The First Meeting

"All rise for his majesty, the King!"

He paused in the doorway as he attempted to recognize each face in the conference room. He noted the more important people, the High Steward, the General, the Chancellor, the Spymaster, the Judiciary and the Representative of Commoners. There was also Count Pierre, the Minister of State.

Everyone else was categorized as the audience.

They keep calling me 'your majesty' when I haven't been crowned yet. It's irritating.

"Sit down, please," he ordered after he had taken his own seat at the front of the long table. He made sure to ignore the mocking snickers some of them tried to hide because he was a little too short for the king's chair.

"Let us jump into the agenda already. There's too much to discuss to waste time on pleasantries." General Björn Hrafnsson was as gruff as his sister had described him to be. "The massacre of the members of the royal family has weakened our position in the world stage. There's conflict all around our borders and the negotions originally planned with the Empire in the East has gone up in smoke with the death of Princess Sígrun."

"All those years on the battlefield has made you lose all tact!" Count Pierre yelled from across the General, looking genuinely affronted. "His majesty has only just put his family to rest."

The General's left eye twitched but other than that, he remained blank-faced. "I apologize, your highness, for my curt way of speaking."

He used the right greeting. Ísar raised his eyebrows slightly, a sudden interest in the general rising. He was starting to like the old man's personality bit by bit.

"All is well and you were not wrong. Though next time, maybe wait until I've decided on what to talk about first."

The way the General clamped his jaw shut was somewhat satisfying to Ísar.

Despite appearances, the little royal was genuinely overwhelmed beyond belief. He only had a week to study the basics on the current affairs of the kingdom, the financial situation of the treasury and the economy, which foreign nations they had secured trading with and so much more.

Hell, he only found out that his oldest sister had been set to marry a prince of the Eastern Empire just last night.

A twelve-year-old should not be having as heavy eye bags as he did.

Everything happened way too fast. He was a little frightened. There was too much happening and too much going on and he never had a moment to stop since the whole affair had started. And just like his time as the Ghost Prince of Ogronevia, he kept his mask of boredom in place.

"I will get to the topic of the Eastern Empire as I have already asked the Count to send an envoy to discuss ways we could rectify the broken deal," Ísar said, stifling a yawn. "As of now, I'd like to use this short meeting to be informed on what each of you believe is the biggest issues within our kingdom."

He heard a scoff, followed by noticing the sly smirks on the faces of the audience. It was interesting how they openly thought little of him, but he couldn't exactly expect anything else.

"Are you not informed about your own kingdom, your majesty?" The way one of the Viscounts stated that title was almost like an insult.

"Considering it was not planned for me to be sitting here to begin with." He took the files he'd from the maid he'd asked to carry them for him.

"Considering I am not yet of age to receive royal training even if I was, and considering all of you know that my former role as the Ghost Prince was to behave like I didn't exist, no. No, I can't say I am." He flipped through his notes while he spoke.

Each word was heavily laced with as much sarcasm as he'd been building up since he entered the room and was unable to contain.

"Now please. Answer my question with actual answers, not more questions. I am still a child and I will in fact need guidance. I am not foolish enough to improvise running a kingdom."

"You already know my answer," the General spoke again, making Ísar raise his head to look at the man. "The protection of our borders carries grave importance in times like these. What time would we have to care about anything else if we're plunged into a war with bigger nations and empires? We're an island that's surrounded."

"I would agree with you if there was any indication that that would be happening in the near future," Count Pierre chimed in with a shake of his head. "As of right now, I believe we must focus on internal matters. We still do not know who amongst the nobility had aided the princess in her siege nor do we know if they had any other plans."

Ísar hummed, resisting the urge to rest his chin on the table. Count Pierre had a point but truth be told, none of that was what he was hoping to hear. There was also the fact that Ísar knew his sister did not have any other accomplices. She had simply just snapped. He wanted to focus on the kingdom at the moment.

It's my first meeting. There'll be more. Fixing this kingdom can be my little puzzle.

"I agree with the Count. I can leave the investigations to you and the Judiciary, correct?" Let them think what they want.

The count smiled under his thick mustache and gave a small bow with his head.

"Perfect. On top of that, seeing as nobody has brought up anything else, I would like to end this meeting with asking each and everyone of you Lords and Ladies to draw up what ails and affects the people within the lands you're in charge of. Having looked at as much information as I could in the past week, it's quite a sad ordeal."

They began to mutter and mumble among themselves, clearly confused.

"The North has the lowest literacy rate I've ever seen in this kingdom's history. The South has little to no forms of medical aid for commoners and even lower nobles. The East has been seeing shortages on crops and the West is dealing with a troubling amount of monster attacks from the waters," Ísar began listing off only some of the problems he'd noticed in his kingdom through the week.

"Even here, within the capital." He stood up while carrying the notes he'd brought with him and began walking around the table of powerful people. "The state of the plumbing system is downright abysmal and the fact that we have slums surrounding the so-called "Jewel of the Sea" that some of you like to call the capital, is embarrassing. To make matters worse, I know for a fact some of you avoid paying taxes that is your duty to."

He stopped on the other end of the table and looked up at each of them. "This meeting is short and there is no possible way to discuss each problem within thirty minutes. I also know that many of you see me as a child playing at being King."

Placing his hands on the table, he leaned forward. "I am a child, this much I know, and I do very much enjoy playing games but I also don't like losing. I am not ready to be king but I must be, and I do not plan to be a puppet king. You all either take me seriously as the new Father of this nation and aid me to keep us afloat or don't. Means very little to me."

He leaned back up straight and headed for the door, silence following him. "Count Pierre and General Björn will be my left and right aides. There are going to be immense changes as to how this kingdom will run. Meeting adjourned. I need a nap."