Chapter 677 If Only I Wasn’t…

"What do you think, Grandmother?"

"I think you’re the king now, so you should stop depending on me for things like this."

"Even a king must sometimes seek council."

"Only for matters of grave importance that he does not fully comprehend."

"And you believe this isn’t a matter of grave importance?"

"... Haaa... very well, read it to me again."

.....

Around the same time the Ice Queen of the Tarnath Dynasty was determining how best to respond to the Nathanial Rockwell’s invitation, similar conversations were happening in the other 3 nations of the South-Central Region.

Unlike in the Tarnath Dynasty, however, in the Zilon Kingdom, the recently crowned Josiah Kardesh had decided to receive his ambassador during a full council meeting instead of in a private audience.

There were many reasons for this, such as the young King wishing to have his advisors nearby when dealing with such a major issue, but even after reading the formal invitation out loud and debating its implications for several days, no firm decisions could be reached.

Had this been a couple years ago, when Queen Theresa had still been on the throne, the matter would have been swiftly and efficiently settled by her as once she made her choice, no one would dare to oppose.

Clearly, Josiah, who had succeeded his great great grandmother, didn’t have the same level of influence over the Royal Council or with the Zilon Kingdom’s upper nobility.

One could hardly blame the new king, though, as he was still quite young and inexperienced. Even from a pure strength perspective, Josiah was a bit lacking having yet to break through to the Adept Realm.

Of course, given the close relationship between the two kingdoms, no one on the Zilon Kingdom’s Royal Council was advocating boycotting the conference, but there was a considerable difference of opinion between the members of the ruling-class about the various proposals which the Rockwell Kingdom had put forward.

In the end, though he was reluctant to do so, Josiah felt he had no choice other than to seek out the former Queen for advice.

.....

After stepping down, Theresa Kardesh had actually left Highland and retired to an idyllic lakeside town over 100 kilometres away.

She had done this for many reasons, but primarily it was so she could focus on her cultivation without constantly being disturbed.

As such, it was easy to imagine how annoyed the former monarch was when a flight of 20 tartans landed in her backyard and Josiah knocked on her door.

Theresa’s first thought when she sensed his arrival was to tell her little descendant to figure out whatever problem he had on his own then swiftly kick him out, but considering this was actually the first time in over a year he had come to see her, she decided to let his unexpected visit slide just this once.

And so, the former queen had spent the afternoon listening to the current king explain the issue, after which she fell silent and began seriously contemplating how to respond.

Theresa had dealt with the Rockwell Kingdom for many years, and while her opinion of its current ruler wasn’t poor, it also wasn’t great.

If anything, Theresa found the current Rockwell Kingdom Queens to be trickier to handle, at least when it came to their individual fields of expertise.

Duke Gregory Roth was another formidable political of their southern neighbour, one who was dangerous and valuable enough for Theresa to allow her great grandniece Sienna to marry him as his First Wife.

Then, of course, there was their First Minister Perry Emerson, who despite coming off as a nervous wreck was actually an astonishingly effective administrator.

Marquess Celestina Balfour and Devlin Eashan were also bold leaders both in terms of their military acumen and their governance abilities.

In other words, the Rockwell Kingdom was filled with talented individuals, something that Theresa had envied quite a bit considering the lack of talent her own kingdom had suffered from which had forced her to remain on the throne for so long.

All that being said, it wasn’t like the former queen thought Nathanial Rockwell was some kind of puppet, just that he was more of a mediator and balance-keeper than a trend-setter, which was also how she knew this conference was not his idea.

As a matter of fact, Theresa wasn’t sure whose idea this trade conference was as it didn’t seem like something any of the power-players she knew in the Rockwell Kingdom would come up with.

Her best guess was that this was the brain-child of Natasha Summers and Cynthia Morgan, but she somehow felt that also wasn’t right.

There’s a new player in the Rockwell Kingdom, someone who is either a bold visionary, or an absolute madman, possibly both, Theresa quietly thought to herself, suddenly feeling a bit intrigued as to who this new leader was.

Obviously, they had power and influence if they were able to convince the Rockwell Kingdom’s other leaders to support this conference, but other than that, she couldn’t yet tell anything about them, other than that they were incredibly ambitious.

Now, ambition wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it could be dangerous, especially if it appeared in the leaders of your neighbours, no matter how ’friendly’ they might be.

Turning back to her grandson, Theresa asked, "What else has been happening in the Rockwell Kingdom as of late? Have there been any major changes in their policies or the behaviour of their leaders?"

"Heh," Josiah couldn’t resist chuckling when he heard his grandmother ask this question. He knew she had essentially secluded herself from the outside world, but it seemed she had done a far better job of it than he had expected.

"I’ll take that as a yes," Theresa raised her brow when she saw how her grandson reacted.

"Where should I even begin," Josiah mused, really feeling a bit lost as to how to describe all the changes the Rockwell Kingdom had undergone over the past year or so.

It seemed like a new report would cross his desk every few days, highlighting some infrastructure project, economic reform, or innovative product that had suddenly appeared.

There had even been some spillover effect on the Zilon Kingdom, with exports to the Rockwell Kingdom of processed metals, flowing rock, and other construction materials having increased noticeably since he ascended the throne.

Then, of course, there were things like soap and maple sugar that had made their way into the Zilon Kingdom.

So far, these items and several others were all incredibly limited in quantity and thus quite expensive, but if the reports from his merchants and his spies were accurate, Josiah felt it wouldn’t be long before such luxury goods began flooding the Zilon Kingdom’s markets.

Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, he couldn’t tell yet, but he was feeling wary none-the-less.

It took Josiah a good couple of hours to even briefly summarize everything that was going on in the Rockwell Kingdom to his grandmother, at the end of which Theresa was honestly feeling quite shocked, So much has happened without me knowing?

While she had wanted to take a break and get some well-deserved rest after her many centuries of service to the Zilon Kingdom, the former queen had never wanted to be ignorant of the world around her.

From her past experiences, although minor changes happened all the time, and unexpected events were... well, unexpected, the kingdoms of the South-Central Region tended to move quite slowly when it came to big, systemic changes.

Given that reality, one that hadn’t changed at all during the entire duration of her rule, Theresa original thought that checking up on current events every 3 to 5 years would be plenty for her to stay on-top of any major developments, but now it seemed that something had changed.

Or rather, something was changing, something big.

In addition to getting her worried, it also piqued Theresa’s curiosity.

Theresa was well aware of the disaster which had struck the Rockwell Kingdom a year-and-a-half ago, but even that shouldn’t have precipitated such dramatic shifts in the flow and pace of events.

But then, what was the root cause?

Who, or what, was behind this sudden push to upend the status quo?

More importantly, what did this mean for her beloved Zilon Kingdom?

Was all of this a sign of the beginning of new era, one filled with progress and prosperity?

Or was it an ill omen, one that foretold a coming time of turmoil and destruction?

Damn it, if only I wasn’t... wait...

Suddenly, an idea came to Theresa, one that could resolve all of her cute little grandson’s problems, one that could answer all of her questions, and one that never would have occurred to her a couple of years ago, but now that she had a little more free time on her hands...