Chapter 384 - Cecil’s Demands

"Mr. Viktor, you seem rather quiet today..."

"I'm only meditating," the rather thin-looking man briskly replied.

"I-I see... well, we'll be arriving at the Silvaria Kingdom in a few days. I've already informed Kaiser of our arrival."

"Hnhnhn, that's good, Mr. Augustus, that means we won't have to wait for long once we've arrived," The UF President said.

Viktor slightly opened his eyes and nodded. Augustus only nervously laughed when he heard Tristan's words.

Kaiser wasn't the type to make anyone wait, but if he just so happened to be busy that day, then they might have to wait a few days until they could get an audience. He had been receiving a few reports from his daughter regarding the recent updates and situations in the Silvaria Kingdom.

The development of their new territory had been keeping Kaiser busy for quite a while now. He was rarely seen back at the family estate and was working round the clock. Whether the guests that Augustus brought were important or not, Kaiser knew where to put his priorities at and he would leave everything else on the back burner until after he was finished taking care of his prior jobs and duties.

A few days later, just before Augustus's group had arrived at the Silvaria Kingdom's valley, Katya and the few people she brought with her were able to catch up to them. When they arrived, Katya immediately informed Augustus about what had happened back in their city.

He only frowned and continued onward to the Silvaria Kingdom. He could only hope that the Silvarias still hadn't received word about it so that he could explain it himself. He hadn't seen anyone pass them on their way to the Silvaria Kingdom so they assumed that Cecil's butler, Quinn, still hadn't been able to inform his master about anything yet.

Too bad for them though that by the time they arrived at the valley, Cecil was already waiting for them there. And judging by the cold glare he was directing at the entourage that was heading his way, he already knew about everything.

Katya immediately turned pale when she saw the cold indifference that Cecil was directing at her. Normally, he'd be pretty easy-going and amicable. She could see that he was rather interested in her...or at least the abilities she possessed.

She could only conclude that Quinn had already long since arrived and informed him about the Goldenia family's wrongdoings but when she looked around, it was only him there and no one else.

What she didn't know was that Quinn only had to give his master a quick call to inform about things. No matter how fast she traveled to try and catch up with him and cut him off, it wasn't going to be fast enough because Quinn hadn't even left the Goldenia family's territory at all.

He just went back into hiding and contacted his Master and relayed the information to him. After that, he remained on stand-by for any further orders from his Master.

She hardened herself and told her father to stop the carriage. Katya wanted to talk with the cold and seemingly murderous-looking Cecil.

"C-Cecil... I-I can explain if you already know about things..."

"...Hmm, and why should I let you? I can just go ahead and lop all of your heads off if I wanted to..."

"Y-You'd be committing murder—"

"Are you seriously going to argue about something as trivial as your lives with me?"

"T-trivial?!"

"Listen here Katya, I've grown up in a world that's...pretty indifferent about the lives of their people. I won't commit murder so wantonly, but if I have to, I won't hesitate. Now, give me a good reason why I shouldn't just go and annihilate your scheming family," Cecil apathetically replied.

"I—"

"Ah, almost forgot to tell you, don't give me any bullshit about how you might become my family. I won't marry you. I'm not even interested in you. I'm only interested in your abilities, but if those abilities become harmful to my family instead of helpful... I don't mind destroying it..."

"...I... I'll do anything okay? J-Just please spare my family... we did do this but we never intended to have your family harmed... even when the attack was happening, our family had moved to help your family right away..."

"Yes, I know that. For that, I'll forgive you for withholding the truth from me. Now, give me a reason why I should spare your lives," Cecil sneered.

"Please Cecil... I'll do anything! I-I even caught the person who ordered the attack on your family! T-the young lord of the Faustus Archduchy! I'll admit that we did give him information on your family and set him up with Elder Kuran, but he did send his men over to attack you! E-even I'm trying my best to make things right! I know that what my father did was wrong, but—"

"Tsk...you're only giving me excuses, not reasons. Although I do approve of you catching the person who sent men to attack my family, I still don't see that as a reason to forgive you. I mean, I can just have Quinn take care of him now if I wanted to..."

"Huh?"

Seeing her confused look, Cecil chuckled and said, "Oh? Did you think he'd have to return to the kingdom to inform me of things? I do have this you know? And since I've improved it, it's now like our world's cellphones."

Cecil pulled out his MID and began waving it in front of Katya.

"O-Ohh... A-anyway, I already said I'd do anything, Cecil. Just spare my family. I'll do everything to make things right again. So please—"

"Anything, you say?" Cecil cut her off.

"Y-Yeah...a-anything..."

Cecil looked Katya up and down before nodding his head and thinking. This caused Katya to prepare for this worst. After a few moments, Cecil opened his mouth.

"Hmmm... well, if you say you'll do anything... then I want you to become a teacher."

"Eh?"

Katya had been prepared for the worst, but upon hearing his rather 'lenient' punishment, she grew extremely confused.

"A...teacher?"

"Yes, I want you to become an instructor in our kingdom's academy. I want you to teach the students and instructors in the academy all about your magic casting method. I also want you to form a team of researchers using some of my kingdom's most brilliant people to research and develop your magic."

"O-Okay?"

"Good, that's the first thing I want. The second is an apology from your father, of course, not directed at me but my family. He's going to have to face my father for it. Just so you know, my mother was targeted, so I'm not sure whether or not father might forgive him. She's his absolute bottom line that you can't cross after all..."

"..."

"Third, I know that your family wanted an alliance with mine and everything was going so well until this happened. So, if the Faustus Archduchy does attack you, you're going to have to take care of things yourselves. I won't help and the same goes for my kingdom."

"W-wait, isn't that—"

"Clean up your own problems! Our family has a lot going on already so do you honestly think we'll have any time to spare on your matters?"

"B-but... if we lose, then—"

Cecil sighed in exasperation and quickly said, "Why are you giving up so easily? You know what. I'll give you a little bit of leniency. I'll lend you my butler, but that's it. I won't send anyone else to help you. After this is over, don't think that your family won't be paying us compensation. I do rather like the ocean side since it can connect us to the outside world so I might—no, I will just take your lands for myself~"

"..."

"Heh, don't worry, we'll leave you guys in charge of things. But do know that after this is over, that territory will belong to my family from henceforth. Also, if you can't win against that measly archduchy, then you should just vacate the place and let my family take over right away."

Katya stayed silent for a moment. She closed her eyes and released a rather frustrated sigh before answering.

"Don't worry... we won't lose..."

Cecil was delighted to hear that answer so he gave her something in reward.

"Good! Well, you have my butler at your disposal. Here, take this. That'll help you communicate with him," Cecil said as he tossed a MID over to Katya.

"Uh..."

"You should get going now. I'll look forward to your performance. Whether your family stays afloat depends on you now, Katya Goldenia," Cecil said with a smirk before suddenly disappearing.

Katya immediately returned to her father and explained things to him.

"...so he already knows?"

"Yes, father..."

"He didn't do anything?"

"No, he gave us an ultimatum. He wants something from me and he said that we should take care of our problems with the Faustus Archduchy by ourselves..."

"W-what?! Then what meaning was there in—"

Katya quickly cut him off and said, "This is your fault...you know that, right Father?"

"..."

"Anyway, he won't send us any aid. He did let me use his butler—"

"What's one man going to do?! We'll be annihilated by the Faustus Archduchy! Is that boy so heartless as to leave us in the dust like this?!"

"...We did play a hand in instigating the attack on their family. Also, he told me this. 'He could care less about our trivial lives'..."

"..."

"He did grow up in this dog-eat-dog world... I'm not too surprised that his morals are somewhat different from ours..."

"I'll have to explain things to Kaiser and get him to help us... we really can't—"

"Father, let me handle this... I'll do all I can to keep our family safe. I'll also do something about the war with Faustus. If they do attack, I'll do everything in my power to keep our land safe."

"...But he said that he'll still take over the land whether we win or lose..."

"That's the consequences of our actions, father. I'm just glad he didn't directly go and wipe out our family. One thing I know about that man, he loves his family so much that even a little bit of dirt thrown on any of his family members would result in his complete wrath..."

"..."

Augustus remained silent but all he could do was anguish and regret his decisions. Since Cecil already knew about then Kaiser would know about it as well. Thinking about how he would have to bow his head to his long-time rival made his already sullen mood turn worse.