Chapter 574: Diplomacy And Politics

The walk from the meeting room to the main square of the manor didn’t take long, and was done in complete silence, with neither side really wishing to engage in idle chit-chat at the moment.

Once outside, however, the members of the Rockwell and Darr Kingdom delegations were met with a rather austere sight.

2,000 soldiers in mirror-polished armour, all lined up in a single neat formation, all of them unflinching even as they stood under the blazing hot summer sun.

These 2 Regiments from the Gateway City Army were here both as escorts and as a deterrent.

That being said, it was obvious this was more a matter of protocol and diplomatic formality than an actual threat, especially considering that, including their main negotiators, there were just 3 Adept-Realm masters and 20 Initiate-Realm Cultivators from the Darr Kingdom’s side in total.

Although there was only an equal number of solider and masters from the Rockwell Kingdom facing-off against the Darr Kingdom’s detachment, if one included the forces outside of the manor, the local forces consisted of 4 Adepts, 4 Sixth Order Spirit Beasts, and more than 60 combat-oriented Initiate Realm Cultivators.

Then, of course, there were the 20,000 or so Mortal Realm soldiers and guards scattered throughout Misty City, all of whom could rush to the manor as reinforcements in a matter of minutes if necessary.

All that said, if the members of the Darr Kingdom’s delegation were feeling nervous about being in the heart of one of the most heavily fortified positions in the enemy nation, none of them showed it on their faces.

Walk out at a leisurely pace, General Gino Tabor, the highest-ranking military officer of the Darr Kingdom, mounted his trust Fifth Order wolf, a hulking Wild Beast that stood over 3 metres tall and was covered in old battle-scars, and signaled to the elite Regiments in front of him to move out.

In an impressive display of discipline and training, the entire 2,000 soldier force turned in synch, their feet stomping hard enough to shake the courtyard.

Then, under the lead of their two Generals, they began marching towards the entrance of the Balfour Family’s Manor, surrounding the carriage their Crown Princess and Minister of Law were riding.

Talia Darr, as an accomplished warrior, would have preferred riding a mount as well instead of the stuffy carriage she was forced into, but again, protocol took precedence here.

Besides, she had quite a few things she wished to ’discuss’ with Yesenia Fesse in private before they returned to their side of the border, like the meaning of the word ’diplomacy’.

.....

As she watched these unwelcome guests depart, Christina couldn’t help grumbling aloud, "I still don’t understand why we need to pay them compensation."

"Haa... yes, you do," Lucas sighed, knowing that his Junior Sister wasn’t ignorant of the situation and was instead just venting her frustrations.

That comment, naturally, earned Lucas a punch on his shoulder, though unlike normal, Tina’s fist didn’t carry any of its usual strength.

Whether that was because she was still recovering from her wounds, or because she just didn’t have her heart in it right now, only she would know.

Nevertheless, what Lucas said was true. Christina knew exactly why this whole farce was happening because she had already had this argument with Lucas and Celestina several times over the past few days leading up to today’s meeting.

The ’compensation’ the Rockwell Kingdom was forced to offer today had basically nothing to do with the actual damage done to the Darr Kingdom.

Despite multiple statements to the contrary, and several attempts to pin responsibility on the other side, everyone involved in the negotiations knew that the actual culprits of this incident were hiding in the dark. It was possible that all of this was an officially sanctioned effort from one of the two kingdoms, but neither of them was going to admit that at this point.

In other words, Celestina and the Rockwell Kingdom held no responsibility for any of the damage to Sabre Point and the Dunne Family. If anything, their presence at the scene had actually prevented further losses from occurring, so by all accounts the Darr Kingdom should be the ones offering up compensation.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t how international diplomacy between enemy nations worked.

Celestina’s actions that night may ultimately have proved beneficial, but regardless of the outcome, and no matter her reasons, the blunt truth was that a powerful Rockwell Kingdom General had spearheaded a military intervention on Darr Kingdom soil without informing the latter in any way, despite having ample opportunity to do so.

Again, the blunt result of that incursion was serious damage being done to an important military outpost and the near total annihilation of a Viscount-rank noble family.

While it was fairly obvious it wasn’t Celestina’s fault that so many lives were lost or that such damage had been done, one could argue that had she consulted with her counterparts in Gateway City, the whole tragedy could have been avoided.

This wasn’t a ’he said, she said’ argument, mind you, it was a purely hypothetical ’what if’. But as was often the case in politics, how a story was told, and who the audience was, was much more important than the actual facts.

If the attitudes of General Hech and Minister Fesse at these discussions were any indication of how the hardliners in the Darr Kingdom were taking this series of events, then that did note bode well for the Rockwell Kingdom.

Clearly, there were elements among the upper-echelons of the Darr Kingdom who were eager for any excuse to stir up trouble with their neighbours to the west.

As such, in order to avoid escalating things further, a gesture of some kind was necessary on the Rockwell Kingdom’s side, a token apology that the more moderate factions in the Darr Kingdom could point to and declare victory over.

Put simply, everything today was just a face-saving exercise, a bribe the Rockwell Kingdom needed to pay to maintain the fragile peace which currently existed.

There were those from both the Darr and Rockwell Kingdoms who wanted to go to war, but judging from the current status-quo, those factions didn’t have enough power or influence to actually compel their side to start such a conflict.

The Rockwell Kingdom paying compensation today was meant to keep things that way.

As for the mysterious organization trying to stir up trouble between the two nations...

The Darr and Rockwell Kingdom delegates present today may not have liked each other, but they also didn’t like the idea of being manipulated into a war that would only benefit some unknown third party, which was all the more reason for them to reach a compromise, even if neither side was actually happy about it.