[Luke POV]

“Welcome lords general, and young marquis, No need to look so tense, I don’t plan on killing any of you.”

At those words, the six raised their eyes to look at me as I continued watering my plants.

“Welcome to the greenhouse by the way, doesn't it look good?”

Despite the current season, flowers seemed to be in full bloom inside the greenhouse. It was pretty big with a total square area of 85m long and 37m wide with a height reaching 20 meters. It was my favourite spot in the entire village.

The six men’s eyes were agape as they looked around the garden.

I know, I know it’s impressive, no? I made it! Marvel at my masterpiece.

It was indeed one of the most beautiful places in the village, I didn’t have access to silica glass when I made it so instead, I just made it out of diamond. I modelled it after the Crystal Palace in my old world.

When the sun reached a certain height the story of the stained glass began to unravel, for that, I just made the Big Bang and angled the glass so it would look like the entire place was glowing when the time reached 5 pm or so. That reminds me maybe I should make a clock tower soon… Also, we should sell watches…

“Ahem, I called you here today to address what just happened.”

The generals and the young lord flinched when they heard my words. I placed a paper in front of them.

“I have informed the Marquis of your situation.”

“F-father knows already?”

“The Marquis…”

“Our family is dead…”

I watched the light in their eyes vanish.

“Don’t worry, I already negotiated with the Marquis, I will not kill any of you nor will he do so with any of your family, he might beat you up though.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“You won’t?”

“Yes, I will deny any of this happening in the next Royal Council meeting in exchange for Roella and for your family’s recognition of my authority in this land.”

“Preposterous father wouldn’t do such a thing!”

“Read.”

I pointed at the paper.

There, the Marquis signed.

“He knew it would not bode well with the current war you guys are waging south if they found out what happened here. I have already placed a gag order for everyone in the village. Also, we will form a minor alliance though economically only, just so you can explain what you achieved here to other noble families. Allowing you guys to keep your dignity.”

“So… all this for nothing?”

“Not nothing, I know you lost a lot of soldiers and people due to immigrating here so I will pay for that.”

I placed a bag in front of them.

“Here are 80 platinum coins. Do whatever you want with them, I have already negotiated this with the Marquis don’t even dare to get anything more than this.”

Now their mouth and eyes are agape upon seeing the platinum coins. This amount of money could raise an army of mercenaries easily…

“Don’t worry about yourselves, as soon as your soldiers recover, those who are not associated with us in any way as well as those who did not commit a crime will be returned to you guys.”

I paused.

“Me and the Marquis already cleared this up, I am not a threat to you. Also no, I don’t negotiate with ransom in mind. I would have let you go either way whether or not the Marquis agreed with me, I have no intention of feeding you all. No fighting occurred between us, you just got beat by the weather.”

I told them as I made them leave the room immediately. Cynthia, Sebas, the village head, and Marco, the top student in the political science department the current deputy of the village appeared.

“I genuinely think we’re receiving the shorter end of the deal here.”

“It was the safest route we can take.”

“His Highness can never do wrong.”

“I can just beat them up if they try anything else.”

“But I do wonder your highness, you seemed so lenient towards them, you could have just threatened to report them to the council.”

“I just have a feeling that I needed to.”

If we weigh every win and loss we got here, the wins outweighed the losses we had, the Romwells played a huge part in the story, and losing them here would be detrimental not just for the Kingdom but more importantly… my brother…

Their losing power here would lead to my brother being defenceless in court. I need them to be strong… to at least… protect him…

I know where his fate will lead but… I’m still hoping… I know what they’ll plunge this country into in a few years but… I hope the day will come when I can just have a nice conversation with all of them.

I continued to talk with my advisors and friends as I moved my gaze towards a table in the middle of the garden where six chairs were gathered around a single table.

“Maybe… someday… after all of this…”

It was just a mere selfishness from the one they served.

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[On a desk of a Certain Marquis POV]

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