Chapter 1098: Crisis (2)
Chapter 1098: Crisis (2)
"What do you mean by that?" Even though the king asked this question, he wasn't actually looking for an answer from the soldier.
That was because not only the king, everyone in the room already knew the answer to this question.
After all, there was only one place that wyverns could come from.
So for wyverns to suddenly show up in their territory and attack them like this, they knew exactly what the reason was.
The soldier didn't know how to respond to this question since he knew that it was a rhetorical question. At the same time, he knew that if he were to actually say anything, all it would do is make the king angry with him and he would suffer the wrath of the king.
So the soldier smartly kept silent and didn't say anything.
But even if he remained silent, it wasn't as if this matter would be swept under the rugs.
Seeing that no one said a single thing, the king's attention turned to the ministers that were standing there around the room. All of them had their heads slightly turned as if they were trying to avoid drawing any attention to themselves.
Only there was no way for them to completely avoid the king's gaze.
The king slammed his fist on the armrest of his throne and roared, "Well? What do we do about this?"
No one said a single thing again.
They all acted like they were mute so that they wouldn't attract his attention.
In the end, the king just gave a sigh before saying, "What are their demands?"
All of the ministers revealed strange looks when they heard this, but they didn't say anything in response. They knew that this was the best choice that they could make since in front of the might of these wyverns, there really wasn't anything that they could do.
The soldier didn't say anything since he didn't have any information on this.
Seeing this, there was anger that slowly appeared on the king's face.
Only he didn't get to say anything as someone else came in and said, "The Kite Kingdom just sent their demands to us."
The king's attention was diverted to the new soldier that came in and he waved his hand before saying, "Read them out."
"Surrender or die." The soldier hesitated a bit before reading this out.
The faces of the ministers all became ugly when they heard this.
They slowly turned to look at the king to see what his reaction was, but they found that he didn't seem to show any signs of anger. Instead, he had the same ugly expression on his face that they had.
After all, even the king never would have expected the Kite Kingdom to be this direct.
Even if there was a clear difference in power, one would at least try to act with some kind of decorum. They wouldn't be this direct to tell them to surrender like this since it would just be an insult.
If they were this direct, it might have the opposite effect of making the enemy angry and determined to fight to the end.
That was only if they were fools that couldn't think things through.
This was not the case with the king of the Antwerp Kingdom.
The king of the Antwerp Kingdom knew that if he were to fight to the end, all that would happen is that they would all be wiped out. The only thing that he could do for not just himself, but the people of his kingdom was to not fall for this provocation and surrender still.
It was just that it really hurt to surrender like this.
It also didn't seem to make any sense at all how the Kite Kingdom would act like this.
Just why were they attacking them all of a sudden?
If they were to do this, weren't they afraid of offending the Holy Empire that had agreed to send help to their Antwerp Kingdom?
This didn't seem like a smart thing to do.
With a sigh, the king said, "Send them our declaration of surrender. There's nothing that we can do against them."
Then after a pause, he said, "Tell them to send our declaration of surrender as soon as possible and try to stop the attacks on the knight orders. If those knight orders are destroyed, all that will happen is that our people will suffer. We need to preserve the knight orders as much as we can to negotiate."
The soldier quickly nodded in agreement and ran off.
The ministers looked at the king with strange looks on their faces, but they didn't know what
to say.
After all, this was a matter of their entire kingdom surrendering to another kingdom.
This was not an easy thing to talk about.
"Your majesty..." In the end, the prime minister felt that he should say anything.
The king just raised his hand and said with a sigh, "I know what you want to say, but there'sn/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
no other choice. I know that if we were to fall for their provocations and fight them, there's no doubt that we will all be slaughtered."
Then in a more serious voice, he said, "But it is strange that they would attack right when the monsters started attacking us..."
He left his voice hanging as if he was implying something.
All of the ministers had serious looks on their faces when they heard this.
Seeing that they understood what he was implying, the king said, "For now, keep your eyes
open and see what you can find. If we do find enough evidence, it will be easier for us to go to the Holy Empire when the time comes."
All of the ministers nodded in agreement after hearing this.
But what they were actually thinking...
The most important thing was one's life.
"Boom!"
There was a loud sound that came from outside before a voice shouted out.
"The gates have been destroyed!"
The king and ministers revealed looks as if they were preparing to face the reaper.