The Union

Edmund stood up from his chair and pounded his fist on the table in excitement. He couldn"t help but smile from ear to ear after reading Lucia"s letter. Castonia is now in a state of civil war. Timothy Castonia, the prince Lucia was supposed to marry, had declared himself as the new King of Castonia.

That"s how a man should act, Edmund thought. A man should avenge his woman and take necessary actions to protect her. Well, he might be a little biased in his views. The woman in question was his daughter after all. Nevertheless, Edmund was impressed by Timothy"s decisiveness.

Edmund sat back and took another letter that came with the same pigeon. The seal belongs to Timothy Castonia. He opened it.

King Edmund Vanadis,

First of all, let me apologize for sending you this letter in lieu of an amba.s.sador. Time is short and we need to hurry.

I will go straight to the point. I am offering you an alliance. Western Castonia needs the help of Vanadis. I know my father"s name lives in infamy, but I am not my father. In fact, the coming war is my way of rectifying my father"s mistakes. So trust me, and even if you don"t, consider these benefits.

First, our alliance provides you with a way to avenge what happened to Lucia. Second, if I win this war and become King of Castonia, I will make Lucia my queen. Third, Lucia may have already told you about it, but the Wismarines are the ones behind the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt. They will join the war on my father"s side. If I lose, then Wismar will have a stronger grip on Castonia"s throat. I know you don"t want the Wismarines to get stronger. Let us join hands King Edmund. These are dark times and we must help each other to survive.

King Timothy Castonia

Timothy had guts, Edmund thought. Also his arguments were convincing. He was impressed by Timothy"s persuasiveness. First Timothy used Edmund"s anger by providing him with a way to avenge his daughter. Second, Timothy appealed to his love for his daughter by saying that Lucia will become the Queen of Castonia if Timothy wins. Lastly, Timothy used Edmund"s fear of a stronger Wismar.

But even without the arguments, Edmund would still join the Timothy"s side. Ever since that night Lucia informed him of the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, Edmund had been itching for a fight. Even though Lucia begged him to not declare war, Edmund still hired thirty thousand mercenaries as preparation for war. What King Leopold and Skall Wismar did was unforgivable. They must be fools if they thought that Vanadis would remain idle.

Vanadis" army may be weak, but mercenaries always follow gold. He took a quill and a paper to write his reply. He will agree of course.

And it"s time to show his future son-in-law the power of Vanadian gold.

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Haubern, Capital of the Republic of Inkit

Five men sat silently around the table. None of them talked after hearing Magistrate Devik"s news.

"We must do something, right?" It was Magistrate Vedur who asked. "This is a good opportunity"

"An opportunity for what?" Magistrate Chen raised his brows.

"For profit" Vedur answered. "Timothy Castonia is young. If we support him and he wins the war, we can ask for favors in the future. If we"re lucky, we can even control Castonia through him."

Chen laughed mockingly and pointed at Vedur. "Don"t bring your slyness here Vedur. This hall is sacred. I can"t believe we"re talking about schemes here."

"I"m just pointing out the possibilities Chen. We must always be open-minded to possibilities" Vedur rubbed his forehead. "Herberk, can you explain to this fool how great of an opportunity this is?"

Herberk nodded and faced Chen. "I understand your sentiment Chen. But Vedur is right. We can"t let this pa.s.s. Castonia is in a state of civil war and we can choose a side. Since we had already condemned King Leopold, we can"t pick his side without looking like complete hypocrites to the people. So we will support Prince Timothy instead"

"King Timothy" Devik immediately corrected. The four Magistrates looked at him. "He goes by the name of King Timothy Castonia now."

"Why does it matter?" Herberk shook his head. He then sighed "Fine. Like what I was saying, King Timothy is young. I think we can control him"

"You want to make him into our puppet?" Chen sneered "What happened to our dear republic! Our forefathers must be grieving right now. Since when did we start on doing despicable things like making a puppet out of our allies?"

"The Castonians are not our allies anymore Chen. We broke our alliance with them remember?"

"Can you please shut up with the technicalities Devik? And even if we"re not allied to them anymore, that doesn"t give us the right to control other Kingdoms. This is against the principles of the republic!" Chen pressed his finger on the table.

"Times have changed Chen. Your old traditional views cannot lead the republic into the future. King Timothy will be useful to us." Vedur reb.u.t.ted.

"And what if he loses?" Chen spread the map on the table and circled his finger around the northern half of Western Castonia. "Timothy only has Solon and less than twenty thousand men. He can"t win against the rest of Castonia."

Vedur chuckled. "I can"t believe you became a Magistrate with a brain as small as that. Timothy has the support of Vanadis and the people of Castonia. Also even though he has less than twenty thousand men right now, his soldiers are all experienced."

"If I may add, King Timothy is capable. Just look at what happened to the Tulosans in the battle of Knightsend." Herberk pointed out.

Chen shook his head. "If he"s capable, then we can"t make him into a puppet like what you say. It"s better to remain neutral in this."

"Enough" a cold voice sounded. It was the voice of the Magistrate who was silently listening to the argument up until now. The four Magistrates shut their mouths. Magistrate Bouvin"s temper was a terrifying thing. "You"re all wasting my time. You keep arguing like children! Just decide this with a vote and be done with it."

"I see. Magistrate Buovin is right." Herberk"s voice was trembling. He then wiped the sweat off his forehead "Then who are in favor of supporting the side of Timothy in the Castonian civil war?"

Four out of the five Magistrates raised their hands. Herberk then looked at the defeated Chen. "Shall we continue Magistrate Chen?" he mocked

Chen remained silent. After a while he balled his two fists and put them on top of the table. It was the gesture of a veto.

"Are you really going to use your yearly veto for this? You"re wasting your veto Chen. One of us could just veto your veto" Herberk said.

"Actually, I"m just afraid." Chen admitted. He then pursed his lips. "Supporting Timothy Castonia just to make him into our puppet is a bad decision. Wasting our resources is the best case scenario actually. You mentioned earlier about the battle of Knightsend. Of course I know about the battle in which Timothy destroyed a whole army with just a few dozen casualties. I"m telling you, Timothy Castonia is terrifying. He is a fire that needs to be snuffed out as soon as possible. By helping him, we are fueling that fire. If you think that you can make him into a puppet, then you must be fools. By helping him, you are creating a monster. I will use my veto so that I can tell myself in the future when all h.e.l.l had broken lose that I did my best to stop you"

"So you finally showed your true colors Chen. You don"t care about the principles of the republic, you"re just afraid! You dare use the name of our forefathers to mask your cowardice. Well, fine. Then I use my own veto to counter yours." Herberk said in a mocking tone. "It"s decided, we will join the Castonian civil war on King Timothy"s side. Devik, lead the formal announcement of the decision."

Devik cleared his throat "We, the Magistrates of the Republic of Inkit, have formally decided to join the Castonian Civil War on the side of King Timothy Castonia. This decision we make with the power vested by the great founding fathers of the Inkit. Long may the Republic last"

To formally end the announcement the Magistrates were supposed to put their fist on the table as sign of agreement.

"For the Republic"

"For the Republic"

"For the Republic"

"For the Republic"

The four Magistrates looked at Chen and waited for him to do the same. Chen frowned but then he gave up.

"Don"t tell me that I did not warn you about this. I"m telling you, this is a mistake." He then put his fist on top of the table.

"For the Republic"