Tovu Empire...
A young woman slammed the desk with her fist and spoke angrily, "How dare they? They agreed to the contract and gained benefits from it. Now after they gained benefits, they decide to break away from the contract?"
The soldiers sank back in fear. They know very well the anger issues of the young princess. She may be one of the best swordsmen among the younger generation but was easily prone to anger and cause a lot of problems.
She caused a lot of issues in the capital, which made the emperor throw her into the military to discipline her. It did help but not very much. There are many times she faced charges for insubordination but didn't get punished much. No one dared to punish the princess.
The emperor as a last hope threw her on the frontlines against the Akerian empire.
Akerian empire and Tovu empires were always at each other throats. They always fought with each other for dominance in their sector.
Ever since the last inter-dimensional war, the conflicts increased. The Akerion empire was almost on the verge of winning that war but lost because of a single heroic sacrifice from the lower realm world.
This alarmed not only the Tovu empire but also other kingdoms. No one saw that the Akerion held such power to conquer a lower realm world.
Though those worlds are considered weaker, anyone who passed through the barrier would have reduced power. There would be a lot of restrictions that almost never let any higher realm world conquer lower realm worlds. There are always a few exceptions but those were always expected beforehand.
One would question why the wars happen even if they couldn't successfully conquer the lower realm worlds.
The answer is the rewards awarded to them after the war.
A higher realm would have a Power List, which evaluates someone what they did in their lives. They were given points depending on their work. This list not only includes combat professionals but also other professions.
One can check their rank from their status page. Only the top hundred of a system, the top five hundred of a sector, and the top thousand of the galaxy were accessible to the public. These top rankers can use an anonymous name to keep themselves from the public. The ones who aren't on the top list can let others see their ranks but had to do it individually.
There would be rewards for these top rankers every year.
There are also special events that give rewards based on their contribution. These rewards don't depend on the Power List but the contributions can change their positions in the Power List.
No one knows where these rewards truly come from but they all agree that these are the gifts of the universe for their due diligence.
"Why is no one speaking? Did they give any reason why they are backing off from the contract?"
The princess may be short-tempered but her time in the military taught her many things.
One of the captains in the conference stood up and spoke, "Princess, they did give reasons but they are all shoddy. It's just a farce they are making to not make enemies of our Tovu empire".
"What exact reason did they give for this?"
"They pulled out some old problem that happened a year ago. A young soldier who was on guard duty near the border village got his eyes on a village girl. The girl refused, which caused the soldier to do something nasty. He forced himself on her, which didn't even a ruckus much back then.
Their own government paid for the village girl and their family to be kept shut. We too on our part had to pay for the damages. It was promptly closed and buried but the Herians pulled it out of the grave. Now they are saying that our rulers trampled the Heria culture and wanted to withdraw from the pact".
The princess frowned at the reason. She learned a few political situations that happen in her father's court. There seemed to be more than what they could see. Even if Heria wanted to pull away, they could bring much better reason but they pulled this one out.
"Who was the soldier that committed the crime?"
"He is the youngest scion of House Esor".
The answer gave most of the information that caused the problem. House Esor is the ducal house bordered Heria Kingdom. They absolutely hate each other.
Heria now has a chance to cause trouble for House Esor. If Tovu wants to keep Heria on their side, they have to punish the ducal house. If that happens Tovu would likely lose the respect of other noble houses.
If the punishment happened before others wouldn't blame the royals but now they would. They wouldn't want a royal house that nods their heads for other kingdoms.
To avoid this Tovu can reject Heria, which would make them flock to the Akerian Empire and would become a thorn in their sides.
Princess couldn't help what to think of the situation. A situation like this makes her think that she survived the disaster of royal court affairs. Wherever they turn, they could only see pits.