Lumieri Chronicles: Rise of the First Empire (Book 1)

Chapter 20 Bloody Diplomacy

Robert chokes a bit and tries to form a reply but Leo continues. "And worse, what do you think Frederick's reactions are going to be if she sees her daughter in tears as we drag your body back to the Capital?"

"O-okay, okay sir, I understand. It was a foolish decision to think of going there." Robert responds with discomfort.

"Okay then-" Leo begins but stops when a soldier from the camp approaches them.

"Pardon my king, General. But the diplomat has woken up." The soldier states and heads back to his post.

"General, didn't you message me all the diplomats were killed?" Leo asks with a brow raised.

"Yes sir, that's what we assumed at first with what they sent. But yesterday, the diplomat arrived here. Barely alive. We patched him up as best we can and there were several instances where he was close to death, but fortunately he pulled through. Let's go and see him immediately for questioning sir."

Leo nods. "Yes, let's go. We've been tarrying our time outside the camp." Leo then turns to his soldiers. "Alright men, set up camp. Expand the entirety of this current one. And be sure to shore up the potential blindspots well."

"Yes sire!" Came the unified voices of his soldiers who immediately went about on their work.

Leo and Elena are then led by Robert to a personal medical tent. Inside the tent, a man lays in the bed, face scarred in left cheek, nose, and forehead. One of his hands are also non-existent and the wound is covered by layers of bandages. And his right foot seems to be devoid of his big and little toe. The sight of this makes Leo's eyes darken in anger.

The man notices the visitors and uses his remaining hand to sit up. "Ah visitors I'm sorry but-Oh! General Robert, King Leo, what are you doing here?" The man states with widened eyes.

"We've come to check on how you're doing Eric. And to know what happened." Robert states, eyeing the man with sympathy and pity.

"Oh, well...we entered Vellia peacefully. Things were going fine at first. The lower districts of the city reacted to our presence positively. They still haven't forgotten their loyalty after three centuries..." the diplomat states with smile, which soon twists to that of sheer anger. "But when we reached the upper districts where the nobility are, things weren't as smooth."

"Why? What happened?" Leo asked.

"The city's elites. They didn't take too kindly to our presence and didn't bother to hide it. They looked at us with glares, disgust, and some even spat on our path."

"Barbaric..." Robert mutters as Leo listens on to the diplomat.

"When we arrived inside the stronghold, we were escorted to one of the waiting rooms. We waited there for almost two hours and our guards grew wary on why it was taking so long. When Captain Casper ran out of patience and began to assign some of his men to assess on the delay, a large group of Vellian soldiers entered the room. The captain attempted to speak to the soldiers but they slit his throat immediately and accused us of inciting rebellion and attacked. Our guards tried to hold them back but they were soon overwhelmed at the numbers..."

"But Casper was one of my best men..." Robert muttered under his breath.

"Not much you can do against a slit throat General. He most likely died on the spot." Elena commented.

"Not that." Robert responds. "I'm questioning how he could've been caught unawares like that. He had the best reflexes among my men. And for him to get caught like that..."

"Yes, and he also happened to be the most overconfident General. I wouldn't be surprised if he overestimated himself and was caught by surprise. Those types of people of people tend to die quickly." Leo answers, remembering that Casper who definitely was one of the most talented in Robert's retinue, was also the one who had the most hot air. "That, and there's most likely someone skilled among the Vellians to have done what he did."