RSTUM 109

109: Dealing with Trouble

There are many methods to assert one's dominance in a meeting. Numbers, locations, power shows, leverage, words of intimidation, but the most important point one needs in dealing with those who are obsessed with dominating others is a bucket load of pure raw confidence.

"Look at what we have here, not even attempting to hide away the shame of our house, duchess."

A towering man at the lead of the group of Elders walked ahead with confidence and disregard for etiquette. He had medium black hair, black thin eyes, and a big jaw with a light beard.

He approached both Annabelle and Leon all the way to the table they sat around climbing up two steps of stairs that separated Annabelle and Leon from the rest of the Elders.

He rudely snatched an apple from the table and took a bite of it before turning to Leon with cold eyes.

"Pack your things, brat. I'm taking you to Kar…"

The man couldn't continue with his words suddenly collapsing backward like a toppled jar.

Leon saw what happened, the stairs he was standing on suddenly rotated themselves backward and the man was down the stairs after losing his balance and landing on his knees.

"You…"

"Stop it, Morgan." An old man behind the large guy spoke with a firm voice, "You are in the presence of Her Grace."

"Testing out the waters with me, Lord Duncan?" Annabelle spoke.

"I dare not, Your Grace." The old man spoke.

"Leon, let me introduce you to Lord Duncan Dark. Manager of the Duchy on behalf of the Duke." She said.

"Surely we remember one another." The old man spoke and smiled gently to Leon, "It has been a long time, child."

Leon maintained a poker face and turned to Annabelle.

"Don't worry child." Annabelle said while looking at Leon, "I am afraid my son remembers nothing of his time here, my Lord."

Lord Duncan frowned after hearing that.

"What do you mean, your grace?" He asked.

"What you heard, my lord." She replied, 'My son has lost a great deal of memories, including memories of me. I don't know how long this lasted but I suspect it happened not too long after his stay in Karanberg right years ago."

"You don't…" The old man wanted to say something but then changed his expression and changed what he was going to say, "Are you saying this to claim that you are not willing to send him back to Karanberg?"

Annabelle closed her eyes and exhaled.

"Let me ask you this, my lord." She said, "As a manager of the duchy and overseer of the family affairs, don't you receive a report every season on the performance of our young ones in the Academy?"

"I do." He answered.

"Then you saw Leon's latest report of performance." She asked.

"I did." The man answered with obvious annoyance, "I don't know where you are trying to go with this."

"Leon was just showing me something interesting, my Lord. Son, why don't you show Lord Duncan that thing you showed me?"

Leon couldn't understand Annabelle at first but she seems to have cast "Message" subtly and told him what he needs to do.

After that, Leon raised his hand and a ball of Light was dancing subtly above it.

The Lords who were present were five, Duncan Dark was their leader but each and every one of them became an elder thanks to their own abilities. So… by seeing the orb of light above Leon's hand, they sensed his Mana and were stunned where they stood.

"This is… Light Magic?" They looked between Leon and the ball of Light on his hand then looked at Annabelle.

"Was this in the report you have received, my lord?" She asked.

"That's… it is simply impossible?" Duncan Dark said and looked at Leon again.

"What is impossible, my Lord?" She asked, "The fact that my son is a late bloomer or the fact that someone in the Capital has maliciously hidden my son's talent to keep him from reaching his potential?"

"It can't be, your Grace." Duncan Dark stepped up on the stairs while raising his voice but Annabelle glared fiercely at him which forced him to stand back.

"My friend Erielle has tried to Identify my son's talent since this morning. Not only has he shown an attitude to various Elements, but she has confirmed to me that he is without a doubt of a Talent that exceeds Rank A. Moreover, he possesses a Pain Resistance skill and a Poison Resistance skill."

"Your Grace, Leon's talent is a serious matter. If anyone was aware of it, it would be a grim sin to hide it." A Lady from the back tried to appease her.

"Are you sure of that, Lady Brenda?" Annabelle asked, "A late blooming talent can awaken at least at the age of 9. I know we haven't had a talent test for Leon since he was 8 but after he was taken, he should have been through one at least once a season to monitor his growth since he started his training at the age of 10. So every test he has ever taken in the Capital was faked."

"It is a serious accusation, your Grace." Duncan Dark said, "Please, give us time to investigate?"

"Time? Like the time that was stolen from me and my son. Like every memory he can't remember of me now?" She asked fiercely, "If he has an aptitude for the Light, you know that the Temple of Light must also receive records of his training in the Light. The laughable thing is that I sent my son Lance to the temple in order to ask them for Leon's records… Now, do you think the Temple will find any?"

"Your Grace, you involved the Temple in this?" Duncan Dark seemed to be growing older as Annabelle kept delivering one blow after the other.

"It is a mandatory thing, my lord. I thought your faith in the Light was stronger than hiding something from the Temple." She said with a sly smile.

The man looked at Annabelle and his eyes seemed to be begging for mercy at this point.

"What can we do for you, your Grace?" He asked.

"I don't need anything for myself, my Lord? What can you do for Leon?" She asked.

What can they do for Leon?

What exactly were they expecting when they came here in the first place? The Lords asked themselves.

Of course they were not here to force Leon back with them but to force Annabelle into a weak position and push her to make a mistake. The Duke would take care of things after that.

But look at what they just stumbled on! A screw-up on a royal scale. Not only was the Duchess accusing the Dark Family in Karanberg of falsifying official documents but she was even using the low blow and bringing the Temple into this.

Just who is dumb enough to attempt to keep Leon's talent hidden?

Was it the Duke? Impossible!

The Duke's second wife? It has to be.

This problem needs to be contained in the fastest way possible.

"Young Lord, Leon. What can we do for you?" Duncan Dark asked Leon directly.

Annabelle sent Leon a Message spell and told him to ask for something specific. He barely kept his expressions together from what he heard but his lips kept twitching.

He cleared his voice and spoke confidently afterward.

"That uncle over there." Leon pointed at the tall man known as Morgan Dark, "I want to slap him."

A slap!

Morgan's eyes widened and felt greatly offended but as Duncan Dark turned to him, he couldn't speak a word.

"Leon, what are you saying?" Annabelle immediately made up a shocked face.

"Young Lord, Lord Morgan's behavior may be crude but…"

"I feel disrespected. He insulted me in front of my mother… in my house. I won't rest until he receives punishment. And I want you to slap him for me, Lord Duncan, as the eldest here." Leon said.

Leon showed respect for Duncan Dark and contempt for Morgan Dark. In truth, Morgan Dark is a distant cousin to Leon and Duncan Dark is his uncle. They are a branch family but they are widely respected because of their good name.

But slapping Morgan for Leon wouldn't just return insult by insult, but it would drive a wedge in the branch family and cause it to lose power or even split up.

"I…" Duncan Dark thought fast and then made a peace offering, "I have something better than a slap."

"Oh, what is it?" Leon asked.

"Lord Morgan has just acquired a rare find among rare finds." Duncan said that and Morgan immediately started pegging him to stop.

"That is?" Annabelle asked.

"A Fayruz Charger Stallion with a maroon coat and a killer charge. A true war horse. In all my days, I've seen nothing as fast."

Leon raised a brow since Annabelle was silent in his head but as he turned to her, he saw her clasping her hands together with a smile.

"This would be an excellent comeback gift to Leon. Thank you, Lord Morgan." She said.

What a thug! Leon was thinking in his head as he saw Annabelle's act and how tragic Morgan Dark started to look.

"I believe we can leave the matter of informing the Temple about Leon's affinity with the Light separate from the internal investigation, Lord Duncan. However, I am not sure how long it will take them to come sniffing around." She said.

"Yes. Thank you, your Grace." Duncan spoke.

"As for the matter regarding Leon's education, we have to say a lot about the situations that happened with him in the family. A poisoning attempt, a chase in the streets with armed guards, and wanted posters of him and our subjects on Fort Marth. It seems my son's life is endangered by many factors, my Lord." Annabelle stated.

"Whatever happened outside the Duchy will be investigated by the Royal Family and the Duke's side. Though I can't interfere, I would say Lord Leon's life is safe here at the duchy."

"And Leon would be attending the Silver Peaks Academy once he recovers his health. We can't miss out on education, can we?" She added.

"Of course not, your Grace." The man nodded. 

"And please, deliver this to the manager of the treasury. Once my son's talent is proven by an official paper from the Temple, he will have to receive all the allowance of his Talent Rank that he missed for all the years he was denied it. You know what this means." She added again.

You know what this means? Of course he knows what that means. It means they are going to drill a hole in the family's budget just for Leon.

If his talent bloomed, for example, at the age of 10 and he is now 18 years old, this means he should receive 1200 Gold Crowns each year. A total of 9600 Gold Crowns for eight years.

This monstrous Duchess held onto the weakness of their position and kept her fangs dug into it like a she-lion strangling her prey.

And they thought they were entering the Garden Palace with leverage against the Duchess. Now, they are going out robbed, bloodied, and beaten. The Elders pegged the Duchess to leave before she starts making more demands.

"How? How could you let her do this to us? We had every right to drag that boy in front of her and deliver him to the Duke! These were his orders!" Morgan Black couldn't accept the defeat he just went through.

"Who do you think put us in this situation, to begin with?" Duncan Dark replied, "If the Duke was the one to hide his own son's talent… no, it doesn't make any sense… whoever is behind Leon's incarceration in Karanberg is the one who didn't want his talent to bloom."

"Lady Catherine?" A Lady between the elders spoke, "It is not ideal to drag her into this and you know damn well we can't."

"Why not?" Morgan asked.

"Because her family, the McCormicks, have us under a crippling debt." Duncan replied.

This was bad… extremely bad for the entire duchy. Despite its natural resources, the Dark Duchy isn't on the major trade routes. Rather, it lies at the end of the Continent away from the hustle and bustle between the world's major trade hubs. Moreover, the Royal Family has long since signed a deal with the Duchy to be subordinate to the Kingdom in all its trading activities which means the Duchy can't initiate any larger trading operations without the King's approval, the trading act that he is suffocating the Dark Duchy slowly with.

It looked bleak but neither the Royal Faction (Crowns) nor the Opposition Opposition Faction (Moderates) were going easy on the government of the duchy.

As for the management of the duchy, they were being forced into corners day in and day out. Only time would tell when the balance will be thrown aside and they get to join a faction too. That day, they would need a miracle to keep the duchy together in one piece.