Chapter 82: Round-Table Conference 01 (Dean’s POV)

The participants of the round-table conference: the royal family, the Four Marquises, and the supervision department. Also, the Five Earls from Frontier and Four Earls from within Kingdom.

It took six days to get in contact with the Earls from Frontier and for them to get to Kingdom. Even if Wester had already sent a messenger to Lentforce, it took two months to make a roundtrip, and the round-table conference was set for 10 days later since it was concluded that it wasn’t urgent.

“We’ve never had a round-table conference in the current reign, have we?”

“Stan, what are you saying? It was held once because of succession issues when we had just entered the academy, right?”

“Errmm, yeah?”

I couldn’t help but sigh since it looked like Stan was unsure of this. Luke said that Stan is excellent, but what part of this bird-brain is excellent?

“Remington.”

“Oh, that problem with their current head?”

At that time, only one person inherited the Remington eye colour. This wasn’t rare for the Four Marquises Houses. However, apparently, there was an issue because that person is a woman.

But, there have been Queen Rulers in Kingdom’s history, and we’ve also had a woman represent the Four Marquis before. Well, of course. The role of the Ruler and the role of the Four Marquises are the same. It’s all about whether you have enough magic to maintain the barrier. What does this have to do with being a man or a woman?

But, the other nobles reacted sharply against it because the current Remington head at that time disagreed, and a round-table conference was assembled for a trifling matter.

“You, it’s not worthless, is it? We can’t maintain the barrier if the Remingtons don’t channel their magic into the stones,” Stan rebuked even though I hadn’t said anything.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Naah, you said it with your eyes, ‘worthless’.”

Unreasonable. However, even I, who was only just over 10 at that time, thought it was stupid. At the same time, I also felt that it was an opportunity.

This time, there has been some feud about Lei, but the Remingtons and Albans aren’t particularly on bad terms. Just like how I interact with Stan, my parents also associated with the Remington House. Therefore, sometimes the Remington couple would visit my parents or my parents would visit them, and they would occasionally take their children with them. Thus, the servants also visited each other like Sebas did.

However, Angelique, who was seven years older than me, and we were close enough to exchange greetings with each other. Pale jade eyes and hair the colour of milk tea. Her eyes weren’t as bright as the Albans or Lisburns, but they were gentle and beautiful.

There was a year left until she became an adult, and then she would go to the castle to help maintain the barrier with the current head. However, the current head didn’t want Angelique to work. There was even a rumour at the Academy saying that he would select a few boys with strong magic from the Remingtons, and let them maintain the magic stone. Then, get one of those boys to marry Angie, and have the son they bear inherit the Remington House.

“Angie, are you alright with that?” I’ve asked her this directly. I was brought to the Remington House and left out in the garden because I got in the way of their social interactions. The Remington garden, which looked beautifully arranged, was actually quite neglected at the back. It was a fun place to climb trees and swing sticks around. I happened to meet Angie there while she was on her walk. Angie didn’t look down on me because I was 10, and she didn’t make fun of me for asking that rude question either.

“Oh my, you precocious kid. But it’s no use. I can’t go against Otou-sama,” she answered softly.

“Hey, Angie. You’ll be free if you don’t have to take over, right?”

“Huh?”

“We, the Four Marquises, can’t be free because of Kingdom’s barrier. So, if you don’t have to channel your magic into the magic stones, then you’ll be free. Where would you go?”

“That’s…” Angie widened her jade coloured eyes.

“If it were me, then I would happily turn over my duty, and travel around Kingdom. And I’ll like to go Frontier someday too. Do you know? There’s something called sea to the south of Wester, and people say that it’s the same colour as your jade eyes. If you’re free, then I wouldn’t mind going with you someday.”

“Oh my, Dean. That’ll be nice if we could go. Even if you go by yourself.” Angie, who laughed, seemed as if she had given up on everything.

“Hey, Dean.”

Angie is…

“Dean!”

“What?”

“What’re you spacing out for? We’re heading to the conference.”

“Ah, okay.”

In the end, the head’s request wasn’t granted. Of course, it wouldn’t be. Angie had more magic than anyone in her family as evident from her eye colour. Five young people of the Remington House would do the work of one Angie. Why should five people do the work when one person can finish it alone?

It wasn’t just one family who had reacted sharply against this.

The Four Earls said that we wouldn’t need the Four Marquises if we get a lot of people to fill the magic stones. The Four Earls govern the four fiefs that surround Kingdom. To be more precise, two of them brought this up.

“If the Remington House isn’t confident in maintaining the barrier and want to use a lot of people to do it, then there’s no reason why an Earl House can’t do the same,” this was their stance. I thought it was getting interesting. Isn’t it fine? If someone else says that they want to take over this role, then we should just let them. For the 10-year-old me, and even now, the rights and profits we get from being part of the Four Marquises are meaningless. I didn’t understand the feelings of the Earls who wanted to bind themselves to Kingdom.

Remington didn’t pull back. The Earls kept pressuring. It was assumed that the situation would get out of hand if it carried on, so the supervision department opened the round-table conference. It was a trifling round-table conference that even made a 10-year-old feel sorry about this country’s state of emergency. It was a mere interest struggle.

Apparently, there was an ugly quarrel at the conference, but the result ended with a phrase from the King, “Try it.” He wanted them to channel their magic into the magic stones. The Earls happily gathered strong magic users, but it just ended with them understanding that they had made light of the Four Marquis’ magic power. The Earl Houses had chosen 10 of their best magic users, but they couldn’t fill the magic stones. They could only watch as one of the Four Marquises calmly filled the magic stone, crumbling their ambitions.

The only problem left was Remington. The royal family, supervision department and the other Three Marquises thought the same thing: Let Angelique succeed. She has enough power, but you wouldn’t let her succeed; that’s why this troublesome thing happened.

As a result, the King said, “Let her decide.” Remington was delighted that the choice was left to his calm and obedient daughter. But, Angelique’s answer was, “I’ll do it.” I couldn’t understand why she had chosen to take over something troublesome at that time. Remington was the same, and they argued for a while.

It was Diana who had cynically told me how Angie felt at that time, “Between getting married to an unwanted partner and fulfilling a bitter duty. Do you not know which is tougher on a woman?”

“That’s why you’re a quiet, unsociable person who doesn’t understand a woman’s heart. I also hate that part of you.”

I even remembered some unnecessary things. Was the love Remington felt for his daughter wrong?

However, it would have been nice if this had ended between the Remingtons, but there was no doubt that this ignited the ambitions of the Earls who seemed to have been set in their place. I don’t really care if they replace us, though.

“Now, let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

My first round-table conference began.