Chapter 1189: Three Noes
Hearing Jefferson finally explain his agenda for coming, Lin Li sized him up again before smiling ambiguously, and saying, “Okay, in that case, I’ll go meet your king and settle this matter quickly lest you keep bothering me.”
Seeing that Lin Li nodded and agreed, Jefferson immediately continued even though Lin Li’s smile put him ill at ease. “Good that you think so, President Felic. In this case, let’s head to the palace now lest His Majesty waits for too long.”
In fact, if Lin Li hadn’t studied the mageweaths of the Divine-Smith-overnight, and caused his energy to be depleted, he wouldn’t have bothered to waste time going to see the king of the Gilded Kingdom. In Lin Li’s heart, nothing mattered more than the Divine-Smith-level mageweath, and he didn’t care if the king of the Gilded Kingdom wanted to go to war or not.
Now, the reason that he agreed to Jefferson’s invitation was mainly because he wanted to take this opportunity to give his mind a break and recover some energy. Of course, if the Gilded Kingdom went overboard, he wouldn’t mind venting his anger again, and doing more damage to the Gilded Kingdom. Destroying the barracks was just a trivial matter, and he would be thrilled only if he hurt the Gilded Kingdom.
Lin Li followed Jefferson out of the emba.s.sy, and the group soon arrived at the kingdom’s palace. The palace guards then ushered them into the council hall.
At this juncture, King Bradlor of the Gilded Kingdom and the ministers who were either supportive or against war were all waiting in the council hall, and had been doing so for a long time. The ministers who supported peace were reporting to King Bradlor the list of compensations that they had worked out and collated overnight. On the other hand, those who supported the idea of going to war were watching the peace-supporting ministers sneeringly, looking forward to the final outcome.
Jefferson first entered the council hall and bowed to Bradlor before saying, “Your Majesty, I’ve invited President Felic here, and he’s waiting for you to call him.”
Bradlor nodded with a stern expression, and said, “Okay, ask him to come here!”
Immediately afterwards, the palace guards outside the council hall began to exclaim, “Summon Felic, the president of the Dusk Tower of the Breezy Plains!”
A moment later, Lin Li stepped into the council hall, and looked around for a while before keeping his eyes fixed on King Bradlor who was sitting on the throne. He walked up and bowed to him out of courtesy. Before Bradlor said anything, Lin Li said, “Your Majesty, is there a reason you asked to see me?”
“What are you feigning ignorance for? You instructed your men to force their way into the barracks of the royal guards, hit my soldiers, and s.n.a.t.c.hed the prisoners. Do you think you don’t have to pay for that?!” the commander of the royal guards, Cate, barked furiously as soon as he saw Lin Li. Although it was now considered a good thing for those who were supportive of the war, the fact that it happened to the royal guards made him feel insulted.
“Shut up, General Cate, mind your words!” Bradlor first chided Cate before looking at Lin Li again. He then looked at Lin Li again with a slight frown, and said, “President Felic, General Cate is a little agitated, but what he mentioned is indeed the reason that I asked you to come here. This matter concerns the dignity of the Gilded Kingdom, I hope that you can give me an explanation.”
Bradlor had previously adopted the advice of the peace-supporters to take a more peaceful approach in the matter regarding the Breezy Plains, but it did not mean that he was a king with a weak character who would let everyone else trample all over the dignity of the Gilded Kingdom, so when he spoke to Lin Li, there was also some anger and displeasure in his tone.
When they heard the emotion in Bradlor’s tone, the several ministers who were war-supporters were naturally secretly overjoyed as that made them stop feeling worried. On the other hand, the peace-supporters all seemed rather anxious, fearing that the king would forget about his previous plans in a moment of anger.
Faced with Bradlor’s accusations, Lin Li merely smiled nonchalantly, and asked, “Explanation? What explanation do you want, Your Majesty?”
In the eyes of the people in the Gilded Kingdom, Lin Li’s expression was really infuriating. Even the peace-supporters couldn’t stand it anymore. If not for the consequences of starting a war, they would have declared war on the Tower of Dusk. On the contrary, the war-supporters seemed to be much more composed than before. After all, they were very certain that the king would eventually declare war on the Breezy Plains, and it wouldn’t be too late to wait until then to settle scores.
A trace of anger appeared in Bradlor’s eyes, but he didn’t lose his temper in the end. Instead, he turned to look at Cantory who was standing beside Burgess, perhaps to curb his anger and avoid talking to Lin Li.
Cantory, who had received a hint from Bradlor, coughed gently and walked out from behind his father, Burgess. He then arrived in front of Lin Li, and slowly said, “President Felic, we meet again, but this time you’ve really given us a huge problem.”
Lin Li smiled, but he didn’t say anything. He had agreed to come over with Jefferson only because he had momentarily reached a bottleneck in his research on mageweaths. Hence, he decided to come here to take a breather. To him, it didn’t matter what the Gilded Kingdom wanted to do. Anyway, he wouldn’t be at a loss.
Seeing that Lin Li did not respond to him, Cantory didn’t flare up as he merely smiled, and said, “His Majesty didn’t plan to pursue the matter regarding the Fifth Fleet out of consideration for our friendship, but, President Felic, you’ve truly crossed the line this time. For the sake of the kingdom’s pride, we have the determination to fight the Tower of Dusk at all costs. However, His Majesty can’t bear to see the Breezy Plains getting destroyed in war, so he has decided to give you a chance to redeem yourself.”
As soon as Cantory said that, King Bradlor suddenly seemed extremely glorious and majestic, as if he would wage a war with no regard to the lives of the people in the Breezy Plains if Lin Li did not agree to the conditions that the Gilded Kingdom was going to propose. Of course, Cantory knew very well in his heart that the arrogant and domineering Lin Li definitely wouldn’t agree. However, he had to keep up with the act while also gaining the goodwill of King Bradlor.
In fact, after hearing Cantory’s remarks about him, Bradlor looked at the former with more admiration in his eyes. In the beginning, Bradlor felt a little humiliated and embarra.s.sed because he didn’t dare to start the war due to various concerns despite being bullied. However, there was no other solution. As the king, there was too much for him to consider, and if he acted according to his mood all the time, the country would probably have been ruined. However, after hearing Cantory’s words, Bradlor felt much better. He wasn’t scared of the Tower of Dusk, but rather he couldn’t bear to kill all the people of the Breezy Plains!
However, Lin Li couldn’t help but sneer after hearing Cantory’s words because he felt that the Gilded Kingdom was too incompetent to even kill the people in the Breezy Plains, let alone spare them. The navy of the Gilded Kingdom was indeed the top naval force in Anril, but in the eyes of a Sanctuary powerhouse like Lin Li, it wasn’t considered much. If the Gilded Kingdom couldn’t deploy Sanctuary powerhouses that could contend with Lin Li, all their troops would die regardless of how many they sent.
Lin Li didn’t know if there were any other Sanctuary powerhouses in the Gilded Kingdom, but High Priest Poer had been left in the world under the cursed island forever. The fact that he could become high priest of the Gilded Kingdom with such a low level of competency meant that the abilities of the Gilded Kingdom’s Sanctuary powerhouses were definitely limited.
Of course, the Gilded Kingdom was supported by the Illuminati, which was not inferior to the Supreme Council. The four saints whom Lin Li was aware of were definitely close to the peak of the Sanctuary-realm. However, even if the Illuminati gave their full support to the Gilded Kingdom, Lin Li wouldn’t be afraid of the saints and elders.
In fact, Lin Li didn’t even need to seek help from the three arbitrators of the Supreme Council, as he had the support of the Ashen Warlock of the Breezy Plains, who was not inferior to the three arbitrators of the Supreme Council. However, no one knew that he owed Lin Li a huge favor because his new perfect body was created by Lin Li using the Eternal Furnace.
The Ashen Warlock had been created by the Immortal King, whom most of the former’s skills originated from. In fact, Ashen Warlock seemed more like the Immortal King’s inheritor than Osric did.
Besides, Lin Li had several powerful trump cards, such as the powerful Sky Castle and the Dragon Horn that could summon the Iceblast Wyrm Sindera. If the Gilded Kingdom and the Illuminati joined forces to wage war on the Breezy Plains, the Gilded Kingdom would probably be the one to suffer.
When Cantory saw that Lin Li was keeping a straight face, he knew that his speculations were probably going to come true. Since Lin Li refused to agree to the Gilded Kingdom’s conditions, he could use this as a reason to ask his teacher to support the idea of waging a war on the Tower of Dusk. By then, it would be a piece of cake for them to overcome the young president of the Tower of Dusk with the abilities of the saints of the Illuminati.
Of course, Cantory did not seem glad at all. Instead, he looked rather grim as he said with a heavy heart, “His Majesty decided to give you another chance, President Felic, but you must publicly apologize to our kingdom and compensate for all the losses of the royal guards and their barracks. Most importantly, President Felic, please hand over the several prisoners that you s.n.a.t.c.hed away from us, as well as those who caused trouble at the premises of the royal guards yesterday.”
Lin Li couldn’t help but be overjoyed after hearing the conditions laid out by the Gilded Kingdom. Not to mention the mages who had destroyed the barracks of the royal guards, he wouldn’t hand over the sailors whom he had rescued, or else that would be a waste of his efforts in saving them.
Lin Li glanced at Cantory calmly, and he suddenly smiled. “The sincerity of the Gilded Kingdom has really touched me, but I have my own principles, and I won’t regret what I’ve done, nor will I do something that I will regret. So, I won’t accept your conditions.”
“President Felic, think carefully, this matter concerns the life and death of the Tower of Dusk and the Breezy Plains. Don’t bring about a disaster to the Breezy Plains and the Tower of Dusk because of a moment of recklessness.” Carron, one of the peace-supporters, became a little anxious after hearing that Lin Li had turned them down without hesitation.
Carron felt resentful towards Lin Li for his unwillingness to cooperate. Although he was a peace-supporter and a minister of the Gilded Kingdom, and he felt just as insulted by Lin Li’s behavior, he didn’t want them to go to war. Apart from the impact on people’s livelihood, he also didn’t want to be suppressed by the ones who supported war.
In contrast to Carron, the ministers who supported war, such as Burgess, felt rather smug and overjoyed even though they seemed agitated. Deep down, they really admired Cantory as he seemed to be compromising, but he was leaving the peace-supporters with no way out.
Seeing that the situation was developing in the direction he wanted, Cantory decided to add fuel to the fire, and leave the ministers who supported peace speechless. Hence, he pretended to be sincere, and asked, “President Felic, are you displeased with one of the conditions? We’re just trying to find a win-win solution, feel free to voice your opinions.”
“What I mean is very simple. Firstly, I won’t hand over my men, nor will I compensate you. I won’t apologize, either, and I didn’t come here to apologize this time. I would like an explanation for the fact that my sailors were arrested by the Gilded Kingdom for such absurd reasons during my absence,” Lin Li said righteously as he stared at Bradlor who was on his throne.
d.a.m.n it, after such a long time, it’s our fault again! Bradlor was so infuriated that he was about to vomit blood.
Of course, Bradlor knew that there had to be some hidden agenda in this matter. He also felt that no matter how incompetent Vincent might be, he shouldn’t have gotten into a conflict with the lowly sailors, since he was the prince of the Gilded Kingdom. However, at this point, it was no longer related to that matter. Most importantly, the Gilded Kingdom’s pride could not be trampled on.