannequin constructed out of flesh and bone.
Would the king, who had been traumatized this much, be able to make a calm judgment against this cunning enemy, the Hezri Kingdom?
{It’ll be up to me then—}
Moriham felt uneasy so he took a peek at the two ministers.
The topic of this meeting was something that was delivered to them days ago by an envoy from the Hezri Kingdom, an official document that bore the royal seal of the Hezri Kingdom. The content of the document reads, “We have taken into our custody, the sole heiress of Castall Kingdom, Princess Scarlet Carolingian. We demand Castall Kingdom to be dissolved with immediate effect. The noble families shall then be subject to trial for atrocities against the serfs, dalish and dark elves. Failure to adhere to our demand would cause the princess to be sentenced to death penalty. King Charlemagne Carolingian must give his answer within seven days upon receipt of this declaration."
The document also bore the official seals of Scarlet Carolingian and other countries that approved of the Hezri Kingdom’s actions.
As of now, the envoy was staying within the capital, waiting to deliver the Kingdom’s response letter back. Given that this was an official communication between countries through documents, it would not have been unusual to give the other side a week or two to respond. Even then, for them to reach consensus on a response, finish their preparations, complete investigations, et cetera would probably take them more time than they have on hand, even if they were to rush through every process.
“I’m terribly sorry, because we have had to investigate the seals on the document from the envoy, it took us quite a bit of time.”
The one who had lowered his head was the minister of foreign affairs, Margrave Zierro who was also the minister of seals and was in charge of the investigation over the seals approving of the Hezri Kingdom’s decision.
“The ones we were certain of before were the four from the Hezri Kingdom, the princess aeal, the Venetian city state, and the Marquis of Redcliffe, correct?”
The minister of foreign affairs nodded in response to the minister of finance, Margrave Behl's question.
"That is correct. Of the two remaining — one was from the House of Montbelliard of Orlais. Though we had identified the design as the seal still had some variations compared to the ones on the documents we’ve had from them from two centuries ago. After we received the assistance from my subordinate with the investigation, we found a similar seal, so we judged that it was probably a remake of the original after a certain era. The other seal, the one that was next to the Hezri Kingdom’s, appeared to be the seal of the Ebonite religion."
The minister of military affairs, Jovan Nenad was in total disbelief.
"There is a new religion aside from the trinity church?"
He was the youngest of the ministers. Both him and Moriham lowered the average age of the room by quite a lot. With that said, he was already over 40.
“It appears as though the minister of military affairs is not too familiar with this matter. Usually, when the Nicaea applies their national seal on a document, their pope would also stamp on the seal of their church. This must be something similar to that.”
“…so they’re trying to send the message that the ‘Ebionite’ had already overtaken the authority of their religious institutions, or that she has authority above that of the trinity church in the regions?”
"Your servant believes that to be the case, milord."
"Great noble of Ferelden, Marquis of Redcliffe and Great noble of Orlais, Montbelliard as well as the Vandimion, have approved of and joined the Hezri Kingdom’s condemnation of the Castall Kingdom. This wasn’t subterfuge by the Hezri Kingdom, but the truth.”
The king let out a tired sigh.
“Has the Venetian also bent their knees to the Hezri Kingdom?”
“We can’t be certain, your Majesty, because we have yet to receive intel on what had happened in the Venetian city state. Perhaps they had fallen prey to some honeyed words or perhaps they simply felt that there was more to gain by siding with the Hezri Kingdom than siding with us.”
"Em..I also have a very important report. Some of you might have known beforehand." Behl interjected.
All eyes turn to him.
"30 noble families disappeared within the past weeks. Based on the traces left behind. They were assassinated without leaving anyone alive."
The room became gloomier.
In the midst of this, the one to speak up was Velja Mironic who appeared to be pretty miffed,
“Your Majesty, this…this has to be a scheme of the Hezri Kingdom, correct? Your servant could not fathom why would anyone quietly massacre nobles of Castall."
“I concur. Is the Hezri Kingdom not a country that would continue scheming?"
The king suddenly spoke with strength,
"Finally, about my daughter...her safety is the most important thing..."
"I agree!" Demia stood up and raised her voice.
Silence enveloped the room for a while as the nobles in there knew the kingdom would be sacrificed in return for the princess's life.
“—my king,” Moriham did not want to say so, but after steeling himself he said, “after we find out what had happened, could we just sacrifice Princess Scarlet for the continuity of our kingdom?"
The nobles excluding Demia nodded in agreement.
“What are you talking about?”
The king’s gaze was sharp enough that it felt as though it was piercing right through him. Even when he was reduced to a skinny old man, the man who had borne the title of conqueror for the longest time still had an aura that was worthy of praise.
Meanwhile, Demia was trembling in fury and stared sharp at the men.
"I won’t back down so easily." Moriham thought to himself.
Even if this was a scheme by the Hezri Kingdom, was it really worth giving up their positions and life without resistance?
“My king, I believe that we should protect our nobles."
“And so you would be willing to offer my innocent daughter as a sacrifice? Is that something my right hand man should say? Marquis Moriham Obilic, think before you speak.”
Moriham licked his lips and replied,
“My answer remains the same regardless of what the others may say. I believe that it’s imperative for us to avoid a large loss of life with a single sacrifice.”
"I knew the atrocities the nobles of Castall did to their subjects. Even the 30 families deserve their death." The king retorted fiercely.
The king let out a sigh and curled his lips into a straight line. Behl, Demia's father pressed home his advantage by following up with, “I am against the idea. Allow me to repeat myself, I believe that a war with that kind of country should be avoided at all costs, even if we have to sacrifice an innocent peincess.”
Demia looked at her father furiously.
His father's speech was hardly fit for the vassal of the king. He might get called weak behind his back and lose the nobility of a few courtiers because of this, but Behl believed that this was the only path through which the Kingdom would survive.
“…Your Majesty. Your servant supports Marquis’ proposal too.”
The one to agree with him was the minister of internal affairs.
The king scolded him sternly.
“That, I especially cannot do. That would be akin to betraying my ancestors who protected this kingdom."
Moriham Obilic saw that they were communicating on the deeper level through their gazes.
