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Chapter 456 – Imperial Eagle
A day’s time could be said to be short, but could also be long.
Lin Xiao kept his word and strictly watched over Claire’s studying. He really tormented her for a full night, ShenDai Ying and Elena originally wanted to stay up with them, but they couldn’t endure anymore and had to go to sleep.
The good news was that Claire utilized the limited time to learn a lot of techniques, although she was far from mastery at least she remembered Lin Xiao’s words and the rest was up to her improvisation.
And on the second day, they were still asleep when the sun came out. Claire was supposed to host the meeting in advance, but she ended up not showing.
The people attending the meeting arrived one after another, seeing that the host hasn’t arrived yet and there was still some time before the meeting started, they started casually chatting.
“I heard that Saintess Snow has been looking for a cure… a brat like that knows about black magic?”
“Don’t underestimate her, she may be young, but I heard she has an expert helping her!”
“An expert?”
“You don’t know yet right? I heard she was ambushed when bringing the black core back and was faced against an army of the living dead! But she still survived, not only did they take care of all the monsters they even caught the spy alive… if it wasn’t for an expert helping her, how could she have done that herself?”
“Really? Then…. who is that expert?”
“How would I know? The spy still hasn’t said anything, who knows if anything else will happen.”
During the discussion, two people’s whispers analyzed the current situation.
“It seems like the plague will be completely cleared once Saintess Snow develops a cure… at that time, Taike, everything will be much better!”
“Forget it, that might not be the case. You want the good days, but someone doesn’t want us to have good days!”
“Who? Who’s that annoying to go against us?”
“Who else? That annoying eagle!”
“Eagle? The general with the nickname of Imperial Eagle, the grand Marshall Barrett?”
“That’s right!”
“We’re almost at the good times and that guy still wants to keep fighting and counterattack the rebel army, isn’t that just nonsense!?”
“What? We neither have money nor people, just defending the black road river is hard enough, what are we going to use to attack?”
“How would I know!? He actually plans on getting all the people to tighten their belts to help him fight? What kind of joke is that!?”
“Hm… it’s not like we can’t spare some funding if we had to, but his counterattack plan is too hasty.”
The other man nodded and was similarly displeased with Barrett’s plans. The plague was about to be eliminated, the good days were ahead, what reason did they have to attack the rebels?
“I don’t understand, isn’t it fine just to keep it as is? We’re all people of Gotham Kingdom, why do we have to fight to the death? Even if we were to fight, we can wait until the economy recovers and then counterattack.” Taike shook his head and felt like his words made a lot of sense.
If Claire heard his words, not only would she not think it makes sense, she might even think he’s a spy and hang him on the spot.
Also, Claire was just woken up by ShenDai Ying and was still on the way to the meeting so she never heard his treacherous words and as a minister of finance, like numerous people who came to the meeting ahead of time, they were all part of the peace faction, so it wasn’t strange they said things like that.
“Taike, Barrett wants everyone to go crazy with him, we can’t let him have his way!”
“Of course! In order to let everyone have good days, I, Taike, will be the first to oppose him!”
“But…. as the grand Marshall he has a lot of power, and if comes on aggressive during the meeting, he won’t be easy to deal with.”
“Don’t worry, we can win this time!”
“You have a plan?”
“No, but… we have him!” Take raised a finger.
The other man also looked towards the door curiously and saw a familiar man.
“General Hardy?”
“That’s right, we’re relying on him this time!”
Everyone got up and faced towards the door to welcome him, the man called Hardy also politely responded to each of them before taking his seat at the end of the table, closest to Claire’s spot, waiting for the meeting to begin.
Everyone else fell into their spots with Taike sitting next to Hardy as he chatted him up.
“General Hardy, you’re finally here! This meeting is extremely important, we can’t let Barrett get his way no matter what, we have to find a way to have a peace talk with the rebel army and stop the war!”
“What, you can’t hold out any longer?”
“Sigh, I won’t lie to you, these days have been hard. The plague has ravaged the country, if we had to counterattack, I’m afraid we can only munch on hard bread from then on.”
“Indeed, we can’t continue this war. Don’t worry, as long as you all support me, we’ll win today’s meeting!”
“I heard princess Claire was taking the king’s place this time…”
“Princess Claire is still young and lacks experience, although she has a temper and isn’t that intelligent, as long as I clarify the pros and cons, I believe she’ll make the right choice.”
“Haha, I hope so.” After hearing Hardy’s words, Taike understood that he was actually implying that Claire was an idiot that can easily be tricked.
“Princess Claire is indeed not a problem, the problem lies in Barrett…”
“Hmph, don’t worry, this imperial eagle is destined to stay grounded this time!”
Hardy snorted and his eyes were filled with battle intent. Taike didn’t ask any more after seeing him like this and just got the word out telling everyone to support General Hardy because they all had the same goal of stopping the war.
Everyone waited for a bit but no one else came, although there was still a bit of time before the meeting officially began, Taike couldn’t sit still and continued talking to the man from earlier.
“Hey, have you heard anything about princess Claire recently?”
“I actually have! I heard that she specially invited someone to help her with this meeting.”
“Who?”
“Some young investigator called Lin Xiao.”
“Never heard of him, what’s his background?”
Claire specially invited someone at such a crucial time? This might now be a big deal, but Taike felt like something wasn’t right and asked about his identity.
Lin Xiao was an investigator from Lombard Kingdom that was a magic student at Lorna Academy, he was younger than Claire by two years and participated in a rescue mission into the plague zone with Claire a while ago and didn’t do anything outstanding.
Apparently, Claire even directly invited him personally and was rejected! Then who knows what method she used to persuade him to eventually help and those two then spent an entire day together preparing some kind of plan.
“I still don’t understand… why did princess Claire invite him?”
Taike couldn’t think of why Claire invited such a normal guy like him. Out of caution, Taike quietly told this to Hardy and tried to discuss it with him, but ended up being laughed at.
“Taike, what’s wrong with you? When did you turn so cowardly, a mere brat is enough to scare you like that?”
“General Hardy, you can’t put it like that… princess Claire may be dumb, but she’s not a complete idiot, since she asked that Lin Xiao to help, she surely has her own considerations… I was thinking whether we should discuss him first when the meeting starts and then make plans?”
“Tsk, no need… he’s most likely just a slicked-tongued brat and Claire invited him because she was tricked.”
“But, I’m afraid if he’s actually someone strong, then we…”
“Taike, what are you scared of? No matter how strong he is, he’s just an advisor, Claire wouldn’t completely listen to him, right?”
“But I’m still…”
“Okay Taike, you don’t need to say anymore! You just need to support me and I guarantee I’ll get Claire to sign your plans!”
Hardy impatiently interrupted Taike, and Taike could only sigh and shut up, but he still kept thinking about that advisor.
Lin Xiao… an advisor trusted by Claire at a crucial time, what kind of person was he?
Just as he was thinking that several people suddenly came through the door.
“Princess!!”