A Dance Of Diplomacy And Rebellion

The audience upon arrival was for lack of a better word abysmal.

The visiting monarch was shunned by those thought to be his ally, alongside their own Princess.

Many in the palace were on the side of their King believing they needed to take a tough stance against this rising power to put them in their place and secure their own place in this new world since Lunan their former overlord had fallen.

The choices available were not grand.

They could bend the knee to Julius the conqueror of their former overlord, resist and be destroyed or buy for time until someone else came along and dealt with Julius.

None of these options were at all appealing to the Kingdom of Roserun

It's lands had been ravaged, it's people murdered or displaced, and now exploited by their nobility.

But the return of their Princess had brought hope back to the people, and better still she had brought home with her their savior the Grand Duke who rose from being a bumpkin country lord to ruling over territory thrice the size of their own kingdom, while stories of his heroics and that of his army continued to circulate in secret as the army would arrest and detain anyone caught spreading the rumors of Latinium as ordered by the king.

But the news could not be stopped the people living under such tyranny looked to a hero, one who'd already proven himself to them before.

And so while Julius and Yuri were effectively under house arrest to prevent possible assassinations from taking place, those few nobles from the princess's faction, and the commoners who'd met up with the pair as they'd wandered the capital city streets since their arrival.

- - - - - - - - - -

Julius sat still meditating in the corner watching his system menu as his eyes were closed, within his system he was utilizing his latest skill that was unlocked, after having spent points he upgraded his Unit Inspection skill.

Normally the Unit Inspection skill was a single target skill it could show him the status of a single person, a building, an army, a city, or a nation at large so long as he could see it.

His [Enhanced Unit Inspection] took it a bit further collaborating skills between his [Unit Inspection] and [World Map] allowing him to drill deeper, by looking at his map he could now pull up any area he'd been to recently and pull up that locations status, this data was not in real time mind you, since if he pulled up the Carthaginian capital city Julius only could see the status of the city the last time he was there, but now while sitting in his inn room he could watch the goings on within the Roserun capital as the map within him mind showed him a clear split in the populace, there were red dots, showing those disloyal or hostile to him, while there were those who were blue marking higher than 50 loyalty towards himself who he could consider allies of the princess, and lastly their were greys they were neither loyal nor hostile, but as more time passed like watching an infection map the capitals colors began to dye the noble districts began a sweeping change to red with few holdouts and those that did were removed entirely.

Likely a form of patriot act where anyone not willing to toe the line was killed under the guise of treason against the kingdom.

While outside the castle and inner noble district a tsunami of blue was sweeping the city.

Rumors spreading among the commoners was spreading like a wildfire doused in gasoline with a strong wind blowing.

This right here was a pressure cooker waiting to explode as the conditions were just right for a rebellion to be started all it would take is a single misstep by either side and the war would begin, with the nobles rallying around their king, while the commoners surely would rally around the Princess.

"It's fine to look now"

a slightly miffed feminine voice broke him from his contemplations, and when he turned around he could see the princess who'd cleaned herself up and changed into some simple sleepwear had a less than ideal expression upon her face.

Seems she's upset about her brother's actions as well.

"It's not going to be safe to stay within the capital i fear... With the level of their hostility and from what we heard from the commoners their driving the nation to the bring of civil war, and at the rate their going we'll be caught in the middle of it."

"It's not the peoples faults, the nobility pah, what's noble about them they have become power hungry fearing the next warlord to come along and threaten to take what little power they have."

"Well they've got a sizeable army at this point however if they do cause a civil war it's highly likely that same army will rebel themselves as the countries finances are going to drop significantly due to the loss of resources, arable land, and labor."

"I know, can't we just... i don't know do what you did in Carthage?"

"What i did in Carthage?"

"Yeah! Take the people and damn the bastards ruining the lands?"

"Well... i mean if we can convince them to leave sure but what's to stop the nobles or the army from attacking when they try to leave Afterall their a source of labor, possible conscripts for the army, and sources of taxes."

"So in the end it will come down to a fight?"

"No necessarily... If either side starts a fight then yes, but... what if one side loses it's ability to fight before any fighting even begins?"

"And how would that happen?"

"Well, from the noble side, they fear Latinium and our possible takeover of their lands, beyond that they fear you one of royal blood who could overthrow the reigning king and through that vassalizing the kingdom under me as well. Most of the nobles are just operating out of greed while some others are looking to restore the pride they lost in the last war."

"Yeah i can see that so how would you stop these then?"

"Well we could always recruit those spoiling for a fight to join our own army that way they get a place to vent their anger and gain achievements, and without hothead commanders the roserun army would lose much of its teeth, as for the greedy nobles well... we could always bribe them over to our side i suppose."

"But would your Duchy really want nobles like those?"

"Absolutely not, more likely they'd get arrested days after arriving for breeching one of our laws"