Polymath Redux

Chapter 24: PROJECT: Hellgate Part 1

"Dammit!"

The minister wasn't angry because the gold was taken back. Of course there was some of that but there were more reasons why he was so upset. The first was that this white figure would have been a powerful ally to the Baliazoural Empire, but he had let this opportunity leave the grasp of his hands. The second reason was that now there was an unchecked power with god knows how much resource and wealth that could now potentially turn into an enemy of the empire. He couldn't even stop him, the being who bypassed their entire security without raising an alarm.

He could only lament his own failures.

Afterwards Morgana, Yda and Grimal would actually be going gather up the weapon shipment. In reality they had never been take away from the location, that's what the minister was merely lead to believe.

...

At the Royal Castle of Xagontetia, four figures were in the midst of a heated discussion about what was happening to their country. Those four figures included, the King of Xagontetia himself, Lionel Chrom and his most trusted aides, the heads of the three duke houses, Pierre Granate, Lucian Zandora and Mikhail Anton.

The three duke houses each represented a sector of government.

The Granate family dealt with matters dealing with war and military.

The Zandora family dealt with the economy and trade.

The Anton family dealt with politics and diplomacy.

Those four figures had gathered around at the throne room, discussing certain matters that had taken place in the country. There were several matters, for instance, the treatment of the demon-kind, trade and economy and such, but the most alarming event that they were here to discuss was about their stolen weapons shipment.

"Your majesty, this is clearly the doing of the Baliazoural Empire! I mean who else would have enough resources to intercept ALL of our weapon shipments? If they really did such a thing then no doubt their forces will be weakened and spread out! We should strike them when we can!"

Pierre Granate suggested with fervor. He was a man known to be hungry for battle and glory, and in times of war it could be said that he was actually happier than if there were peace. Even though their weapons were compromised, Pierre instead used it to suggest a direct attack on the enemy capital.

"Don't you think you're being hasty, Lord Granate? What if you're wrong? What if it wasn't the doing of the Baliazoural Empire? Then we'd be charging into an enemy stronghold with clumsy weapons! We'd be annihilated in less than a day!"

Mikhail Anton interjected. As a man of policy he knew the importance of scrutiny and to him this suggestion of an attack without even examining what had actually happened was paramount to a suicide attack.

"Standing here and picking our nose will only give the enemy time to regroup and launch an attack on us when our military strength is down!"

Pierre countered. He too had a point, if the Baliazoural Empire was indeed responsible they would immediately attack once they have regrouped. Of course that wasn't how the situation had really panned out, but he had no way of knowing what was true.

"And how do you plan on attacking the Empire without any useful weapons?! The best course of action would to seal up the capital and leave the defenses to our alchemists and knights! Both the Royal Alchemy Commission and the Royal Knight Commission still have access to their own, good weapons."

King Lionel continued to listen to the banter between the two men until he had enough and ordered them to stop.

"What do you think, Lord Zandora? Do you think it was the doing of the Baliazoural Empire?"