“He did what?!” Karsten shouted, his voice full of anger. He just received word that Kamil of Ceres had made a deal with Atra without consulting them first, thereby blocking any potential meaningful talks between Egra and Atra.

“How dare he!” He barked, again his voice full of anger. He was in his early 40s at this point, and there were an increasing number of gray hairs on him although he still maintained his sturdy physique. “How dare he!” He repeated aloud.

“Your highness, unfortunately, he is within his rights,” Isaac replied calmly.

Growling and grunting, Karsten seemed restless in his throne. It had not been easy on him as of late. When the kingdom was relatively small with just the Fenchel and the Flissing, he had everything under control, and both houses were fully loyal. As the kingdom expanded, however, internal politics were starting to slowly unravel trust between him and vassals. Even the Flissing, who were once considered absolutely loyal, became somewhat distant after the failed marriage between Daniel and Lillian. He was also aware that Edmund remarried his ex-wife who was a member of the Mesurii. The only reason he didn’t bring this up and pursue it further was because Isaac was vehemently against the idea. If either of the two houses turned against him, his position as the king would be under scrutiny. Even without self-inflicted troubles, his rule was progressively weakening. One of the major issues was the fact that the newly landed noble houses had all turned their backs against him. Under normal circumstances, they should have remained loyal. However, according to intel Isaac had gathered, that wasn’t so. All newly landed houses joined factions that weren't the royal. This was the primary reason why the king took Elsos for himself to even out the numbers against his potential opposition. Unfortunately, a single commander could only control so many effectively, and Karsten had trust issues where he was unable to appoint generals under his banner. Everything had to be done by himself. Isaac was fully aware of the king’s faults, given the fact that he had been serving him for pretty much his entire adult life. He knew instinctively that Karsten’s reign was a ticking time bomb at this point. A wrong move was enough to trigger a domino effect and an avalanche, which was precisely why he was vehemently against going after Loukia Mesurii. If she was punished, meaning executed in other words, there was a high chance of the Fenchel turning against the Egra. And, if the relationship between them went sour, the Flissing would as well. For better or worse, the Flissing was more close to the Fenchel than they were to the Egra. The situation was made worse by the fact that there was Kamil, a branch head of the Fenchel family who married Flora Flissing. Essentially, in Isaac’s mind, the Fenchel and the Flissing were deeply allied. If either revolted, they’d revolt together. And, if the two power houses revolted, it would result in a civil war which would become Karsten versus everyone else. In such a scenario, the king stood virtually no chance. Karsten, despite his temper issues and faults, was also instinctively aware of the thin sheet of ice he was standing on. While Isaac would very much prefer if the king died, he had to side with him for the time being because he was associated with him on the surface. If he went down, so would he. It wouldn’t be just him; His family would go down with him. 

‘The most ideal way to end this…’

In his head, the most ideal way to end Karsten was to have him perish in a battle. That way, those who were potentially standing against the king would not drag him into the witch hunt. In the worst case, he was more than willing to give up on his fief, Rokk. This route wasn’t feasible before. Then Ceres was created, a neutral entity. Kamil’s domain became a place for a shelter in the worst case. He did entrust his family to him, should things go sour, but he had absolutely no intention to die. His eternal wish was simple in concept: Live out his life with the wife he loved while living a comfortable life. He would be willing to work under Kamil, should that be allowed.

“Your highness, regardless of his actions, we are likely going to war with Atra.”

This was their, or at least Karsten’s, goal. Isaac was against this idea to begin with but saw opportunities to his goal. Thus, he did his best being just absurd at the negotiation table with Atra. In fact, their representatives were quite dumbfounded as to whatever the hell was going on because he was spewing nonsense after nonsense. The first statement he made at the table was that Ceres belonged to the Kingdom of Egra rightfully and that whatever they did diplomatically had to go through them first, which was not true but it was something the kingdom could argue. The second statement he spewed out was that, because Kamil married Flora Flissing, the dukedom had a strong tie to the Flissing which, again, was a vassal of his kingdom. Therefore, Ceres was rightfully a part of the kingdom. Isaac quite enjoyed barking out nonsensical statements. It wasn’t every day he had a chance to act stupid. The so-called negotiation ended with him basically spewing stuff and eventually lodging in not-so-subtle insults at the end. The only reason he made out alive was probably because they were shocked and that he was a foreign diplomat.

“Mobilize our troops and call for a war council,” Karsten declared, firing a look of dissatisfaction on how things had been going. The war council would call leaders of every landed nobles and discuss how they’d battle Atra. So far, the king had held a secret war council with the Fenchel and the Flissing, but that wasn’t going to occur this time because Karsten no longer trusted both houses fully anymore. In Isaac’s eyes, it was a sad turn of affairs for the king who isolated himself on his own. In his humble opinion, he wasn’t fit to lead a large nation. Passing his throne to one of his sons was certainly an option which was something he would never take voluntarily. With the messengers being sent out, he’d have about two or three days of spare time and duly went back to his estate via his airship.

 

Sylwia approached Issac gently who was rubbing the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed. He was seated in their room in a padded chair. It had been restless years for him due to his dual role of being the king’s advisor and being the lord of Rokk. If it wasn’t for the airship that shortened the travel time, he may have collapsed due to being overworked. Evidently, his cheeks had sunken, an indication that he had lost some weight. For better or worse, one could never tell whether he grew more gray hairs since his natural color was silvery gray.

“Darling,” she said softly while placing her hands on his shoulders, massaging them gently. “You need to take some rest.” She beckoned over a maid who brought in a plate with a glass of red wine.

“I wish I could,” he muttered while continuing to rub the bridge of his nose slowly. “The king has called for a war council. I’ve got to leave soon.”

She grimaced over her dissatisfaction that he needed to get back to work again when he just got back. As far as she could recall, he hadn’t had a single day-off ever since he became the lord.

“Why don’t you resign as an advisor?”

“I know too much to just back off, I am afraid, my dearest.” Opening his eyes, he saw a glass of wine on a table in front of him. He grabbed it at once and finished one third of it in one sip.

“You cannot go on like this,” she protested, feeling genuinely worried.

‘I know, my dearest. But it will be over soon one way or another.’

There was another issue with him being too busy. They rarely had time to sleep together, and she wanted at least one more child. A single child, a daughter at that, wasn’t enough. He was also aware of her desire to conceive another child, and that she didn’t have much time left. She was 29 years old at this point. Ironically, it was also the airship that’d grant him only a short break because everyone would be arriving in a few days. Otherwise, he would have had weeks of a break.

“After this is over, I am going to resign as an advisor,” he declared. He was certain that it would be over. How, he had no idea, but it was going to be over regardless.

“Surely?” Her eyes lit up, and joy filled her eyes.

“Surely.”

“I am so glad to hear that,” she replied gleefully, completely unaware of what her husband was scheming behind the scenes. A woman like her wouldn’t understand the gravity of war to begin with.

“Would you be a dear and call Sir Reiner for me?”

Sir Reiner was the guard captain of Rokk and was in charge of a small army the Knell house maintained, which was about three hundred men. Isaac being one of the landed nobles, he was required to mobilize his own army. It wasn’t much but was required.

“You called me, Milord,” Reiner leaned forward with a palm on his chest. He was fully clad in what was essentially crudely crafted plate armor. He was wearing a leather suit, and the suit had small square metal pieces stitched on it. It wasn’t quite the same as full plate but did the job nevertheless. More importantly, this type of armor was far cheaper than full plate. Fund was an issue for the Rokk army. Collected tax from the town barely covered anything, let alone equipping a small army. The fund to equip the army came from Isaac’s own personal coffer. The guard captain was aware of this and deliberately chose second-grade equipment to reduce the cost and even went further to use copper for armor plating if they could.

“Sir Reiner, a war council has been called.”

“I see,” he replied indifferently as if he foresaw it. “What are your orders?”

“Given the small size of my army, it is unlikely to be called into action.”

The truth was that he wanted to save his army, not because he was worried about their lives, but because he was going to need them.

“Meaning?”

“Stay alert. Be prepared to move out on short notice.”

“Is plan B still in effect?”

Plan B was in case Isaac was killed, in which case his family was to be escorted to Ceres at once. Sir Reiner would lead his army and escort Isaac’s family.

“Yes.”

“Milord, I may have served you for only a few years but I’d like to make a heartfelt suggestion.”

Isaac widened his eyes slightly. “Oh? Do go on.” He didn’t expect it. Reiner was a vice guard captain when he took over. The post of the captain was vacant at that time, and nobody bothered to fill the position in because there was no need. Reiner himself was a part time vice captain with a small group of militia acting as guards for the town. This semi-professional setup was enough for a quiet town like Rokk. Of course, with its growth, albeit relatively small compared to Ceres, the need for a proper military setup arose. Naturally, Reiner became the new guard captain.

“If you are willing to go this far, why don’t you simply go to Ceres with your family now?”

“That is very unlikely to work. If I defect now, I will be hunted down.”

If a whole army chased them down and demanded their extraditions, Kamil could hardly refuse. In fact, whether they’d be accepted in the first place was unquestionable. He did agree to take in his family, but that wasn’t the same as what Reiner was proposing.

“But if you defect during the war?”

“I would need to be by the highness’ side. It won’t be possible for me to just leave.”

Reiner nodded along in understanding. He paused to have some thoughts and spoke, “Lord Knell, I do feel you underestimate how much people of Rokk respect you.”

The town hadn’t changed much aside from the addition of the copper mine since Isaac became the governor. This was a stark contrast from Ceres which was turning into a bursting city. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to develop the town. There were several aspects as to why the town did not develop the way he envisioned, one of which was its location. Ceres and Rokk were both situated right on the border with Estana. And, while Ceres developed rapidly, Rokk did not. People had to have a reason to visit the place to simulate the economy because there was only so much to be done within themselves. Ceres had the Macomaco tea and then later quartz. Meanwhile, Rokk had copper which wasn’t in demand at all. That alone was enough to make a difference. Isaac, to his credit, worked very hard to develop the town which was highly neglected under Karsten’s rule. This was a common theme among fiefs he governed. For him, citizens existed to be taxed, and the money would be used to raise armies. For the people of Rokk, they simply didn’t know any better because it had been under his rule for a long time, and his predecessor wasn’t better, either. Therefore, for more than one generation, they took the subpar rule as the norm. Their perception toward how badly their hometown had been run came to light not long after Isaac came where he started to put together a proper tax system along with how it was collected and then spending some money to repair basic infrastructure such as roads. All Rokk had was dirt roads, thus it wasn’t hard and expensive to repair. The establishment of the copper mine brought in some fresh topics to converse and new ideas for people to entertain. All in all, the folks of Rokk were grateful for what Isaac had done so far.

“If you are willing, the entire town can relocate,” Reiner declared ominously. Isaac narrowed his eyes, trying to understand what he just said.

“The entire town can relocate? What do you mean by that?”

“The town has no specialty. What we do for living here can be done pretty much anywhere else. It’s not as if this place has a decent infrastructure to cherish, either. Don’t you feel that we can do better elsewhere?”

Such an idea never came across his mind previously. Moving an entire town? Would that be even possible? Then he realized that someone had done just that very recently. It was possible although highly unlikely to be successful.

‘That would be treason … and an entirely different kind of treason at that…’

Whether like or not, treason did occur, but an entire settlement defecting and relocating was simply unheard of. They’d be hunted down and get eradicated.

“That sounds… ridiculous,” he replied, letting out a chuckle. He ridiculed himself for even entertaining such an idea.

“As wild as it sounds, I do feel it is an option,” Reiner insisted.

“I thank you for the small laugh. I will keep that idea in my mind.”

He wasn’t going to. Reiner’s proposal was so ridiculous that he really laughed it off. Once he dismissed Reiner, he stood up from his chair and turned around to face a window, looking down on the town. His manor was built on top of a small hill where he could look down on the entire town. Although he hadn’t spoken to anyone about this, there was a concern he had. It was that Karsten always had a secret goal in his mind whenever wars broke out. Until this time, he had consulted with the Fenchel and the Flissing. Since he wasn’t going to do that this time, he had no idea what the king was actually thinking. Going to a war with Atra was a tough call to make. They were a larger nation with probably a bigger army. At the same time, it was important for Isaac to remind himself that, as long as it came to warfare, the king was well above average. He wouldn’t dare tackling Atra unless he was certain that he had some ways to deal with them or -

‘Maybe Atra is not his target at all.’

Narr, the former Swien, did promise to assist them in the war. They wanted Puras back at least and possibly Suvi as well. In such a case, his kingdom would push westward, acquiring Vrnojka and Unlia. Going further was going to be a logistical nightmare.

‘Is it possible that the king is targeting Narr?’

It was certainly a possibility. Stadione alone had the population of several cities. The issue with that idea was that it implied that the king would get the former capital which would cause massive uproar among vassals. If he did grant himself Stadione, there was going to be a civil war. That was a certainty. Granting himself too many fiefs was the root cause of the current uneasiness after all. Of course, he could easily reassign one of the existing cities under his control to vassals. Isaac saw that as a logical choice if he were to keep Stadione. Either way, whichever scenario was going to unfold, he foresaw this war to get ugly. What was more important, for him at least, was making sure that this war to be Karsten’s last. The king didn’t actually need to die in this case. Being crippled and abdicating the throne would also work. Once the king is no more, he could safely resign from his position because whoever became the next king would bring his own staff anyway. Folding his arms, he let out a long and exhausted sigh.

“So close…, yet so far,” he whispered to himself.

“Daddy ~” A girl with bright red hair opened the door and popped out her head cutely. It was his daughter, Cizka. Recognizing the voice at once, he turned around at once and donned an ever-bright smile on his face.

“Oh, my little dearest!” 

They approached each other at a fast pace, and he placed her in his arms, lifting her up.

“Mommy said you were busy, but I miss you, daddy. Are you leaving soon?” she said with a pout. The truth was that he was due to leave by the evening.

‘To the hell with Karsten’s fuckery.’

“No, I am going to stay home for a day at least.”

“Yay!” She cheered with her arms up, waving. “Can we go see mom?”

“Certainly, little one. Let us go.”