"I maintained my stance that I am starting afresh and not willing to put out these compensations or reparations.
You work with me, I will eventually help you once I sorted the Kingdom out." At that moment, there were some murmurs and discussions among the kings and queens through their proxies which gave a great deal of information about what kind of relationship they had with each other and how close they were with each other. Or how are they colluding against the Kingdom of Ress?
It did not take long for Jin to understand that they could be in cahoots and Jin needs to do something about it or else, he and the Kingdom will be seen as weak. Yet at the same time, he was curious about their reply and waited for them to speak to him first.
"King Jin. It looks like we reached an impasse and at the very most, we can give you a ceasefire with a basic compensation of at least 50,000 gold." One of the kings said and he remembered he was from the Kingdom of Ends, possibly the largest kingdom that had the most borders with Ress compared to the other three Kingdoms. "This is to placate the Alliance of Kingdoms that I am with.
Not to mention, you did not send this message to the fifth kingdom and were not in attendance at this meeting. We have to tell him to cease all war preparations as well for the time being."
"I see." Jin did not know the value of 50,000 gold whether it was a shit ton or was the appropriate amount for compensation. Still, he shook his head and stood firm "Ceasefire for half a year and no compensation." He knew that putting a date out would definitely give them some pause to think for a moment...or that's what he hoped.
Instead, all he got was a reduction of 10,000 gold from the original asking price of the compensation and he sighed hard. He had no idea of the finances of the kingdom and they were taking this chance to rip him off.
"Very well, let's leave the war status as it is. And since you all are not in the mood of having peace, I shall do the same. We will close import and export trade routes as of next week Friday." Jin said and somehow this made the Kings and Queens start to show signs of panic attacks.
"This is preposterous. What can one kingdom do against an ongoing onslaught of demons and fend off the might of five kingdoms with an alliance of other smaller kingdoms combined? Are you out of your mind?" The King of Ends shouted the loudest through his messenger. However, Jin felt that they finally showed their true colours.
"Oh, is it? Then I guess I do need to consider it more." Jin said and the Kingdoms were a little annoyed that this Royal Mage General gave out information that was vital in his decision making.
"So, with the war, we can control the number of mages coming out, huh? As much as they did not like it, they had to pay the price that the War Minister had put up. Am I right?"
"Yes, perhaps if we can negotiate with the prices of service mages then we might also be able to enact a ceasefire." One of the Queens accidentally blurted out which made Jin suspect that the situation on the mages must be rather severe for the other kingdoms.
And despite the sanctions that the kingdoms had placed, Ress was still able to survive up till now and with the War Minister drowning in money for his luxury parties for the privilege.
"Gah, why is it always so corrupted." Jin thought to himself as he gave his ultimatum. "It is unfortunate that when offered a simple olive branch, I was being shunned with the desire of compensation. And while I threatened to close trades, I had been retaliated forcefully by the five kingdoms.
Seeing the situation as such, I shall continue to stand my ground and demand that the roads are to be closed and the Kingdom of Ress will stop trade with every single nation by the end of next week."
"Yes, my lord. I will get the ministers to enforce it." Gara said as he obediently nodded his head and complied with that order. In his mind, the thoughts were already spinning, thinking what is to be expected from his new King.
And those thoughts were rather positive as he honestly could not wait what trouble this Discarded King will make to improve the situation that he will throw Kingdom of Ress into.
Basically, this would be the change Gara was waiting for so long. It looked like he did not need to work overthrow the entire government after all now that this King might be here for good to clean everything up.