Chapter 8 Alliance(2)

When King Rashid had heard everything that the Imperial Prince had just said right now, he became astonished. Even if he was a king, he felt very tempted towards the Kou Empire's possible offer.

The offer of the giving some of Kou Empire's land even if. It's a little was already a good deal for a maritime and trading nation like Balbadd. If Balbadd were able to get their hands on a larger land, preferably in the coastal regions, it would significantly Boost Balbadd's economy at a quick pace, and it may be able to become the number 1 trading nation by defeating the Reim empire in trading.

And the second part of the Imperial Prince was also a great offer for the country of Balbadd as if they had permission to use all the trade routes in the Kou Empire.

Many merchants might base their businesses in Balbadd due to this offer as Kou Empire was known to be a strict nation, and rarely does Kou Empire allow any Merchant group to use some of the Kou Empire's trade routes, much less all of it as Kou Empire favored their own merchants before others so only a few were able to get Kou Empire special goods that weren't a local to it.

Then as he thought of this, King Rashid said to the Imperial prince, "Your Imperial, this offer is indeed excellent, but I know that this isn't just. for your Kou Empire to form an Alliance with our country Balbadd and just connecting the Re and Saluja Royal Families by offering one of your descendants with one of my sons."

"So, I know you want something else from our country, so can you get right into the main topic of this offer." As Imperial Prince Hakuyuu Ren, when he heard this, was surprised and then clapped his hands as he said, "So the stories where true you do seem to be a wise king from what father said, so I'll respect you and tell our Kou Empire's demands once we gave the earlier conditions."

"Our conditions are that your country will give our Kou Empire some of the small islands that are near Balbadd, which will become a base for our country soldiers to reside in. We also require your country's strong sea warfare ships if the bases we will create be attacked by neighboring countries fighting our Kou Empire. And of course, if this happened, our soldiers would also help your soldiers if any nations try to attack your kingdom, So do we have a deal?"

When King Rashid heard this, he first thought of the Pros and Cons of this offer. As although at first glance, it seems to be a fair deal; however, if, in any case, that the Kou Empire tries to attack or overthrow Balbadd, Balbadd will be concerned in all areas and will have no place to back of too once it happens.

Then after a lot of thinking in his mind, he finally decided on it, as he thought that if even the Kou Empire tries to take over his Balbadd Kingdom, he can bet his hope on his third son Alibaba who was already extremely talented and smart to lead Balbadd and make Balbadd one of the strongest nations and be at least be able to make Balbadd to become strong enough to at least fight back against Kou Empire in any case if they try to take over Balbadd.

Then Rashid, as he thought of this, said, "Ok, I agree to your offer's and will discuss later which parts of Balbadd will I'll hand over to your Kou Empire and which part of your Kou Empire you'll hand over to Balbadd."

When Hakuyuu heard this, he nodded at the king's decision as he thought that it was a wise decision and said, "Wise choice, your Highness of Balbadd but don't worry about which part's of our countries will be given and taken here take a look at this map we had prepared on which part of the Kou Empire was going to give, and the part of Balbadd's island was taking."

Then Hakuuyu Ren ordered Kojin to give him the map, and after batting the map from Kojin, he said, "Here King Rashid, here's the map we already prepared." When Rashid and the Official who was with him saw the map, they saw that the Kou Empire planned to take the small islands that were farthest from the Balbadd shores that were near to the country of both Parthevia and the Aktia Kingdom.

While the locations Kou Empire had planned to give was the border regions of the former Kouga Empire and some of the main Kou Empire's Sea Regions, and weirdly enough, the Aktia Kingdom was also included in the map that Kou was going to give Balbadd. When King Rashid saw this, he then asked why the Aktia Kingdom was here, to which Hakuyuu Ren replied.

"Oh that our Kou Empire was able to make the Aktia Kingdom become a vassal state recently due to an inside war that happened in the Aktia Kingdom recently which left the Aktia Kingdom in near ruins and they had asked our Kou Empire for help which we helped them rebuild their country in exchange for their country to become our Vassal state which they acquired easily with a bit of intimidation and of course some benefits."

When Rashid heard this, he was shocked that he didn't get this info earlier since the Aktia Kingdom was right beside the border with Balbadd. As he thought, maybe the Kou Empire was much stronger than he thought to provide such a large benefit for even a whole kingdom that lasted for many years to have quickly become a vassal state of a just recently growing empire.

Then After this, King Rashid and Imperial Prince of Kou Hakuuyu Ren had talked a little bit more about after deciding what they were going to do with the test that the Kou Empire will make the princes do. They decided to hold it 4 years from now when Alibaba will become 5 and a half-year-old, Ahbmad being a 14-year-old, and Sabhmad being an 11-year-old by then.

After this, the king had shown the palace and Balbad to the prince and Kojin, who was the prince's guard. General Kojin liked Balbadd as he thought that the architecture was greatly different from the Kou Empire's and liked the culture.

And the reason that King Rashid had not introduced his son already to the prince and general who had wanted to meet him was that King Rashid had planned a banquet for the night later for the Imperial Prince and General. Rashid planned to introduce Alibaba and his new wife, Anise, who was already recognized as the new queen of Balbadd.

When the Nobles and Council members of Balbadd saw the third prince's immense talent, they recognized her to become the new queen. Most of the commoners had agreed to it as they had heard that Anise was once a commoner and then became the queen who inspired and gave some commoners hope that they can raise the social ladders if they work hard enough.

While Hakuyuu himself just observed the places with a non-caring attitude. In a coincidence, Hakuyuu had once met Alibaba, who was reading a book in the palace's garden when he passed, when Hakuyuu saw a 1-year-old looking boy reading a book about Magoi.

Hakuyuu immediately knew who the kid was as he only knew of one person being that young to be already read a book and an advanced book at that. The third prince Alibaba Saluja. So then he approached the prince and then said, "Hey Kid, you're the third prince of Balbadd, right?..."