“So, as you probably all know, the king has visited us, and is attending the party,” Duke Ansul stated.

“It seems a bit improper just to show up, plus, that cannot be all that you guys talked about in there you spent almost all day,” one of the family members said.

The two dukes looked at Fred, “Many of you have heard about the Astartes race I believe?” who knew Fred looked at him, “The king wishes to marry his granddaughter to an Astartes, and with it have the groom move into his family,”

“That’s outrageous, we already support the second prince, we cannot show favour to the first,” one person shouted out in protest,

“Yes, the Astartes race is an asset to our families,” another added to the argument,

Fred was bewildered by this, the king was trying to snatch him into the royal family, but couldn’t it be any of the kids he’s transformed,

“The problem is with the war in Albion, technically, Derek was the aggressor, not Normandy, not only had he offended the king by taking Ludnus, but now he is a retainer of Fred, it can be seen as Fred protecting the enemy of the king,” Duke Plantagenet said

“But we have proof of Normandy’s betrayal,” Daniel commented,

“Right now, the king cannot afford to accept what we have as evidence, right now he is preparing his ancestors armies to help retake Burgundy/savoy,” Duke Ansul commented.

“Ancestors armies?” a young noble asked with scepticism.

“A lot of you may not know this, but the Royal family are flame summoners, under the castle is a gate to the fire plane, this is the source of their power, that they used to establish this kingdom, we have our own, but not to the power the king has” Duke Ansul commented,

Fred wasn’t the only one shocked, a gate, to a fire plane, is this another dimension, Fred looked around to ask about it but only the older people seemed unsurprised, unfortunately, Fred wasn’t in a position to ask about this with them.

“The Vesta family is a well-known family loyal to the crown, they are known for their space affinity, and they have been tasked with maintaining and growing the gate to the fire plane,” Duke Ansul explained.

“Normally with the duchies still under the king, we balanced out his power, however, with Burgundy/Savoy, gone, Normandy hostile, and Toulouse wishing to remain neutral it will be hard to contend with the Crown at the moment,” Duke Plantagenet added.

“It’s still not enough to mobilise against us, they would truly be alienating themselves,” Edward commented,

“In a sense, yes, but it just means that we would be stuck at the negotiation table without a way to refuse,” Duke Ansul added.

“So, what is he proposing?” a noble asked with a little scepticism.

“He can recognise Fred as prince of Albion with the Kings granddaughter as Princess Albion, furthermore, he can legitimise his acknowledgement of Normandie’s betrayal, allowing Maine the opportunity to take their core lands back while taking the rest of Normandy into the crown’s lands,” Duke Ansul said.

“That’s ridiculous, we should just take our chances getting an alliance with Normandy/Savoy, we have never had any bad blood, and there is enough buffer zone to prevent us from annoying each other.” One noble said with sarcasm.

“Here, here,” a few other nobles voiced their agreement.

“What about our agreement with Maine, without Fred’s marriage, we wouldn’t be able to get the rest of Albion into our hands,” Jean commented,

“Also, if the king clears out Normandy, and then drags us into a conflict with Normandy/Savoy, we would be alone versus the king,” one of the elder nobles commented. It seemed like a lot of nobles present were against this idea of the king’s

“The king has also offered us resources to improve our plane gates,” Earl Anjou said,

“When tomorrow? next year? 100 years from now? The king doesn’t exactly have a good record for fulfilling his promises in a reasonable time.” One noble conjured, to the agreement of the crowd.

“What about the second prince, us suddenly supporting the first would be seen as a betrayal and would affect our integrity?” another noble brought this topic up.

“It seems the second prince is in agreement with this, I believe a deal has been worked out behind closed doors.” Duke Ansul said.

“What about creating a new ducal family, one headed by Thomas, Isabella and Janet, with Fred as the heir, Fred stands to inherit a lot, and it would do us no good to have that taken by the Royals,” Jacques commented, “This would give the king another duke to contend with, one that is closer to our side, as well, their marriage would look just like a normal royal marriage to a duke’s family.”

“I agree, we cannot give more power to the crown, the power balance is already strained with the current conflicts,” Arthur added.

‘Do I not get a say in who I marry,’ Fred thought to himself,

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“We also need to remove the ban on duchy’s marrying each other, that way Earl Anjou can become a duke, giving us more power,” Jean commented.

‘Do houses just suddenly gain power by ranking up their aristocratic position? I need to ask mother or George about this.’ Fred thought to himself.

“Also, push for Maine to gain all of Normandy, in exchange for the Fred gaining the claims of middle east Albion.” Thomas commented, “the crown is bound to gain lands from Burgundy/Savoy,”

‘If it was a guarantee to gain lands from Burgundy/savoy, surely they wouldn’t be so stupid to rebel.’ Fred thought to himself.

___

The next day, the two dukes and earl Anjou had another meeting with the king, it was now a day away from the party,

In the evening the family’s had another meeting,

“The king is willing to accept most of our proposals, however, Middle east Albion and Northeast Albion will be given to Princess Catherine,” Duke Ansul said, the people saw the tiredness in both his and the other two’s eyes.

“Furthermore, he is willing to recognise Iberia belonging to Toulouse and Aquitaine, and it is up to us what we manage to grab and that he won’t interfere in conflicts that stay on the Iberian Peninsula,”

“Despicable, those lands would be ours anyway, he is only saying that to justify taxes and claims, it’s nothing but a sham.” Edward’s father voiced out his complaints.

“Yes, and No, he won’t be taxing the region, only that trade that comes from there to the kingdom, also, all tradable goods from there must be shipped to a kingdom port before being shipped out to other lands. The same would apply to Albion,” Duke Anjou commented.

“So, Tariffs then,” Fred voiced out, it was the first time he voiced out in the meetings and caught everybody by surprise. Some didn’t seem so happy with a kid interrupting.

“Tariffs?” Duke Ansul asked.

‘What, Tariffs should be known to this era, it was common in medieval times, and especially during the colonial era’ Fred thought to himself in confusion. “If I want to ship my armour to the colonies in Iberia, I will have to ship them to a kingdom port first, so he can collect taxes on it coming in, then ship it to Iberia allowing him to collect taxes on it going out,” Fred explained.

This suddenly got a lot of people talking, “Furthermore, the king can use the tariffs as an excuse to treat the colonies as separate political entities, allowing him to have a say in how we communicate, or him commenting on our loyalties,” explained Fred.

“Question our loyalties?” now a noble from the crowd was confused.

“He could pressure us into giving up privileges and rights by asking us to show our loyalty to the crown over foreign lands, or police our trading by claiming to check for contraband being shipped in and out, furthermore, it would allow him a presence in the colonies to make sure goods are shipping to and from the kingdom.” Fred continued to explain

“We cannot allow the king to interfere in our affairs, the kid makes a good point, we cannot be blindsided by the king’s antics,” a noble commented.

“If you are saying your armour from Iberia, then you must be Fred, right?” one noble said. Most of them had heard of Fred, but not a lot could put a name to a face,”

“That is correct,” Fred confirmed.

“I see, wait, we have another issue, even if the king agrees to the status of Fred stating his own duchy, he is still considered a bastard, and therefore in the eyes of the crown, someone without a voice, this will allow the princess to take over,” the same noble commented.

Murmuring started again around the hall, this incident with the king was turning into a huge headache,

“I will have to see about that, but that would ultimately be up to Fred’s capabilities.” Duke Plantagenet stated.

___

The next morning, the dukes had one last meeting before the party with the king,

It was a tough negotiation, in the end, they agreed on the engagement but was stuck on the details about the colonies, this would take many months of negotiations, but for now, they could announce the engagement.

The problem was with Maine, the Granddaughter of Maine had come, and they were going to announce their engagement with Fred at the party, luckily the Grandson’s engagement was still on with Holly,

Fred met up with Rudy and Delphine to talk about it, “aren’t you the lucky man,” Rudy joked.

“Says you, I feel like no one’s interested in my opinion,” Fred moaned

“Unfortunately, we are only political tools at the moment,” Delphine chimed in,

“Hey, Rudy, why don’t you go for Maine’s granddaughter?” Fred asked.

“Maine’s Granddaughter has a name,” Delphine said with sarcasm.

“Heck man, no one even told me her name.” Fred moaned again,

“Maine’s Granddaughter is Charlotte,” Delphine pouted,

“Oh, so what do you think Rudy? Want to try and go for Charlotte,” Fred asked.

“Erm, sure, I don’t really know to be honest,” Rudy said,

“Tell you what, let’s go and meet the dukes, I want to ask them something anyway,” Fred got up and started walking off,

“Are you sure we can just meet the dukes; they have always been busy men?” Delphine asked.

“At the very least they will want to see me personally about this engagement to make sure I’m playing ball,” Fred responded with a shrug.

___

*Knock knock knock*

“Come in,” Duke Ansul answered.

The servant opened the door to let Fred, Delphine, and Rudy in,

“Ah, Fred, and you brought… Thomas’ kids, right?” Duke Plantagenet asked. “Come, sit down,”

“Yes sir,” the three kids confirmed.

“We were just about to call someone over to call you,” Duke Ansul said.

“About the engagement?” Fred asked.

“Yes, is that why you wanted to see me too?” Duke Ansul asked.

“Sort of, but more to do with the marriage proposal with Maine,” Fred answered.

“Yes, this has put us in a tough spot and seeing as you’ve brought company, I take it you have a proposal.”

“Yes,” Fred answered.

“Well, let’s hear it,” Duke Plantagenet said.

“Ask Earl Maine to make his granddaughter heir to the eastern Normandy side and offer Rudy here as her fiancé,” Fred stated.

“Why would we want that land?” Duke Plantagenet asked.

“We can use it as a staging ground for our war with Burgundy, with our dominance over the sea, we should be able to secure a good few port and estuary towns,”

“I see, a way to expand into Burgundy it may cause a problem with the king when he brings back Normandy,” Earl Anjou stated.

“Do you think the king would win?” Fred asked.

“The king has a lot of strength behind him,” Duke Ansul said, he too now thought something was up with this situation.

“Burgundy would need a backer to help them,” Anjou said,

“The emperor,” Fred argued.

“The emperor, they are currently fighting over North Graecia,” Anjou said, his face darkened, he started to think Fred was just making stuff up now,

“Oh, ok, I just thought it was a hoax as I haven’t heard any news on any battles taken place in North Graecia,” Fred commented,

“Of course, there will be battles, both of them have armies in the regions,” Earl Anjou said.

“No, the kid has a point,” Duke Plantagenet said,

“What do you mean?” Earl Anjou asked.

“We have heard the news of them moving troops over to North Graecia to contest with each other, but no news of battles breaking out, if anything, both parties are using this opportunity to annex northern Graecia over a long period.” Duke Ansul said.

“Plus do you think duke Normandy and Duke savoy doesn’t know about the strength of the crown,” Fred commented.