Chapter 570: Tense Discussions

Landon knew his mother loved him, and that his grandfather, King Darian Darr, was partial to him, but you don’t send 3 Adept-Realm masters and one of the leading members of the Royal Council to pay a sick-visit to an injured prince, you send them to negotiate with an enemy nation.

"I suppose you have to get going," Landon mused.

Half-a-month ago, Landon would have found the idea of a boy even younger than himself being included in high-level discussions of state to be absurd, but the more time he spent together with Lucas, the more it seemed natural for his young friend to be present at such meetings.

"En," Lucas made no attempt to deflect, "Given the events which happened, Tina will also have to participate in this meeting."

"I see. I wish I could join you, but..." Landon stated, tried to sit up further, only to be forced to lie back down again.

While there was no longer any risk to his life, the Darr Kingdom’s prince still had numerous serious injuries which made it impossible for him to get out of bed and move around freely, at least not without being in excruciating pain.

"Just rest," Lucas smiled wryly, "I’ll let you know what happens. Promise."

"Thanks, Lucas," Landon smiled weakly, still wincing from having moved too quickly just now.

"Oh, and don’t worry," the prince followed up, "I won’t tell them about Christina’s... situation. I swear it."

"You’ve already said as much, and I trust your word," Lucas’ expression turned a bit awkward when this was mentioned, not that he wasn’t thankful, mind you.

During the battle in Sabre Point, Christina had no choice but to go all out, which meant revealing her true strength to Landon who she was with at the time.

Fortunately, everyone else who had seen Christina fight that night was dead, so the only one who now knew about Christina’s real Realm was him.

As a prince from a hostile nation, it would have made perfect sense for Landon to reveal such information at least to his mother. One person may not be enough to change the course of a war, but that didn’t mean Christina, with her absurd talent and strength, wasn’t a potential threat to the Darr Kingdom.

Yet here Landon was, swearing not to tell anyone about it.

When Lucas had asked him about why he was willing to keep this secret, Landon had just laughed and said it would be dishonourable of him to expose the secrets of the warrior who had saved his life.

It seemed that to him, nothing was more important than personal integrity.

Whether that was a good or bad mentality for a prospective ruler was debatable, but it was certainly a positive when it came to one’s friends.

Perhaps this one trait, more than anything else, was the reason Lucas and all the other youths from the Rockwell Kingdom had taken a liking to Landon. On paper, he was their enemy, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t respect him as a person.

.....

"This is outrageous! How dare you come into our country, conduct military operations, kill our citizens, then just saunter off like you did nothing wrong!"

Not even bothering to rise from her seat, Celestina stared flatly back at the tall, well-built man who was ranting and raging against her from the opposite side of the table, spit flying from his lips as he cursed and berated without holding anything back.

Only after General Iker Hech, commander of the Gateway Army stationed in Gateway City, had finished, did Celestina slowly get up, turn to the other, older man across from the table, and offer a proper salute, "General Tabor, it’s been a while. Congratulations on your 400th birthday."

"Hey! Are you ignoring..." General Hech fumed and tried to interject, but was silenced by his fellow Darr Kingdom General raising his hand.

Iker Hech and Gino Tabor were technically both Generals, but the latter was not only much older, he had also served as the former’s commanding officer at one point, so there was still something of an implied hierarchy between them.

Gino Tabor also held the position of Minister of War in the Darr Kingdom, so while they had the same military rank, from a political sense, Gino had a higher position.

It was similar to the situation between Celestina Balfour and Kyle Gunthar or Marianne Campbell, they were all Generals of the Rockwell Kingdom, but Celestina would still pay respects to them, defer to the old man’s opinion in battle, and follow the commands of her own nation’s Minister of War when ordered to.

Returning the salute, General Gino Tabor, who was arguably the strongest master in the Darr Kingdom and a distant relative of its Royal Family, said in his usual steady tone, "Greetings Marquess Balfour. It indeed has been many years since we last met face-to-face."

"As dull as always, Gino," Celestina quipped, drawing a frown from a few of the ’guests’ opposite her.

Talia Darr didn’t seem bothered by Celestina’s flippant attitude, having somewhat gotten used to her casual personality, but the other woman from the Darr Kingdom, Yesenia Fasse, the Minister of Law, was a completely different story.

Despite being the weakest of the Darr Kingdom’s delegation, and the one with the least authority, Yesenia made no attempt to hide the ill-intent behind her gaze as she glared at Celestina, then at the others from the Rockwell Kingdom who were present for this meeting.

Minister Fasse’s contempt was particularly palpable when her eyes landed on the young boy standing nearby to the famed Red-Haired Monster.

From the intelligence reports she had received before embarking on this mission, Yesenia naturally knew who Lucas was, but that didn’t mean she approved of having a baby present for these important talks.

If anything, she felt that Celestina was intentionally insulting them by having such a young boy appear here.

Still, unlike the brash General Hech, Minster Fasse had more control over her mouth and simply remained silent.

Her expectations for this meeting had already been low before it began, but seeing the lineup the Rockwell Kingdom was presenting to them, Yesenia could only conclude that they hadn’t treated this situation seriously from the start.

Seeing how everyone from the Darr Kingdom’s side was now ’comfortable’, Celestina pointed to the opposite side of a rather large table that had been set up in one of the Manor’s best meeting rooms and proposed, "Shall we sit?"