Chapter 172 War in the north 2 (1/2)

Mars looked over at the king and gave a slight smile

”you seem stressed”

”yes I am... I have a lot on my plate”

”Oh, then maybe you don't have time to entertain me? in that case I'll take my leave”

Elsa gave a slight frown at Mars' words and pinched his hand with a smile on her face

”Mars be nice”

”ouch... okay then... shall we get to the main topic then?”

the king gave a sigh before he began speaking, it was oblivious from his face alone that he had been very stressed for the past weeks

”well first of all the war we are fighting is not ageist the entire empire... it would be easiest to understand if I explained the current state of the civil war, how much do you know Mars?”

”hmm... only that one of the factions is supported by the military”

”I see, well in the start of the civil war there was about 8 or so factions but after a few months of fighting it has been reduced to 2, mainly due to the rest of the factions falling apart internally or joining each other. Right now the two main factions that are fighting open war for the throne is the military and the old nobles”

”I see and so I'm guessing one of those is attacking Destra?”

”yes the old nobles is currently on the losing side in the war and are being pushed back by the military but the military faction decided it was too slow and costly to stomp out the old nobles alone so they sent an ultimatum to surrender our military to them so they could win the war faster, I refused this ultimatum and now we are at war with half the empire. It has not been all bad though we have received support from the old nobles so we are barely holding on right now, that's when I decided to draft the magic academy a few days ago”

Mars gave a nod, it made sense to draft the magic academy from the king's point of view

”and that's when Elsa was taken along for a ride in a stuffed carriage?”

”yes unfortunately”

Mars folded his arms in front of his chest and leaned back on the couch

”I see... well I have an open schedule the question is what do you have to offer?”

both the queen and the young woman from the academy widened their eyes slightly but the king was unfazed and spoke

”since the military faction controls the southern part of the empire the mana stone mine is under their control, should we triumph over them we will naturally occupy their territory I'm sure when the empire reforms it will demand the territory back but until then I can promise you 80% of the mana stones from the mines”

Mars thought for a second before he calmly said

”90%”

”hmm... I'm afraid that would cut to deep into our finances... best I can do is 85%”

Mars gave a nod

”that's good enough... what about down payment? surely you can't expect to promise me stuff that I have to conquer myself?”

the queen was about to speak up, no doubt to ask who exactly Mars thought he was to ask so much from the king but said king raised his hand and stopped her from speaking before he spoke himself

”right now our treasury is low on funds... I would most likely only be able to gather up around 100 class 6 magic beast cores”

”hmm... that's good enough, how many days do you need to get then together?”

this proved too much for the queen that ignored the kings signals and asked in a low voice filled

”who exactly are you and how dare you exploit our kingdom in its hour of need!?”