Isaac Knell kneeled before his king, Karsten Egra. He was a man dressed in scholarly attire. He wore a gray robe with blue linings and had short gray hair with dark brown eyes.
He had just brought news that the Fenchel and the Flissing had agreed on an arranged marriage for their children. The king was currently in his study; it was a large stone room with a large red square carpet covering most of its floor real estate. There was an active fireplace on one side with a desk on the opposite side. There was no window in this room because Karsten didn’t favor it due to assassination risks.
“Is this a joke?”
There was a letter on his desk which he had just skimmed through.
“I hope this is a joke because THIS IS NOT FUNNY!”
“It is … the truth, sire,” Isaac dropped his head further. He was sweating.
Karsten stood up at once, grabbed the letter, walked toward the fireplace, and threw it into the fire.
“HOW DARE THEY!” the king bellowed and repeated, “HOW DARE THEY!”
“My liege, please calm down.”
“They defied me! How dare they!”
“MY LIEGE!” Isaac exclaimed as he stood up.
Karsten fired a glare at him while panting. He soon calmed down and went back to his desk, sitting down.
“They must be punished.”
“We cannot punish them, sire.”
“Why the hell not?!”
“The two houses are your two most loyal houses. An invasion will soon be upon us! We cannot, I repeat, we cannot alienate the two houses!”
Karsten began to bite his nails in frustration.
“Sire, it is good that there was only verbal communication. We can still go ahead with the queen’s proposal.”
The queen had mostly tied up with a marriage between Daniel Flissing and Lillian Egra. Only final signatures remained.
“Was she behind this?”
Isaac sighed deeply and replied, “I am uncertain, sire.”
“I should have known, that witch of a woman…,” Karsten mumbled.
“Sire, please…, this is not a bad deal by any means.”
“You do not understand! That kid is a gem! He should have been tied down!”
Alas, he never met Ewald in person. Thus, he didn’t really understand the king’s ire. In his eyes, the queen’s deal was better because he felt the royals needed the Flissing more than the Fenchel. The Flissing was the shield of the nation against the Siwen after all. However, he wasn’t going to argue aggressively; he knew the king’s temper. In fact, he was there when Gregor was dismissed by the king.
“Sire, what is done is done. We need to act now. Shall we tie up Daniel Flissing?”
Karsten growled, clearly unpleasant.
“Who started first?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Was it Edmund or Baptiste? Who defied me first?”
“It’s … complicated, sire.”
Isaac explained that, from his own investigations, it was Edmund. However, he simply probed Baptiste.
“Lord Fenchel inquired about a possibility. It was Lord Flissing who went ahead and simply sent his daughter to him without any negotiations.”
In other words, while it was Edmund who defied him first, it was Baptiste who tied up the deal. Indeed, this was a complicated matter.
“So, it’s both of them, huh… Even after I sent him words to stop the deal, Baptiste still went ahead…”
“My liege, it is entirely possible that Lord Flissing wanted his son to be with the princess. You can’t really blame him for wanting so.”
Karsten clicked this tongue.
“My liege,” Isaac pressed, “Please put this matter behind you.”
He wouldn’t give him a clear answer, and he wasn’t going to push for an answer, either. There was only so much he could do as a mere adviser.
He left the king alone and entered a room where he sat down, or more like fell down, on a sofa and loosened his body.
“This is tiresome…,” He said to himself as he shut his eyes and let out a long exhausted sigh. This room was his own, for the time being. It belonged to the king's advisors traditionally. It was a luxurious room with two sofas positioned on each side around an antique wooden table. There was a desk in the back with two large bookshelves behind it. There was a window in this room.
He used to work under Gregor about ten years ago. He was his mentor actually. The rift between the king and his mentor started at the unification war where the king pushed his bold idea through his war council. Everyone was against the idea, including Gregor. However, his mentor did not oppose him strongly and simply asked whether he was serious about his idea. Because of Gregor’s neutral stance on the matter, the king was able to push his idea through.
After the war, his mentor started to keep a distance from the king and no longer actively gave him advice. Feeling offended at the change of his attitude, the king demanded him either to be fully loyal or resign. He chose the latter, and Isaac replaced him. The last words he told him before his departure was -
“The king’s deed won’t be forgotten. Karma has its ways. If you stick by him long enough, you will also be dragged into his conflict.”
It was a roundabout way of telling him to get out before it’s too late. Of course, it was easier said than done.
Isaac was a commoner, and so was Gregor. It wasn’t hard for a commoner to be given a title upon being hired by a noble. What was truly hard was becoming a landed noble. The moment he became the king’s advisor, he was given the title of scholar, thus he became a temporary noble. He worked tirelessly since. He desired to become a landed noble, which he felt was an achievable goal.
A knock brought him back to reality.
“Yes.”
The door opened, and a maid entered. He beamed a smile at her.
“Sylwia.”
The maid, Sylwia, was a charming woman with mid-long red hair and green eyes. Normally, the only reason maids entered this room would be for cleaning. Instead, she approached Isaac and sat next to him at which point, he grabbed her by the waist burying his face into her bosom and inhaled deeply, finding comfort in her feminine scent.
“How was your day?” She gently asked him while wrapping his head in her arms.
“A headache inducing day, as usual.”
Isaac and Sylwia were in a relationship, a secret one. He promised her that, once he became a landed noble, he’d take her hand. Under normal circumstances, a maid would take that as a silly joke to allure her, but Sylwia was a fallen noble. Her house was so poor that they gave up being a noble and went back to being commoners with her being sent to the royal castle as a maid for a small sum: She was sold. She had accepted her fate until she met Isaac who was under Gregor’s care at the time.
The first moment they met, their eyes were locked into each other. He was 15 and she was 14 at that time.
“Hmm, you smell nice,” He said with a muffled voice; his face was buried in her breasts. “If it wasn’t you, I would have left this castle already.”
She patted his head gently. “I know, I know,” She replied.
The truth was that he couldn’t just leave. If he did, the king would send assassins after him. He had to have a legitimate reason. If he became a landed noble, he would have that legitimate reason because he would need to govern his fief. Taking Sylwia with him would also be a piece of cake since she had worked for him as his personal maid for a decade.
His entire future depended on the outcome of the war.
The very next day, a queen’s messenger visited him in his study. He expected this development. There was an invisible power struggle between the king and the queen. She didn’t actively campaign against her husband, but she frequently went behind his back to get things done. None of her deeds were deemed seriously enough to warrant any direct actions from the king. He felt that the queen was just annoying him from a distance.
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“Sir Knell,” The messenger showed him respect with light bowing.
“What can I do for you?” He responded with a bright smile; He knew what to expect.
“It is my understanding that the betrothal between the Fenchel heir and the second princess is no more.”
“Ah, so you’ve heard.”
“I assume that the queen’s proposal will go ahead instead?”
At this point, Isaac said nothing and simply smiled. The messenger seemed to have caught on the meaning behind his silence and put forward a small leather pouch on his desk. Without looking at the pouch, Isaac spoke.
“Of course, that is my intention. It has always been my intention. There is no better marriage proposal for the second princess.”
He couldn’t care less who the second princess married to be honest. He didn’t even know what she looked like, for he had never met her.
“I am glad to hear your commitment, Sir Knell.”
“You can count on me. Let the queen know that.”
The messenger bowed. “Of course.”
He probably wouldn’t tell the queen, Isaac knew. This was all just formality. The queen was a typical royalty, cocky and arrogant. Once the messenger left, he lazily dragged the leather pouch toward him and opened it a little, taking a peek
“Ten silver coins,” He whispered to himself. “The woman is cheap for a queen or perhaps she is underestimating me because my origin is a commoner.”
Regardless, money was money. He grabbed the pouch and placed it in a drawer which already was almost full of similar pouches.
“It’s full…”
He needed to save money. Whether he’d become a landed noble or not, he needed the money for his future with Sylwia. If he was unable to become a landed noble after the invasion, he planned to depart the country with her. And, for that, he needed a large amount of money. They were already in their mid 20s. He might be fine with that, but Sylwia wasn’t. She desired children before she’d enter her 30s which was completely understandable.
“Time to do the work then.”
He stood up and turned around to face the book shelves. In the top corner, there was a rolled scroll. Taking it, he walked out of his room and headed toward the king’s study.
A pair of guards at the door to the king’s study recognized him at once, and one of them knocked on the door.
“Sire, Sir Knell is here.”
“Let him in.” A muffled voice replied.
The king noticed the scroll in his arms as soon as he entered.
“About that, Isaac.”
“Yes?”
“I’d like to take a look at it.”
Crap.
He knew what he was trying to do. He had experienced this numerous times. Now that the king had to go with the queen’s deal, he was trying to alter minor details of the marriage contract. In essence, he was attempting to undermine and perhaps annoy his wife. Of course, the one to suffer in this miserable affair would be Isaac himself since he’d need to write the whole thing again and get it certified by other scholars. Regrettably, he couldn’t let his internal rage be shown.
“As you wish, sire.”
Karsten read the marriage contract over very carefully. In his knowledge, he skimmed it through only. This would be the first time he read it thoroughly.
“I am not pleased with this part,” He said, “Why should I be paying for her dowry? She is a princess. The Flissing should be paying me.”
She’s only a second princess, you fool! Besides, it’s the Flissing!
He wanted to bark at him. It would be absolutely absurd to ask the Flissing for a dowry. In fact, the whole idea of a groom paying a dowry was unrealistic to start with. Thankfully, he had plenty of experience dealing with their shenanigans.
“How much shall we ask the Flissing?” Isaac asked with a face that was devoid of any emotions in spite of what was going on internally.
“15 gold coins, I shall ask.”
He beamed a smile at the king.
“As you wish. I shall draft a new contract.”
Any modifications to an existing contract as important as a royal marriage contract was not allowed. A new one would need to be drafted. The king knew this. Everyone knew this. And it would be him who’d write the whole thing again.
After the scroll was returned to him, he went back to his study and calmly started writing an entirely new contract. He didn’t complain and wasn’t pissed at having to do everything again. After all, this was a part of his job. It would take him a half a day to complete. Then he called three additional scholars to certify it. Once they checked it over for grammar mistakes and whatnot, they’d put their signatures down in a bottom corner.
The next day, Isaac brought the new contract to the king. He read over the contract once more.
“Isaac, I dislike this part.”
There was a clause in the contract that, once married, the princess would change her last name to Flissing. This was a common clause. Women taking the last name of their husbands was the cultural norm. This wasn’t an exception even for royal marriages. The only accepted exception was a matrilineal marriage where a man would carry into his wife’s family. Obviously, Daniel Flissing wasn’t marrying into the Egra.
“Shall I change it then?” Isaac asked calmly. He knew what the king was doing.
“Of course, my daughter won’t change her last name.”
“As you wish.”
Taking the scroll back again, he went back to draft a new one and had it certified.
“You have the patience of a Goddess, Sir Knell,” A fellow scholar remarked as he put down his signature in a bottom corner of the contract. Isaac smiled back.
“I am doing my job,” He replied nonchalantly.
The next day, again, Isaac brought the new, shiny, amended contract to the king who took his time to read it once more and pointed out that -
“Hmm, I dislike this here.”
There was an ordinary clause where the princess’ children would be born under the Flissing. This clause was a completely normal one.
“How would you like it to be altered, my liege?”
The king folded his arms. Even he would see that altering this was bonkers.
“Modify it so that her second and third child would be born under the Egra.”
“As you wish, my liege.”
Taking the scroll once again, he went back to the study. This time, however, he did not draft a new contract because he knew what was exactly going to happen soon. Within the same day, a queen’s messenger had arrived.
“Sir Knell, I’ve been told what has been happening.”
Isaac received the messenger warmly, even going as far as serving him a cup of Macomaco tea. They were seated across from each other in the study by the table.
“I am but a humble servant.” Isaac played a fool. “I do whatever my liege asks me to do.”
“Sir, I respect you. The queen is on her way to make an audience with the king. I assure you that this farce will end soon.”
He was fairly certain that it would. In his mind, the king had been playing around to drag the queen out of her nest. He could have simply summoned her, but they enjoyed toying each other.
Lo and behold, Isaac was soon informed by a king’s messenger to bring the initial contract. Essentially, he wasted time and effort for the past few days. Again, this wasn’t the first time he had experienced their bullshitary.
“Here is the contract, my liege.”
Isaac presented the initial contract where nothing was altered. The king read it through again.
“I shall sign it.”
Whatever happened between the king and the queen, he couldn’t care less. What mattered was that the deal was finally moving along. He was certain that he’d receive some money for this. It was an annoying job, but someone had to do it. After obtaining the king’s signature at last, it was pretty much over. There was no reason that Lord Flissing would refuse to sign it.
Once returned to his study, he placed the scroll back on the book shelf and stretched.
“It’s finally over for fuck’s sake,” he whispered.
This deal had been stalling for ages. It was almost dead at one point when the king decided that he’d give his daughter to the heir of the Fenchel. Conventiantly, Sylwia knocked and entered.
“Syl!” He dashed toward her, and they exchanged a hug. It had been a few days since they met. Due to their relationship being a secret, they couldn’t openly meet each other.
“I have good news. The deal is done,” He told her with excitement. She seemed to immediately understand what he was talking about.
“Does that mean you will be going to Dido for the final signature?”
He nodded repeatedly. He’d be taking her with him on the trip. Since he would be going as the king’s messenger, he’d go in a carriage and all the luxuries that came with it.
Sylwia looked absolutely delighted with the prospect of having some private time with her lover. Giggling, they literally danced around the room like a happy couple.
With their private, fully paid, vacation on the line, Isaac prepared his departure immediately. There was also this uncertain factor where the king might change his mind once again. Thus, the faster he departed, the better. Once Lord Flissing put down his signature on the contract, the king could no longer just change his mind back and forth, at least not without a heavy penalty.
Thus, he and Sylwia departed for Dido the next morning. They’d be riding a carriage with twenty royal guards. The couple was all smiles as their carriage started to move.
“It’s been years, hasn’t it?”
She nodded affirmatively. Maids weren’t allowed to leave their designated place normally. The only exception was this where a high ranking member would take a maid as his personal assistance on a trip.
“Let’s take it easy. We can take as much time as we want on this one.”
The king took his time. I shall take mine.
“I would have preferred the South for warmer weather, but I can’t complain, can I,” She added.
Dido wouldn’t be a pleasant city to relax in due to rising tensions; War could break out at any moment, which actually gave Isaac a legitimate reason to rush.
“How do you think we will fare against the Siwen?” Sylwia asked at one point during their journey.
He replied candidly, “The king can be a menace but he is a brilliant soldier. He knows what he is doing when it comes to wars. He has proven himself twice. I have no doubt that he will win.”
He recalled the events at the invasion by the Siwen about a decade ago. It wasn’t an unexpected invasion, but the Kingdom was so much weaker back then. They had to play a defensive war and lure the Siwen into traps after traps. Of course, unless someone was a complete, utter, fool, he wouldn’t fall for the same trap twice. They had to use vastly different traps one after another.
To be honest, he felt that it was quite fun at that time. Their backs were against a wall. With nowhere to retreat, they fought as if it was their last stand. Everyone knew their places and performed admirably. In his mind, the king’s tactics worked because the whole nation was very tight-knit. With just two noble houses to control, it was very easy to unify everyone’s spirit and fight against the common enemy.
Would he be able to replicate the same sense of unification this time? The Kingdom was twice larger and controlled many more noble houses, most of which weren’t happy about being looked down by the Flissing and the Fenchel. His concern wasn’t the Siwen but possible discord among the noble houses. His spies informed him that none of the noble houses were willing to outright incite rebellion, but two houses were scheming something sinister. However, they were too weak on their own, which naturally made him suspect that they were going to join up with the Siwen once they invaded or attempted to persuade other noble houses to join them to create a faction of their own once invaded. Both were strong possibilities, and he informed the king about it.
In his honest opinion, the most optimal way to repel the invasion was a swift counter invasion which the king had the same idea of. They had been preparing for this ever since their last invasion. With the planned mage corps in place, he was fairly certain that the main Siwen army would be literally obliterated. However, there was just one issue with the plan for him. It would free up only one fief for everyone to grab. They expected to gain four fiefs, three of which would go to the Egra, the Fenchel, and the Flissing. Would he be lucky enough to be granted the last fief?
He did not think so. Thus, he wanted to free up some more fiefs. Hence the possible rebellion among noble houses. They were clearly hesitating. However, if they were fed slightly skewed information to sway their minds… and they revolted… He just wanted to give them a very slight nudge on their backs.
“Charming,” He said with a satisfied smile.
“Isaac?”
“You are charming as ever, darling.”