King Richard kicked his foot back and forth while hunching over for a mont, but once he saw Ephraim's discouraging frown, he stopped acting like a child and sat straight before speaking confidently.
"But they killed my father, Ephraim. If they co this close, won't they try to kill too?"
"They only managed to kill your father because they attacked him while he was outside the city with little protection. You have the strongest soldiers from the royal army here. They will make sure no harm cos to you. And besides, I am the one that will et with the demon king first, so you have nothing to fear."
King Richard frowned and looked down. There was a feeling of inadequacy inside of him that made him feel like he wasn't doing well enough as king, and when he spoke, it was that inadequacy that brought out his next words.
"Maybe I should et with the demon king myself. What sort of king will I be if I can't even face the enemy head-on? The people will laugh at ."
Ephraim gave King Richard a kind smile before putting a hand on his head. Find your next read at My Virtual Library Empire
"Your Majesty, what have I always told you?"
"As long as I trust you, everything will be alright?"
King Richard repeated a series of words that he had morized a long ti ago, and Ephraim's smile widened as he felt satisfied. So long as the king rembered those words and spoke them with such conviction, Ephraim was sure that the king would not go against his words.
"Exactly, my lord. Trust and everything will be alright. Let et with the demons first. It is my duty as your most trusted advisor to protect you, and that is what I shall do."
…
The day of the eting arrived exactly as planned. The demon contingent moved from the eastern region of the Myriad Palace towards the central city in the west. As they moved, they took with them a large group of angel prisoners that they had captured in the previous wars, along with Jas and Rachel.
Mark was riding on a carriage on the ground ahead of the demon army, and he turned up to the sky as he noticed Arit approaching from the distance. Arit landed on the carriage beside him, and he held out a hand to keep her stable while she found her footing. Then Arit spoke.
"We've seen the angels. They're a few kiloters away from their city walls, but still close enough that an army could attack us if we aren't careful. They've set up open-air tents and a table for the discussions."
Mark nodded in thanks and told her to continue keeping an eye out with the rest of the Air Force. Arit kissed Mark on the cheek before she took to the sky again to join Mildred and the other demons in the air.
Mark watched them until they disappeared into the horizon before he turned back ahead to continue leading the army. Mark knew that he was taking a risk coming out here to et with the angels like this. Most people would see it as a fool's errand to waltz into the enemy's territory while demanding an audience with the leader, but Mark knew that this was one of his only chances to sign that peace treaty.
If Mark wanted to, he could have gone around killing as many angels as possible or destroying land and taking territories until the angels were forced to surrender, but trying to force the angels to surrender by attacking would only lead to an animosity that would never die. Even if Mark sohow made the angels surrender while he was the demon king, by the ti Mark goes back to his own world, he was certain that this world would fall into the cycle of war again before long.
The only way Mark could make the angels and demons see eye to eye was by soone taking a leap of faith to bring about the peaceful resolution that they needed, and Mark decided that this was going to be that leap of faith.
Now, both the angels and demons were on almost equal standing in this war.
Mark had not only shown that the demons were more than capable of fighting back against the angels if they were pushed, but he had also shown that the demons were not interested in just killing the enemies. By sparing the lives of the angels that were captured during the raids, Mark increased his chances of having a civil conversation with the angels, and now that he had supporters on the side of the angels as well, Mark believed that he had a good chance of walking away from this eting with a peace treaty signed.
But Mark was not going to foolishly think that things would just magically work out perfectly like that. There was always going to be sothing that throws your entire plan into disarray, and Mark was prepared for that possibility as well. The angels accepting his offer for a eting could have been a trick they used to lure him in so that they could kill him, or it could have even been their way of drawing him away from the Myriad castle so that they could take it back from the demons.
But Mark didn't care about the Myriad castle anymore since he had only taken that castle because he wanted a ans of getting into the angel continent. Now that Mark was on his way to the central city, it didn't matter.
And since Duke Grant was right there with them along with Jas and Rachael, Mark hoped that the angels would hold off on an attack and see how this eting goes first before anything.
After a few minutes, the tents and tables in the distance finally ca into view, and Mark led his army forward. There were about fifty soldiers – a similar number to what Mark had brought – surrounding the tent, and Mark allowed his gaze to move toward the person seated at the long table in one of the tents. It was a regal-looking man with large wings on his back and a calm disposition. Mark couldn't see anyone else who looked like the leader around there, and Mark frowned as he imdiately knew that this man was not the king.
Mark had heard from Jas and Rachael that the king was a young boy no older than thirteen. Mark didn't see anyone around matching that description. That could only an that the person seated there was the king's closest aide, Ephraim. Mark had heard about him from the siblings as well and knew that he was the person who held the king's ear the most amongst all the angels.
Mark reached the edge of the line of tents and descended from his carriage before making his way toward the largest tent there with Hunn, Riger, the angel siblings, and Duke Grant following beside him. There were a lot of angels glaring at him hatefully from all around, but Mark ignored them as he kept his eyes on Ephraim.
"I thought this was a eting between kings. Not a king and his advisor."
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