Chapter 188: As Long As It's the Ascarts
Chapter 188: As Long As It’s the Ascarts
Rosa’s military was an extremely unusual organization.
Typically speaking, a country’s military would adopt policies aligned with the country’s foreign policies. Take for example, if the Saint Mesit Theocracy was on bad terms with the Austine Empire, it could be expected that their military would be hostile to one another as well. But here in Rosa, the country’s military policy was oddly independent of the country’s foreign policies.
Rosa had been founded on commerce, and the Sorofya Merchant Association had expanded all over the Sia Continent. Merchants were all about peace and harmony. In fact, Bruce Sorofya’s marriage with Adelicia Milton was a diplomatic measure as well as a business strategy. They wanted to break into Austine’s enormous market without having to face the empire’s hostility.
Rosa’s military, on the other hand, couldn’t care a whit about compromise. Merchants had to lower their heads at times in order to maximize their profits, but military men were far more short-tempered. Many of their soldiers and generals remembered the suffering of their people under the tyranny of the Austine Empire and took it deeply to heart. If they had the means to pull it off, they would gladly destroy Austine then and there.
That created a rather interesting phenomenon.
On the diplomatic side, while Rosa wasn’t particularly close to Austine, they were still somewhat okay with one another. Tepid, one might call their relationship.
On the military side, however, they were often conducting simulation battles against the Austine Empire for training. From time to time, there would be all sorts of ‘commemoration days’ to remind the soldiers about the tragedies their ancestors had to go through. They even went to the extent of mass producing target dummies modeled after Austine generals for the soldiers to practice their swordsmanship on, all under the name of ‘motivating the soldiers’.
When it came to Charlotte, Ugin, in his role as the Chief of Staff for the Rosaian Military, had spared no effort dragging her name through the mud. Charlotte’s misery didn’t just come from the scorn of her mother; she was loathed by the elders of the Sorofya House too.
But this was all going to change now.
Charlotte was going to marry the sole successor of the Ascart House, and this wouldn’t just be a marriage in-name. Heck, she had even gone to the extent of kidnapping and hauling him all the way back to Rosa! With the Sorofyas’ Loyal Origin Attribute, it could be said that there was no turning back for her anymore.
The realization of this changed Ugin’s perception of Charlotte in an instant.
The Ascart Fiefdom had long been a stalwart military ally of the Rosa Merchant Confederacy, and the Theocracy behind it was at loggerheads with the Austine Empire too. Charlotte’s choice had pretty much severed any future with the Austine Empire.
To summarize everything in ten words: Marriage with Austine—no! Marriage with the Ascarts—hell yeah!
In the meeting room, the white-haired Marshal Ugin patted Charlotte’s shoulder as he looked at her with a doting look for the first time. An unprecedented smile actually appeared on his perennially austere face, making everyone doubt whether it was really still the same grumpy old man they had seen moments ago.
The huge contrast had everyone baffled, but it was all within Bruce’s expectations. He knew that things would develop in this direction beforehand.
The first thing Charlotte did after bringing Roel back to Rosa was actually to meet her father, Bruce, and seek his support. She needed Bruce, the de facto ruler of Rosa, to be completely on her side in order for her to be able to stand against the insane pressure that would soon be coming from the Theocracy.
When Bruce saw his daughter lowering her head before him in search of succor, he suddenly felt a mixture of emotions welling up in his heart.
Due to the mana hastened growth rate of humans on the Sia Continent, adulthood tended to arrive at 14 years of age. Charlotte was already 13 this year, which meant that she would officially become an adult next year. While nobles would usually delay their marriage by two to four years after reaching the age of majority, that didn’t hinder them from finding someone whom they fancied in advance.
As a father, Bruce couldn’t bear to marry his daughter off to some rascal out there. However, when he thought about how Charlotte had lived her life over the years, he couldn’t help but heave a deep sigh of regret and remorse.
Adelicia wasn’t a qualified mother, but did that make him a qualified father?
Thinking back, over the last thirteen years, the time he had spent with Charlotte was severely limited. There was hardly any warmth between them; instead, he was commonly exerting pressure on her in hopes that she would grow up faster. Fortunately, she was capable enough to meet up to his expectations and had grown into a fine, independent woman. For a long time now, she hadn’t asked him for anything. Even when the development of the Land of Chaos encountered bumps along the way, she chose to shoulder the pressure all alone.
This was the first time that his daughter was genuinely asking for his help. Given so, what other answer could he possibly give?
Bruce came to a realization at that moment. He knew that he would have to devote whatever little bit remained of his life to the country, but that didn’t hinder him from shouldering his responsibilities as a father too. At the very least, during a critical moment for his daughter, he wanted to be able to carry the world for her and protect her happiness.
Thus, he chose to hold this meeting to showcase Charlotte’s massive gains to everyone else.
The plan was a huge success. In the face of Charlotte’s irrefutably massive contribution, the attitude of the Sorofyas’ executives toward her changed immediately. Their words became discernibly more polite and amicable. Even when Charlotte revealed her kidnapping of Roel, which could potentially be a huge diplomatic issue, they still chose to maintain a positive attitude instead of putting her down right away.
Of course, the sudden 180-degrees change of attitude from the military faction was gratifying. Bruce had guessed at such a development, but it was definitely more than welcomed when it actually occurred. It meant that there was another powerful faction backing Charlotte now.
Further discussion led to an agreement that they ought to keep the engagement between Charlotte and Roel a secret for the time being.
Ugin was dissatisfied with this decision. In his view, they ought to plaster notices in every town in the country to inform the entire populace of the matter, and if possible, the marriage should be brought forward as much as possible. Quoting his words, “Why not tomorrow?”
If the Ascarts had any objections to it afterward, he was prepared to step forward to negotiate with them about it. He had a huge web of connections he could tap into if it really came down to it.
Fortunately, his extremist ideas were swiftly rejected by Bruce. The Sorofyas had just obtained the heritage of their ancestors, and there were many things that had to be done. So, he felt that it was wiser to avoid a confrontation as much as possible. In fact, Bruce had already sent an envoy over to the Ascart Fiefdom to propose a negotiation over this matter.
So, the meeting finally came to an end, and everyone quickly headed off to deal with their own matters.
Left behind standing at the center of the meeting room, Charlotte heaved a sigh of relief. It looked like she had managed to resolve matters on Rosa’s side, but that didn’t mean that the crisis was over yet. Rather, there were still numerous trials she had to overcome.
Next up would be the external pressure coming from the Ascart Fiefdom and the Theocracy. Thinking about the two other girls she had met back at the Ascarts’ manor, she clenched her fists tightly.
…
Roel Ascart had always thought that he was quite a calm and placid person. There had rarely been anything that could rile him up.
He had been through numerous desperate situations, but he always managed to resolve them with composure. All of these showed that he had quite a strong heart that could take a great deal of shock. Of course, there were times that he did fall into a panic, such as when he first regained his memories and found out about the dark future he had ahead of him, but these moments of panic never affected the plans he put into action.
Whenever he had to make a move, he was always able to give his 120%.
However, despite his self-acknowledged mental resilience, he found that he couldn’t remain composed at all with the situation he was currently in.
Son of a banshee! How the hell can I remain calm when I have been kidnapped?!
Staring at the foreign ceiling above him, he was already able to roughly determine the situation. It had only been five minutes since he woke up, but he made full use of this time to assess his surroundings, and he soon came to a conclusion.
I am in Rosa, or to be more exact, Charlotte’s house, or to be even more exact… her bedroom.
The evidence lay in the jewel constellations on the ceiling being identical to that he had seen in the Diamond Rivière, though the ones here were far more delicate and intricate. The blessing they emanated felt much gentler too. Also, the golden glow coming from the bottle beside his pillow was another giveaway.
The content of the bottle was something that shouldn’t have existed in this era, for the technology behind it had gone missing ever since the downfall of the Sofya Kingdom. It was the core magic tool of the High Elf Bloodline, Golden Soul.
The only person in the world who could concoct Golden Soul now was the auburn-haired girl who had participated in the great fight of the Golden Fleet with him and apprenticed herself under Queen Isabella, Charlotte.
Besides, the last few words that Charlotte had said before he lost consciousness were pretty direct too.
“So, this is the mistake you were speaking of?” muttered Roel with a sigh.
He didn’t think that Charlotte would harbor such intentions. As if to get a free pass out of this, she even apologized first before kidnapping him.
If I had known in advance, I would have said that I wouldn’t forgive her… but that probably wouldn’t have worked either, huh?
Now that he thought back on it, there were a lot of anomalies during the journey that he felt like a fool for not catching on to earlier. But again, he spent most of his time sleeping throughout the journey, and even when he was awake, Charlotte would keep him busy, leaving him with no spare attention to think about other matters. Otherwise, he should have long thought of it.
Back at that mountain peak of the Worun Mountain range, Charlotte was just apologizing in advance, that way Roel wouldn’t be able to get as angry toward her later on. Even if Roel had figured it out then and tried to employ his talk-no-jutsu to convince her otherwise… he probably wouldn’t have been able to dissuade her either.
After revising his mistakes, Roel picked up the bottle beside him and began pondering over another question—what was Charlotte up to?
While it might sound quite egotistical for him to say this, he was actually quite an important figure in the Saint Mesit Theocracy. He wasn’t exactly powerful since he hadn’t succeeded to the house patriarch’s seat yet, but there was no doubt that his presence was essential to maintain the balance of power within the Theocracy.
For the successor of one of the Five Eminent Noble Houses to be forcefully taken to another country was a major international incident. His father would surely rush over right away… and it was likely that Nora would be by his side too.
Even if he were to disregard all personal feelings, Nora was still officially his protector. It might be a bit far-fetched to claim that the Sorofyas were challenging the authority of the Theocracy by kidnapping Roel, but without a doubt, this was an insult to Nora’s dignity.
Just thinking about the severity of the matter made Roel’s head hurt. He couldn’t understand what was going through Charlotte’s mind.
Though, it might be a bit more ludicrous that a hostage like him was actually worrying about his kidnapper’s plight. It was almost as if he was suffering from Stockholm syndrome here.
That being said, he was actually not too worried about his own plight.
He didn’t think that he was in danger. On the contrary, he would receive the most advanced treatment for his condition here, so there was nothing for him to worry about. As for Charlotte…
Well, we did toil through life-and-death situations together. What could she possibly do to me?
“…”
It was also this line of thinking that got me into the current situation, isn’t it? Hahaha…
The smile on Roel’s face suddenly became incredibly strained. He looked at the ceiling above him and murmured softly.
“Haa. I just hope that things don’t blow-up too big.”