Tyrant of the Ruined Sun-Chapter 173: Nights of Masquerade 16

After hearing all we've come to know from Maximillian, Nizam seemed to be troubled, his brows knitted in a perturbed bow, while Cyrus merely looked upon him with clear concern, his earlier devilry now gone, as he hesitantly questioned, almost as if he was pleading our brother's unspoken case before us "B-But that doesn't mean that it's a bad move, right? She is still a princess from one of the four great powers, and even the twin sister of the next holder of the Emerald Throne of the East, so it still should be fine even if they're having some form of inner discord at the moment..."

Cyrus's argument grew more compelling as he continued, with even his choice of words swelling in elegance, giving great credence to the many hours spent by the royal tutors to give him a princely education, even if he despised it.

But surprisingly enough, it was the words he hesitated to utter that spoke far more volumes to me than the ones he more eloquently recited, as he awkwardly finished his rational by saying "Besides, these issues don't really matter all that much, because..."

He paused as though he suddenly recalled his earlier fumble, and quickly leashed his tongue.

And his words, though lovingly said, and for no other reason than fraternal comradery and loyalty, which undoubtedly brought great pleasure for me to hear, nonetheless still made me momentarily wonder if Nizam's words to me earlier about his reasons for reaching out to the eastern princess, were the full truth, or if he was hiding a secondary reason, one tucked away not in the folds of his mind but in the chambers of his heart.

But then before I could further mull over this thought, Darius replied a moment later, his voice calm and calculated "Your points are all undoubtedly true my young prince, but they only hold true if the princess' homeland remains as strong as it is now, because otherwise it would be akin to throwing our rising nation into the jowls of a drowning beast."

Darius' words brought a sombre air to the hall, as he continued, carefully explaining what the others had failed to see "What is currently occurring behind the scenes and in the shadows of the Yue Dynasty, is something of an unprecedented scale, the goal of which is still entirely unknown to us, but whatever it may be, it will undoubtedly be one worthy of remembrance, and such events do not come cheaply. Additionally, a marriage proposition between the younger brother of the current reigning monarch and the twin sister of the future monarch is not an alliance that can be easily forsaken or abolished, on the contrary it is one that demands a strict adherence to, at any cost, which in actuality would've been perfectly fine, encouraged even, as her status is comfortably equal to that of prince Nizam's, and such a union would've brought innumerable benefits to our lands; but knowing what we do now, this fact might not hold for long in the possible future climate of the eastern empire; and might in fact prove to be the exact opposite of this, becoming nothing more than a bottomless sinkhole of resources and lives that we would be honour-bound to constantly sacrifice our men and wealth to, for what ultimately might prove to be a meaningless endeavour and a fruitless investment."

Though Cyrus' words were not without merit, they still looked like nothing more than a child's feckless fallacy before the far more experienced reasoning of the empire's Grand Vizier, and could be clearly seen from the defeated face of my younger brother.

"...All this talk of the future, but aren't we missing the problem we might have at hand right now." Abraham spoke up a few moments later, pointing out with his deep voice rumbling with concern, though his tone remained as composed as ever.

"True. If we don't deal with this correctly, our enemies might have just found the perfect weapon to eviscerate our standing among the global community." Isaac grimly added from the side.

"This could very easily devolve into a worldwide scandal, sire." Darius warned, his brows furrowed as he reclined back into his chair with a contemplative look in his chilling eyes.

"What do you mean?" Nizam swiftly questioned, his face a pale mask of worry.

"You've been meeting with the eastern princess every night at the ball, correct your highness?" It was Leonid who asked, wanting to explain the predicament to my brothers.

"...Yes." He answered.

"And during those talks, did the topic of betrothal ever come about?" He asked again, slowly guiding him to the answers he wished.

"N-No. Not literally." Nizam again answered, though a hint of shyness unintentionally stuttered his words.

"But the intent was obviously conveyed, was it not? After all, speaking every night isn't a very subtle sign of courtship." Leonid continued with a calmer voice and kinder expression, obviously guessing his apparent discomfort.

"I...I suppose so." Nizam nodded.

"And therein lies the problem, for they can now claim that you have intentionally led on the princess with flowery words and honeyed promises, playing with a maiden's heart for your own wicked enjoyment, before you then shattered those expectations, humiliating her and insulting her entire nation's honour." Leonid finally laid it all out for him, causing all the barely arrived colour from his earlier blush to again dissipate at a frightening speed.

"Which would ultimately not only harm your image my prince, but tarnish our nation's face as well." Isaac then added.

"That would be the best outcome with the least ramifications. They could just as easily team up with the so called offended party and demand a hefty compensation from us, or worse yet, twist the incident even more, claiming even more outrageous acts were done to possibly cajole or even blackmail the princess to do something unspeakable, thus by giving the eastern empire ample reason to declare war on us." Darius then said, his aged forehead creased in agitation.

"And I'm sure that wolf of a man, Marius, would not let such an opportunity pass." Isaac continued, his eyes gleaming like drawn daggers.

"If he wasn't the one to orchestrate it in the first place." I then uttered with a cold voice, my fingers tapping rhythmically on my chair's armrest, evidently disturbed by all the newly opened avenues of attack we were now vulnerable to.

"But brother never...!" Cyrus rushed to defend our brother, but he was stopped by Horus' gentle voice.

"Of course we know that my prince, as everyone here is already familiar with your brother's character, and we know that he would never do such a wretched act, but the others aren't so well acquainted with his highness, so they will simply believe what the majority will say."

"And even if they were, it matters little what is the truth and what is not, as long as they see a benefit in it, they will choose to believe what is more advantageous to them." Darius then added with cynical, but ultimately factual words.

"But only Cyrus and our personal guards were aware of that! And we were very careful the rest of the time; Cyrus even helped divert people's attention from we spoke sometimes." Nizam quickly said then, trying to mitigate the foolish disaster he'd unconsciously coaxed upon us.

"From our side, yes. But that is only because of his majesty's decree to let you be and not interfere with your matters until you were ready to tell us, yet sadly, there is no telling who the princess might have told." Leonid then said, while shaking his head.

"Ziyi isn't foolish, if she did tell anyone, she would've said it to only people she trusted." Nizam stated with full confidence.

"We can't work under such unconfirmed possibilities, my prince. Besides, people she trusts, wouldn't such a group include her father and twin brother." Darius pointed out.

"We can't rule out their own want to use such an incident for their favour." Isaac grimly said.

"How does that make any sense!? They've only spoken a handful of times! How can they use such empty evidence to plot so much!" Cyrus then raged, his patience wearing thin of all this, as his instinctually blazed with golden fire.

"Such is the world of politics my young prince." Darius plainly replied, though it could be discerned that even he, who enjoyed the insidious games of diplomacy, statecraft and intrigue, would sometimes grow tired of it as well.

But then, Nizam suddenly stood up and bowed at nearly a ninety degree angle, saying "Brother, I'm sorry. I thought I had thought of everything perfectly, leaving no room for mishaps, but I failed, which just brought on more work for you to do, by cleaning after my mess when you already have so little time for anything else. I'm willing to receive any punishment you deem necessary for not only this, but also for pressuring you to accept our stupid plea to allow us to do what we wished without supervision, which might have prevented all this from happening."

His voice was even, without much fluctuation in it, yet his honest apology was clear for all.

"Brother!..." Cyrus tried to speak up again, most likely wanting to persuade our stubborn brother of his innocence, as he only acted on what he believed to be the best for both us and the empire, in addition to wanting to stop him from accepting punishment so readily, but Nizam simply lifted his hand to quiet him down.

Seeing this brought a small smile to my face, but it also had me wandering in my thoughts again for a moment, as I caught the slight disappointment in Nizam's masked tone, and I had an inkling that that slight ripple of regret was not born solely of his incorrect judgement this time, due to his lack of knowledge.

I contemplated for a while, keeping them all suspended in tense silence, where every breathe came and went with the fluidity of bedrock, before I finally decided.

"What the Grand Vizier, and everyone else said is true." I declared, bringing a graveyard's quiet to the previously troubled hall, but before anyone could interrupt, my lips suddenly turned into a twisted grin, as I madly proclaimed "But that would only happen if we play according to how our foe's script is written."

"Brother?" Cyrus muttered in confusion and a hint of rising excitement, as I continued.

"You all have only thought of this matter as a disaster for our nation to be tied to a soon to be unstable Yue Dynasty, which is the most rational opinion, but you have all forgotten a fundamental thing."

"Tragedy and turmoil begets opportunity and fortune." It was Darius who continued my words, his eyes now shining with possibilities.

"Brother, you don't mean?!" Nizam then spoke in disbelief.

"Yes, I do." I coolly affirmed, as I turned and called out "Darius."

Yet I needed to say no more words, as he quickly said "I will immediately send a formal letter to emperor Tianlan, inviting him to come for a discussion with your majesty in a couple hours time, expressing our wish to establish a marital bond between our two nations, through your younger brother, prince Nizam, and his daughter, princess Ziyi."

Nodding, I quickly turn to Isaac, but he too understood his assignments, as he smilingly replied "I understand, sire. By evening today, I will have the story of princess' Ziyi's and his highness' love wrung out from the mouths of every man, woman and child attending the two hundredth and nineteenth Banquet."

"Perfect." I nodded expectantly at his words, as both he and Darius took their leave, before I then refocused my attention to my gawk eyed brothers, as I teasingly say, leaning slightly forward with a playful smirk "Rejoice little brother, it seems your plan eventually worked after all, and now you can claim to have a betrothed nearly as beautiful as mine."