When Miya spoke with someone from Kuro to arrange her short return, Andreas was excluded from the conversation through the language barrier. The soldier only talked in Kuro’s tongue, even when Miya replied in a way that Andreas understood. Miya adapted to the conversation by including pieces of what the Kuro soldier said in her response—it annoyed him, but at least Andreas knew what they were saying.
From that conversation, it seemed like Miya was able to get assistance in returning; considering that all fighting with Gin would be concluded for the time being, she didn’t have to confirm that she could leave. Andreas didn’t want to let her go, but he wasn’t willing to see how Kuro would react to Sólstaður’s next grand chief showing up in their kingdom.
Miya left around the same time chiefs started coming in to Byen Roken for the next meeting. Meetings were held every month or so to discuss…whatever seemed to come to mind, actually. Andreas had been attending them alongside Elias for a few years—‘productive conversation’ seemed like a foreign concept to the men, now that Kuro prevented Sólstaður from having any kind of military presence. Especially after Andreas and Miya married, the meetings now were reduced to men gossiping and mocking—especially gossiping about and mocking Andreas in particular.
The meeting was a few days after Miya left, and Andreas knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on whatever it is they wanted to talk about. He knew he should trust her family on some level, but it’s not like Sólstaður cared if she was alive, either. The only reason why she hadn’t been subject to some ‘accident’ or another was because her position as royalty was never removed—things wouldn’t bode well for Sólstaður if the princess died on their soil. Andreas worried that their seas, however, may be less risky.
Andreas tried to half-heartedly entertain conversation with the rest of the men. They all spoke in Sólstaður’s native language, mostly to show defiance towards Kuro. He still found it impressive that Kuro continued to let them hold these meetings, even if they were meaningless.
The meeting had been idle chatter for the first few minutes before someone spoke.
“Rokensen!” One of the older chiefs said, standing.
“What is it?” Elias asked. He didn’t sound any more enthused about being here that Andreas was—of course, he had also been asleep up until they needed to leave, so that could play a part in it.
“I have a proposal,” the chief continued. He smiled coldly. “You might want to consider sending your son back home, however. The coward won’t like this.”
Andreas could never understand why they insisted he was a coward; the mild confusion it gave him replaced any kind of insulting intention the ‘nickname’ had.
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Regardless, Elias apparently held enough disdain for his son that he only nodded. “Go on,” the grand chief replied.
“The black kingdom is in a recovering state,” the chief said. “Their queen is dead and their new king is young—no one expected Nari to die. Why don’t we take advantage of the chaos? We can remove the black kingdom from our home!”
Andreas stood—marking his right to answer and effectively silencing Elias for now—while a majority of the chiefs cheered in agreement. Andreas spoke as soon as they were quiet.
“You wish to fight back against the black kingdom,” Andreas said, “But they haven’t bothered us for centuries. They keep to themselves and hunt their own food—if they don’t, they’ll pay for it. They’re not a hindrance to us.”
Another chief stood up as well. “What, so you want to keep them?”
He tried to choose his words as carefully as he could. “I’m saying that the black kingdom isn’t an actual threat at the moment,” Andreas maintained. He grew slightly more bitter as he went on, however, without fully intending to. “They’re not doing us any harm, so long as we don’t harm them. Say we fight and win—that’s all fine and well, I have nothing to complain about so long the black kingdom citizens that have assimilated aren’t forced to leave. But have you considered if we lost? I know the concept seems foreign to the chiefs here, but we can’t ignore it. The occupation, as it stands now, is relatively lax—they don’t care what we do so long as it doesn’t harm them. If we fought them and lose, we would be putting too much at risk.”
Andreas expected some kind of protests—accusations of having a biased opinion thanks to Miya—but was instead met with actual thoughtful consideration.
And then the ridiculous statements continued, with the first chief speaking up again.
“The Roken boy’s married to their princess now,” he said. “If we did fight and lose, we could use her to soften the blow.”
“We’re not using Miya as a bargaining chip,” Andreas replied firmly. “And if they see her with me, they’ll consider her a co-conspirator.”
Elias stood, and frowned at Andreas. “Sit down, boy.” He had to obey his father’s command, leading to some snickering among the chiefs. Elias continued firmly, looking among the crowd. “I agree with both points—that we should use this opportunity to our advantage, but we must also prepare for defeat. However, I am not opposed to using the princess in our favor. We can plan an attack and begin a long-awaited battle; if we fail, we can claim that the princess was opposed to it at the start, and she can appeal to the king to reduce the punishments.”
Andreas looked at his father. “Am I allowed to speak with Miya about this first?” He asked quietly.
His father just frowned back at him. “It would be better if she didn’t hear of this.”
“I’m not going to handle my marriage as you do,” Andreas muttered. Elias gave a quick glance around him, but the surrounding chiefs made to mention to hearing the comment. “Miya will know about all of this if she wants to; she won’t be given vague answers and be expected to find satisfaction in them.”
Elias went on to ignore his son, looking back to the rest of the chiefs instead. Andreas became a bit too satisfied in actually getting a reaction out of him that he didn’t mind whatever future things Elias would say or do in response.
“Stand if you wish to fight!” Elias said. Over half of the room stood for a moment, then sat down. “I hope the rest of you will consider this topic; we’ll leave it there for today.”
The meeting ended with a different cry this time—“For freedom!”
Andreas stayed silent, and only a few women outside echoed the unfamiliar call.