The kingdoms surrounding Ress were shocked by the ultimatum that Jin had given them. To close the trade routes were preposterous and there was no country that could ever survive if they did that. Not to mention, the Kingdom of Ress was basically keeping their kingdom alive based on import trades.
There was no way the current King would not be ousted when the people knew that trades would to be closed. It was a death sentence for the Kingdom of Ress and people would try to get out of it as much as possible. It was a no brainer that this king was out of his mind when he said he was closing the nation of his.
The Royal messengers who had been possessed by their kings and queens had been released from the remote possession and Jin even gave them a gold coin for their service. It was the first time they received a tip for something they had always done. Some were not willing to accept it while others bowed and thanked Jin for his generosity.
However, what the royal messengers knew was that their kings and queens would definitely make an internal conversation among themselves, debating on the demise of this Kingdom of Ress.
"Heh, Surely his name as the Discarded King suits him well. We will see how his citizens discard him when such a shitty hits the fans. They will all go crazy with his rules and find ways to oust this ridiculous man out of the place." The Kingdom of Nalg's Royalty blurted out.
"Heh, but it will hurt you though. Even though you are their eastern partner for agriculture, you had been extorting them a lot just for that bit of grain. I am sure that was why they wanted to close the borders against you." Kingdom of Ends' Royalty said.
"Now, now. We don't have to worry about this at all. If they close trade, that means we can reinforce our borders even more quickly because of the war status that we all have. In the end, he is playing into our game and there is no way he is going to come out alive. They do not have that much resources to summon a new king again as well.
We should be glad that they got a crazy king who dared to kill their War Minister." The Kingdom of Pai's Royalty reasoned.
"Heh, even the Western Partner of Ress had decided to fully let go and join our alliance. This means that this is truly their last straw." The Kingdom southwest of Ress, the Brooj's Royalty grunted out.
"Looks like I miss a lot of the fun?" The last kingdom that did not join the conversation earlier, the Kingdom of Mong which is located south east of Ress sounded out. The rest of the Royalties told him and his wife the entire story and he chuckled. "That Ress War Minister is an asshole though.However, I will not deny his efforts and that he is the only one who kept Ress alive for the longest despite our efforts to conquer it."
"If you want, I can get the alliance to come in." The royalty from the Kingdom of Ends stated. With it occupying most of the southern territory, it is also the leader of the alliance of nations in the southern regions. But despite its size, it was rather obedient when Mong's Royalty spoke out.
The rest were also rather submissive towards Mong's Royalty and they knew that Ress would be in this state right now because of Kingdom Mong's cloak and dagger politics.
"There is no need to lift a single finger. All of us should have sufficient stockpiles of crystals and the mages we hired can be captured as prisoners of war unless they wish to switch sides. The only thing is that we should not do anything drastic until Ress fully closes their borders by next week." Mong said and everyone knew what Mong's King was playing at.
He wanted Ress to break and fall internally and later swoop in to get all the resources. There was also no need to capture the Mages per se especially because if they are smart enough to cast spells, they are also smart enough not to return to Ress.
Thus, everyone agreed that doing nothing was the best way forward and called off the meeting. Till then, each of the kingdoms would mind their own business unless it came to Demon hordes. For that, the five of them will continue to support each other against the Demons that were plaguing the Nalg and Pai's borders.
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And when the messengers were gone, Gara was extremely effective in his actions, allowing the group of ministers now without their lackeys to run into the throne room asking Jin the word 'why' simultaneously.
The only minister who seemed to be level headed was none other than Topharm, the Minister of Kingdom Development and Research. He was the only one who had thought hard about their King's actions and seeing how this new Discarded King had orchestrated the Red Banquet last night, he knew he had something in his sleeve.
"Instead of me asking why, I will ask how do we get out of this situation alive," Topharm questioned and Jin chuckled.
"Finally, someone asked me the right answer. But first, let me ask one question. Is there a magical pact that exists in this world that breaking it will cause them to forfeit their lives?" Jin asked and the ministers nodded.
"Why do you want to do that? To gain loyal servants? Are we not loyal enough to you but confessing yesterday?" One of the ministers asked and Jin did not know whether to laugh or cry.
"Yesterday? It is because you all know that I cannot be lied to and you dare say about loyalty when you are saving your own skin?" Jin exclaimed and the minister had forgotten that the king he now serves is one that is filled with experience.
"So, you want pact makers to enact on Ress so that the entire kingdom would be loyal to you? Not all will be obliged to this act. Not to mention, we will have no idea if there are underground rats that can escape the pact makers."
"If you really need to do it, then perhaps you can utilise your king's absolute authority crystal." Gara suddenly suggested and the ministers were horrified that the Royal Mage General blurted that one when it was supposed to be a secret.
"What is this absolute authority crystal?" Jin asked and Gara said that every single King that had been summoned would have powers bestowed to them. But what they did not know was that because they were being forced to come here, powers were not the only thing that had been bestowed.
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"Inside your…System? If the records are correct, there will be a command where you can retrieve this crystal. By putting sufficient magical energy into the crystal, you can create a spell of your wish. The only drawback is that it solely depends on the amount of magic you placed into that crystal and it sucks a lot of energy." Gara said.
"…To the point where you may lose your life which is why most of us did not even advise that but the past War Minister loved to utilise that absolute authority crystal as a wish maker and that is how our mines were forever abundant," Topharm said and Jin noticed that was why Gara and Topharm were rather calm in the situation.
They might have known Jin's intention on how to continue surviving but with this absolute authority crystal was like a make a wish crystal that would work based on the amount of magic put in, This could be the faster alternative to save the kingdom.
But Jin was not going to be rash and use such a crystal for the kingdom's benefit. This was bestowed to him and he already had ideas when he realised that this crystal was practically a miracle granting device. They had all forgotten that Jin was an outsider and he came here mainly because of the fact that the System and a few of his trusted …colleagues wanted him to be here.
However, if this was really true, and what the original System said was true, Jin could pass years here and get back to his world knowing that only a few seconds had passed was truly depressing.
This meant that he could be thrown into another situation like this on a whim because the original System knew that while they had money, minions, and some power under their name, they were no match to the Celestials' full force.
Maybe he will use this crystal to forcefully go back to his world, maybe he could keep it and use it against a Higher Celestial when he was in a pinch but there's no way he would use such a wishing making crystal for the kingdom he was forced to lead.
"No. I am not using the crystal for such purposes. It's too precious to use on such commands despite the fact that this kingdom solely needs it. We are going to fulfill the decision of closing the trade routes. Get all the mages currently in service to be back before the closing of trade routes by next week. Spend as much money as you need to break the service contract.
Use the ex War Minister's war coffers if needed. After that we are going to close the gates for good." Jin said and the ministers were worried until he said something slightly more comforting and assuring.
"When that is done, I can proceed to the next phase of reviving Kingdom of Ress." Jin said firmly.
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