Chapter 32
[They isolated you]
'And we can't point that out.'
[Then what?]
'Then we play along.' The answer was simple. We were led to have dinner with the Yesral family but our servants were served dinner in a different building at the same time.
Now if we ask that our knights need to be with us, it would seem like we don't feel safe with the Yesral family. The subject of trust would be brought up and from there, a wedge would be created between us and the Yesral family, and we would end up becoming bad guys.
[Emotional use]
'Pretended emotions.' Right now, they were just forcing people to stand against us. If we become the bad guys in their eyes, then people would willingly stand against us.
The Yesral family can use any excuse such as we are trying to take the livelihood of the people and the people would become emotional enough to stand up to the imperial family of their own accord.
But these are all troublesome things. Things with no use. This matter was easily solvable. Seraphina's suggestion to take control of their teleportation array using the first elder was correct. But after that was the negotiation part.
Negotiating was a cruel process that Seraphina couldn't think of. I, on the other hand, don't care. There is no need to go through many troublesome proceedings.
I will solve this matter tonight at dinner.
=====
"I hope everything was to your liking. I noticed you didn't drink, Your Highness." Winston said politely. I smiled in return.
"I don't drink alcohol," I replied.
No one commented on that and Winston laughed it off.
The sound of everything then stopped. A silence hovered inside the room which I was the one to break.
"You know why we are here, don't you?" Silence prevailed. Alicia turned to look at me as if this was not part of the plan.
I turned to ask the disguised Raphael, "Were you able to do it?"
He nodded but remained quiet. He was also wondering what I was doing. We could run an operation in the darkness of the night and replace the master of this county, or, instead of doing all that, we could just bring him to our side.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about," Winston replied without any hint of panic.
"How is the church treating you?" I asked again. Raphael now narrowed his eyes. Because he knew what I was talking about.
Alicia on the other was confused and as for Winston, he was now narrowing his eyes.
"I don't understand." He remained consistent though.
"The way I see it," I began regardless, "You have three options. One is submission. Second, complete annihilation. Third, well, I hope we don't get to the third."
"Maybe you are tired, we-----" He began to speak but I interrupted him. "I'm not done yet."
I pulled a stack of papers out of the inventory and placed them on the table. I slid them toward him and he caught them and read them.
"This is a contract stating that your children have been granted admission to the academy of the empire. I know it's not the Bellator Academy but it's still a place where your children can learn and in the future can become good officials for the empire or something else."
"The second page allows you to have authority over all the three dungeons in your region but you will have to let the empire take control of them. You will get fifty percent of the total dungeon earnings."
"On the third page is a mansion that is built in the noble's district of the capital. The empire will take care of the construction."
I took a brief break before I said, "You will get all those benefits if you choose to let the church go and side with the empire."
There was nothing but silence. Either he had already decided or he was waiting for me to lay out all of my empty threats.
"Since you have no questions, we will move on to the next option. Option two." I raised two of my fingers.
"Currently, all you have I insubordination, and because of that, the imperial family won't march over to your land. But the moment your affairs with the church are exposed, you will become a rebel."
"I don't think I need to tell you what will happen after that. The second prince will march over here with the army and annihilate everything in his path. You and your family will be treated like the traitors of the crown and I don't need to tell you that your wife and daughters are beauties."
I smiled and saw as he clenched his fists. "How dare you!" Oslo the knight shouted and unsheathed his sword.
"Stop." Count Winston ordered. Oslo reluctantly sheathed his sword. "Ah, I see." I turned to Oslo and said. "I see how you are looking at her. Then you might have to make your own choice tonight."
Oslo's eyes widened at my remark. He wasn't stupid it seemed. But it was none of my concern. My concern began and ended with the fact that I needed Yesral County to be free of the church's influence.
"I will refrain from mentioning my third option since it is only to be used in extreme conditions," I said before backing up.
Winston stared at me for a few moments with hatred before he spoke, "What is the third option?"
I smiled, "The third option is relatively simple. We annihilate and wipe out your entire bloodline right here and right now."
He was stunned for a while before he boisterously laughed. I waited until he had laughed to his heart's content. After he was done laughing, he asked wiping the tear from the corner of his eye, "And how will you do that?"
"Simple. We will sabotage your teleportation array and realign the coordinates to call the silver knights waiting right outside of your town." I explained. For a moment he was frozen but then he realized that a teleportation array couldn't be hacked so easily.
"And how will you do that?" He asked, quite amused.
"I won't." I replied back, then added while pointing at the disguised first elder, "He will."
He turned his attention to the black-haired man, trying to figure out who he was but came up blank. He was, however, immensely surprised to the point of being sh*t scared when the first elder took off the artifact locket I had given him.
A wave of fear ran throughout the room even though Raphael did nothing but sit there. He wasn't even emitting his mana. It was natural fear.
I could see, all the doubts and considerations of any kind were swept away when Winston saw who was sitting just opposite of him.
Even the knight who was so courageous before couldn't move. Although his legs were shaking very much.
"Well, what do you have to say now? Will it be the first, the second, or my personal favorite, the last one?" I asked, breaking the stifling silence in the room.
My words brought everyone out of their feared state. They were still scared but at least aware of the situation.
"What do you want?" Winston asked after a brief pause. I flashed him my most beautiful smile and said pulling a paper out of the inventory, "Here is the contract which states that you have accepted all the conditions put forward by the imperial family, and if for the next hundred years, these terms are broken by any of your family members, then the imperial family has all the rights to invade and take over this county."
I pushed the contract forward to him and waited. The contract was one-sided which meant only his sign was needed. Since I am a generous person, I only kept the contract limit up to a hundred years.
Although I want to bleed his bloodline dry for all eternity for making me travel all the way here, but as I said, I was feeling quite generous because my next visit would be to Laura.
Begrudgingly, he pricked his thumb and stamped the contract. I smiled and took the contract from him.
"Will the future of my children be safe?" He asked after a while when I was just about to get up and leave. "Of course it would be. This promise is not made by the emperor but by me. It means a lot more, trust me."
What was a mere emperor before me? When he had my word, even the word of his so-called gods was nothing.
==========
"Would you have really killed his children?" Alicia asked when we were traveling back to the capital. We left right away in the night since there was no need for us to stay.
The rest was in the hands of the captain of the silver knights who had come with us.
"I couldn't even if I wanted to," I replied.
"What do you mean?" She asked confused.
"He had none." Raphael replied for me and added, "It's unfortunate to have an unfaithful wife."
"It might not be her fault, first elder. Women, no, human beings are most vulnerable when they lack love. Swoop in at the right time and you can have their heart for all eternity." I gave my view.
"That is one way to look at it." He replied and then asked, "Why did you deviate from the plan?"
"Because it was nothing but a waste of time. Seraphina knows strategy but she didn't know politics. This matter could have been easily solved in minutes if played right. All we had to do was press where it would matter." Pressing where it would hurt was the correct strategy.
They might not be Count's children but he was under that assumption and I saw nothing but love for them in his eyes. He would have given us everything if we had resorted to threat.
I gave that generous offer just because he is a good father.
[Like you know something]
'Of course, I would know. I also have a good father like that.'
[Didn't think you would admit that easily]
'Nope.' All pettiness aside, I won't hesitate to admit that he is a good father, and if one day I also became one, I would raise my children just like him.
"Such a behavior is disgusting," Alicia spoke from under her veil but I could pick up an expression of disgust on her face from how her voice was laced with it.
"What if it was the man who had done it?" I asked.
"Then he is equally wrong." She replied.
"Of course he would be, but would you make that same expression?" I argued. She didn't reply.
"There's nothing wrong with seeking love. Seeking it the wrong way is wrong. Of course, I'm not saying that the countess is right. But what would you do if you were in her place?" I asked. Although I was making an argument, I didn't expect her to reply.
But boy was I in for a surprise. "I would demand love from my man. And if he won't give it to me, I will take it from him. And if he would still not do it, I will tie him to a pole and beat him until he does."
"I see." I awkwardly replied before turning my gaze to the outside.
Her reply was firm and there was no point for argument. There was no doubt that if she had to bind me to a pole, she would.
Oh yes! ME! She is saying all of this about me. The way she is looking at me, I have seen it before. It's a little different because there is also love in there, but the obsession is the same.
[Scary]
'She is.'
[What will you do?]
'I have no problem with dominant women.'
[Womanizer]
'I'm not saying I would.'
[You're not saying you wouldn't]
'Well, I can't refuse a woman in love. It would break her heart.'
Though I am a bit scared by her earlier reply.
[Imagine her with a whip and a gag ball]
'Oh, man. Please don't put images in my head.'
[Hell of an image though, right?]
'Hell yeah!'