Correct Choice
Troy asked a few questions. He then nodded and whispered in Freya’s ear.
The story sounded surreal, almost as if it was the plot you’d find in a fictional work. The boy served Vera Galaluocia as a bodyguard. Vera didn’t have siblings. Usually, females didn’t take the mantle of ruling Galaluocia Kingdom. Although it wasn’t written anywhere that was how it was meant to be, the females of the nation were belittled.
Before Vera took the reins, their King was about to pass away from illness. Vera wasn’t married. Therefore, the King lacked a male heir. Subsequently, the mantle was passed to Vera. Alas, there were some who opposed the decision. They demanded Vera married and then pass the throne to her husband. Vera already loved a man, though, and he was the neighbouring nation’s Abner. Therefore, Abner secretly discussed a marriage with her, where she would hand the nation to Abner. Unfortunately, Abner’s wife, Ikana, found out and was exasperated.
Abner didn’t have a child, which was why people pestered him to find himself a mistress. Ikana was a jealous woman. Moreover, Abner and Vera still had feelings for each other. Ikana was very reluctant to lose the life she went through to settle down. Consequently, she incited the people of Galaluocia into objecting to Vera’s rule.
Owing to Vera not concerning herself with politics, she didn’t hold any power, which left her powerless to the challenges. Faced with opposition that continued to endlessly encroach upon her, Vera was unwilling to lose her last chance to be with Abner. Hence, she sent a team to the North to contact King Troy. As long as Troy supported and recognised her kingdom, the opposition would have to stop their interference.
Liu Yue’s attention was on the reason. The boy truly loved Vera. His gaze was incredibly gentle and resolute when he mentioned Vera. He would abandon everything he had, including his life, for her. Nona respected his resolve. His love story was the type Nona considered to be a beautiful fairy tale. As for Vera, she seemed to be pondering something. Perhaps she would be the only one to care about that type of boring national affair. It was as if it wasn’t Freya who was whispering to her father but herself. Vera pondered why Vera Glaolucia would seek help from them and sent people to her dad.
It was probably due to the North once displaying their military might and iron battleships that led to everybody fearing the North’s military might. If such a formidable nation were to acknowledge Vera, Ikana would also fear the power of the North.
Vera had to be credited for her wits. She didn’t offer mined stones but the right to mine. To lay it naked, the North had to send people over to the mines. With people from the North present in Galolucia, Ikana would be wary and not dare to make any moves on Galolucia. In essence, it was mire with no escape. Ikana may have been in contact with her Troy in the past, but they only had an agreement to not invade the other. There was no friendship between the two. They were too far away from each other, after all.
Vera made the following conclusion: “Father is unlikely to accept the request. Father won’t agree to help with this unless he wants the stones that much. That said, if Galulucia submits to Ikana, Father will be able to buy the stones from Ikana. Frankly, there’s no point in the North getting involved with this. It’ll only drag the North into the mud and offend Ikana.
“Ikana possesses much more power than this Vera. The North has no reason to clash with a powerful entity out in the distance. It’s better to sit and watch from the sidelines. Father should like what they offered, but it’s not enough for him to have to go tens of thousands of kilometres for.”
The young boy couldn’t hear what Troy and Freya were saying to each other. The both of them looked very calm. No changes to their expressions were noticeable. If he spoke up, it’d be considered impolite. The boy already did what he could. Next, was waiting to be trialled.
Troy and Freya finally finished up their conversation. Troy gave the boy a smile: “I understand what happened now. You want me to write letter of declaration for Miss Vera Galolucia, right? That means I’ll have the right to mine in your lands, correct?”
“Yes, Yes, Your Majesty. It is a very important matter. It is truly very important. Queen Vera does not need a throne or anything. She merely needs to live. Without your letter of declaration, Ikana really will kill my Queen. Therefore, I implore you. Please save my Queen. You are the only one who can save her. I beg of you…”
Troy extended forth his hand to cut off the miserably pleading boy: “You may have mistaken something. If you didn’t come here, I wouldn’t have learnt about this. The reality is that your ruler’s life and death has nothing to do with me, and I’m not obligated to save her. I’m not an ordinary individual. I am the King who represents this nation. My attitudes and actions are representative of the nation’s. In turn, I represent all of my people’s attitudes and actions. If I impulsively do something, the people of my nation will have the pay the price as a consequence of my decisions and actions. Hence, I can’t make my decision based on sympathy when it comes to national affairs.”
“So… So…”
“I’m very sorry, but what you can offer me hasn’t persuaded me. Your land is honestly too far away. It’s pointless for me to offend somebody with powerful authority over there. I won’t assist either side. Your fight has nothing to do with the North. All I can do is wish your Queen good luck.”
“I knew it,” Vera said to herself, lips curled up into a smile. She continued thinking, “That’s my father. While his decision is somewhat cruel, that is my beloved calm and mature dad. The type that lets their blood get to their head and acts rashly is nothing but a group of useless chuunibyous. My father is very rational and calm. I like this sort of mature man.”
The young boy crumbled upon hearing Troy’s response, face as white as a sheet. Liu Yue couldn’t bear to look at the despair and pain in his eyes. What must a man go through to wear such a look of despair? He looked as though his insides were gouged out. His eyes froze on Troy. He must’ve wanted to say something. He must’ve wanted to save his last shred of hope, but his blank mind and quavering body left him incapable of uttering a word. He just looked at Troy and muttered whatever came to mind, acting as though he didn’t understand Troy: “Pl-Please…”
“That’s that, then. Our negotiations weren’t settled on a positive note. But nonetheless, you are an envoy here, so I should treat you right. In saying that, you aren’t an official envoy; therefore, I can’t treat you as per the standard. I will provide you a sumptuous dinner, though, and I’ll arrange a ship to send you back. If your people make it through this crisis, please send an official group of envoys over. All right now, if there’s nothing else, I shall go have dinner with my daughters. Goodbye.”
Troy was initially looking forward to gaining something better using a rejection tactic, but it seemed that the kid couldn’t offer any more, thereby leading to Troy losing interest. Freya bowed to leave the room, possibly to go and organise dinner.
The boy blankly watched Troy, who was about to move. He, himself, didn’t move. To be precise, he couldn’t move. Troy walked up to the boy and patted him on the shoulder: “You’re Vera’s guard, right? That means that protecting your Queen is your duty, not mine. Instead of losing your life here, how about giving your life to protect your Queen. Go back. Go back and protect your Queen. Even if Ikana has schemed something, it’s impossible for her deploy the military right off the bat. After all, that’s war. As for assassins, you just need to keep an eye out. Sometimes being a King isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Leading a peaceful life isn’t bad.”
Troy patted him on the shoulder with the intent to give him encouragement. That was Troy being nice. There was no way he’d agree to the request as the King of the North. As another living being, however, he didn’t hate the young boy.
“P-Please…”
“I told you, I can’t. I’m not picking on you or your Queen Vera. It’s solely due to me not being able to plunge my nation and people into danger.”
Troy turned around and left. He didn’t want to have the young boy clinging to him, which was fair. It’d be extremely annoying to for the matter to cling to him. He turned around and, with a soft laugh, said, “Let’s go, girls. Let’s go have dinner. Your moms won’t be happy if we’re late.”
“Mm…”
Nona sympathised with the boy and felt somewhat sad, but as soon as she heard her father’s voice, she immediately turned to head to the door. Vera just flashed the boy a smile before catching up to her dad. To avoid the nightmare from before repeating itself, she decided to stay as far away as possible from her sister, Liu Yue.
Daisy glanced at the boy again. The boy dropped to his knees in despair. His tears were already falling down onto the carpet. Daisy snickered. She didn’t have any positive impression of the boy since he was a weakling who’d cry. That wasn’t what she considered a man. Her father never cried. Instead, he took it on himself to bear everything. That was what Daisy considered to be a real man…
Liu Yue was melancholic, but she didn’t want to deny her father’s decision, so just when she went to turn around…
“I beg you… Please…”
“Aaahh!!!!” shrieked Liu Yue.
Three of the four sisters turned their heads around upon hearing their sister shriek. Daisy thought, “Not good,” as she remembered that the sword was in the room. She spun around and ran. Vera collected elements around her and wore on a particularly wrathful expression. The four sisters competed with each other, but they would never allow an outsider to hurt any of them. If somebody laid their hands on their sister, he was finished!!!
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