Chapter 66: Manipulation at its Finest Part 2

[Loki's POV]

Caesar-kun was startled hearing a voice of someone familiar suddenly appearing beside his ear without even him noticing or knowing where in the world did I came from, however, startled as he may be, he is still the strongest presence of his nation, after all he is a dragon slayer and even though not as strong as Sigurd the fact that he killed a dragon is an evidence of his prowess.

He immediately stood up on his throne, went in front of me and attacked me with a side-kick, the kick has power on it as my bangs blew into the left side, I caught the foot that is coming from my right cheek with my right hand casually giving a little snort, obviously implicating that he would already be in the morgue if I wanted it right now regardless of wether the foot landed or not, he looked perplexed and is wondering how in the world his preemptive attack got caught casually, but he soon realized it is his favorite devil, I smiled and slightly pushed the feet back to the floor.

"Hello there, Caesar-kun."

I smiled as he gritted his teeth, of course I ignored his angered expression and gestured my hand for him to go back to his seat.

"Now, you should calm down, after all no one wants the King of Gjallarhorn to accidentally mess up his whole nation by being rude to another member of a Royal Family of a different monarchy, right?"

He didn't answered my sarcastic question, after all, he knows that what I said is the truth, so he gulped down his anger and irritation of not knowing how in the world did I teleported when the 5th dimension is locked up by the shota dragon king.

And even if he said that "He sneaked in my back so I hit him, not my fault." With a country as powerful as mine, my words have more speaking power and all of his explanation will be drowned by anything I will say, so he weighed the pros and cons of continuing to assault me, that includes my personality and manipulative nature of course and ultimately decided to sit down bearing with him the anger of seeing me.

But seriously, why are they angry of me, I cannot understand... Oh, I made the widowed queen my sex sleeve when his husband died that almost caused the fall of this nation.

Heh... Now I know.

Anyway, Caesar sat down, his stoic demeanor that got erased because of anger is now back in place, I also put my two hands in the back looking like a reliable confidante of the king. Caesar put his elbow in the arm of the throne and rested his cheek in his knuckle as he looked at me, not a single thread of willingness to hide him not being able to tolerate my presence with his bloodshot eyes.

Oh, this person is the son of that queen.

"Speak, what do you wish for you to personally visit my humble presence?"

Through a rasp voice, he asked and no matter how much flowery he used, the disdain on his face is not even upsetting anymore and is just downright funny, I snorted in my mind, Instead of asking me that, you should just ask me what is my command, after all, this nation will soon dance in the palm of my hands.

Well of course I can't say that, I mean, who would? That will just make an easy job turn into an impossible one, the chips in Camelot is already set and a little tweaks here and there are the only needed pieces so that the invasion of Camelot will succeed, furthermore I want to know what is in Camelot that it has me drive crazy that I have to plot for it the moment I woke up and because winter is already here so humans will stop their war, naturally.

But I am impatient of knowing the things I don't know in Camelot, after all being left in the dark is what I hate the most.

So I gulped down the urge to laugh my guts out and immediately pointed my index finger into the ceiling.

"I am sent by my queen, Eris Darkbringer to offer your nation an alliance, a general one."

My tone turned serious but with still a business smile as I said those words that made the already bloodshot eyes of Caesar all the more red as if laser is about to burst out of it, though I bet it wouldn't matter if it did came out.

"An alliance? An alliance without even a single silkworm or a single tea leaf as a gift?"

Almost growling, Caesar let out a question that I am waiting for, yes that's right I lied and used the name of my sister so that I can agitate this person further, he is angry of my sister and is in the verge of snapping but can't do anything about it, after all her little brother is here and will make anyone who disrespected his sister pay a price they wish not to.

My face turned neutral as I looked at him with eyes that can go hostile and at the same time go friendly surfaced on his eyes as beads of sweat is now visible on his forehead and his heart skipped multiple beats.

"A gift? Why would my lady even bother on sending you a gift if she is already giving your pitiful nation a hand of unconditional charity?"

A burst of anger exploded on him as he stood up, faced me face to face and grabbed me in the collar, his Kingly demeanor turned into a ravenous gritting teeth that is drooling and causing sparks to come out because of his unfiltered anger.

"Charity!? You dare implicate that my nation is weak!?"

That sequence of action and word happened in span of two seconds and the moment I am waiting for finally arrived, he have fallen into the Devil's trap and alongside his fall, so his nation is.

I looked at him with visible disdain in my eyes, my figure on his mind of me being just a carefree and arrogant playboy bastard completely shattered, I looked at him directly in the eyes and for the first time the Dragon Slayer found someone who can make him blink in a stare down contest.

I sighed and closed my eyes, casually removing his hands into my collar and disrespectfully spat in front of him and once again stared him down, he slouched and looked at me as if I am a giant and the King suddenly felt like a chicken in my presence.

"Implicate you say? Do you mean... Speaking the truth? Tell me, how can you say that a nation that cannot be bold enough to attack a vassal nation strong? How can you say that a Kingdom that is not confident enough to make a Kingdom to Kingdom Diplomatic attempt with Valentine strong? Hell even one of your bootlickers insulted the most soft hearted ruler probably to ever exist and just came back alive because of some bitch. Tell me, why should I call you and your nation strong?"

I stepped two times and went in front of him, I am naturally taller than him and my chest is just already in his head level. He stared at me with fearful eyes, looking up.

"Oh, or do you think your nation is strong? Why? Because Tyrfing gave up on invading you?"

I laughed coldly, looking at the ceiling and back at him in a domineering way.

"Let me give you a trivia, the progenitor of Tyrfing, Pandora, have a decree to not attack Dragon Slayers and Seven Ruler territories. So if you think thay the fact that they 'gave up' on you as a way to comfort yourself that you did well in managing your Kingdom your wrong, they didn't gave up on invading you, they didn't even tried in the first place."

I made a little secret be revealed, I actually knew this because of Ophiuchus in which is, as always a good spy, it seems like Pandora knows how did she shitted in all of our heads that she made a preemptive approach to make a stern command to the next generation to refrain from trying to invade countries that are owned by the Seven Rulers.

This information became the deciding factor, he who became angry and got slapped by reality real quick immediately despaired, if he is still himself he will see that the decree means that Tyrfing is scared shitless of his nation because of his presence alone and will have a good avenue of argument, if he is still the King everyone on his country hailed to be a good leader, he will realize that Pandora's decree is not absolute because Tyrfing still tried to invade them, I don't know the details but I can guess how intense the defense battle is.

But no, he didn't, because of my words and pressure, the stoic monarch regressed into a pitiful toddler in my wake. Hell, even in my first sentence, he should understand his own actions of not invading Camelot is because he will be swarmed by Turfing soldiers and their Kingdom will fall, and the reason why he didn't requested and alliance with us is because he knows how "good" the Royal Siblings of Valentine at negotiations and he will surely come back with not so much of a desirable result.

But no, humans are like that, no matter how powerful they are, no matter how hard they worked for their position, their achievements, their prestige and image, it will just take a word, a word from a stranger that didn't even know or have any idea how hard they worked for their position, a word of "you're not good enough" is all that it takes for them to lose all of their hard earned confidence.

This is humanity's weakness, they are not weak because of their lower lifespan, or because of their slower technological progress, it is because it will just take a word to destroy their will.

In which of course I fully utilized in this matter.

Caesar is despairing over my words and tried to mutter some incomprehensible bullshit but as if the cue is already up, his prime minister who have a despaired look on his face walked inside the throne room with haste.

"Monarch! Its urgent."

I looked at the minister with calm expression, the minister didn't bothered about me in which is commendable, he immediately looked at his despaired Lord and immediately reported the urgency.

"Camelot have declared their independence and moved the majority of their soldiers in front of our border!"

Caesar despaired further, his brain that overloaded because of me didn't even realized that all of this is my doing, he just looked at me, his last ray of hope saying.

"What's the conditions for the alliance?"

He asked as if trying to find a rope in a dark deep abyss and finally finding it, grasping it with all his might. In this juncture, I can even ask for the half of the territory of his Kingdom and he will agree, but I have to be tactful and said the conditions I have said.

First, the alliance is a general one, that means, trades, military, border patrol and many more is part of the alliance, the other will protect the other when they are being invaded or being oppressed with the condition that Valentine will give just send individually strong commander and general because of our quality over quantity military approach that will of course are my subordinate though I didn't mentioned that part and if the other wants to trade to the other party, all trading tax of the product they want to trade will be reduced by sixty percent.

He didn't even listened to my explanation and immediately shake my hands indicating the formal formation of the alliance, we signed a contract and after the signing, I asked them to not announce anything to the public, after which I immediately went back to Valentine, I have to report that Valentine have new "ally".

Walking outside my palace into my sister's an ear to ear smile appeared on my face.

"Well, that's what I call, Manipulation at its finest."