Chapter 115: The cicada, the mantis, and the oriole. (2)

“Please, join us in taking a seat, we’ve had our chef and sommeliers prepare the finest of dishes and wine for us to enjoy during our gathering.”

Emperor Earhart raised his glass as the servants started to flood the room, placing the various trays of food and drinks on the tables. His hand rested on the headrest of his chair, which look more like a throne than anything else. Since it was slightly elevated he could look down on the various nobles as they were making their way to their seats.

The seats had been quietly separated by rank, with the lowest ranking nobles sitting further away from the emperor, but looking at the food that was brought out it seemed as if he didn’t make the same distinction when it came to the food. Well, he couldn’t make the difference in treatment too apparent, nobles usually had a lot of pride after all so it wouldn’t go well for him if he needlessly poked it.

But well, there was one seat in the banquet hall that was rather out of place, almost painfully obviously so. Snuggly placed by the table reserved for Duke Vritara and his entourage, just below the seat of the emperor, was a chair with a name-card for Gabriel Sakra Indra.

Naturally, the seating preparations for the dukes was a bit different from the other nobles, each of the dukes got a private table for them and their family. But it really was just for their families, their subordinates still had to sit at the other tables, separated by rank to promote ‘more like-minded and easy-going conversation’.

So, why was Gabriel seated at the table of Duke Vritara, right by the emperor? Gabriel had made several preparations for today to ensure that things ran smoothly, but he hadn’t tampered with the seating arrangement. It probably hadn’t been duke Vritara either, it was an unspoken agreement between everyone that they wouldn’t tamper with the seats.

If a duke placed one of their subordinates closer to their own table then it could very easily be seen as favoritism on their part. Naturally, everyone engaged in favoritism, it was just how the world ran. But that didn’t mean that the dukes wanted to make it that obvious, it would displease their other subordinates. And unhappy subordinates were more prone to betrayal, which no one wanted to happen.

Thus, there were only two people in this room who realistically had the power to change the seating arrangement as they pleased. The emperor, and the empress. The emperor was a possibility, but if he had to judge based on the earlier conversation and the undertones of the empress’ words, then it was likely empress Anastasia who had done something.

Sure, one could say that it was done because he had proposed to Alice and would thus marry into the ducal family eventually. In fact, that was probably the reason to be given if someone did end up asking. But there was no precedent for such a situation, engagements were broken all the time so you would only seat others at the family table once the marriage was over and an heir was secured. Thus, empress Anastasia definitely had some other reason for putting his seat there.

But that again just raised its own questions. He’d understand if the emperor was hostile to him, but the empress had no reason to act against him. True, Gabriel had killed the Third Prince to frame the Kasarias Kingdom, but that prince had no relations with the empress.

The empress only had a single child with the emperor, the current Crown Princess, Abigail. Thus, even if the empress somehow figured out that he had been the one to kill the third prince, it should technically only raise her evaluation of him since it was something that aided Abigail.

He had several questions, but he couldn’t do anything about them in this situation and could only sit down in his designated seat. Duke Edward De Vritara also gave him a subtle look as they sat down so he was obviously also questioning the situation, wondering if Gabriel had orchestrated something. But the look Gabriel returned made it clear that this wasn’t one his schemes.

“Then, without further ado, let us tarry no more and proceed with the festivities. A toast, to the Empire.”

Emperor Earhart raised his glass once everyone in the banquet hall had gotten seated, forcing everyone to raise their own glass and down a mouthful of wine to maintain etiquette.

The wine currently in their glass had been poured from fresh bottles so Gabriel was curious to try it. Naturally, it wasn’t because he was fond of wine, it was to see if it was poisoned. His previous two drinks had been poisoned so if they also managed to poison this glass, while he was looking at it no less, then it almost guaranteed that someone in this room had learned poison magic.

But when he put the glass to his mouth and downed the slightly tart wine, he couldn’t detect any traces of poison, be it from the wine or the glass itself. Had the ones responsible for the two previous attempts given up, or were they simply biding their time? If he had to guess then it would be the latter, it was what he would do.

The banquet proceeded as normal once everyone was seated, the various tables keeping their conversations to themselves. In normal circumstances the people present would probably get up from their seats to mingle with the other nobles, but seeing as the emperor had gone out of his way to prepare food they would have to eat while sitting it was clear that he had something to say to them. Thus, they all remained seated and filled the time with meaningless chatter.

Gabriel was among those who idled away the time, mainly chatting with Duke Vritara while simultaneously keeping an eye on the banquet hall. He was counting the minutes while doing the calculations.

Officially, this was a banquet meant to ‘foster unity between the nobles while reminiscing about the deceased Third Prince’. But in truth, it was more like a court where the nobles would decide what to do with the Kasarias Kingdom.

Thanks to Gabriel, it appeared as if the Kasarias Kingdom had killed the Third Prince, giving the empire a good reason to either invade or demand reparations. Given the current state of the empire, they would probably be somewhat split between the two options but eventually lean towards reparations.

But Gabriel was here to ensure that the opposite happened. Alice desired the world, a home for them that stretched beyond the furthest horizon. As her knight, he would present it to her.

That was why he had Abigail make sure that this banquet didn’t happen too quickly, allowing him to contact several people so that he could ensure that things went his way.

It was quite simple, actually. Once a suitable amount of time had passed, Gabriel would bring up the fact that Alice was missing but had been seen in Kasarias to ‘beg’ the Emperor for permission to move into Kasarias to bring her back. Naturally, this would be considered an incursion, if not outright invasion, depending on how you looked at it.

Some nobles would be for it, seeing as Gabriel was a Viscount of War who had no vassals nor soldiers so he would be entering the country alone. Other nobles would be against it because they would not wish to set such a precedent, nor show such aggression since they wanted to avoid war.

But Gabriel had gathered his allies already. The ducal house of Vritara, the ducal house of Barong, the eastern Woodime family. He had signed deals with all of them so they would support his request, giving the emperor little choice but to accept.

Thus, Gabriel would be able to enter Kasarias under the guise of retrieving Alice. And while doing so, he would start attacking the nobles that had ‘kidnapped’ Alice, forcing those within this empire that were conspiring with Kasarias to bare their necks. And then he would cut them all in one fell swoop. Nobles, Kings, Princes, he’d behead them all until no one could stop them from annexing the Kasarias kingdom.

In theory, it was simple. As for the execution, all the pieces had already been set and the hand had been played, it should be naught but a foregone conclusion. But life had a way of throwing wrenches into your plans when you least expected it. This time, the Imperial family were the ones who threw that wrench at Gabriel. Specifically, the Empress, who put down her glass and cleared her throat to draw everyone’s attention.

“It pleases me to see so many of you here despite the short notice we gave you. But I pray that you can forgive us, for the news we wished to share with you were simply too grand for us to tarry further.”

The mindless chatter that filled the banquet hall died down as the empress spoke, rising from her seat as she addressed everyone, finally getting to the cause of this rushed banquet.

“First off, as I am sure most of you have already heard, the Third Prince has been assassinated, with most evidence pointing to culprits either stemming from Kasarias or wishing for harm to befall Kasarias. Truly, a grievous insult towards our great empire. But where there is a shadow, one will always find light.”

Gabriel had to stop his eyes from narrowing. She started by talking about the assassination, meaning that it would be considered nothing but a footnote compared to the actual information she wished to share.

“In truth, the First Prince has been in contact with the Yverial Empire for us for quite some time, we have been working towards ensuring an alliance that will help us deal with the demons lurking beyond our borders. Should it be successful, we can finally extend our borders into the vast uncharted lands we have previously only been able to wall off.”

Gabriel’s finger started to quietly tap the table as he listened to the Empress speak. None of this was within the information he had about this world. From what he had gleaned, the Yverial Empire and the Earhart Empire always ended up at war with each other, there had never been talks of an alliance.

“And finally, our hard work has borne fruit! Through the ceaseless effort of our dear Auron, we have managed to reach an agreement, and alliance, with the Yverial Empire, ensuring our prosperity for generations to come.”

The empress directed everyones gaze towards the First Prince, Auron De Earhart, who gracefully bowed his head as if it was nothing. If they ended it here, it would serve as a decent distraction from the death of the Third Prince. But sadly, they did not end it there.

“As a show of goodwill, both empires have decided to send a delegation across the ocean. The delegation will consist partly of diplomats and soldiers, as we intend to engage in several joint training sessions into the dangerous lands we aim to liberate on the two continents. Once both empires feel comfortable with the results of the training, we intend to launch the large scale liberation operations. Our aim is to liberate this land of demons within this generation, ushering in a peaceful age for all of our descendants.”

The empress used a plethora of buzz-words to incite the nobles, of course making sure not to mention just how they reached this agreement. It was a nice and safe way of speaking.

But the more she spoke, the more Gabriel wanted to narrow his eyes. If the Emperor was speaking like this it would be one thing, he was the father of the First Prince. But the current Empress only had one child, Abigail. When Auron did something good like this it ended up threatening Abigail’s position so the empress should not be this excited about it, the emperor should have been the one to announce it. Clearly, something was going on.

And just as that thought struck him, the eyes of the empress turned towards him, still wearing that peaceful and exalted smile she had as she spoke about the age of peace they would usher in.

“And since we’re already on the topic of the delegation, I would like to request that Baroness Visthar, Earl Aegon, Baron Marthas, Marquess Elaine, and Viscount Indra join them to the Yverial Empire. I can think of no finer nor nobler soldiers to represent our great empire in this endeavor.”

Gabriel wanted to scoff, but held it down with a calm smile. So that was the ploy someone was playing at this time. Send him away before he can do anything as a noble, and probably do what you could to ensure that he died once he was hidden away in the Yverial Empire.

The plan had been found, and it was probably the Empress facilitating it, so he had the Where and the Who, but he still needed to figure out the Why.

Being sent to another empire, far across the sea, while Alice was still ‘missing’ and could thus not join the delegation… Now that certainly would be a hefty wrench.