"That is right. The royalties are responsible for the death of the Holy Knight. Sir Kayden Calfman.
During the attack this morning, all military soldiers on the earth nation are gathered at the castle, with the sole purpose of defending the royalties from the attack of the dark republic. However, at another location, the holy knight and the second prince faced two elites from the dark republic.
In the first place, it was impossible for the two of them to face the elites. One enemy was a light origin, and the other was a water origin. Meanwhile, the holy knight was an earth origin, while the prince is a fire origin. They were fighting a losing battle in the first place. Does anyone disagree?" I stopped to ask for their opinion, and everyone seemed to nod.
The prince, especially, only stared at me with awe and amazement. It's like he did not expect me to defend him, but I didn't do this just for him.
"Now, comes the situation at the castle. You say his name was 'Seven', the red knight capable of fire origin. And how many soldiers did he bring?" I turned to Princess Frisena for that question, and the princess tried remembering.
"About twenty or so, but they were powerful knights." Frisena answered, and I turned to the crown prince.
"And how many knights… did the earth nation send to deal with a mere twenty infiltrators?" I asked with a cold tone, and the crown prince looked worried. On the control part of the table, Frisena lets out a sigh.
"… All of them. All one thousand five hundred knights, plus two hundred Valkarian soldiers." Frisena stated the truth, but I wasn't done.
"And how many knights were sent to deal with the chaos happening in the city? How many were sent to help the prince and the holy knight?" I asked some more, and it seems like everyone understood my point.
They all turned their annoyed stares to the crown prince, and Frisena once again answered half heartedly.
"… None."
All the military strength was focused on the royalties. Not even a single soldier was sent to the city to help out with the attack on the civilians. Not even a single soldier was sent to help out with the battle between the holy knight and the elites of the dark republic.
My point has made it across the table, all the way to the crown prince.
"That's obvious, doesn't it!? Us royalties will naturally need to be protected first!" The crown prince said aloud, but another hand was lifted from a different side to the meeting table.
From his yellow armor, everyone knows who his identity is. He is the vice general knight of the earth nation, the second in command of the earth nation knights.
"I… will take responsibility for this mistake." The vice general said apologetically, and everyone only felt bad for him. We all know that he is taking the bullet for the royalties, and we knew that the king must've told him to bring all the knights to the castle.
"Sir Evan… would you care to testify?" Frisena asked the vice general, and the knight took a deep breath.
"Before the attack this morning, I was summoned before the king and was told to protect him. He asked me to carry as much knight as possible to protect the castle. But, I pulled all the knights with me." The vice general explained to everyone, but I quickly chimed in.
"That is not true, vice general." I said, and once again, everyone turned their surprised gazes at me.
"That kid is finally doing something, huh?" From a distance, Miss Hilda mumbled, and both Nathan and Jonah agreed.
I heard it, but I decided to just keep the annoyance inside of me.
"The king literally asked you to bring all the knights to the castle. And you even asked about how the citizens are going to be protected, but the king denied that." I explained what truly happened, and the vice general looked widely shocked by that.
"H-How did you know!?"
"I talked with Commander Borne from Fiordall. I heard he was your good friend." I said to him, and the vice general looked very defeated.
"He told me about what you said to him, about how the king denied all help to be sent to the citizens and to focus only on protecting the royal family… and how you were asking for advice to the commander on what the right thing to do is."
I paused for a bit to let him and everyone process this information, and the vice general closed his eyes from the truths conflicting inside of him. And after letting him decide for a while, I continued.
"Vice general. Remember what the commander told you." I said, and the vice general firmed his decision once more. The crown prince looked like he wanted to jump into the table, but the vice general was faster with his words.
"The king… has ordered me to abandon the citizens and the holy knight."
Hearing such a thing, the crown prince immediately jumped on top of the table. He immediately ran past the screen and arrived in front of the vice general to attack him.
But before he could touch the vice general, his body was halted from moving. By the time everyone noticed, multiple tentacles made of water was holding the crown prince, rendering him unable to move.
"W-What is--Frisena!!" The crown prince angrily shouted, but Princess Frisena only pulled him to the side.
The crown prince landed his butt on the ground, and he was immediately pulled away by multiple Valkarian soldiers to the side. The royal butler, too, was pulled away from the meeting, leaving only the vice general, the only person from the earth nation's side.
"You'll pay for this! Sir Evan!! Nathan Fiore!!" The crown prince shouted as he was being pulled away, and no matter how much he tried retaliating, he couldn't beat the muscles of the Valkarian soldiers.
And after he was gone, everyone else went silent. Only Frisena was capable of making any sound, and it was the sound of her sighing from annoyance.
"Apologies for all the commotion. But regarding the situation with the civilians, it was also my error for not realizing. I am also partially responsible, Eric Axwell." Princess Frisena said, but I just folded my arms.
"You can talk normally, now. At least the flea is gone." I said so outrageously, and everyone else only chuckled.
"Damn! I didn't know you had it in you to accuse a royal, Eric!" Not far from my position, Nathan said while peeking his head forward, and I only stared at him coldly.
"If only I can accuse you for being an annoyance, I'd do it on a whim."
"And you're extraordinarily rude at all times. My bad for complimenting, geez." Nathan gave up almost instantly, and Miss Hilda patted me in the shoulder.
"How did you know about the civilian situation?" Miss Hilda asked, and it seems like everyone wants to know as well.
"I'm a mercenary. I just talked with the mercenary guild." I explained to them what I know, and they were all rather surprised.
With the knights and military gone, the civilians were left to protect themselves. Fortunately, there were plenty of underground combatants who were able to protect the people, but the main helpers who protected the people were the mercenaries. When I arrived at the office, basically no mercenary was sighted, because everyone was out and about helping the chaos.
The mercenaries are the real heroes of the civilians. On the other hand, the royals and nobles will be pitched as the villains.
"I see… I can't believe it, but it must be true. Otherwise, the death count of the civilians would've been larger." Frisena mumbled by herself, and she turned to me after deciding.
"I'll make sure the mercenaries are properly rewarded. Does that satisfy you for now?"
"I'll be more satisfied if all the corrupt royals get beheaded, but I know that's too much to ask." I said aloud, not minding who heard it or not.
"That's a bit too outrageous to say… but don't worry. I have a plan for that." Frisena said out of the blue, which shocked everyone. Seeing that we were all so surprised, she just laughed.
"What? You think I became the fiancée of that guy without a goal in mind?" Frisena said while pointing his thumb at the crown prince that just got dragged away, and we all just sighed.
All the soldiers present in this room are water empire soldiers. Aside from that, the vice general of the earth nation has betrayed the royalties. It's safe to say that if these water empire soldiers decided to revolt and put the earth nation royalties out of their seats, then there will be no one to protect them.
"I'll help you out if you need more political support." The dark knight of Fiordall even offered, and Frisena just giggled.
"Thanks. Now, then. Should we discuss the true problems at hand?" Frisena said while toying with the table again, and it's about time we start dealing with the real problems.
After playing around with the screen for a while, Frisena finally displayed a picture for us to see. It is an image taken by a device that can capture real-life scenes, showing us a large castle that was built in the middle of a large snowy field.
"We'll march here. Fort Kaos, the most southern outpost belonged to the dark republic. Tomorrow, starting at dawn."