Chapter 59 - Dilemma

"It seems that the heavens have blessed your family, Billy..." said one of the elders in the assembly, then went back to look at Caesar, "And who exactly are your two followers, young man? are they really just *followers*, or some kind of special veterans, or...?"

"No need to keep guessing, sir, They are my fa-... big brother's slaves."

"slaves? Just... slaves?!" everyone here was very surprised, especially the saint from the Duchy of Alton, whose eyes sparkled for a second.

Prince William took a few steps and put his hand on Caesar's shoulder, "Sell one of them to me, I will pay a million gold coins."

"Haha, your highness, I actually know these two young men, they were staying with Caesar when he was still with us, and he kept staying with us after he left.... you are not trying to steal a young talent from my establishment, right?" Flex Bradley's voice came up chuckling

"Ahh~ It was worth a shot." William shrugged his shoulders and went back to his seat

"Someone tell me why my nephew was killed!" a Saint of the Duchy of Evren suddenly brought up the matter again

"...if I'm not mistaken, the kingdom of Dolivar is trying to drag us towards a huge war." Prince William said

"war?!" The attendance was taken aback, this was not a simple claim

"yes, it is kind of obvious if you think of it actually, who was targeted by name? the three border duchies with Dolivar. 

and this is in addition to the unjustified bad treatment since we came... I'm afraid they are trying to induce us to start a regional war between the border duchies."

A middle-class man from the Duchy of Stanley intervened, "I also agree with this theory. The Tinley family controls the Duchy that controls the Dolivalian kingdom's border with us, and Michael Tinley, who was murdered by Caesar, provoked my cousin as he wandered into the city market two days before the hunting event."

"You too? He did the same to my nephew!"

"The same thing happened with us too." The saints from Alton and Evren interjected

"Then I'm more sure now! It's clear they want the accusing fingers of our youth's death to be pointed at Michael Tinley, but they didn't think he would die either ha ha ha" Felix Bradley laughed out loud,

Felix did not try to take into account the feelings of the relatives of the deceased... 

All those present were saints who lived for hundreds of years and did not care about the life or death of who are in their eyes still *infant* geniuses, they are agitated only because of their deep in bones arrogance and the feeling that their families are being underestimated.

"Can't they just attack us if they want to? Why all the trouble?" Caesar could not restrain his curiosity and ask

Felix giggled, "You are still politically ignorant, in ancient times our world was divided into hundreds of small warring nations and tribes, after thousands of years of grinding wars, those nations swallowed each other little by little until the present Eight Kingdoms and the Four Empires were formed.

The current kingdoms are all strong and stable, they have vast lands and enormous amounts of recourses, and of course, No one wants that stability and prosperity to be disturbed. 

That is why they formed a few treaties and made alliances among themselves, and even wrote general laws to organize external affairs so that wars would not return to the way they were.

Among these laws is that there must not be a war without a strong cause.

And if there is a personal cause to start a war between nobles of different kingdoms, the warring nobles must solve their problems together in a micro border war if it is unavoidable, but without asking for help from the royal family whatever the result. 

take your little slave friend Peon Camden, for example, I personally did some research on him -sorry about that-, Ahem, I found that he is the son of a noble Baron from our neighbor Lying Water kingdom. 

his family got exterminated at the hands of Marquess Rufus from our Black Sun kingdom and took everything from them, lands, women, riches.. everything! 

it's said it was due to a personal grudge but everyone knew it's because Marquess Rufus wanted the Camdens lands... and the Lying Water kingdom didn't do a thing to stop it!

back to our topic; The royal family from ant kingdom can intervene and mobilize for an all-out war in only two cases: self-defense against the violation of a law, Or if a war developed between two nobles that expanded and threatened to destroy the foundations of the kingdom."

"Laws? Who oversees these laws? What will happen if, for example, the Kingdom of Dolivar decides to attack us now for no reason?" One of the young geniuses asked

"The supervisors and the punishers, of course, are the four empires. If the laws are violated, a committee of the four is formed to punish the kingdom that broke one of the laws. 

If the law that was broken had a very severe impact, armies from the rest of the kingdoms that have borders with that kingdom can be mobilized by the order of the punishing committee to exterminate the Royal family of that kingdom and divide the lands among themselves! 

The law is very clear in this... if there is an over-ambitious kingdom, then let it perish for the better. No one wants the era of wars to return.. Our world has begun to forget the smell of blood and only catches its breath recently." Felix shook his head

"So the Kingdom of Dolivar wants to urge one or all of the three duchies to attack them as individual nobles?..what will they gain from this?" Caesar Frownd, this didn't make any sense

"Yes, that's what they're planning. But the thing is that individual nobles' attacks on the borders are common and the causes can be many. Borderlands are constantly changing owners, so I can't figure out why they did it! unless ..." Felix paused at this point.

"Unless what?" Billy asked him, this matter is getting bigger by the second ...

"..unless the royal family of Delivar wanted to take advantage of the law that *there must be a reason to attack* and interfere to start an all-out war.. after all, they were plotting to exterminate our youth without leaving any witnesses, 

we would have no evidence but our intuition which had accumulated due to their mistreatment and the harassment of that kid Michael, I actually assume that if they succeeded he would have shown and started to brag that he *taught them a lesson* to deepen that belief in us. 

and they wouldn't even have to do anything else! look to how those saints from the three duchies have been acting, they would have mobilized their armies to teach the Tinleys a lesson... we would have jumped right into the trap. "

"Wait a minute... You're saying that the Kingdom of Dolivar wants to start an all-out war on the Black Sun?!" One of the saints stood terrified

"Your fantasies have gone too far, Felix, the two kingdoms are equal in strength, no, it can even be said that we are a little stronger! Dolivar would earn nothing from this, those f*ckers wouldn't have touched even an inch from our lands!"

"That's the right question, but why the hell are you asking it to me?! I only spoke my thoughts, If any of you have another explanation, please do speak."

Silence fell on the place.. What Felix said was indeed the closest theory to the truth.

The scenario is to arrange the attack of the Black sun Dukes on them, as it always happens in border wars, but this time they publish in front of the world that it is an unjustified usurper attack because there is no evidence of the cause of the war. 

Then the royal family of Dolivar uses this *law breaking* chance to intervene with all its forces and begins a new royal war.

In this way, the Kingdom of Dolivar will avoid the danger from the rest of the kingdoms and empires by bypassing the law, in fact, the plan is rather simple, but its consequences are to be feared...

What gives the officials of the Kingdom of Delivar the courage to think of starting a war on this scale after a state of world peace that has lasted for more than two millennia? 

Even though they can evade the trap now as they knew of it, the fact that the Dolivarians are thinking about the possibility of a war on this scale is an immense danger alert.

We are talking here about a possible war between two superpowers that have magnified their armies and honed their strength for two thousand years, in front of the overwhelming force of such power... 

The victims will be estimated in the hundreds of millions!

after a few seconds of silence, prince William finally spoke, "sigh~ if it wasn't for Caesar, our kingdom would have fallen into a dark abyss ...."