Free Web NovelChapter 269: Unexpected Defender
First Minister Perry Emerson accepted the letter and rapidly skimmed it, only to stumble moments later and nearly pass out from shock.
The letter was again passed to the Minister of Law, Harrison Roth, who took it, scanned it, then crumpled it up and threw it to the ground, furiously stomping on the papers as he shouted, "HOW DARE SHE!? WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS!?"
"Ahem, what’s the meaning of this, Minster Roth?"
Harrison, who had been putting on a rather unsightly display, suddenly froze up when he heard this familiar voice, turning his head creakily to see his older brother, Gregory, staring flatly at him.
The Minster of Law was, quite possibly, the second most powerful on the Royal Council, right after the First Minister, and in theory, this made him the third most powerful man in the entire kingdom when it came to major policy decisions.
As such, Harrison Roth feared no one in the Rockwell Kingdom; no one except his older brother, that is.
Knowing he had just embarrassed Gregory and the Roth Family as a whole, Harrison hurriedly composed himself and bowed in apology to the court, all while concealing the thin sheen of cold sweat which was forming on the back of his neck.
After piercing his foolish younger brother with his gaze for a moment longer, Gregory turned his attention to First Minister Perry and asked, "What news does Marquess Balfour send from the South-West Province?"
Glancing over at Nathanial, First Minster Emerson silently requested his permission to speak, something the King gave with a tired wave on his hand.
Having received approval, Perry Emerson did his best to steady his voice and announced, "Marquess Celestina Balfour sends word that... that she..."
Hesitating here for a moment, Minster Emerson looked up to see all eyes in the hall fixed on him. Wiping his forehead with his handkerchief and gulping hard, the somewhat scrawny, nervous man forced himself to continue, "Marquess Balfour sends word that she had completely evacuated all citizens of the Baker County, Moore Viscounty, and all settlements west of the Belton River in the Carlson County."
"The displaced civilians, numbering roughly 200,000, are currently being relocated to cities across the kingdom as we speak."
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"HUH?!"
"WHAT?!"
"HOW?!"
"WHEN!?"
Needless to say, the Royal Council chambers erupted into chaos, with nearly all of the council members leaping to their feet and shouting.
When they first saw who this letter was from, and knowing the rough situation in the South-West Province, many in the hall had various guesses about what was written inside with expectations ranging from a message saying the situation had been contained, to one requesting reinforcements to help deal with the crisis.
Never had any of them expected that the actual content of the letter would be so shocking.
After the initial burst of surprise, condemnation soon followed, "Marquess Balfour has gone too far! She has severely overstepped her authority! She must be punished!"
"We must bring her before the Council to explain herself!"
"What was the General thinking!? Such extreme actions will severely damage the kingdom’s strength and prestige as a whole!"
"Heavens! How did she even pull this off!? The cost alone must be absurd!"
When the issue of cost was brought up, Harrison Roth’s brow violently twitched again, his expression nearly reverting back to the one filled with unfettered rage he had worn moments ago.
The sharper-eyed council members naturally didn’t miss this and immediately had a bad premonition, one of them turning to the First Minister and asking, "Did Marquess Balfour mention what her actions have cost the kingdom?"
Now openly sweating, Minister Emerson glanced back over at the King again, as if hoping he could somehow escape the looming disaster.
Unfortunately for him, Nathanial was in no mood to deliver the bad news himself, so he just snorted and waved his hand again, ordering his First Minister to deal with it.
Left with no choice, Minister Emerson choked down his reluctance and announced, "M-Marquess Balfour estimates the total cost of her efforts will reach 40 million Gold."
"Is that accounting for lost material and territory, or not?" Gregory Roth, who had somehow managed to maintain his cool this whole time, asked pointedly.
Dabbing his forehead again, Perry Emerson lightly muttered, "It does not."
Another uproar erupted when this news was delivered.
Although none of the council members present had an exact idea just how massive the loss the kingdom had suffered was, if Celestina was telling them she expected to spend 40 million Gold dealing with the fallout alone, then assuming the actual damage was 10 times worse was probably conservative.
440 million Gold...
It was a number so massive that even the incredibly wealthy and powerful members of the highest decision-making body of the Rockwell Kingdom had a hard time fathoming it.
"That’s not all," Minister Roth grumbled through gritted teeth, "Marquess Balfour said that in order to secure the cooperation of the local noble families and merchant groups, she promised them that the kingdom would offer appropriate compensation in the form of tax exemptions, land-use rights, no-interest loans, and straight-up repayments."
"Huh!? That damned woman spends 40 million Gold Coins then expects us to pay for it?!" Minister Mace roared in outrage.
As the one in charge of upholding tradition and maintaining etiquette inside the kingdom, the very notion that a lone noblewoman had taken such bold and consequential actions without so much as notifying the Royal Council was beyond unacceptable to him.
The fact that it was going to cost tens, if not hundreds of millions of Gold didn’t help things either.
This was the reason Minister of Law Roth, and Minister of Traditions Mace were both so incensed, with the latter even cursing Celestina out loud in public, something he would normally wouldn’t dream of doing.
Fortunately for Minister Mace, everyone else in the room was just as flustered at the moment, so no one bothered calling him out.
The annual budget for the Royal Council, in other words, the Rockwell Kingdom government’s yearly budget, was somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250 million Gold. That included all the money spent on supporting the administrative and military operations throughout the country, as well paying for infrastructure, salaries, land development, etc etc.
Now, in less than a month, Celestina Balfour had added another 40 million Gold on top of that, all while the nation’s revenue was undoubtedly going to shrink with the loss of so much productive land in the South-West Province.
Even Celestina’s supporters in the council chambers, the King included, were having trouble trying to find a way to defend her.
It wasn’t until nearly 10 minutes later, when the room had somewhat settled down, that a single individual took the initiative to speak up in support of Celestina, "Marquess Balfour’s actions in this matter border on criminal, and she should be punished accordingly... if they prove unwarranted."
Hearing this statement from the man they least expected it to come from, many of the Royal Councillors were shocked, and it was only after a good minute of silence that General Gunthar, who was there to represent the Golden Wings Legion, questioned meaningfully, "Duke Roth, it was my understanding that you and Marquess Balfour... did not see eye-to-eye."
This was, of course, a huge understatement.
Gregory Roth and Celestina Balfour hated one another, and everyone knew it. The two of them seemed completely incompatible in all respects and would argue every time they met.
There had always been some tension between the Roth and Balfour Families, but during the previous Duke Roth’s term, the relationship had eased somewhat. This was probably a result of both Celestina and the former Duke Roth being members of the military, with relatively similar mindsets when it came to foreign and domestic policy.
When Gregory Roth rose to the position of Duke, however, the feud between the second and third most powerful noble families in the Rockwell Kingdom soured again.
Many speculated about the root cause of this return to hostilities, but most people with intimate knowledge of the matter would probably point to a single, fundamental difference in philosophy between Celestina and Gregory.
Celestina Balfour believed that the kingdom, and by extension the nobles, had a duty to protect the people.
Gregory Roth, on the other hand, believed that the people must serve the interests of the kingdom above all else.
Who was right and who was wrong was a matter of heated debate, and it was quite possible that both of them were right, and both of them were wrong. However, this diametrically opposed mentality constantly led to Celestina and Gregory being on opposite sides of almost all the most important issues in the Rockwell Kingdom.
It was for this reason that no one could believe that, despite how harsh his words sounded on the surface, Gregory Roth was undoubtedly voicing support for Celestina.
As a veteran politician, with over a century of experience, Duke Gregory Roth was not the least bit flustered when everyone stared at him in confusion. freewebnovёl.ƈom
Maintaining his usual calm, indifferent tone, Gregory simple stated, "Although I have my... differences, with Marquess Balfour, the one thing I can say with certainty is that she is a patriot. No one cares more for the Rockwell Kingdom than she does, so if she has deemed it necessary to take such extreme measures, I am at least willing to listening to her reasons before casting judgement."
*Clap clap clap...*
"Good, very good! It seems that not everyone in this room is a complete and total buffoon..."
