The Rise of the Black Plain

"He is the person I told you about earlier." Eliot said as he nodded in Minos' direction. "Besides him, these two are his company, Abby, my daughter, whom some of you already know, and Ruth."

After saying this, Eliot sat down in an armchair around a 'U' shaped table, where he had a space at one end. On the other hand, Minos and his two girlfriends were standing behind a small bench, in the opposite position to that table, from where all the people sitting around it could see them.

The patriarch of the Miller family, level 57, was sitting in the main seat, where the supreme elder, level 58, was on his left. The third strongest individual in the family, level 56, was on the right side of the Miller patriarch.

Other than Eliot, there were six other cultivators at level 55 and two at level 56 in this hall, in addition to that individual on the patriarch's right. 

Anyway, after Eliot made this brief presentation, the whole place became silent.

At the same time, those elders looked at Minos in a meaningful way. All of them, except for Eliot, was judging the figure of this young man, some of them remembering the past, others thinking of the things they had heard about this young ruler.

"So, you are Albert's son, huh? Although you have some similarities to him, overall, you seem much more distinguished." A middle-aged woman said this as she broke the silence in that room.

There were three women in that council of high-level elders of this noble family. Among them, the patriarch's 'right-hand,' level 56, was one of them.

Upon hearing that person's comment, Minos looked at her for a moment and then said. "Yes, my father is the late General Albert. Did you know him, madam Daphne?"

"Hmm, sort of..."

"Anyway, that's in the past and has no importance on today's subject. The problem here is that you seem to be quite different from your father regarding your attitudes..."

"And we don't know if it will be good for us to ally ourselves with someone like that." She said as the people in that place listened to her and looked at Minos.

Daphne Miller was third in terms of strength in this family, but she was very respected by everyone in that room. As such, she even had the right to speak openly, even before the patriarch or the supreme elder.

But this was not strange. After all, Daphne was the supreme elder's disciple and also the one temporarily nominated to be the patriarch's successor!

The current patriarch was already over 800-years-old but still had no descendants. In this case, the family already had this woman as the favorite candidate for the position of leader of House Miller.

Daphne then continued. "We won't ask you how you achieved your capabilities since that is not for us to judge. But, we require additional evidence that you can keep the promise you made to Eliot. And we also need to know your attitude toward the Brown Kingdom and its royal family."

"We have strong motivations for thinking that you don't want peace and that you are trying to involve us in something perilous." She finished as she looked away and waved to those two people at the central part of that table.

The patriarch then said. "Young Minos, are you trying to act against the Brown family? Do you want the Brown Kingdom? Eliot has already told us that you want independence for the Black Plains, and as much as we believe that this will be easy to achieve, we do not understand why you want to have such an alliance with our family..."

"So, we need to understand what the motivation for that is and how much it will affect us."

"Hmm, I understand..." Minos said as he looked at those three and then at the rest of the elders standing there. He then sighed and began to speak. "My intentions toward the royal family are the best possible, as long as they do not attack me."

"I want independence for the Black Plain, but I have no desire in any other territory that is not within my right..."

"As such, I have no reason to think about confronting the Brown family."

"But as I said, that is not up to me, but up to them." He calmly said as he looked over each of those elders. "I think the same way about the rest of the Brown Kingdom, except for a single part."

"And what would that part be?" The patriarch asked in doubt.

"The Silva family commissioned my father's death, and I will not let that matter go. One day I will decapitate Otis Silva and the other people involved in that matter." He said seriously, with his pupils completely contracted and a sharp look on his face.

"Ahh, as expected..." Some of the elders there muttered as they understood that it had indeed been the Silva family that had caused this.

They knew that the Silvas was probably to blame for this since they had no part in it. And as the biggest beneficiary of it all was the people in that organization; they were the main suspects. But despite this, there was no evidence of such a thing, so these people could not be sure about it.

Daphne then frowned and asked. "Are you sure about this? Even the royal family has investigated about it but has not discovered any clues."

"Hmm, I had a very reliable source." Minos said vaguely, without giving the details of his past with Darell Silva.

After hearing that, once again, silence spread over that place as those old beings analyzed Minos' words.

'This matter of the Silva family, I don't care... If that old man dies, we will only benefit from it.'

'So it was those miserable people!' One of the women there thought about it.

On the other hand, the supreme elder, who had been silent since all this had started, had good thoughts for young Stuart. 'Hmm, he doesn't seem interested in unnecessary wars... That's good.'

He naturally was the person most concerned about getting better quality techniques. After all, he was already at the end of his life and desperately needed a stage advance so that he could live longer. Therefore, he naturally already viewed the deal with young Stuart with good intention.

However, he didn't stop worrying about his Miller family just because of this. He wanted to live longer, but he had also gotten used to the idea of dying in a short time. Consequently, if the deal with Minos was too dangerous for his family, he was prepared to give up a deal with this young ruler of the Black Plain!

Anyway, while the many elders in that hall had different thoughts, the patriarch finally spoke again. "So, you want revenge against the Silva family, huh? Well, it doesn't hurt us at all, so we don't care about that. But there is still one question, why do you want to have us as allies so badly? From whom are you trying to protect yourself?"

"From whom am I trying to protect myself?" Minos asked himself aloud as he looked up at the rounded ceiling of that hall. "I'm not trying to protect myself from anyone."

"I'm trying to protect the Black Plain from everyone."

"What do you mean?" Daphne asked with a countenance that was hard to decipher.

"I mean that if I didn't want to turn the Black Plain into an independent state, then I wouldn't be here today, nor would I need to seek this kind of agreement. In other words, it's only for the good of my state and not for myself."

"So, that's it..." That level 56 woman muttered in a low voice as she understood Minos' ambition. That kind of thinking was not uncommon, despite the apparent fact that this young man seemed to be telling them that he didn't need to protect himself from anyone...

After all, there were many historical cases of people trying to fight to build their own states.

Therefore, she and the other people in that place could accept that explanation more easily than if there weren't so many individuals who had tried such a thing in the past.

"Well, to me, it seems that this young man's desires are not dangerous for the family. As long as he has a minimum of help from us, in a few centuries, he will be able to make the Black Plain a stable place." One of those level 55 elders said.

"Yes, I agree with elder Denton. I think we will just need a new proof given by young Minos, and then we can make our choice." One of the other women there said that. 

Finally, the patriarch nodded to that young sovereign and said. "So, how will you do this? We just need one more proof, and then we will make our final choice."

"What can I do to prove it? I think maybe...."