669 A Group of Envoys Part 2 (1/2)

”Your Majesty, the number of valuables that Renee took away is too numerous. Those were meant for you, Your Majesty!”

”Yes, Your Majesty. Guya was the Baroness of this Empire and her title was even given by the previous Emperor. Now that she has pledged her allegiances to an outsider, Your Majesty should send troops to attack them!”

”Your Majesty, Aini and his parents were all groomed by the Clyde family. They have now taken away all the valuables, this is equivalent to betraying the Empire!”

”Your Majesty, Irene was supposed to be betrothed to Your Majesty and become your Empress. How dare Saleen keep her by his side instead. Your Majesty must send soldiers to attack him!”

All four Earls spoke furiously. They still held a slight contempt towards a young Emperor like Ojarvis. With one swoop, Saleen took away millions of gold coins from these four families. It was a miracle that the four of them had not gone insane yet. The four of them unanimously demanded for the Emperor to revoke his original decision. If this was Emperor Chanake, none of them would have dared to speak to him like this.

”How loyal all of you are!” Ojarvis said sarcastically before refuting them one by one. ”If Renee had not gone to Metatrin City, the amount of wealth under her control was about five-hundred-thousand gold coins annually and it was mainly given to Tiffany family's Pollock Province. Although Guya's title was given by my father, she was a Baroness, would she have been able to pass down her title in the Rolande family? Aini, haha, back then when he was in conflict with the Holy See, it was his parents that protected him. His parents were already grand mages at that time, but they were put under house arrest in Holy Rock City and Aini was sent to the borders of Phoenix. Irene was to become my Empress? Rawls, do you even believe yourself?”

The expressions of the four Earls changed. They did not expect Ojarvis' tone to be so harsh. Safilos was the one with the most power in Holy Rock City and the four of them should be the Emperor's bodyguards and most powerful supporters. Why would Ojarvis do this?!

”All of you wish to attack Metatrin City. Very well. Go ahead, I will not stop you. All of you have your own private armies anyway and they have far exceeded the numbers allowed for Earls. Do you think I am unaware of this?”

The four Earls were taken aback and all stood up before kneeling before the young Emperor.

”Get up. If I had wanted to kill all of you, I would not have summoned all of you into the palace. Although father has died, I still have the power to kill anyone in Holy Rock City instantaneously with an order. Do you think all these magic towers are just for show?”

The four Earls looked at each other and finally stood up. None of them dared to sit down again. All of them bowed their heads and waited for instructions from Ojarvis.

”Father has given all of you too much leeway…,” Ojarvis sighed. After a long while he said, ”One must know the right time to advance and retreat. What is the point of trying to convince me? Even uncle is against sending troops over to attack. Based on the forces all of you have, it will be suicidal. You may not know, but the Pope personally formed an army of one-hundred-thousand to attack Metatrin City, but it was thoroughly destroyed. Before saying such things in future, please think first.”

The four Earls were horrified. This piece of news had not reached them yet. Prior to this outcome, Metatrin City had been retreating and suffering heavy losses! After defeating Viscountess Lex's armies at the borders, the Holy See expedition had met with little resistance. Metatrin City even had to resort to burning their own towns and grain in order to slow down the expedition.

Only now did they find out that the entire expedition was completely wiped out.

”Metatrin City has declared itself a kingdom and Saleen has become their first King. He has asked my sister to send over ten magic chariots as gifts and I have already accepted them. I have asked uncle to prepare a group of envoys to head to Metatrin City. Do all of you understand?”

”Your Majesty…”

”We understand.”

The four Earls became gloomy. Ojarvis had no intentions to continue making things difficult for them, so he changed his tone and said, ”I have already decided to establish trade with Metatrin City. Metatrin and the royal family will soon have a deal in place for magic nuclei so all of you need not care too much about that. The Empire has never lacked of metal ore so all of you can go ahead and set up a business on that if you want.”

The four Earls brightened up immediately. All the mines in Qin were controlled by the royal family. What Ojarvis meant was that the four major families would now be able to enter into this business outside of Qin. They would be able to make a lot more profits.

Ojarvis spoke so bluntly that the four elders were no longer able to consider this issue with their original attitude.

”Your Majesty, since the royal family has already made its decision, we will obey. Regarding the mining business, if we decide to do it, will it…”

That was a sign of weakness. They have long been involved in the mining business outside of Qin, but had yet to dare to do so within Qin. That was because the other noble families were keeping their eyes on them. These four families did not hold very high positions of nobility, but they were favored. To overturn them, one would have to find problems with them through legal means.

The four families had been careful to stay within the law and had never allowed their mining business to enter Qin. They would rather spend more money to legalize their goods to come through Alchemy City.

”You will not have such problems if you cooperate with the noble families of Metatrin.”

The four elders were troubled. At the end of the day, their goal was to set up business outside of Qin, but they would now have to work with the younger generations that had split from their families. For money, they would just have to put up with it.

”Your Majesty, Duke Barde begs for an audience,” a palace guard passed on the message. Ojarvis waved his hand and dismissed the four Earls before inviting Duke Barde in.