King Hugo tried to keep himself from looking interested. The area had always been his target. It was a neutral territory that brought together the borders of the three kingdoms.
Duke Pellington also made sure that if he married Arielle, then the territory would fall to Nieverdell because the diamond mine had belonged to the Duke Pellington family for generations.
"Doesn’t the mine belong to soone else and is a neutral territory?"
Now the second advisor issued a letter with the signatures of the four predecessor kings who carried out the old covenant.
"Duke Pellington’s family does have a gem mine over the neutral area, Your Majesty. But before the four kings agreed to neutralize the area, the territory was part of the northern region," the advisor said.
He added, "Our fifth king agreed to relinquish the territory to beco a neutral territory so that the people of Thebis had no trouble getting to Wolgast, and according to the previous agreent, the Pellington family could only trade the diamond mine with the permission of the previous owner of the area. That is us, the Northendell Kingdom."
King Hugo grabbed the paper and read it again. He could see his grandfather’s na written on the paper, and he had signed a deal with the three kings from other kingdoms.
Every agreent must have a copy. King Hugo ordered the old advisor beside him to look for a copy of the sa agreent.
"Can you gentlen wait a mont?" asked the man, who then returned the letter of agreent to William.
"With pleasure, Your Majesty," William replied.
The man got up from his study, and two Nieverdell guards ca in to watch William and the two advisors.
"Are we going to make it, Sir William?" asked the advisor, who was younger than him.
"Of course, we will. King Hugo has always wanted this territory, and there’s no way he could just let this opportunity go," replied the older advisor.
"Listen to your senior," comnted William, who then looked at his feet waiting, for the king to return to the discussion.
"Very well, Sir William."
William read the letter in front of him. Ronan was pretty crazy, toying with neutral territory like this. If he gave the area to the South, then it was very likely that Nieverdell would use it to create a barrier so Thebis wouldn’t be able to cross to Wolgast. They had to pay to pass through the area.
William himself didn’t have much ti to ask the king for an explanation. Ronan had told him to go and ask for King Hugo’s blessing so he could get married as soon as possible.
However, William believed that his king would not be so reckless... There must be other plans that the man had in mind. It was just that William didn’t understand what Ronan was doing.
***
King Hugo continued to walk without noticing Alexis, who was waiting for him at the front of the room. So did Andrea.
The two of them followed the king’s every step while asking what the outco of their discussion was. King Hugo, who was in a hurry, was bothered by the presence of the two.
"Can you guys leave for a bit?" said the king who was getting annoyed by the attitude of his two children.
He probably trusted Alexis as his successor. But Alexis’ behavior in the throne room earlier was disgraceful. Alexis and Andrea, who were surprised by their father’s attitude, glanced at each other sharply.
"Look at what you’ve done, Andrea. Now I can’t listen to their conversation. And I don’t know what they’re planning," Alexis hissed, making Andrea grip her brother’s arm.
"Don’t think too highly of yourself, Alexis. I will forgive you this ti because we are siblings. However, if you irritate once again, I will make you regret it, and I will support Archie in the future. It doesn’t matter that he was born from a concubine," Andrea threatened her brother.
Alexis felt annoyed, he slapped his sister’s hand and then left the hallway of their father’s study. Andrea was still standing there. She was considering her next move.
She probably couldn’t just enter as she did in the throne room earlier. That would probably make her father even angrier. But how would she get to talk to William?
Andrea wanted to say that Arielle did not deserve to be a king’s wife. Andrea wanted to prove that she was more worthy of the title of queen. She was more educated and had many noble connections.
She was also a legitimate daughter of the queen, not the child of a concubine or even an unknown woman like Arielle.
***
King Hugo entered the storage room within his room. He reached into a drawer and looked for a brown envelope containing the agreent he signed with Duke Pellington.
He had forgotten his guilt towards his late wife and Arielle. Hearing William brought an offer regarding his target neutral territory, the king beca tempted to give Arielle to whoever could give him more advantage.
King Hugo reread the copy of the Pellingtons’ mine ownership papers. It only stated that the mine was in a neutral area. If Duke Pellington offered him the mine, then King Hugo would only own the mine.
However, if he got ownership of the entire territory, he would be able to control the neutral territory on behalf of the South. This sounded like a much better deal.
Soone knocked on his room, and the advisor ca with more books and letters.
"That’s right, Your Majesty. The neutral area still belongs to the North. They are only bound by an agreent not to use the area as a comrcial place. They don’t charge any taxes there either. We also have a copy of the sa agreent."
The advisor handed him the exact sa scroll he had read.
"So basically, the North still has power over the territory, but this treaty forbids them to use it themselves?"
"That’s right, Your Majesty."
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