Free Web NovelChapter 345: Meeting
[Someone’s Point of View]
A meeting was about to be held for the dynasty’s inner circle, the Council. The final members would be comprised of four governors of each region, five regional sect representatives, five directors, and the returning hero, Senior Master Lucas, and lastly, the meeting would be led by Her Majesty, Queen Yuna Xiao.
For some reason, everyone was wondering why the Senior Master would attend the meeting. He had never participated before. Furthermore, he was so close to the queen that he could just simply ask her for the whole summary of the meeting. But, he came here, with everyone sitting around a long, oblong marble table inside the luxurious-looking meeting hall.
Everyone was blessed to see Senior Master Lucas. It was a privilege to see him present at this meeting. I, a representative of the western regions’ sects, gazed in awe at the Senior Master, who sat in sophisticated mint green robes alongside everyone else.
I greeted him as well as the others. Moreover, the Senior Master attempted to greet the queen, but she just nodded.
For a short moment, I paused and wondered why she seemed cold. But, I felt that it was all for professionalism. Her Highness is known to be cold in the past, as well as now. She was still like that, which made me think that it could be just about it.
However, as the meeting started, Her Highness wasn’t showing any reaction to the agendas and problems. She must be just observing things.
"Going on, with the lenient military power on the borders of the Eastern and Southern Regions, rebellion groups were forming-!"
"Go straight to the point." Her Majesty cut her off, taking senior sister Weng aback. She paused, then nodded in the continuation of her report.
"Rebellions are appearing on the mentioned borders, and they are plundering the villages. Furthermore, they seemed to be remnants of the sects that lost their powers after the unification." Senior Sister Weng ended her report.
Her Majesty looked serious about the matter. Furthermore, everyone was starting to talk with their seatmates about possible actions that we could do. They were starting to develop different approaches; some were cruel, but some were lenient. And due to their talks, it was like a haven for mosquitoes in the meeting hall.
"Silence."
Everyone shut their mouths as soon as Her Majesty talked. We anticipated her words, but they didn’t come.
"We should learn their purpose and how they were able to recruit people. They are still people of this continent, and if they were to be killed because of this, then what good would it do to the people? They will believe that the authority the dynasty had was just to control them. Wouldn’t it be plausible?" Senior Master said, cutting everyone’s thoughts as it was his first time talking here.
Her Highness then faced him and replied, "They will set unacceptable examples. And if the dynasty continues to become lenient to them, they will continue to plunder these villages around them."
"I am simply suggesting an approach that would raise the dynasty’s reputation, Your Majesty."
"Okay... Then, we will ignore your words for a moment. We will still listen to other suggestions which could possibly have the same effect as your suggestion, but will stop further rebels."
"Understood, Your Majesty."
I felt it. It was like a cold breeze for a moment as Her Majesty looked at Senior Master Lucas without any thought of who he was. It was as if I was in between two huge frost monsters from the North during the winter season.
The Senior Master didn’t look at Her Majesty with any certain expression, but the queen was obviously against what the Senior Master said. I was confused. There were rumors saying that with Senior Master Lucas’s every suggestion, Her Majesty would support them immediately.
Could this be just my interpretation of the rumor, or was I misreading the timing of their conversation? Whatever it was, I know that we could still get a good result in this meeting. ƒrēewebnovel.com
"Your Majesty, I think what Senior Master Lucas said would be good. Blending with the citizens will bring more trust, which means that every decision will be easily supported in the future." Senior Brother Wang from the Flower Dark Sect, the representative of the Northern Region sects.
"You think so?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Others supported the Senior Master’s suggestion, but he seemed not to be glad about it. He was still expressionless, looking at the scroll on the table. Furthermore, why did it make me confused? Wasn’t Senior Master Lucas above Her Majesty? Why did he have to be so formal to her and also respectful when, in fact, this continent could be recognized as his continent per legacy’s completion?
The meeting continued, focusing on apprehending the rebellions that had started to appear out of control. They called themselves freedom fighters, but we recognized them as rebels since there wasn’t anything to fight for. They were simply terrorizing innocent people for selfish reasons.
Hence, as the meeting pinpointed every detail and what we should do, later on, the conversation between the Senior Master and Her Majesty heated up. Even others who hadn’t noticed anything were surprised at how Her Majesty sounded emotional.
Watching them gave me some idea of what could possibly be going on between them. Were they lovers?
No, it was impossible for it to happen, as we all knew Her Majesty to be too focused on her responsibilities. But, if it was Senior Master, it could also be possible that she’d fallen in love with his might. The Senior Master is known to be omnipotent.
However, even if the conversation between them heated up, no one ever dared to step forward to intervene. We just let the two parties calm down, as we could see that Her Majesty was blocking the Senior Master’s suggestions and ideas at every opportunity she had.
We all sighed as, later on, the tension between them calmed, and everyone went back to normal with a slight awkwardness.
"I think I might excuse myself." Senior Master Lucas stood up from his seat and waited for no response before turning his back to us and leaving the room without any words. We were speechless, but we couldn’t try to talk about it since he wasn’t even required to be here. We weren’t giving him the responsibilities since we all thought that we should do things that would give him convenience.
And just like that, Her Majesty continued the meeting as if nothing happened and gave orders to each of our organizations.
"Every sect near the mentioned area should send troops to protect the people. Furthermore, as mentioned, sect disciples, with the guidance of elders and veterans, will have their training using rebels to give them experience in actual combat. They should be given enough treasures to protect them; moreover, they should be recorded to be returned after the operation."
"As we would want to raise the reputation and trust level of people towards the dynasty, we will label these rebels as terrorists with no actual intentions, as they didn’t try to communicate with us and give us their resolution. Hence, if leaders were caught, they should be immediately killed, and captured rebels would be punished according to the law."
"Therefore, I expect that everyone will do their best." Her Majesty stood up from her seat and gave us some cold looks before leaving the room.
We were not bound to react to her expression. It could be just because of being displeased, and it would be obviously our fault. And so, as her presence disappeared, we all sighed in relief.
"What was that? Were Her Majesty and Senior Master Lucas fighting? I felt that it was like that..." A fellow regional sect representative said.
We all expressed the same thoughts. The majority also noticed it. I thought that I was the only one who noticed it in the beginning, but everyone else did as well.
"Even at the beginning of the meeting, the Senior Master’s gaze at Her Majesty was nothing special, but Her Majesty didn’t give him any glances. She was purposely ignoring him."
"Ssh! Talking behind Her Majesty’s back is a sin. I hope that everyone knows about that." Senior Brother Wang warned us before he left the room as well.
We all obeyed what he said. It was right... We shouldn’t talk about the queen behind her back... But, what could we do? We wanted to express our thoughts about what we had just noticed. Two prominent leaders of the Eastern Continent were quarreling. There should be something that we must do.
I looked at everyone else, and I guess that they had the same idea. They were worried about the two of them and what could happen if they had a power struggle. I just hope it wasn’t like that.
"I would want to believe that the two of them were just showing displeasure with each other with no deep meaning," I mumbled.
Even so, it should be impossible that it was a power struggle since Her Majesty respected Senior Master’s achievement and Senior Master was powerful enough to kill the queen. So, it could be just between them, and the continent wasn’t involved in any of it.
