"Get your back straight already, you unworthy thing, since when have our family members started bowing to anyone?" Thandor furrowed his eyebrows after entering the hall and shouted at his son
"He is my Master..!!" Jabba looked toward his father when he heard this and responded quickly and angrily, with even some fear on top...
Thandor has seen him bow to Robin countless times before, only now did he remember to scold him for it? There is something strange going on, even stranger and worrisome than he originally thought...
"Even if he is your master, bowing and kneeling to anyone is a humiliation that the geniuses and the sons of royalty should not experience, you can pay your respects in other ways," said Thandor, slowly advancing to his son's seat to Robin's right, sat down, then looking at Robin with a smile, " Don't you think I'm correct, Mr. Robin?"
"...I didn't tell Jabba to bow down to me, nor did I tell a certain someone to sit next to me without asking while I reserved the chair for someone else." Robin stared for a moment at Thandor's smug smile and then spoke without emotion on his face, "Everyone can express their respect or disrespect for me in their own way, and everyone will be treated accordingly."
"Haha you don't take it so seriously, Mr. Robin, my son was sitting here, right? he is my son, after all, I and him are the same! Haha," Thandor laughed loudly and patted Jabba, who was standing next to him, on his back.
Jabba hurriedly spoke to Robin in a loud voice, "Please don't blame him, he doesn't mean anything, I was going to ask permission to stand behind you anyway, I'm not used to sitting in such meetings." Then he moved with a forced smile on his face and stood behind Robin, his heartbeat could be heard from all over the hall...
Robin looked at the smile on Thandor's face for a moment, it seemed that he didn't care that Robin considered his behavior disrespectful, he just continued sitting down as if nothing had happened...
"Heh~" A half laugh came out of Robin's mouth and then asked straightforwardly, "Where is my army?"
"What army are you talking about?" Thandor asked innocently, "The eastern region is under our complete control, and we have begun the operations of distributing weapons and making a division between the Nihari Giant clans at the western, central, and southern regions. We no longer have any potential enemies, so why would we raise an army? It doesn't make sense."
"I'm talking about the army I demanded a year ago." Robin tried to stay as calm as possible and asked again.
"Hmmm? What would you use it for? A wise man like you would surely not start another war for no reason, especially as we are on the cusp of an invasion from another world, when we found that we were living in peace we decided to help you cancel the order to gather the army.." Thandor responded again and shrugged his shoulders
"FATHER!! What the hell are you doing? Do you realize what you are saying right now?!" Jabba shouted when he heard this, but Thandor completely ignored him
"Hehehe." Robin chuckled in anger when he heard this and started to look everyone in the eyes, "Why are you all silent, do you all agree to Thandor's helping me to cancel a direct order?"
"Please don't take it personally, Mr. Robin, we have found what is in the public interest and we have done it, that is it." one of the other seven Nihari Giant Chiefs spoke
Another Chief followed him, "Right, we won't gain anything from starting an all-out war as you want at a time like this, we need to take a step back and strengthen ourselves."
The rest of the seven Nihari Giant chiefs nodded, evidently all of them in agreement with what Thandor had said.
As for the Sect Elders, they began to look at each other nervously with the edges of their eyes, some of them only looked at their feet and did not raise their eyes... Although their answer to Robin's question was clear by now, uttering it out loud was extremely dangerous.
If they say that they reject the position of Thandor to keep Robin calm, this would be a clear lie, as they also did not move a muscle throughout the year and did not even gather the sect army, and they are not ready to gather the army if Robin orders them again now!
And if they say they agree to stop the order, they are simply violating Robin's status as head of the sect, the very structure on which the whole sect has been built may collapse in a fit of anger!
"What about you and the rest of the humans in the council? Do you support helping me stop the decision to gather MY army as well?" Robin left everyone and focused his eyes on Orzon and the 3 other humans beside him
"This...." Orzon raised his head and looked at Robin's emotionless eyes, then he caught Thandor's eyes who were staring at him fiercely as if reminding him of what he had to do.
"W-- we..." Orzon muttered for a few seconds and then continued, "We support peace in the Eastern Province and we support strengthening ourselves and developing our economy over the coming years."
" peace... I AM THE ONE WHO BROUGHT YOU THIS PEACE!! Have you forgotten yourselves? Have you forgotten WHO I AM?!" Robin shouted and hit the table in front of him, his eyes slowly beginning to draw on all the elders of the inferior races, "If it wasn't for me you would still shiver in your settlements like chickens waiting for the day you slaughtered, and you talk to me about developing your economy?
If it wasn't for me you would still be training your sons to become terrorists to be hunted and be killed like dogs in the streets, and you talk to me about peace?!"
"L... lord Robin, of course, we remember everything, but it's not like what you say, didn't you initially tell us that we were going to face an enemy from another world when we created this sect? There are 28 years to our limit, how do we exhaust our experts' lives and resources in an internal war at a time like this? That doesn't make any sense!" An old man of one of the lower races gathered his courage and spoke
"I am the one who saved your lives and I am the one who gave you your resources. I am the one who told you about the coming enemy. You are walking on the path I set for you, Yet you had the audacity to disobey a direct order from me?
Your forces you say? How many of you *experts* lives would have been lost in random worthless deaths in the last 22 years if not for me providing you a decent living condition? since when do you care about lives? you were giving birth knowing that every single one of your kids will meet a horrible death sooner or later, but your lives became valuable now when I asked for your help?!
Your resources you say? for every talisman you use in this war I was going to make you a hundred more! for every broken armor, I would have invented you a better set! for every damaged piece of land I would have given you the entire Northern Region!!
You think I went crazy and that I will destroy you for my sake? When was the last time I did something that turned out to be against you all? When was the last time I asked you for something to repay all I have done for you? What... Are you all grown up now and no longer need me? Is that it!?"
The hearts of the sect elders were trembling with every word Robin said, they knew very well how hard it was to live before and what Robin had done for them, the feeling of disobeying his request by starting the war was killing them from within, especially since Jabba told them about the reason and about the death of Robin's wife and the gruesome way of her death
They certainly wanted to help him... but not at the expense of their own interests.
More than a minute after Robin's anger erupted, none of them said a word in response.
"good, very good." Robin calmed down and then smiled and stood up, "Looks like today's meeting is over, I apologize for the way I have summoned you, don't worry there won't be more of these meetings in the future, I know I've interrupted you from your extremely important work, you can all go back to what you were doing, farewell."