Chapter 678: I Guess That Just Leaves Him

Upon returning to his bedroom in his private wing of the palace, Grand Duke Pascal Elros was quickly surrounded by a small army of beautiful maids who diligently began removing his elaborate royal robes.

The ruler of the Grand Elros Duchy thought nothing of all this fuss as it was simply his usual routine.

Ever since he was born, Pascal had been hailed as a genius and was always attended to by numerous servants, so being undressed after a hard day’s work was nothing to him.

Still, today, the Grand Duke seemed a little distracted, as if lost in thought.

Earlier, he had been meeting with his closest advisors to discuss some of their plans for the coming year, mostly about how to increase the number of qualified soldiers at their disposal and how to properly equip them for war.

The meeting had actually been quite frustrating as the Grand Duchy’s ability to procure weapons had always been a bit lacking, but such a minor issue had not been enough to dampen Pascal’s ambitions.

It might take him a few more years and few million more Gold, but once his army was ready, they would march to battle, and they would conquer.

Before he could arrive at that glorious future, though, it seemed he would have to deal with some other annoyances, like the letter his ambassador to the Rockwell Kingdom had recently delivered to him.

As soon as he finished reading that invitation, Pascal understood that attendance at the conference was mandatory, whether it was from a political or an economic perspective; however, that didn’t mean he was happy about it.

The Grand Duchy has always had much closer ties with the Tarnath Dynasty than the Rockwell or Darr Kingdoms, mostly due to geography but also in large part due to marital relationships.

When the previous Imperial Overseer suddenly conducted a purge of the Tarnath Family, despite only being the heir to the Elros throne at the time, Pascal had been quite concerned about what that would mean for his country’s future.

Those worries did not abate after Verena, a woman he had actually once tried to court, was crowned Queen; if anything, just remembering how soft-hearted and unserious she was, Pascal was deeply concerned that the Grand Duchy’s biggest backer was going to fall into chaos.

Very much not wanting this to happen, Pascal had convinced his father, the Grand Duke at the time, to allow him to travel to Tarnath City and offer their support to the new Queen while at the same time quietly scouting out the inside situation to see if there might be... others, they could potentially work with.

Pascal would never forget that meeting.

The Verena he saw back then, the one staring down at him with cold, icy eyes and total indifference, was honestly quite terrifying.

He had always been something of a schemer, a man better suited to intrigue and politics than fighting on the battlefield, so Pascal’s abilities to read people, seek out opportunity, and avoid trouble were all top-notch.

At that moment, all his instincts were screaming at him that the woman before him was not to be trifled with, so any na?ve thoughts Pascal held quickly evaporated.

This Verena was dangerous.

Extremely dangerous.

Instead, the young heir to the Grand Duchy went out of his way to be helpful, figuring that offering the new queen as much assistance as possible while her reign was still unstable would earn him greater rewards in the future.

Pascals’ instincts had proven correct as events played out almost precisely how he expected them to.

Verena was swiftly able to stabilize her nation, and by the time Pascal ascended to the position of Grand Duke 11 years later, the Tarnath Dynasty was under her complete and total control.

As thanks for his early support, however minor it had been in the grand scheme of things, Queen Tarnath had increased the amount of military and agricultural goods that were sold to the Elros Grand Duchy, as well as cut the prices of such goods by an average of 5%.

It might not seem like much on paper, but it was actually a huge boon to the new Grand Duke, one that not only made him personally much wealthier, but also greatly improved his standing in the eyes of his subjects as they saw it as Pascal bringing them strength and security.

Since then, trade had only grown between the Tarnath Dynasty and the Elros Grand Duchy, with both sides benefiting from the exchange of goods across their border.

A side-effect of this deepening of ties, however, was that the Grand Duchy put less emphasis on maintaining friendly relationships with the Rockwell and Darr Kingdoms.

They didn’t become enemies, but the flow of commerce between them definitely decreased.

As for the Zilon Kingdom, the Grand Duchy has always been eying the vast mineral and metal wealth of their southern neighbour covetously.

Perhaps it was also because the Zilon and Rockwell Kingdoms were so close that the Grand Duchy had always been closer to the Tarnaths and even the Darrs.

All that said, now that such a tempting offer had arrived from the Rockwell Royal Family, not showing up was unthinkable.

The only question now was who to send to handle the inevitable negotiations.

While ’trade’ was nominally the reason for this conference, the Grand Duke was under no illusions that this gathering of leaders from all over the South-Central Region would remain solely about economics.

There was also the report from his ambassador that numerous extremely powerful chambers of commerce had been invited, like the Rising Sun Merchant Guild and the Vast Ocean Trade Company.

There was no guarantee that these behemoths would actually attend, but if even one of them did and the Grand Duchy hadn’t sent someone capable of properly speaking with them, it would be an enormous loss. It might even be taken as a slight against them, which was a risk Pascal was unwilling to take.

In other words, the delegation had to be familiar with all aspects of the Elros Grand Duchy as well as its neighbours and had to have at least one person with enough influence to sway the opinion of the Grand Council, the Duchy’s governing body.

After really organizing all his thoughts on the matter, only 2 names came to Pascal’s mind to serve as leader of this mission.

The first was his father, the former Grand Duke; after all, when it came to knowledge of the Duchy and raw political power, there was no one better than him.

Unfortunately, Pascal had no idea where his wayward father, Lyam Elros, was.

After handing over power to his son, the former Grand Duke had stuck around for a while to ensure the nation was running smoothly and that there were no major issues that he needed to be consulted about.

Once this ’tutorial’ period was over, however, Lyam swiftly packed up his things, withdrew half of his personal fortune from the treasury, then boarded his private Skyship with all 10 of his wives and concubines, and set off on what he called a ’well-deserved vacation’.

That was 13 years ago.

Every year or so, a letter would arrive from somewhere new. At first it was the Black Tiger Kingdom, then the Kore Sovereignty, then the northern tundra, then the tropical south, and most recently, a note all the way from the Rising Sun Empire had arrived, updating the Grand Duke on his parent’s current location and just how wonderful their vacation was going.

Pascal and his many, many siblings didn’t all get along; in fact, no small number of them hated each other, but if there was one thing they could all agree on, it was exasperation over their parents’ antics, especially their father.

Lyam was a genius in basically all things related to politics, war, finances, and cultivation.

On top of that, he was a loving father who doted on his partners to an almost excessive degree, which might have been why they were always so sickeningly lovey-dovey with each other.

Lyam also spoiled his children rotten, providing the very best of everything the Grand Duchy and wider South-Central Region had to offer to them.

This, of course, led to mixed results, with some becoming strong, independent powerhouses, while others degenerated into worthless wastrels.

That, however, wasn’t Lyam biggest flaw as a ruler; that would be his complete and total lack of ambition.

Putting it kindly, he was a conservative.

Putting it bluntly, he was lackadaisical, preferring to maintain the status quo because doing otherwise would mean creating more work that cut into his leisure time.

What was frustrating for the other rulers of the South-Central Region who were around during Lyam’s reign was that despite not caring about enriching himself or the Grand Duchy, money and power just seemed to naturally accumulate around him, as if he was favoured by the Heavens themselves.

It was annoying, but not too alarming given that Lyam was basically a pacifist, his lazy lifestyle being completely incompatible with the chaos of war.

Even now, Pascal imagined his old man was having the time of his life together with his mothers, who had actually increased in number over the past few years, making Lyam a non-option to attend the upcoming trade conference.

Understanding this, Pascal dismissed the maids before sinking into his chair and audibly sighing, "I guess that just leaves him."