"Insolence!!!"
"Outrageous!!!"
"Guards! Get this man out of here!"
Right on cue, the old fogeys in the court voiced out their opinions one after the other. All of them strongly condemned the content of the letter one after the other. None of them was willing to be outdone by the other. They were all trying to win the grace of their monarch and avoiding his wrath.
The young man who became the sacrificial one had already accepted his fate. He didn't even struggle a bit when the guards took him away. On the bright side, he wasn't beheaded right there and then and there was still a chance for survival.
"I say, we send the Ereian Royal Army after those traitors. Have them punished for their insolence and bring back the soldiers to defend the capital against the invaders," one of the old men suggested.
"And how do we do that? Commander Barika isn't present in the capital. And I doubt that they would listen to just anyone's command," the opposition contradicted the suggestion.
"We have his majesty here. They would listen to his words. Less they be committing treason," he quickly rebutted. The old man with his long white beard was confident that the king would find his suggestion optimal.
"And who do you suggest would command them? Don't tell me that you are recommending your son to be the one in-charge of them?" the opposition party quickly responded. The man had a neat styled –hairstyle, suggesting that he was someone of a militaristic background by the way the he presents himself.
"Why of course. My son had been studying the arts of war since he was young. He entered the army when he was not yet of age. Participated in battle despite his age, who else do you think I would recommend?" the old man quickly answered.
"Don't worry. I leave the decision of choosing the commander of the new army to you as a reward," the king smiled as if that was just a reasonable reward.
"His majesty graceful..."
"Such an honor..."
"Don't waste the opportune moment"
The old man smiled wryly. He didn't know if the words of his fellow court officials were truly congratulating and cheering him on or was actually mocking him. One thing for sure, his coffers and his family's would surely bleed heavily with the task that was given to him.
"Any news from the army sent to intercept the invaders?" Gyassi's expression turned serious once again. He had sent the kingdom's strongest fighter to eliminate or impede the invaders but there was still yet to be any news from them. The last message that he received was that of the Baron Ragab's treason.
"There is no news from them, still," someone quickly responded to his query.
"Then that would be all for today," he dismissed the court then retired back to his chambers. The king's mind wandered off while heading back towards his chambers.
He was confident with Ishaq's might; the orcish army would certainly be destroyed. After getting rid of them, his plans of expanding the kingdom would be set in motion. He was already receiving news of the troubles that was happening with his neighboring kingdoms and he wanted to make use of the chaos to expand his territory.
He dreams to elevate the kingdom into that of an empire and contend with the power of the south.
King Gyassi wanted to exceed the previous ruler before him, in all fields but he still had a long way to go.