Council Meeting-2

"She bought the Rose valley, the disputed land between Baron Hubert and Geon," General said, making Charlotte astonished, she knew about the matter of that land, this council made the decision to turn a blind eye to it, the reason being that they could not anything at that moment resolve it. After all, it was a scuffle between two Dukes.

Howard couldn't help but ask. "She bought the land from whom?"

General turned toward Howard. "She bought the land from both of them. From what we know, she sent a guy to acquire that land with his name, she hid the fact that she wanted to acquire the land."

The Queen chuckled, she was surprised to see this matter resolve so easily. "Isn't that interesting? And that Hubert fellow, he agreed on selling the land?" She had met him before, she knew what his ideals are, and it was surprising that he agreed.

It is then Rupert chimed in. "Yes he did, from what I have been told, he was made an offer that he simply couldn't refuse."

Interested, Queen asked."How much gold did she offer?"

"None, she offered something else," General said.

Curious now, Queen asked. "And what might that be?" It was Rupert's turn to answer. "She offered him mana stones mother. A lot of them."

Charlotte was surprised to hear that. As a mana wielder, she knew how precious mana stones are, they are the life and blood of a mana wielder, but they are very rare, which is precisely why even the royal family didn't have much of them. And yet that woman paid with mana stones, that is just absurd.

As the master of the treasury, Howard also got curious. "How much did she give him?"

Rupert turned toward him. "Hubert has been quiet about it. No one knows. We could only estimate a number by the pace of his and his men's growth. And my experts tell me that he may have around 100-200 joules of mana stones."

"THAT MUCH?" Howard was astonished. As the person who runs the royal treasury, he knows how hard it is to acquire mana stones, even if you have money, even then it is pretty hard to acquire, and yet here this girl has so much of it to spare, this was simply unbelievable.

"What about Baron Geon? How much did he get?" Queen asked.

"The guy that she sent was able to fool him and give him the short end of the stick. He only received like 50 mana stones from her. We don't know the exact number of his gains as well." Rupert said.

Charlotte was speechless. "So how the hell, a young woman from a declining mana wielder family was able to procure such wealth?"

"That is the thing Mother, we don't know. Not only she had completed her ring, but she also had so much wealth as well. I sent some people to investigate her" he then continued. " And the results are rather surprising."

"What did you find out?" Queen asked.

"She had stopped all the activities of her family shop and fired most of the employees. And had made some friends apparently. There is a knight stationed outside her house, guarding the gate. His strength is unknown for the moment. He is a foreigner and is quite strong." Rupert said.

Talking about a foreign knight got Charlotte interested. "How do you know that?"

General then joined in. "Our men while investigating her found a young man named Oliver. He complained to the city's watch that his aunt or something is held hostage in her manor. I think her aunt is a maid there."

He then continued. "As Gizelle had completed her ring, she had become too big for the watch, and no one volunteered to investigate his aunt. Upon our men's request, the city watch commander himself came to the doors of her manor to investigate, and then…"

"What happened," Howard asked.

Rupert chimed in. "The knight beat him silly. Most of his arms and legs were broken. He is alive, but he won't be able to continue to serve as City's Watch commander. Though I have compensated him fairly for his inconvenience."

Queen couldn't help but ask. "Do we know about anything, what that girl is planning?".

General shook his head "We don't know that yet, from what we know, she is strong, has strong allies whose pockets are very heavy." He then continued. "And none of the people on the piece of land have that kind of power. My guess is that she is being backed by some foreign power."

"But who?" Howard asked.

"We don't know that yet. Prince Rupert is working on investigating her currently." General said and everyone started looking toward Prince.

Rupert then shifted on his seat. "My men were not able to uncover everything. But we need to throw caution to the wind. She had just purchased a large piece of land just two days' ride away from the capital. Who knows what she will do with it? But there is one man that could be able to answer our questions."

"Who might that be?" Charlotte asked.

"Ah… Goes by the name of Adui Hampshire. He is an alchemist and a Rank-4 Mage. From our intel, he used to work for Gizelle before he was fired, at least that is what workers of the shop saw and heard."

He then continued. "But a few days later, he acquires the Rose Valley by both Barons under his name. He is her henchman, if we could get him by our side, maybe we would be able to uncover something."

Charlotte closed her eyes, she started thinking. "How strong is the commander of the City Watch?" she asked, with still her eyes closed

"He is around… Rank-6, if I am not wrong." Rupert answered, it is then she raised her head and opened her eyes.

Charlotte looked towards General. "Find this Adui Hampshire and keep an eye on his activities. Try to win him over. We don't where his loyalty lies, for now, so beware.".

General nodded. "Understood, my men are in the Laverdale currently. I will inform them about your wishes."

She then continued. "As far as that knight is concerned, General get your sources together, and see if anyone could recognize that knight. Men of that power are rarely unknown, we might get some lead on him."

"Understood," General said. It was then Howard who cleared his throat. "My queen, if I interject over here."

"Yes."

"My queen, I believe that there is something special about the Rose Valley itself,"

Everyone turned their heads towards him. "How so?" Queen asked.

"Well, believe it or not, a few days one of my subordinates came to me. He said that he was looking for information, about a particular family that use to live in that region. He wanted to access the old records. He told me that he was doing it because of a favor, so I allowed it." Howard said.

In disbelief, Rupert asked. "You allowed someone to access the Royal Library?"

"He is a clerk at the library and didn't need any permission at all to access those records. But that man is what we say, an honest man. Good kid, and a hard worker, thought he needed to inform me, so he did. I basically didn't have any reason to say no to him as well." Howard said.

General then chimed in. "Well send him to me, and I will extract some information out of him."

"No need. He is a weak man. He will tell me everything if I put some pressure on him." Howard said.

"Alright then," General said.

"So then what should we do about that land? We could annex it back, with a royal decree." Rupert suggested.

Charlotte shook her head. "No, that could outrage the nobles and could create unrest,"

Howards then volunteered. "I have a better idea. I will put some people around Rose valley. They could keep an eye out for any suspicious activity in that area."

"Sure, you do that," Charlotte said.

After some more talk, the council was finally dismissed.