First Minister Perry Erson accepted the letter and rapidly skimd it, only to stumble monts later and nearly pass out from shock.
The letter was again passed to the Minister of Law, Harrison Roth, who took it, scanned it, then crumpled it up and threw it to the ground, furiously stomping on the papers as he shouted, "HOW DARE SHE!? WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS!?"
"Ahem, what’s the aning of this, Minster Roth?"
Harrison, who had been putting on a rather unsightly display, suddenly froze up when he heard this familiar voice, turning his head creakily to see his older brother, Gregory, staring flatly at him.
The Minster of Law was, quite possibly, the second most powerful on the Royal Council, right after the First Minister, and in theory, this made him the third most powerful man in the entire kingdom when it ca to major policy decisions.
As such, Harrison Roth feared no one in the Rockwell Kingdom; no one except his older brother, that is.
Knowing he had just embarrassed Gregory and the Roth Family as a whole, Harrison hurriedly composed himself and bowed in apology to the court, all while concealing the thin sheen of cold sweat which was forming on the back of his neck.
After piercing his foolish younger brother with his gaze for a mont longer, Gregory turned his attention to First Minister Perry and asked, "What news does Marquess Balfour send from the South-West Province?"
Glancing over at Nathanial, First Minster Erson silently requested his permission to speak, sothing the King gave with a tired wave on his hand.
Having received approval, Perry Erson did his best to steady his voice and announced, "Marquess Celestina Balfour sends word that... that she..."
Hesitating here for a mont, Minster Erson looked up to see all eyes in the hall fixed on him. Wiping his forehead with his handkerchief and gulping hard, the sowhat scrawny, nervous man forced himself to continue, "Marquess Balfour sends word that she had completely evacuated all citizens of the Baker County, Moore Viscounty, and all settlents west of the Belton River in the Carlson County."
"The displaced civilians, numbering roughly 200,000, are currently being relocated to cities across the kingdom as we speak."
.....
.....
.....
"HUH?!"
"WHAT?!"
"HOW?!"
"WHEN!?"
Needless to say, the Royal Council chambers erupted into chaos, with nearly all of the council mbers leaping to their feet and shouting.
When they first saw who this letter was from, and knowing the rough situation in the South-West Province, many in the hall had various guesses about what was written inside with expectations ranging from a ssage saying the situation had been contained, to one requesting reinforcents to help deal with the crisis.
Never had any of them expected that the actual content of the letter would be so shocking.
After the initial burst of surprise, condemnation soon followed, "Marquess Balfour has gone too far! She has severely overstepped her authority! She must be punished!"
"We must bring her before the Council to explain herself!"
"What was the General thinking!? Such extre actions will severely damage the kingdom’s strength and prestige as a whole!"
"Heavens! How did she even pull this off!? The cost alone must be absurd!"
When the issue of cost was brought up, Harrison Roth’s brow violently twitched again, his expression nearly reverting back to the one filled with unfettered rage he had worn monts ago.
The sharper-eyed council mbers naturally didn’t miss this and imdiately had a bad premonition, one of them turning to the First Minister and asking, "Did Marquess Balfour ntion what her actions have cost the kingdom?"
Now openly sweating, Minister Erson glanced back over at the King again, as if hoping he could sohow escape the looming disaster.
Unfortunately for him, Nathanial was in no mood to deliver the bad news himself, so he just snorted and waved his hand again, ordering his First Minister to deal with it.
Left with no choice, Minister Erson choked down his reluctance and announced, "M-Marquess Balfour estimates the total cost of her efforts will reach 40 million Gold."
"Is that accounting for lost material and territory, or not?" Gregory Roth, who had sohow managed to maintain his cool this whole ti, asked pointedly.
Dabbing his forehead again, Perry Erson lightly muttered, "It does not."
Another uproar erupted when this news was delivered.
Although none of the council mbers present had an exact idea just how massive the loss the kingdom had suffered was, if Celestina was telling them she expected to spend 40 million Gold dealing with the fallout alone, then assuming the actual damage was 10 tis worse was probably conservative.
440 million Gold...
It was a number so massive that even the incredibly wealthy and powerful mbers of the highest decision-making body of the Rockwell Kingdom had a hard ti fathoming it.
"That’s not all," Minister Roth grumbled through gritted teeth, "Marquess Balfour said that in order to secure the cooperation of the local noble families and rchant groups, she promised them that the kingdom would offer appropriate compensation in the form of tax exemptions, land-use rights, no-interest loans, and straight-up repaynts."
"Huh!? That damned woman spends 40 million Gold Coins then expects us to pay for it?!" Minister Mace roared in outrage.
As the one in charge of upholding tradition and maintaining etiquette inside the kingdom, the very notion that a lone noblewoman had taken such bold and consequential actions without so much as notifying the Royal Council was beyond unacceptable to him.
The fact that it was going to cost tens, if not hundreds of millions of Gold didn’t help things either.
This was the reason Minister of Law Roth, and Minister of Traditions Mace were both so incensed, with the latter even cursing Celestina out loud in public, sothing he would normally wouldn’t dream of doing.
Fortunately for Minister Mace, everyone else in the room was just as flustered at the mont, so no one bothered calling him out.
The annual budget for the Royal Council, in other words, the Rockwell Kingdom governnt’s yearly budget, was sowhere in the neighbourhood of 250 million Gold. That included all the money spent on supporting the administrative and military operations throughout the country, as well paying for infrastructure, salaries, land developnt, etc etc.
Now, in less than a month, Celestina Balfour had added another 40 million Gold on top of that, all while the nation’s revenue was undoubtedly going to shrink with the loss of so much productive land in the South-West Province.
Even Celestina’s supporters in the council chambers, the King included, were having trouble trying to find a way to defend her.
It wasn’t until nearly 10 minutes later, when the room had sowhat settled down, that a single individual took the initiative to speak up in support of Celestina, "Marquess Balfour’s actions in this matter border on criminal, and she should be punished accordingly... if they prove unwarranted."
Hearing this statent from the man they least expected it to co from, many of the Royal Councillors were shocked, and it was only after a good minute of silence that General Gunthar, who was there to represent the Golden Wings Legion, questioned aningfully, "Duke Roth, it was my understanding that you and Marquess Balfour... did not see eye-to-eye."
This was, of course, a huge understatent.
Gregory Roth and Celestina Balfour hated one another, and everyone knew it. The two of them seed completely incompatible in all respects and would argue every ti they t.
There had always been so tension between the Roth and Balfour Families, but during the previous Duke Roth’s term, the relationship had eased sowhat. This was probably a result of both Celestina and the forr Duke Roth being mbers of the military, with relatively similar mindsets when it ca to foreign and dostic policy.
When Gregory Roth rose to the position of Duke, however, the feud between the second and third most powerful noble families in the Rockwell Kingdom soured again.
Many speculated about the root cause of this return to hostilities, but most people with intimate knowledge of the matter would probably point to a single, fundantal difference in philosophy between Celestina and Gregory.
Celestina Balfour believed that the kingdom, and by extension the nobles, had a duty to protect the people.
Gregory Roth, on the other hand, believed that the people must serve the interests of the kingdom above all else.
Who was right and who was wrong was a matter of heated debate, and it was quite possible that both of them were right, and both of them were wrong. However, this diatrically opposed ntality constantly led to Celestina and Gregory being on opposite sides of almost all the most important issues in the Rockwell Kingdom.
It was for this reason that no one could believe that, despite how harsh his words sounded on the surface, Gregory Roth was undoubtedly voicing support for Celestina.
As a veteran politician, with over a century of experience, Duke Gregory Roth was not the least bit flustered when everyone stared at him in confusion.
Maintaining his usual calm, indifferent tone, Gregory simple stated, "Although I have my... differences, with Marquess Balfour, the one thing I can say with certainty is that she is a patriot. No one cares more for the Rockwell Kingdom than she does, so if she has deed it necessary to take such extre asures, I am at least willing to listening to her reasons before casting judgent."
*Clap clap clap...*
"Good, very good! It seems that not everyone in this room is a complete and total buffoon..."
User Comments
0 comments from readers