“You’re reversing your decision now, after all the preparations we’ve made? Are you serious, my Lord?!” A young man slammed his fist against the table. He had jet black hair that was trimmed short, along with a pair of gleaming blue eyes that glared at Verde. The table shook under his strength, the tableware loudly clattering upon impact.

  "What is the reasoning behind the sudden change?" An older man questioned. He looked rather unkept, as if he had just gotten out of bed, his grey hairs sticking out in different directions as he blinked owlishly at Verde.

  “Hugues, control yourself!” Anothe man admonished, his brows furrowed and disapproving. He looked like he was going to say more, but Verde raised his hand to ask for silence.

  “I’m serious” he ascertained in a steady voice.

  It was the morning now, and Verde was sitting in his meeting room with his council. Even though it was so early, all were wide awake and alert at Verde’s sudden command to backpedal on the hostage plan and instead forge an alliance with the person who was previously their target.

  Verde regarded his swordmaster for a moment.

  The last time he saw Hugues was in the battlefield, his body broken and bleeding out onto the snow. They were outnumbered and cornered, but Hugues shouted that he'd fend off their foes in order for Verde to flee. Of course, this only led to his death, along with any soldiers who decided to remain by his side, sacrificing their lives to allow Verde to retreat. He didn’t think that he’d ever be able to shake off the memory of the piles of corpses littered across the snow, their red blood melting the snow around them.

  His faithful council had all, one by one, disappeared as the war ravaged Frimasvale. Though they currently looked on at him with anger, Verde could not help but feel a twinge of joy at the thought of being surrounded by his comrades again. He empathised with their unhappiness, however, as Hugues was right. They spent an agonising amount of resources over the plan, making sure that they were able to pull off such a stunt.

  “This better be good,” muttered a young woman in a black fur coat. Her dark hair was twisted into a bun, showing her delicate features and pale white skin. She was Elisee - Frimasvale's intelligence advisor, part of Verde's council and also one of his closest confidantes. Though they were friends, he knew that Elisee was cut-throat when it came to anything disrupting her plans.

  “A lot of investment was required by Elisee to bribe the loose-lipped Metzger nobles,” sighed another woman. The lawmaster, Tiphaine, was just as sharp as Elisee. One of the elder members of the council, her greying hairs swayed loosely as she leaned back against her chair with her arms crossed.

  “I understand,” Verde raised his hand again to silence his council. “But… It is my belief that what we are doing may incur a larger wrath from the Metzgers, provoking combat that we are not equipped to handle.”

  “With all due respect, my Lord,” Elisee wrinkled her nose at Verde, her eyes narrowed. She only used formalities with Verde when she was angry. "Are you telling me that you've now come around to what I was saying in the first place, that this whole kidnapping idea was foolhardy and reckless?"

  Verde felt himself shrinking.

  "I reconsidered all our options-"

  "You reconsidered, or did you just realise that Benoit's plan was inferior?" Elisee shot a contemptuous look at the elderly man who spoke earlier.

  Benoit, also the coinmaster of Frimasvale, rolled his eyes.

  "For heaven's sake, Elisee, it's practically dawn. Do we need to entertain such hostilities, especially in the presence of Lord Verde?"

  "Why don't we refer these kinds of matters to our foreign affairs master? Oh, we don't have one-"

  “Can you all just quiet down for a moment so I can speak?”

  Verde almost shouted the last statement, barely able to conceal the irritation in his voice. His outburst, however, was sufficient to quell his council, as everyone settled back down into their seats, mouths shut and eyes trained on him.

  He was aware that he had let his council run the show for too long. In the past, Verde was only concerned about what happened inside his territory. Foreign affairs hardly mattered to him, and it was only when he started hearing about crop failures and hunting parties coming back with increasingly less stock, did he turn his attention to the outside. Frimasvale was weakening, and the pressure was on Verde to assure his people that he had things under control. When his coinmaster spoke of holding a prince of a neighbouring kingdom hostage, Verde only heard about the immedaite benefits: more land.

  Their plan to kidnap a prince was borderline idiotic, now that Verde could look back on it. The Metzger king was capricious and lazy, they all knew that. But he severely underestimated the power that Theron had, and Verde's past self never thought beyond the prospect of gaining more land. He was naive to think that the stronger kingdoms would bend so easily to a simple hostage situation, and he was confident to avoid that mistake now.

  “I am sure that we could pull it off,” he stated, looking at everyone in the room. “But what I fear is the consequence. When we release Theron Metzger back to his kingdom, what thoughts will he harbor towards us for what we did to him? How would we look to the other kingdoms after the act of kidnapping a foreign prince and holding him hostage?”

  ...

  There was silence in the room as the council mulled over Verde’s words.

  Frimasvale was more of a sovereign land, barely even a kingdom, with its one central town and scattered villages. The only reason why it was left alone was because it was undesirable to start off with - an icy and barren landscape that seemed hostile to all living creatures. It was only with the recent discovery of its rich mineral and ore mines did others start taking notice of Verde's small territory, though Verde had no idea what to do with the attention.

  “We are acting out of desperation, we know and understand that. But to others, they will not be so sympathetic. Our resources are still coveted, and if Theron were to ascend the throne… We’d have both Metzger and Orne kingdoms turned against us. The benefits from a hostage negotiation would be in the short-term, however for the long-term…”

  “If we are to forge an alliance with the Metzgers, why should we choose Theron, then?” Elisee retorted.

  “He is the younger one, after all,” Tiphaine chimed in.

  Verde could barely contain his grimace. Elisee and Tiphaine were as sharp as ever. Elisee was always critical and keen-eyed due to her profession, while Tiphaine was one of the cleverest in the council due to her years of service.

  “He is… A safer bet,” Verde hesitated. “And he is a long-time friend of Metzger's Grand Marshal, who would in turn make a strong ally.”

  At the mention of the feared military general, he could see his council visibly stiffening.

  “Their general’s track record is quite impressive, despite his commoner upbringing,” the elder Pascal mused, a hand twirling his mustache in contemplation.

  Wulfe Alvare - Metzger's military leader, a nobody who came out of seemingly nowhere, making a name for himself after winning numerous sparring competitions. He was quickly recognised once he was knighted, as he helped forge a stronger Metzger territory during his border patrols and skirmishes, always coming out on top. Normally, Verde would have attributed it to freakish, brute strength, but now Verde wondered if there was a reason. Was this man was simply like that because that was what the story required him to be - an invincible force that could barrel past anything that stood in his way? Regardless, Verde knew that Wulfe was not to be underestimated.

  “If getting on Theron’s good side equates to getting into the good graces of the strongest military force in the land, it’s not a bad idea,” Tiphaine added. “And surely they would see the merits too, with our abundance of ore and mines that can aid their weapons supply.”

  “I believe that it’s best, and safest, to ally with him in the long run,” Verde repeated, nodding along with his council. “Tensions are running high, all of us can feel it. We're in a delicate situation right now, balancing between the Orne and Metzger kingdoms. If anything is destabilised now, the opportunistic king in Orne will start looking at us due to our mines and our proximity. If we strengthen our ties with one of the Metzgers, we could use them to shield ourselves from any provocation in the future.”

  “It’s a compelling idea,” Pascal agreed, while Elisee made a begrudging noise of concurrence.

  “Fine. You've made a good case,” Hugues grumbled, evidently still annoyed.

  "You're growing into quite the astute leader, my Lord." Benoit chuckled.

  Verde fought the urge to sigh in relief. It felt like he just weathered through a storm.

  “In that case, let’s send a message to all of our troops and meeting attendees of the change of plan." Verde waved his hand, signalling the end of the meeting.

  As his council rose and began shuffling out of the room, Verde felt a tap on his shoulder. He realised that Elisee had lingered, pausing on her way out to stand by him.

  “I'm glad you've come around to my idea, Verde,” she said, eyes narrowed. “However, you must be careful to not annoy your men at the end of the day. Did you know how much Benoit and Hugues grumbled on the way to the council room just now?"

  “I know, I know. I understand that this is a sudden decision to make. It was my mistake to push for it in the first place.”

  “I’m glad you can understand how fickle you’re coming off to the rest of us, so I am just advising you as a friend: Be careful from now on,” Elisee waved her finger admonishingly at Verde, reminding him of a scolding mother.

  “Understood. You are ever the cautious one, Elisee.” Verde huffed a small laugh. Elisee was harsh with her words, though it was a straightforwardness that he appreciated from an ally and a friend.

  “Of course, where would you be without me?” She crossed her arms and huffed, though she also broke out into a grin.

  An image flashed in Verde’s mind. He saw Elisee’s body strung up on a wooden pole, her dark hair hanging limply off her as her lifeless eyes stared off into nothingness. She’d been caught by the Orne military shortly after war between the three kingdoms broke out, apprehended during a desperate mission she took on by herself to look for any weaknesses in the Orne army that Verde could use to his advantage while they were being invaded on both borders. Her tattered body was hoisted up and strapped unceremoniously to a stake that faced the Frimasvale border, a clear taunt at Verde.

  He shuddered at the horrid image, working to clear it from his mind. He reached out to touch Elisee lightly on the shoulder, startling his friend.

  “I’m glad to have you on my side,” Verde smiled earnestly.

  “Of course, it’s not like I’ll leave you.” Elisee raised her eyebrow at him, evidently thrown off as he was always cold and aloof. “Are you feeling okay?”

  “Uhm - Yes, I’m fine,” Verde retracted his hand and coughed, a little embarrassed by the break in his character. “L-Let’s just get ready for our guests.”

  “Agh, we’re running late! If I’m the last one to arrive to greet that Metzger brat, it’s your fault.”