Second Arc (His Art of War) - 144. Royal Breakfast II
After these words, they began to eat and spent the whole breakfast in silence. Although King Eudon and King Esteve occasionally talked to Angel to break the cold atmosphere, they could only make small talk since they were afraid that the topic would bring back the tension between Angel and Artheur.
After the servants tidied up the utensils, Angel spoke again.
"It was a great breakfast. I just found out Zephyrus has a lot of unique food."
"I'm glad you liked it. I asked the royal chef to prepare it for you and the Fallensoar family," said King Eudon.
Angel was just about to open his mouth to answer King Eudon, but Artheur interrupted him.
"Since breakfast is over. I hope you can allow our family to return to our place, Your Majesty," said Artheur. Although he said it as politely as possible, traces of his anger lingered in his tone of voice. He wasn't sure he could hold back his emotions if he stayed here too long, so he decided to go back to his room. Of course together with King Esteve and Queen Thea.
"Sure. Take a rest, Prince Artheur," said Angel in a casual tone. He wanted to discuss his findings with King Eudon and didn't want to discuss anything with the Fallensoar family, so he gave his permission.
Artheur stood up from his chair.
"I will excuse myself," he said without further ado and he bowed.
Queen Thea also stood up from her chair and nodded as her permission to leave. She decided to look after Artheur since she didn't want to be there too long either. Even though she could understand what Angel did because of her husband's decision, it didn't mean that she could forgive what Angel had done to her children. After all, she couldn't do anything here, so she decided to do what he could at the moment, take care of Artheur.
But different from what King Esteve did since he remained in his seat.
"Go ahead. I want to speak to Angelus for a moment," he said to Artheur. Seeing Artheur's reckless attitude, he decided to renegotiate their yesterday's agreement or at least find a solution.
Artheur looked at his father with a frown.
"Father ... Why?" His dissatisfaction was clear from his voice.
"It's just a small chat Artheur. Nothing to worry about." King Esteve knew Artheur thought he was starting to side with Angel, even though he did it to protect Artheur.
"... Fine. I'll excuse myself, father," Artheur said unwillingly. Then he bowed and walked towards the exit without a single word.
"Leave us," ordered King Eudon since he realized King Esteve wanted to discuss something with Angel.
The servants and guards in the room left, except for Frost.
"Is it about Prince Artheur?" guessed Angel as soon as the door closed.
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"Yes. I would like to make a few requests about him," said King Esteve.
"Say it." Angel could already guess what King Esteve would ask after he saw Artheur's attitude earlier.
"I want to make a request, if Artheur or one of my family members make a fatal mistake, I'm the one who will punish them," said King Esteve. He wasn't too worried about his two other children, Curtis and Tuvania. Since even though they were a little reckless, they were able to maintain their composure. Meanwhile, although Queen Thea was stubborn and reckless, she wouldn't do anything as long as Angel didn't touch their family. What he feared the most was Artheur, since he was a crown prince, Artheur felt he had a big responsibility to protect his kingdom and his family. Coupled with his extraordinary fighting skills and his record that had always been able to bring victory to Draconis, his defeat was an insult and greatly hurt his pride. In addition, he considered Angel to steal the woman he loves, even though Artheur knew that Rose did not love him and that their engagement was based on political interests.
"I refuse," said Angel firmly.
"I know you have a solid family. But I don't want that to be an excuse for this concession. The agreement will keep going." Artheur was a potential danger for him since if Artheur found Ilex still had a grudge against Angel, Artheur could take that opportunity to cooperate with him.
"Think again, Angelus. Artheur is the kingdom of Draconis' crown prince, if you punish him or even kill him, all Draconis' people will be angry with you. Even if I take your side, I will not be able to contain their and my family's anger," King Esteve tried to bargain.
"That is a good point, but I still have to refuse it. Draconis has two competent princes, if one of them misbehaves and dies as his action's results, Draconis' throne will fall to the other. But Euphorion only has one king and all my people depend on me and I have no interest in making concessions that can endanger my safety, "he said. Who knew what Ilex and Artheur could do.
"Do you have another solution to this problem?" asked King Esteve. He didn't want to lose any of his family members and didn't want to wait for things to get worse, so he wanted to deal with it before the problem was created.
Angel was silent for a moment as his brain tried to find a solution. Unfortunately, there was no solution that came to him other than to get rid of Artheur secretly and make it look like an accident. Then another choice flashed through his head.
"Then can you help me to build a good relationship with him?" While he was not sure it would work, it was the only peaceful solution he could think of. But of course, in this case, he was not interested in sharing his secret with Artheur. He only wanted to kill Artheur's grudge but of course, he would keep Artheur under his control. At least this would create doubts and considerations in Artheur's self if Ilex offered a deal with him. But still ... This was a double-edged sword for him since Artheur could have taken this as an opportunity to kill him, and vice versa. That's why he still had to be careful.
"You want to be friends with Artheur?" said King Esteve in disbelief. While King Eudon also looked at him in disbelief.
"Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I wanted to get to know each other better. I'm sure you already know about my origins and I feel we have something in common. I'm sure this will be a good start for Draconis and Euphorion's relationship." Then his expression turned serious.
"That way I hope I can prevent Prince Artheur from doing reckless things."
They fell silent as they realized, although Angel's solution sounded unharmed, behind that, he had another goal.That was to make Artheur give up before he tried.
"Fine. But in one condition, I do not want both of you to be in a closed room or have a private conversation," said King Esteve. If there were only the two of them, it would be tantamount to provoke Artheur to kill Angel and he was sure his son would not waste it or Angel could accuse Artheur of trying to kill him. Either way, the results wouldn't be good for him or Angel.
"Deal," said Angel.