Chapter 63: Negotiation

Going to demand an explanation from the king of an enemy nation might sound absurd, but within the peculiar context of the Celtic realms, it was entirely normal.

To be precise, if you traced the lineages of the various royal families and nobility, everyone was related! It was somewhat similar to Britain and Germany before the First World War. Although the two countries had been at odds for a long time prior to the conflict, their royal bloodlines were genuinely close; the German Emperor and the British King were cousins, and the British royal family itself even bore a German surname. The ties among the Celtic realms were closer still.

This also meant that certain unwritten rules held immense binding force. After all, everyone was essentially part of the same family, and without a sense of order, things would descend into absolute chaos. Therefore, once King Odin did something that the rules of nobility could not tolerate, Kay was fully justified in bringing his knights to demand an explanation.

And King Odin was obligated to give one!

As ridiculous as it sounded, it was the raw truth.

This was also why Kay had summoned only knights; ordinary soldiers had no business meddling in a matter of this scale!

Soon, Kay's demand was delivered straight to King Odin. But upon reading Merry’s confession, King Odin felt physically ill. Wasn't he supposed to be the King of Assassins? How could he be so incompetent? And lacking any professional ethics—getting caught and immediately leaking client privacy? Terrible review!

However, complaining about Merry was useless now. Kay had already leaked this information to the vast majority of the nobility in the Kingdom of Centrid. Unless King Odin wished to lose the support of all his nobles, he had to step forward and deal with Kay.

Furthermore, this affair involved the attempted assassination of Arthur! That charge was far more severe than attempting to assassinate Kay. While Kay was considered a prince, he was ultimately King Uther's adopted son; according to noble hierarchy, his status was inherently lower than Arthur's.

If King Odin had openly and honorably breached Camelot, found Arthur, and slain him in plain sight of everyone, no one would have said a word.

But this was an assassination! In a society where chivalry was paramount, such methods were held in utmost contempt. Coupled with the implications of royal succession, this threatened to draw intervention from the royal families of other nations.

In short, previously, when King Odin sought revenge for his son, he naturally held the moral high ground in terms of noble public opinion. Who could stop a father from avenging his son? Thus, although the noble class of the Kingdom of Centrid did not want a war, under the banner of righteousness, they had nothing to say.

Yet now, King Odin had played a disastrous move that completely inverted public opinion. What was once a justified cause had suddenly become unjust. This made many of the nobles who supported King Odin want to vomit blood.

There was no playing the game like this! Wasn't this sheer sabotage? All our casualties, just ruined by your stupidity?

Consequently, the support King Odin enjoyed plummeted overnight. In this era, the royal family merely served as the leading big brother to the nobility; if the royal family proved utterly incompetent, it was hardly uncommon for the nobles to ignore them entirely.

Now, Odin was completely cornered.

Kay soon met with Odin. He said nothing at all, simply dumping the leg-broken Merry right in front of King Odin, and stared at him.

The situation became exceptionally awkward.

King Odin wanted to argue his way out of it, but the problem was that he had been caught red-handed. Not only was Merry captured, but Merry had also spilled every detail—who hired him, where the transaction took place, and what was said. There was zero room for sophistry.

Looking at the half-dead Merry, King Odin knew he had to provide an explanation.

"What do you want?"

"Regarding Alilade's fate, both Uther and I are deeply grieved, and we approached you with the utmost sincerity to plead for peace. But you refused, and to that, we have nothing to say. Therefore, while war is not what we desired, once it has reached this point, we can only meet it head-on. However—" Kay pointed coldly at the bald assassin on the ground and said, "This kind of behavior violates the tacit understanding among all royal families and brings shame upon the entire nobility."

Hearing this, King Odin gnashed his teeth so hard they nearly shattered. He felt that Kay was humiliating him!

"However, given your loss, we do not intend to pursue this further!" No one expected Kay to make such a statement, and everyone froze in astonishment.

Before anyone could react, Kay drew the longsword at his waist and decapitated Merry with a single stroke.

"We have determined this to be a misunderstanding, and we are willing to preserve your honor and dignity."

Executing the sole eyewitness with a single strike effectively eliminated half the evidence on the spot. This allowed the Centrid nobles present to let out a collective sigh of relief. No matter what, the royal family was still their leading big brother; if the leader's reputation was ruined, the subordinate nobles would suffer too. Now that Kay was willing to let the matter drop, he was saving face not just for King Odin, but for the entire nobility of the Kingdom of Centrid.

Seeing how decisively Kay had dropped the investigation into the assassination, King Odin was stunned for a moment. Then, all the life and spirit seemed to drain out of him. He slumped powerlessly onto his throne and asked in a dry voice, "Then what do you want?"

"Peace!" Kay had no intention of utterly destroying King Odin's dignity, as that would yield no benefit to Camelot. Truly stripping King Odin of all face might provoke a disastrous outcome; if Odin abandoned all unwritten rules and fought Camelot to the bitter end, Camelot would suffer as well.

"And what of my Alilade? Where is the justice owed to him?" Naturally, King Odin was unwilling to let it end here. Although this was already the best possible outcome, he simply could not cross that mental hurdle.

"Alilade died in a duel! He did not lose his honor!" Kay rejected this premise. True, King Odin's loss was tragic, but let us not forget that Prince Alilade had fallen in a duel against Arthur—furthermore, Prince Alilade had been the one to initiate that duel, leaving no room for complaint.

If this argument had been made before the assassination attempt, it might have shaky ground. After all, much like Arthur, Prince Alilade had already been knighted; he was no longer merely a knight, but a royal heir whose status could not be defined purely by knighthood.

Yet things were different now. King Odin had lost the moral high ground, rendering this argument entirely valid!

Of course, Kay was still willing to offer King Odin a way out.

"The casualties brought by this war are already heavy enough. If you still refuse to let this go, then I propose ending this war in the most honorable manner possible: a knightly duel! If our side loses, we shall compensate your nation with one hundred thousand gold coins and cede border territory in exchange for peace. If our side wins, your nation need only compensate us with fifty thousand gold coins, whereupon both sides shall withdraw to pre-war borders and lay down arms!"

This offer was more than generous. By any reasonable calculation, Kay was making massive concessions here. The trajectory of the war was clear to everyone; Camelot undeniably held the upper hand. Were it not for considerations of domestic production, Kay could easily have mobilized more troops and marched deeper into the Kingdom of Centrid. Under such favorable conditions, choosing to end the war via a knightly duel was undoubtedly an enormous favor granted to the Kingdom of Centrid.

After all, a knightly duel would place both sides back on an equal footing.

Every noble of the Kingdom of Centrid looked toward King Odin, and they all recognized the fairness of this proposal. Kay’s initial willingness to drop the investigation into the assassination had already demonstrated immense goodwill toward Centrid, and now he was offering a heavily favored proposal to end the war. They could find no reason to refuse.