The king enters the dining hall after ending the meeting. There he is greeted by his sons, Key, Sophe and Julient. Key stood up from his chair to greet him with a bow.

"Welcome back father."

The king nods at him and took a seat at the table across from his sons. Key followed shortly after.

"Good evening to you all, the three of you have seen the meeting correct?"

In the middle of the dining table, a scroll made of alchemy is projecting an image of a room towards the air, it was the castle's meeting room.

"Yes father! We have seen and reviewed the meeting!"

"Good, tell me your conclusions Key."

"As you wish father!"

Key stood up from his seat, holding a sheet of paper.

"I believe it is great that we support Ortensia, and Tinore's proposal to help them in the war is great also. We can build our relationship with Ortensia, and show our military strength at the same time. Therefore, I believe the meeting was a success for both parties."

"That is a short but clear observation, thank you Key."

"It is an honor to receive praise from you father!"

Key sat down on his seat, looking proud.

"Next, Sophe, what are your conclusions?"

"I-I agree with Key, it is great to help neighboring kingdoms."

Sophe answered shyly, not even standing up to present his conclusion. The king was disappointed by this.

"Sophe, you need to be more assertive with your own conclusion. You can't lead a nation by agreeing to everything people say."

"F-Forgive me father..."

Sophe looked down shamefully, his long brown bangs dropped and covered his eyes.

"No matter, you simply need to learn to gain confidence like Key, I have faith in you Sophe."

"Thank you, father..."

"Now then, Julient... What are your conclusions?"

"...As you wish..."

Julient stood up from his seat empty handed.

"I have a few points to share after reviewing the meeting that I will present. Firstly, I believe that we will receive next to nothing by helping Ortensia this way, the only ones who will profit out of this cooperation are the nobles who wish to build relationship with Ortensia. We will have no say in what those nobles do with their relationship, and we won't know if Ortensia will help them at all. Thus, if we must support Ortensia in this war, I suggest we request a direct compensation instead of a vague relationship."

The king closed his eyes, seemingly taking Julient's talk seriously.

"Secondly, I believe that by drafting our soldiers into their army, we will only prolong the war. Denta is known for aggressive war strategies, and the fact that Denta has large amounts of soldiers at their disposal, they will surely use it against Ortensia. But Denta doesn't expect Setus soldiers to be in Ortensian ranks, thus if they saw them, they will retreat and consider on changing their rash tactics with a more carefully planned one."

Key looked at Julient with discontent, while Sophe looked at Julient amazed.

"And thirdly, I believe that there is a chance that this war is set up by Ortensia, or at least someone with a rather high standing in Ortensia."

The king opened his eyes, intrigued by Julient's words.

"Julient, what makes you say that?"

"This war seems to help Ortensia indirectly, and also weaken us at the same time. They can import food from us at a lower price, they have the support of our soldiers to help them in war, basically saving them from the cost of recruiting more soldiers. And, back to my first point, we didn't even ask anything from them besides vague trust in relationships. We will lose most of our resources and soldiers, no matter if Ortensia wins or not. Basically opening our doors for attackers to invade us at our weakest. My best advice on this is to stop supporting Ortensia altogether, or at least request a direct compensation. That is all, thank you."

The king and Key glared at Julient. This is a scene that the four of them have experienced many times.

"Julient, that is a good and detailed observation. But it is hindered by one thing."

"What is it father?"

"You should stop putting your bias towards Munith in politics, it is hindering your potential."

"...Tch"

Julient clicked his tongue, he has heard this argument from his father and key day after day.

"Firstly, we are helping Ortensia because they are our friend, we should not expect to gain anything by helping a friend correct?"

"..."

Julient stood silently as the king breakdown his points.

"Next, your second point is mere speculation. Denta will most likely still attack rashly as they always do, and even if they retreat, what will that do? They will still be rash as they've always been. If we don't help them in fear of something that won't even affect us, we will be seen as a traitor and a coward."

"..."

"And your third point is just a way for you to destroy Munith's reputation, I know that you have a bad impression of Munith, but you need to grow out of it. I know that the "someone" you mentioned refers to Munith, and I'm tired of your views on Munith. She's just a young girl, your hatred for her is unwarranted."

"But father! You are missing the bigger picture here! If we help Ortensia like this, we-"

"Don't shout at me!"

"Ghk-"

"Even if another kingdom decided to attack us when we are weak, we have Ortensia on our side! No one will be rash enough to attack two kingdoms at once!"

"And what if it was Ortensia that attack us?! We will have no one! Setus will fa-"

"SILENCE!"

The king's shout reverberated across the dining room, both Key and Sophe closed their ears with their hands.

"...Julient, leave this room. You are clearly too childish to be trusted with this kingdom."

"...As you wish..."

Julient exited the dining room, leaving the king, Key, and Sophe behind. The king slumped down on his seat, tired.

"Hah... Where did that childish attitude of his came from?"

"I'm not sure myself father, how could someone hate Munith that much?"

"Ah, Key, I need you to comfort Munith, these past few days must be tough for her."

"You don't need to tell me that father! I'll do it all the same!"

 

---

 

I closed the door behind me as I leave the dining room with a heated mind. "Don't put your bias in politics"? What bias?! Aren't all of you the ones who keep putting bias in your decisions?

Munith, she really got deep into their heads. Setus won't last long if this keeps up, we will be gobbled up by either Ortensia, or a third party. What was Munith's intention on bringing our soldiers into the war anyway? I'm pretty sure that Ortensia can hold off Denta's head on strategy on their own. Maybe she didn't intend for this to happen? Or maybe she is a step in front of me?

Either way, I need to prepare countermeasures. I need to build up our defenses first and foremost, that would be hard since my words don't hold as much power as father's or Key's. Munith will probably use them to prevent me from doing anything.

Munith... You are a monster in disguise plaguing Setus, and I will expose that side of you to everyone one day, just you watch.

 

---

 

I received a letter, telling me that the "package" has arrived. 

"Your Highness, your "flowers" has arrived."

"Ah! Has it? Thank you Rene!~ Lead me to it!~"

"As you wish."

I left the room with Munith, saying goodbye to the guards guarding her room along the way. Soon we reached the castle gate and was met by the gatekeeper.

"Your Highness? Are you going outside again?"

"Yes, I want to pick up the set of flowers I ordered last week."

Munith ditched her cheery attitude in favor of a solemn one.

"Ah, flowers, Prince Key did say something about that. But are you sure you want to go out right now Your Highness? You must not be feeling good with the looming war..."

"Yes, that's exactly why I'm buying flowers, I want to take my mind off things."

"Ah! I see, forgive me for questioning you. I shall open the gate in a second, please wait a moment."

The gatekeeper went to the gate to open it for us. 

"You're prepared for everything as always."

"I need to fix my blunder at that meeting after all~"

Soon, the gate was opened completely. 

"Thank you for waiting, please be safe Your Highness!"

"Thank you."

...

After a few minutes of walking, we arrived at the flower shop that was specified in the letter. The flower shop is in a back alley with no one in sight.

"Alright, this is the "Flower shop""

"Good~ Let's go in immediately~"

Her cheery attitude is back it seems. She opened the door to the flower shop and hopped in instantly. It seems that she is looking forward to her "Flowers".

Inside the shop, there's a normal array of flowers for sale and a lady standing at the counter.

"Welcome~ What flowers are you looking for?~"

"The red kind, the white kind, and the cruel kind."

"Certainly~ Please follow me~"

The lady opened the door behind her and gestured towards us to follow.

"Oh~ Is that a secret code?~"

"It was attached to the letter, it told me to say it to the keeper."

"Ah, mysterious~ I like it~~"

We followed the lady through the door, and after a while, we reached a cloaked object.

"Is this it?~"

Munith seems to be excited, I am too to be honest. We stare with anticipation as the lady that was leading us walked up to the cloaked object.

The lady pulled the dark cloak open, revealing a pure white armor.