A man suddenly stood up and struck the table in front of him with his hand, "What do you mean by this? you want the kingdom to forsake us completely?! We have taken the responsibility of the killing of that Burton saint for the sake of the kingdom,
we aren't even the ones who attacked the boy and killed the saint, Saint Louis put that into our shoulders and we accepted it, is this our reward? How dare you even suggest the matter? ?!"
This was the representative of the Duchy of Tinley in the council, for Duke Titus himself was in his palace following the developments of what was happening in his duchy.
"Please calm down, sir, I'm just stating the current situation, and the decision ultimately belongs to his highness."
"Shhh, no one interferes again," Sage Louis raised his hand to stop the side discussions as the Tinley envoy was about to speak, then gestured at the previous saint " you may continue.."
"Yes, Your Highness, as I said, the first solution would be to plainly abandon the Duchy of Tinley so as to prevent the army of the Black Sun on the frontier with us from joining the battle, and let Duke Galan gather larger armies to get rid of the present intruders while we just support him with weapons and gold...
Or might try to tire them out in a battle of attrition, their numbers are already small, they are just an Earl family, and Galan Bradley wouldn't send much more men for fear about his own borders.
those two suggestions are basically one.. the continues of the war.
The problem with this proposal is that it will prolong the war for god knows how long, and will allow the enemy army to increase their supplies and perhaps bring more talismans, if this happens, their control over the duchy may increase little by little, or even...
Or even they uproot the entire Tinley family and take over the entire Duchy.
But the good side of the suggestion is that they will not advance beyond the Duchy of Tinley whether they lose or win, and we can always find a way to reclaim our lands in the future if one member of the Tinley family survives."
At this point, the Tinley family's envoy clenched his hand so tightly that it bled, this was the worst possible scenario but also the highest possibility.
The sage nodded, "Go ahead, what's the second option?"
"The second option is... a non-aggression treaty."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY? do you want us to surrender and give up our lands?!" Sage Louis shouted, he knew very well the meaning of the second option
The Tinley family representative also nodded, "damn you, traitor! We won't leave them an inch of our lands!"
"Your Highness.. our lands have already been taken from us and we can't take them back in a short period of time if we depend only on the tinleys, they have already lost a huge part of their core force,
within two weeks, the enemy has already taken about half of the duchy under their control, how long will we wait? The first option is still on the table but the risks are too great,
so I suggested we make a non-aggression pact for ten years for example, during which we will research more to know what those talismans are and how to repel them... after the pact ended then Duke Tinley can return with our new knowledge and more competent army and tactics to retake his lands."
Sage Lewis didn't reply quickly, nor did the representative of the Tinley family reply... they can not even decide which choice is worse
The first was the option of a prolonged war in which the danger of erasing the whole duchy...
and the second was submission, raising the white flag and giving up 40% of the size of the duchy - the lands that the enemy already have - for the sake of peace...
After a moment of deathly silence, the word "do it" was heard.
"you highness..?"
"Send messengers to the general of the enemy army and to the capital of the Black Sun Kingdom… Tell them we are ready to surrender the land they had invaded to join the lands of the Black Sun and will not attempt to attack to retake it, in return we want a non-aggression pact for fifty years."
The Tenley family envoy quickly stood up, "your highness!! how can we remain a Duke family after this? Is this our reward for following your orders?!"
"I will give you lands from the rest of the duchies around you, your overall land will be large enough for you to keep the title of duke, after the non-aggression pact ends you will take your lost lands back, now sit down."
Indeed, the Tinley family representative returned to his sullen face, but he was kind of pleased.. this was the best possible outcome for his family.
then the sage stood up, "We'll meet again when we get the response of the black sun kingdom, disperse."
==========================
When the news of the treaty's proposal reached General Edward, he told the messenger of Dolivar that he would stop in his place until orders came to him from his superiors...
well, actually he would have stopped anyway since he had run out of all the talismans he had.
But when the request for a non-aggression pact reached the Black Sun capital, it caused an unparalleled storm...
This was a declaration of surrender!
What about the inconveniences at the Eight Kingdoms event? What about the murder of Saint Murphy? Where is what strengthens their heart?
Was all that just empty bullsh*t?!
Previously, everyone rejoiced at the successive victories, but they remained on alert, they were waiting for a strong reaction, and in the end, came a declaration of surrender? What is that..?
The laughter and mockery in the conference room at the first announcement made the messenger of Dolivar think of suicide out of shame.
But when they calmed down and studied the matter further and found that the talismans had already run out, everyone decided that the treaty would really be in their best interest.
Especially Earl Brian Burton, who was living every moment as if in a dream... No, he never once dared about dreaming of something like that...
As all the progress that has been achieved until now is considered a false victory.
Delivar can attack again and take it at any time, but this offer secures what they have collected so far, at least he will not be afraid of Delivar's attacks for a certain period of time... and this is more than excellent!!
But before giving the final decision he contacted Robin, who told him to do what he saw as right, but that he should base his decision on that he did not have another large amount of talismans...
with no more talismans then they can't start another battle or they will be exposed, thus this pact was more than good for him!
The dream of his family for the past thousand years was to collect enough land to get the title of Marquess, but now he will get much more.. without much loss in soldiers!!
After everyone agreed in principle and Earl Brian strongly supported the idea, the process of peace negotiations began, which took about two weeks back and forth until the final terms were agreed upon, and they are as follows:
-The Black Sun shall obtain another piece of land from the Tinleys in addition to the previously Conquered lands, bringing the final total to exactly half of the Duchy of Tinley
-The non-aggression agreement will only last for twenty years
-Ten million gold coins were paid as a ransom for 50,000 Dolivarian prisoners
-----------------
The officials of the Kingdom of the Black Sun were keen to publish everything that is happening in all parts of the Kingdom and as quickly as possible, and to all the other seven kingdoms as well...
their spies inside Dolivar secretly published the pact terms in every corner
It is an insult to Dolivar in every sense of the word, and an unparalleled pride for the Black Sun kingdom.
Everyone witnessed their miserable treatment of the expedition of the Black Sun Kingdom, they witnessed the attempt to assassinate the child Caesar, and they witnessed the killing of a Saint of the Black Sun who came to participate in the event on the lands of Dolivar, so the attack of the Black Sun Kingdom is justified to the fullest extent.
But what is not justified is the successive defeats..a small army of 60,000 soldiers completely crushed the Duchy of Tinley!!
And in the end, Dolivar declared defeat and gave up a large part of its territory!
The legendary tales of the 60,000-strong army will remain in the minds and on the tongues for a very long time.
But the elders had other things on their minds... Everyone who had some power in the Eight Kingdoms was thinking of the same questions:
- What are those *talismans* that the Bradley and Burton families used to achieve these crushing victories?
- Who produced them?
- How can we get them?