Chapter 573: Compensation

What followed was several hours of back-and-forth discussions, starting with summaries of the events that took place in Sabre Point, an after-action report on the Rockwell Kingdom’s military activities, and a sharing of intelligence which had been gathered on the night of and during the days after the incident.

There were also talks regarding the wide-spread crackdown which had taken place inside the Rockwell Kingdom shortly after that incident as the two were related.

Things got heated again when Celestina actually called on Lucas to give a summary report of the anti-terrorist actions in the kingdom, with everyone from the Darr Kingdom’s side but Crown Princess Talia objecting to a boy being the one to deliver such critical information.

With Celestina insisting Lucas was the most familiar with the operational details, and with Talia allowing it, the two Darr Kingdom Generals and its Minister of Law reluctantly accepted.

After Lucas’ briefing, which was begrudgingly well received, the topic of discussion shifted again to future actions the two kingdoms would be taking to combat the mysterious organization which seemed to be goading them into a war.

Of course, cooperation between enemies, even when facing a common threat, was never easy.

Trust was basically non-existent between the two sides, which should have been obvious seeing how several members at this table had tried to kill one another in the past.

What’s more, neither side could be certain that it wasn’t the people sitting across from them at this very moment that were the actual masterminds behind these incidents.

From the Rockwell Kingdom’s perspective, the easiest way for a ’traitor’ to appear in the Darr Kingdom’s military was for someone high up in the Darr Kingdom to have planted them there.

From the Darr Kingdom’s perspective, it was awfully suspicious that a massive battle had taken place on their soil, resulting in serious losses to their side, while the Rockwells hadn’t suffered much damage at all. What’s more, all the perpetrators of that incident had ’conveniently’ died, leaving no one to interrogate for information.

As a result of this trust deficit, while the Rockwell Kingdom side indeed shared quite a bit of information that they had learned, some things, like the shipping routes for illegal goods Queen Marianne had managed to recover, were kept secret.

The higher-ups of the kingdom had decided that it would be better for them to act on this intelligence alone because there were multiple signs indicating that some of the weapons being smuggled into the nation were actually coming from the Darr Kingdom.

Needless to say, these talks were tense and not all that productive.

By the time the portion of the meeting regarding future cooperation to combat the mysterious threat was over, practically nothing other than what Talia and Celestina had originally agreed to was achieved.

There would be continued coordination of patrols along the Lorren and some limited sharing of information.

That was it.

If one was forced to name something new which had been accomplished by these talks, they would probably say that both sides had agreed to allow wounded soldiers and civilians to be moved between the two kingdoms for treatment.

It was a bit of a stretch, seeing how providing emergency aid to wounded people who were deemed ’non-combatants’ was already required by the last peace treaty the two kingdoms had signed, but it was something.

This also allowed both the Rockwell and Darr Kingdoms to side-step the issue of Prince Landon being brought to Misty City by Celestina as under normal circumstances, that would probably have been considered kidnapping of a royal instead of providing medical mercy to a heavily injured soldier.

Finally, with all the technical and practical topics having been dealt with, the talks reached the most delicate subject of all, the one that was main reason this meeting was being held.

Everything else up until this point had been a formality, an exchange of information that could have been dealt with on a much, much lower level than direct talks between a Marquess and Crown Princess.

Still, since this was an essential part of diplomacy that needed to be settled, Crown Princess Talia dove right in and bluntly broached the subject, "Now, about the matter of compensation for my kingdom’s losses."

In an equally dry tone of voice, one that betrayed neither deference nor reluctance, Celestina asked back, "What do you want?"

"1 million Gold. 60% in cash, 30% in goods, 10% in Spirit Crystals," Minister of Law Yesenia Fesse demanded bluntly.

"40% in cash, 50% in goods, 10% in Spirit Crystals," Head Treasurer Quinn Oxley, the same one who had tried to strangle Lucas half-a-month ago in Torren Ridge, made an immediate counter-offer.

For most of this meeting, Quinn had remained a silent observer, but now that the discussion had turned to financial matters, it was naturally incumbent upon her to take the lead.

"That’s..." General Hech began to object, but was cut off by Talia, "Fine, but the total amount must be increased to 1.1 million, with no less than 60% of the goods being in the form of processed grain."

Quinn frowned slightly at the increase in price, but while she was empowered to negotiate the terms, she wasn’t the final decision maker here.

Shooting a quick glance to confirm with Celestina, and receiving a nod, Quinn agreed to the proposal, "Very well. You can expect payment to be delivered to Gateway City over the next 3 months."

From the stoic looks on everyone’s face, it was clear that no one was really satisfied with this agreement, but no one raised any objections either. In fact, once this matter was settled, both sides secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

With nothing further to discuss today, Celestina stood from her seat, "I would be remiss if I did not offer you some refreshments before you left."

"Your offer is most generous, Marquess Balfour, but I am afraid we will have to decline," Talia also stood and refused, knowing that Celestina was only saying this to comply with proper etiquette and not because she was hoping for them to remain.

"Would you at least care to visit the infirmary before you depart?" Celestina followed up.

This time, Talia hesitated, but she ultimately shook her head.

Although she very much would have liked to visit her son, today, she was here strictly in her official capacity as Crown Princess of the Darr Kingdom, so delaying their departure for a strictly personal matter would be inappropriate.

Besides, she had already visited Landon 3 times since learning of his injuries and was confident that he was receiving the best care possible, probably even better than what he could expect to receive in Gateway City where she was currently staying, so Talia was fine with the status quo in that regard for the moment.

"In that case, please allow me to see you out," Celestina nodded before motioning towards the meeting room’s doors.