Chapter 572: Trading Barbs

"The existence of a spy among our forces is indeed inexcusable," Minister Fesse declared, her voice calm and measured, "However, the reality of the situation is that 238 of our kingdom’s citizens are dead, with another 112 seriously injured, including a member of our royal family. A catastrophic amount of damage has also been dealt to one of our noble houses."

Yesenia then shifted her gaze to the young silver-haired girl sitting a few seats to Celestina’s left, "Your side has also suffered some casualties, including the young princess sitting here, but compared to our losses, I’d say you got off relatively easily."

"What the Hell is that..." Christina, unable to hold herself back, snapped and was on the verge of leaping out of her chair when Lucas hurriedly grabbed her hand and stopped her.

Tina had been injured quite seriously, and she was still recovering even now, but that wasn’t what she was so upset about.

9 Rockwell Kingdom soldiers had died that night.

Even if it was only for a few days, those were men and women Christina had served beside and fought together with.

The world was cruel, and on the scale of nations, the deaths of a few soldiers was indeed not considered critical, but the fact that their deaths were basically being dismissed as ’unimportant’ by this woman naturally didn’t sit well with her at all.

Still, when she felt Lucas’ tight grip on her hand, Christina knew she had screwed up.

Everyone from the Rockwell Kingdom’s side was also angry, as evidence by how cold their expression had become, but only she had lost control of her emotions and reacted to the Minister Fesse’s naked provocation.

This meeting was, in a sense, another form of combat. A war of words where each side was trying to throw the other off-balance to gain advantage in the negotiations which were to follow.

An outburst here would put their side at a disadvantage, something they couldn’t afford in this delicate situation

Understanding this, Christina choked back the righteous anger she felt and sat down again.

Ideally, she should have apologized for speaking out of turn here, but not screaming was as far as Tina was willing to concede right now.

That, however, was also a big mistake.

"Please forgive my Disciple’s outburst. I will see to it that she is disciplined later," Celestina said after Christina had slumped back into her chair.

"Hmph," Minister Fesse snorted dismissively, "Please see that you do. It is unsightly for a child, a royal no less, to not know her place."

Hearing her Master apologize in her place, then have to suffer the foreign minister’s arrogant rebuke, Christina realized she had screwed up again and hung her head low in shame.

While it would have hurt her pride to apologize just now, that would surely have been better than making Celestina, the leader of their side’s delegation, do so.

Christina had simply wanted to stand up for her kingdom and her fellow soldiers, but her actions had actually worsened their position and the strength of her Master’s hand.

Now, such actions from a 16-year-old girl were hardly surprising, especially considering the circumstances, but in Christina’s mind, they were still an unacceptable misstep.

All that said, while Celestina had issued this apology, she wasn’t one to take an insult lying down either, and unlike her young Third Disciple, she was a political veteran and knew how to hit back without actually raising her voice.

Smiling ever so slightly, Celestina met eyes with the Darr Kingdom’s Minister of Law and replied, "Christina is indeed a child still, so it is only natural she has some trouble knowing what she should and should not say. Surely you can relate to that, Lady Fesse, as a young woman yourself."

The barb was hardly subtle, and brought a frown to Yesenia Fesse’s face, but compared to Celestina Balfour, she truly was young, and her words just now were indeed a bit over-the-line, so she simply refrained from replying, lest she dig herself even deeper into a pit.

If the Darr Kingdom’s delegation thought Celestina was done, however, they were sorely mistaken.

Turning to the hot-headed General Hech next, Celestina’s grim grew slightly as she followed up, "You should consider asking my old friend Iker here to give you a lesson on maintaining proper decorum during foreign diplomacy. He is well versed in the subject, after all."

This time, it was the middle-aged General’s turn to frown. He was a well-known hot-head who never hesitated to speak out brashly or to resort to violence when things didn’t go his way, so calling him ’well-versed’ on the subject of decorum was an obvious insult.

Still, if he were to snap here, it would only be proving Celestina’s assessment of him correct, and he wasn’t about to let her bait him so easily, so Iker Hech just snorted and looked away.

Everyone assumed, after having gotten a bit of payback and setting the Darr Kingdom’s side on their back-foot, Celestina would act magnanimously and move the conversation along, but they were wrong.

Turning back to the older of the two Darr Kingdom women, Celestina let out a sigh and shook her head, "Regarding the casualties your kingdom suffered during this incident, I offer my sincere condolences. I am just thankful that I have such competent subordinates, which allowed our side to emerge from the battle with only minimal damage."

This time, the Darr Kingdom’s entire delegation had ugly looks flash across their faces as Celestina was not-so-subtly implying that the only reason their side had suffered such great losses was because of their own weakness and incompetence.

"Are you trying to..." General Hech began, but quickly stopped himself.

Unlike his earlier outbursts, this one would have negative consequences for their position as the topic of soldier’s deaths was always a sensitive subject.

Had it been the Rockwell Kingdom’s side that started this spat, him lashing out would have been fine, but since it was their own Minister of Law who had lobbed the first insult, he didn’t have any way to justify snapping back now that Celestina had turned the tables on them.

Iker Hech was a hot-head, but that didn’t mean he was an idiot, so he promptly backed down, crossing his arms as he sat back into his chair.

It was certainly in his nature to be abrasive, but it was also obvious that his role in these talks was to be an agitator, allowing Talia and General Tabor to come off as more reasonable during the negotiations.

The fact that General Hech was just saying what he really thought without any filters didn’t make it any less true that he was also playing the role assigned to him.

"Are you quite finished, Marquess Balfour?" Talia Darr decided it was time for her to step in and spoke up at last, "If so, why don’t we get down to actual business?"

Truth be told, Talia had objected to both Minister Fesse and General Hech being involved in these discussions because she knew they were hardliners who had a deep animosity towards the Rockwell Kingdom. However, given the current situation in the Darr Kingdom, and considering the location where the incident had taken place, she couldn’t refuse their participation either.

Feeling like she had gotten what she wanted, and not wanting to make things too difficult for her old friend’s daughter, Celestina fixed her expression to a neutral one and nodded, "Very well."