Piece 10 (part 1)

In the evening, Mom invited all of her friends including Uncle Althorn inside the house.

The reason why they aren't sitting around at the diner is because the diner is very crowded at night time. A lot of people are going to come to enjoy a dinner evening on this Saturday night, so any conversation that the four will be having isn't going to be private.

On the other hand, Dad is also taking a break to discuss alongside Mom and the others. He is still the emperor, and this is the first time the roster was truly complete. Everyone needs to have a voice in the talk, so he had to join in as well.

Which leaves just me and Grandma to work on the diner. It was certainly heavier than usual considering this is a Saturday night, but we've done this for years already. We're experienced enough to handle the entire diner with just the two of us.

"Feels nostalgic, Grandma. It's just you and me at the diner now." I said to Grandma as she cooks while I'm cleaning the dishes, but she only turned her cold gaze to me.

"Stop being sentimental and move those hands of yours. We don't have time to chat!" Grandma, as always, shouted those strict words at me, and I only laughed hearing her voice.

She never changes. That was her way of saying things, and I'm sure she is incredibly enjoying this moment as well.

The night eventually came to an end, but I noticed the group was still talking in the house. I decided to take a peek into how they are doing, and I wasn't expecting the contents of the house to be like a war room discussion.

A ton of papers are above the table. Markers were placed on the walls of the house, replacing the pictures that were hung. There's literal people on the floor, though it's just Miss Noire sleeping. On the other hand, Mom, Dad, and Uncle Althorn seemed to be talking rather seriously that they didn't even notice me entering the house. Miss Fiona is in the kitchen, probably making some snacks.

This… is not going to be good.

"Ek-Hem." I cleared my throat to catch their attention, and everyone on the table quickly turned towards me.

"O-Oh, Milly… Is the diner closed already?" Dad asks after seeing me, but I only folded my hands.

"Grandma isn't going to like what's going on…" I said with a concerned gaze, and Dad quickly realized what I was talking about.

The entire dining room is incredibly messy. It's going to take years to clean these up. However, none of them looked as concerned as me.

"It's fine, Milly. I'll take responsibility to clean up." Dad said confidently, and it seems like whatever it is they are talking about, it's so important that cleanness isn't exactly the biggest concern that they have.

"Do you guys… mind if I join, then?" I asked them politely, not wanting to annoy them.

The three turned their eyes widely open, and they certainly weren't expecting me to be so proactive.

"Come here, Millis. You can sit on the chair next to me." Mom said while pulling the chair that was tucked into the table next to her, and I realized that must've been Miss Fiona's chair.

I decided to approach them and sat on the table slowly, and my eyes were welcomed by the sight of a horrendous amount of papers and maps on the table. There's so many documents and notes and markers that it is just too much for a newly arrived individual like me to understand.

"We're going to continue where we left off, so you will have to embrace all the information by yourself. Okay? We won't explain it from the start, so just absorb everything and only ask questions if you think it's important." Mom told me the way to handle meetings like this, and I realized this must be her way of teaching me.

"I understand."

"Then, we'll continue. You were saying, Althorn?" Mom turned back to Uncle Althorn, who seemed rather surprised by something.

"Y-Yeah… Wow, you really are gentle towards her."

"Again. She's my daughter. If there's ever anyone who I won't be cruel with, that's her." 

This must be what Uncle Althorn meant earlier, when he said Mom is very strict. She is really kind to me when she's teaching me stuff, so I cannot understand why he thinks Mom is so strict.

"In that case, I'll try talking about it in the broadest way possible, so our little princess can understand." Uncle Althorn said while turning his smile to me, and I nodded at him with a smile as well.

"Out of the four, the possibility of anyone who might be opposing us is only two out of the four. The Ardjestyn Kingdom and Naverne Empire has been the kindest to receive all of our refugees, and I can probably promise that Ardjestyn will not show hostility towards Veldonia.

Xyphon and Quarvern… they've not only rejected our refugees, but were also very quick to claim the lands that have been freed by the fallen empire."

Uncle Althorn explained which nations might oppose us in the future, and it seems like both Mom and Dad already know about this. Ardjestyn is the kingdom where we are staying, since Cytus and the entire dukedom is part of that kingdom.

"The big question now is how we deal with them if they were to show hostility. In the past, we've had two wars to make all five- now four,-countries accept us as a nation. The result of that was the deletion of an entire kingdom who still rejected our existence until the very end. So, should we be doing the same thing to make them accept our revival?"

Uncle Althorn then turned to the biggest issue at hand, which is deciding how we will react to any opposition that might come due to our empire's return. Naturally, violence can still be an answer, but the last time that happened, it did not end well for anyone.

"I'd rather… not use any violence to solve this." Dad replied after Uncle Althorn's long explanation, which made the office man laugh hearing that.

"Yeah, that's crazy. The Death Knight himself wishes to not use violence? That's like having a fish trying to walk."

"I'm just saying. I don't want to delete another kingdom from the map. And based on the history, those guys knew what we could do, so I don't think they will want to use violence as well." Dad answered plainly as if it was something very simple, but I only looked rather surprised hearing his words.

So, he really did delete an entire kingdom…

"And if they did?" Mom asked, and it looks like we've arrived at the biggest problem of all.

If a war does occur on our way back to being an empire again… what shall we do?

"Again. I'd rather not have violence to be the solution. But, if those countries still didn't learn from the many wars we've fought…" Dad replied to Mom's question and Uncle Althorn laughed again.

"There you go! That's the death knight talking!"

"Shut up, Althorn. Although, I think we can have a way to make them understand who they are going to mess with if they do choose war." Dad said while taking out an object from his magical storage ring, and he placed the object on the table.

It's a scale. A big red scale the size of a human head. It's certainly massive, and we all know what entity ever owns such a big scale.

"You want to use… Harbinger?" Mom asked, and Dad nodded.

"If we can kill a god like Harbinger, what exactly can those nations do? That is the kind of message I'd like them to know if they do decide to challenge us."

"Then, they might turn afraid before they can even launch an attack. But, what if they don't believe the bluff?"

"Then, we fight the war. It's that simple." Dad pulled the scale back to his storage, and Uncle Althorn let out a sigh.

"If such methods do exist, then I'd like to use as many of them as possible. If anything, I can be very happy to use any negotiation method to try and talk them into agreeing." Uncle Althorn asked, and both Mom and Dad couldn't exactly reply to that right away.

Instead, I decided to use this window for me to chime in.

"Then, why not negotiate?" My question was heard throughout the entire dining room, surprising the three that there's a child amongst them.

"Because we have nothing to negotiate." From the kitchen, a middle aged woman with orange hair came out, and her hands were holding a large tray filled with a bunch of snacks on plates.

"In the past, we were able to win the negotiation with the four countries because your father used many businesses to win the hearts of the four countries. He used trading as the main value of the negotiation, deals that can benefit all sides equally. We do not have the same privilege this time because we don't have anything." 

Miss Fiona said while placing down the plates on the table, completely ignoring that there's a ton of papers that are under those plates.