Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 125. Arrogance.
“Young master Arslan,” the youngest of the four nobles, the young man with golden hair, stood up alongside the other three men and greeted with an amicable smile. “I’m glad to be able to see you. I’m the Grand Prince of the Guode Federation, Ludwig the fifth,” he said courteously, not mentioning the long period of wait nor displaying any kind of a discontent neither in his voice nor on his face.
“You’ve certainly made us wait, young master Arslan.” Alas, the man standing right next to him spoke his feelings quite openly, causing an almost unnoticeable frown to emerge on Prince Ludwig’s face. “I’m the late Chancellor of the Guode Federation, Meinhard, pleased to make your acquaintance,” the black-haired and somewhat chubby man, Meinhard, said with a very much aristocratic-like laugh.
“It’s my pleasure, young master Arslan,” the white-haired old man said simply and bowed his head ever so slightly. “I’m a Duke of the Faren Republic, Ayer, the previous ruler of the City of Masalle and the surrounding lands,” he introduced himself, his smile flinching quite noticeable the moment he brought up the lands he had been governing. Considering that the majority of the City of Masalle had been turned into rubble by Arslan’s father, his reaction wasn’t all that strange.
“I’m similarly a Duke,” the fourth man who had golden hair of similar shade to Prince Ludwig, though was considerably older, spoke up calmly. “My name is Diego and I come from the Banxi Yimarate,” he said bluntly, causing the expression on the faces of the three other men to turn rather sour.
Banxi Yimarate… they really couldn’t bear it when people spoke of their proud, ancient countries in this unlawful, heretical manner. To them, their countries would always be what they were; Federations and Kingdoms! Using the language of the enemies, had they not known better, they would have accused Duke Diego of giving up on reclaiming their rightful heritage!
“It’s nice to meet you,” Arslan said with a formal smile. He didn’t fail to notice the not-so-subtle conflict brewing between those four men, but for the time being, he simply committed the fact to his mind. He might not have much experience, but he had more than enough sense to know that bringing this matter up openly right off the bat would be a great faux pas. “As you already know, I’m Arslan,” he added briefly without bothering to go through all the formalities. He had never liked being formal anyway and this dislike only grew after he became friends with Laien, so since his position in these negotiations was technically the highest, he allowed himself this much leeway.
“Should we sit down?” Prince Ludwig suggested without delay, wishing to avoid the moment of awkward silence after the introductions were over.
“Yeah,” Arslan said and nodded slightly, after what the four nobles returned to the large sofa they had been sitting on, while he himself went to sit on the sofa opposite to that one. He didn’t even pay it much attention as Laien and Yin came with him and seated themselves to his left, but the four nobles certainly did spare the scene a curious glance. Just like Elder Samuel had, they wondered if those two youngsters were simply servants of Arslan’s, his companions, or maybe his friends. However, unlike Elder Samuel, they had no active information network outside of the Grand Camp, so they were unaware even of the rumors about the battle with Yimar Furi that were currently circulating around the military and political spheres of the Ruishi Federation.
Needless to be mentioned, the four of them were also oblivious to the most recent events that happened between Arslan’s party and the Ruishi Federation. All they knew of was the purposefully leaked version which said Arslan would secretly accompany the group from the Grand Camp in their way north, only to later on split up with them and head to the lands controlled by the Holy Union. With Elder Samuel’s thorough information control, no news of their actual endeavor with Arslan leaked outside of the Grand Council; in addition to Julien and some of his highest-ranked officers, only the Grand Elders and their trusted guards were aware of what was going on, so the potential of an information leak from the side of the Ruishi Federation was infinitely close to zero.
“Since we’re all here,” Jasmine spoke up from Arslan’s right, planning to get on with this unpleasant meeting as fast as possible. “I trust it’s the highest time for you gentlemen to tell us what is it that you wish to discuss with young master Arslan,” she stated and if the tone of her words was anything to go by, she wasn’t too pleased with this meeting being forced without the subject being agreed upon beforehand. No matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t bring herself to think that those four had any positive intentions; especially after what she had learned during those last two days of going around and doing the ground-level work around the Grand Camp.
“I’m inclined to agree,” Prince Ludwig said with an amiable smile, then turned his gaze away from Jasmine and towards Arslan, with whom he wanted to talk directly with. “But first and foremost, could we receive a confirmation of what your plans for the near future are, young master Arslan?” he inquired straightforwardly and suppressed a smirk as he noticed the displeased look that appeared on the faces of the three White Guards and even on General Julien’s face. Was that a bit too direct? Perhaps, but he knew that if they didn’t make this one thing clear, then they would get nowhere in their negotiations.
“My plans are my own personal business,” Arslan replied without much delay at all. He had been thinking about their grand plan a whole lot and he had even received repeated advice on how to act from Jasmine and Sirius, so he clearly understood what he could and couldn’t say. As such, there was no way he would straightforwardly admit to the ‘secret’ plan of him getting to the Holy Union.
“There’s no need for you to worry,” Prince Ludwig reassured in a friendly tone. “Some rumors about you heading to the Holy Union soon have already spread around the high circles of the Grand Camp, but none of us delivered the message any further. Including us four, only a few trusted people know of those rumors,” he explained, attempting to get Arslan and those adults around him to relax a little. However, seeing that he didn’t say enough to accomplish that just yet, he added with an amicable smile.
“Please understand there’s no benefit to us at all if we were to try and forward those rumors to your enemies. Even if they did tell us they’d receive us well in exchange for your head, they’d just kill us afterwards anyway. You just can’t trust those Arkarians who obey the Great Prophet. So, with that in mind, we wish to cooperate with you and we came here today to discuss the possible terms.”
Although those words of Prince Ludwig’s did reassure Arslan to a degree, he still had an inexplicable feeling that there was something wrong with the way those talks were going, but he just couldn’t put his hand on it. “Go on,” he said casually, thinking that the best option would be to first listen to everything those four had to say and only then choose the words to reply with. And in case he wasn’t sure what to do, he knew he could always rely on his companions to help him out.
“It’s nothing complicated,” Prince Ludwig said with a smile, thinking that since he had already gotten Arslan to listen, the deal was as good as settled. “You should be aware that apart from the Prophet, the four of us hold considerable sway in the Grand Camp. Thus, in exchange for aiding you with your journey to the Holy Union, we ask to be brought along,” he revealed, then added with a meaningful smile.
“I must also say, you need not be concerned about this interfering with your plans, young master Arslan. We went to ask the Prophet yesterday about Karta’s opinion on our plan and today in the morning, he told us that as long as you agree, there shall be no problems with us going to the Holy Union.”
This certain piece of information did startle those in Arslan’s camp a little bit. They didn’t think that those nobles would go as far as to ask the Prophet for a divination, but if what Prince Ludwig said was true, then maybe it would be a good idea on their part to consider agreeing to this offer. At the very least, however, such were the thoughts of the three present White Guards and of Arslan. It was hard to tell what Julien was thinking given the expressionless look on his face, while Laien and Yin, for some reason, were both smiling, though it was Laien who was openly smiling in quite a mocking way.
“Is that all?” Laien asked with a quiet laugh. “Is that the whole deal you want to offer or is there something else to it? For our side that is,” he inquired curiously.
“What else would you expect?” Prince Ludwig asked, careful not to let any negative emotions to surface. He didn't know who exactly Laien was, but he could tell from Laien’s attitude and from the fact that no one from Arslan’s camp was reprimanding him or looking angry with him that Laien’s opinion had some weight to it and could influence Arslan’s final decision. “We will make sure no undesired information leaks out and we will help with moving young master Arslan secretly. In exchange all we want is a safe passage to the Holy Union alongside him,” he restated, wondering if Laien wasn’t trying to get some additional benefits from this deal to court favor of Arslan.
“What you are speaking about is not an offer,” Laien said with a laugh, the mocking smile still present on his face. “That’s a threat,” he clarified and smirked at Prince Ludwig, whose expression immediately sank, just like the looks on the faces of Chancellor Meinhard and Duke Ayer. Interestingly enough, Laien noticed the corner of Duke Diego’s lips quirk upwards for a brief second before his expression returned to being neutral.
“Scandalous!” Chancellor Meinhard exclaimed furiously. “Who are you to accuse us of threatening young master Arslan? Do you think you can spew out whatever comes to your mind?” he asked with a big frown on his face. He hadn’t been so insulted since… since…! Well, since the experts under Elder Samuel ordered him to take his people and move to the Grand Camp or face immediate punishment.
“He must have forgotten himself,” Duke Ayer said while eyeing Laien contemptuously. Even Kings never spoke to the highest-ranking nobles in such a blatantly offensive way, so he could only assume that the boy simply didn’t know what he was doing.
“How are we speaking threats, boy?” On the contrary, Prince Ludwig kept his calm despite feeling agitated by Laien’s words.
“Do you really not see it?” Laien asked with a clear hint of disbelief, which as genuine as it was, irritated the three vocal of the nobles. “You are basically saying, do us a favor or we are going to make you regret not agreeing to what we want. That’s not offering a deal but stating a threat,” he explained with a sarcastic smile, thinking that it was just like Reian told them. Those nobles really weren’t trustworthy and perhaps with the exception of Duke Diego, who either was really good at acting or had a different opinion than the other three, they weren’t worth their time.
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“You require our agreement,” Chancellor Meinhard said coldly. “If young master Arslan truly intends to go through with the plan of sneaking through to the Holy Union by using the chaos caused by the eight million people from the Grand Camp, he will need our help. Can you not comprehend that?” he asked provokingly, already having gotten fed up with Laien’s attitude.
“That’s where you are mistaken,” Laien said with a laugh, though just to be sure, he exchanged a quick glance with Reian right afterwards. To his satisfaction, he received a slight smile and a nod from Reian in response. It looked like he was free to do whatever he wanted as just like Reian mentioned previously, it would be nice to obtain the cooperation of those nobles, but in the end, it wasn’t necessary. As such, he continued with what he intended to say without a worry. “Weren’t you evicted from the Ruishi Federation? By this point, you are people without a home. Do you really think that anyone would complain if all of you were killed?” he mentioned with a casual smile. Neither those nobles nor their guards were suppressing their auras in the slightest, so given his attainments in the Aspect of Awareness, he could tell how strong they were without even employing his aura.
The strongest of the eight guards present was merely a marital master of the third rank, while the strongest person of the nobles’ camp was Duke Diego, who was a martial master of the fourth rank. Compared to this bunch, the combat strength of their own camp was incomparably stronger. If they were to start fighting here, then the ‘battle’ would end in mere split-seconds. He and Yin would have been more than enough to kill all of those people on their own, but they even had three elite White Guards and General Julien present. The living room wouldn’t even have time to suffer any damage before the side of those nobles was wiped out.
However, Prince Diego, Chancellor Meinhard, and Duke Ayer didn’t seem to realize this simple fact as their faces grew red with anger.
“You should stop talking already, child,” Chancellor Meinhard said sternly. “You obviously do not know the rules of diplomacy. I trust all of us will be ready to forget about this offense to give young master Arslan face, but you ought to apologize for your foolishness,” he forced himself to say, though despite his brave façade, he ended up glancing nervously in Julien’s direction. Now that he thought about it, wasn’t Julien infamous for disobeying orders and killing all those he found distasteful? But there was no way he out of all people could end up on Julien’s blacklist, so he didn’t think he needed to be too concerned with this little issue.
“Chancellor,” Jasmine spoke up with an amused smile, appreciating the opportunity to get under the man’s skin. “Only a fool would apologize when he’s right. You are indeed threatening us and not offering us a deal. Do you think we do not know? The four of you indeed helped the Prophet’s influence grow early on, but now he and the people of the Grand Camp are completely out of your control. If we indeed allowed you to go and sow mayhem as you will then it would be somewhat problematic, but if all you wish to do is to threaten us, then why would we ever let you leave this place alive?” she asked with a devilish smile. Those ‘nobles’ who fled and left their own people to tend to themselves in the time of greatest need, she had no compassion for people like them.
“You wouldn’t…!” Chancellor Meinhard cried out in a squeaky voice, starting to truly grow fearful for his life. Those people, were they all lunatics?! He wouldn’t have come to this meeting if he knew they would be treated in this inexcusable way!
“You don’t kill people at the table of negotiations!” Duke Ayer almost shouted the words out, having lost any remnants of calm he might have had a moment ago.
“Yeah,” Laien said with a smirk. “You don’t throw threats around it either, don’t you think?” he mentioned and laughed inwardly. Until now he had thought that the expression ‘face shifting between the colors of red and purple’ was only a literary expression used in novels, but that chubby Chancellor Meinhard and white-haired Duke Ayer both proved him otherwise.
“…” As for Prince Ludwig, however, the young man appeared to be finally starting to realize the seriousness of the situation he had gotten himself into. His first knee-jerk reaction would be to rebuke Laien in the same way Chancellor Meinhard and Duke Ayer did, but the more he thought about the circumstance, the clearer he understood that their side held no real power here. So what if they were high-ranked nobles? So what if they were or weren’t in the right? Even if they indeed weren’t making threats, of what he wasn’t so sure anymore, was there anything stopping those experts gathered around Arslan from killing them off like unneeded cattle?
“Fine,” Duke Diego said with an amused laugh, breaking the momentary period of nervous silence that befell their camp of four. “You do have guts, kid. I thought we would be able to get a free deal since a young ruler would be quick to do favors when asked, but I didn’t imagine he would have such a reliable friend by his side,” he praised, looking at Laien with a clearly impressed look in his eyes. Then, amidst the confusion, he laughed again and this time shifted his gaze towards Jasmine, Sirius, and Reian and spoke with a smile.
“Not to mention that those White Guards were snuffing around the Grand Camp for the last day and a half. It’s just like that woman said, we no longer hold much of a way sway there and logically speaking, the Grand Council will never put whatever happens to us above their interests with Makarash.”
“With that in mind, I think I will make a proper offer from myself,” he stated casually and raised his left hand, making a move with it that empathized his five fingers. “Fifty thousand platinum coins for my safe passage to the Holy Union alongside young master Arslan. I believe that in this circumstance, my life should be worth more or less this much. Will that be acceptable?” he offered casually, what in turn caused the other three nobles to shiver as they grew worried for their own lives.
If the price somehow ended up really being fifty thousand platinum coins, then they would probably cry tears of blood! They had no idea how Duke Diego still had enough money to casually offer fifty thousand platinum coins to Arslan, but if they were also forced to take out an amount like that, then their chances of ever establishing themselves as powerful nobles would decrease far too much!
“What do you think?” Laien asked Arslan. Personally, he thought that Duke Diego’s offer wasn’t bad, but the final decision in this case laid in Arslan’s hands.
“I think it’s good,” Arslan replied with a smile. Two hundred thousand platinum coins was a considerable amount of wealth and to be honest, he didn’t expect to get this much benefit from those four men. If he was the one leading the whole conversation, he was sure he wouldn’t have achieved a similarly good result; he just couldn’t act as blunt and sometimes even arrogant as Laien.
“T-that’s too much to ask for!” Duke Ayer exclaimed nervously. “We came here to negotiate, so why are we being extorted?!” he asked in a high-pitched voice, one very much unsuitable to an elderly person like himself.
“That’s right!” Chancellor Meinhard supported. “How can escorting us to the Holy Union be worth fifty thousand platinum coins? Let us be sensible here!”
“I think you two misunderstood,” Duke Diego said with a chuckle. However, before saying anything more, he produced a top-grade interspatial ring and slid it across the low table, right towards Arslan. “This money isn’t primarily for young master Arslan to escort me anywhere. It would be more correct to think of it as ransom for my life and freedom,” he elaborated lightheartedly, his attitude so casual that one could almost think he wasn’t neck-deep in those same circumstances he spoke of.
“You know,” he added with a sarcastic smile after a few seconds of watching the flabbergasted expressions on the faces of his three companions. “Sometimes you just need to be aware of the situation you are in, else if you keep resisting and struggling, you will lose not only the remainder of your wealth but also your lives,” he said and shrugged his shoulders. The words spoken by that black-haired boy, Laien, might have sounded ridiculous to the ears of a noble, but the kid was correct. Even if the four of them were killed off right at this moment, no one would raise a word of complaint.
Faced with such a blatant statement, even the two most opposed of the nobles could no longer find any words to retort with.
“Can I pay up in items?” Prince Ludwig asked, sounding thoroughly defeated. It would be too painful of a blow for his finances if he gave up fifty thousand platinum coins and left himself with little to no liquid money, so he hoped that those boys would at least concede this much to him. As for the feelings of shame involved with lowering himself before children who were much younger than him, he had no strength left to be overly concerned about those insignificant things.
Laien and Arslan exchanged a glance as if by an agreement, each seeking the other’s opinion. Neither of them lacked wealth to begin with, so rather than worry about their own convenience, they were concerned if the other one would be fine with what Prince Ludwig was prosing. As a result, the two of them laughed quietly, understanding each other’s thoughts just from that one glance.
“It’s fine,” Laien said while still laughing a little, very much to Prince Ludwig’s relief. The young golden-haired man hurriedly stored around the sixty-thousand platinum coins worth of regular items in a top-grade ring, which he then took out and slid across the table. By this point, the thoughts of arguing with Arslan, Laien or anyone else from this group had left him entirely. He was only glad to have somehow come out relatively undamaged physically and financially from this unexpected peril.
As for Chancellor Meinhard and Duke Ayer, however, the two of them still couldn’t bring themselves to pay up. Was it their pride or was it something else, only they knew, but it was only when they sensed faint and yet powerful killing intent leak from Julien’s body that they gave up and took out a mix of coins and items and handed it to Arslan.
“Is that everything?” Chancellor Meinhard asked in an obviously agitated way, apparently having forgotten that it was their group that originally initiated this meeting.
Laien and Arslan, not all that certain if it was fine to end the meeting at this point, snuck a quick glance in the direction of the three White Guards. Judging by their calm expression and ever so slight nods, they weren’t dissatisfied with how these negotiations had gone and had no qualms about putting an end to them at this point. However, before Laien or Arslan could speak up, Julien joined the conversation with a rather unexpected question.
“Before you go, tell me one thing,” Julien said coldly, the killing intent from a while ago still reverberating in his voice. “Do you people regret what your rule has done to your countries?” he asked, just as it was him who provided most of the information about those four nobles to Jasmine and the rest of the White Guards. Given the kind of a past he had with Ikarians, he was likely the one in this room who had been wishing the hardest for the negotiations to have broken down so he could slaughter those nobles. Still, his hatred for them wasn’t enough for him to cause problems to the grand endeavor his country was undertaking with Arslan, so he wouldn’t do anything like attacking them regardless of the circumstance.
“Regret?” Chancellor Meinhard raised his eyebrows, baffled by Julien’s question. “Of course I do regret it!” he said angrily, causing the expression on Julien’s face to change slightly, but only for a second before the next words of Chancellor’s sounded. “We should have been more careful of someone like the Great Prophet appearing, that’s obvious enough,” he added, unaware that his answer caused Julien to stop looking at him like at a human being.
“Rubbing salt into our wounds,” Duke Ayer said with a snort. “We’ve allowed a maniac to sow chaos in our countries and we were forced to flee from them in the end, yes. How could we not regret it?” he said haughtily, by the looks of it still very much planning on one day retaking the control of his ancestral lands in the Faren Republic or as it was called nowadays, Faren Yimarate.
“I’m of the same mind,” Prince Ludwig said in the calmest manner out of the three. “If a way to defeat the Great Prophet existed, I wish I could learn it,” he said with a little sigh. Just thinking about the amount of military and economic power the Great Prophet held in his hand was causing him to feel rather terrified, so even though he wished he could get his rightful place in the Guode Federation back, he wasn’t too optimistic about actually making this wish come true.
“And you?” Julien moved his gaze to Duke Diego, having already put the other three of the nobles in thorough contempt. They didn’t even understand what caused their downfall and blamed everything on the appearance of the Great Prophet; they didn’t understand the common people at all. With regards to people like that, he couldn’t help but look down on them.