Chapter 564 Take him away
Chapter 564 Take him away
?The marquis had a shocked look on his face when he heard this, but he didn’t dare say anything to refute it.
Instead, if one looked closely, they would be able to see his hands were tightly clenched.
Then the marquis lowered his head and tightly gritted his teeth as if he was filled with rage over this situation.
But after a long moment of silence, the marquis raised his head and said, “Yes, your highness. You are correct. I was too impulsive and made a rash decision that I shouldn’t have made.”
He had to take a deep breath before he turned to me to say, “Count Zwein, I apologize for any offense that I have committed before. I hope that you can find it in your generous heart to forgive me for these offenses.”
If one listened carefully, they could hear the faint unwilling tone that was in his voice when he said this.
But the look on his face would have fooled anyone.
There was a look of true sincerity that was on his face when he said this, as if he deeply meant these words.
Of course, I wasn’t fooled.
This marquis was without a doubt shameless enough that he was able to change his face this quickly.
One moment he was making an outrageous demand that we handed over the dwarves and ores that were in our territory, the next he was apologizing as if everything was nothing more than a misunderstanding.
Even the way that he said this, it seemed as if it was only natural that I would forgive him for a simple mistake.
Of course, the fourth prince also wasn’t fooled by this.
Regardless of how shameless the marquis was, that didn’t have any effect on the fourth prince.
He revealed a serious look as he said, “This kind of behaviour is not something that a noble should commit and is something that is serious enough to warrant an investigation. After all, what would you have a need for all those ores and dwarves for?”
A trace of panic appeared in the eyes of the marquis.
The way that the fourth prince said this, it was clear what he was trying to imply.
If these accusations were placed on him, then there was no path in the future for him.
But there was something that he was confident in.
He was confident in his title of marquis.
He didn’t believe that if he offered some benefits, the fourth prince would choose to side with this count over him, the prestigious marquis.
The marquis lowered his head once more as he turned back to look at the fourth prince.
In a deeply remorseful voice, he said, “Your highness is correct. It was shameful for me to act in this manner, so I wish to make amends for this matter. I will offer half of the soldiers under me to fight on the frontlines and offer supplies to help the rest of the troops.”
The marquis had a confident look in his eyes after saying this since he didn’t believe that this was a small amount.
There was no doubt that the war would be putting pressure on the royal family, so any form of support that they could get was like coal being sent in winter.
Let alone support from a powerful noble like him.
Just half the soldiers under him were already more than all of the soldiers that some barons and viscounts had.
The subordinates of the marquis on the other hand had ugly looks on their faces.
After all, they knew that the marquis was sacrificing them to save himself.
Even though he wasn’t sacrificing all of them and just half of them, it was still a sacrifice that was hard for them to swallow.
The fourth prince narrowed his eyes to look at the marquis for a bit before saying, “You’re saying this like this is something to be proud of. All you’re doing is your minimum duty to the country and its people.”
The marquis suddenly looked up with a shocked look on his face when he heard this.
He looked at the fourth prince in disbelief, as if he couldn’t believe what was happening.
He was already making such a large concession and yet the fourth prince was treating it like it was nothing.
Half of his troops were already much more than what most of the other nobles would send. Most of them wouldn’t even send a quarter of their troops.
The only ones that would fully support the royal family were those loyalists, the rest of the fence sitters would only do the bare minimum to make it seem like they were doing something.
Yet it was all being downplayed by the fourth prince.
The marquis finally had enough as he looked up and said, “Your highness, are you certain of this? Do you really want to let this play out this way?”
The tone in his voice was a bit dangerous.
There was no mistaking what he was implying.
But the fourth prince just had a calm look on his face as he said, “I should ask the same of you. Are you sure that you want to do this?”
The marquis couldn’t help revealing a confused and surprised look as he heard this, but then he said, “Don’t blame me for not showing you courtesy. You forced my hand.”
He turned to his subordinates to say, “Men, we fight our way out!”
The subordinates revealed surprised looks when they heard this before suddenly revealing determined looks. They all pulled out their weapons as if they were prepared to fight.
Cecilia and her troops also pulled out their weapons as if they were prepared to resist.
But the fourth prince suddenly raised his hand as if to stop them before saying, “You heard him. Men, take him away.”
As soon as he said this, a large group of the marquis’ subordinates suddenly fell as ten cloaked figures suddenly appeared.