Now that their King was dead, all the Ministers knew that they had no protection. Moreover, another King was standing right before them in the castle. One mistake, and they could be killed. They had no chance but to listen to Azekiel carefully.
For a moment, there was complete silence in the entire room.
Azekiel stood with his hands behind his back, observing the expressions of all the Ministers.
After a long time, he broke the silence with his thundering words. "I can kill every single one of you here, and your guards won't be able to stop me. That is if I wanted to do that. If I wanted, I could take over this Empire within minutes, and not even your strongest soldiers can't stop me now that Michael is gone."
"So if you think I'm here with ulterior motives, you can be sure that I don't need your help to achieve what I want. The only reason I'm here and you're still alive is because I don't mean you harm." He looked at the dead body on the ground. "I want the safety of this land that my dear friend created with his blood, sweat, and tears."
Hearing his words, all the Ministers gazed at each other. The words did make sense. If Azekiel wanted, he could've killed these people and taken over the land if he was truly a King.
"What do you want us to do?" The oldest Minister asked, letting out a deep sigh. "I'm sure you don't come here for no reason either. Do you want to fight with us?"
"No, I want to make you win this battle," Azekiel answered. "And for that, I need you all to do something."
"Do what?"
"I want the dissolution of the Empire of Pride. The Empire of Pride needs to cease to exist being an Empire!"
Azekiel's calm words fell like thunder in the ears of the Ministers. He was saying that he was here to save the Empire, and at the same time, he wanted them to disintegrate the Empire? What was he trying to say? This didn't make sense at all.
Every Minister stared at Azekiel's face blankly. "Say that again?"
"I want the Empire of Pride to cease to exist," Azekiel repeated. "But there's a reason for that. Only once you cease to exist can I protect you."
"Why? How? Make it make sense."
"The Code of the Kings." Azekiel let out a made-up world. "That's the Code of Honour all of us Kings follow and are bound by. According to the first article of the Code of Kings, a King can't fight with another King unless it's either to expand his Empire or Defend their Empire!"
"Elijah is fighting to expand his Empire. Meanwhile, Michael is dead. And I? I'm just an outside party. This Empire isn't my Empire, so I can't fight the King of Greed for you. The only way to fight them is if I was your King," he further added.
"This... You want to become the King? But as you said, you can become the King this instant. We can't stop you. Why would you want this Empire to be dissolved for that?" One of the curious Ministers asked.
"As I told you before, this Empire belongs to my dear friend. I don't feel it's right for me to take over something he created. My morality doesn't allow it. But if you were to dissolve the Empire into multiple Kingdoms and control each of those kingdoms, the Empire of Pride would cease to exist. Then you can join again under my banner... As a new Empire." Azekiel explained.
This was the loophole he had noticed in the words of the system which gave him his mission. He couldn't take over any of the Existing Empires... But the system didn't say anything about taking over smaller Kingdoms that weren't under the control of any Kings.
It was certainly a cheat that he wanted to try, hoping that it wasn't against the unspoken rules, but this was the only way he could see to finish this Trial in record time.
He was taking over an already existing Empire without taking over an already existing Empire.
"This..."
The ministers didn't know how to respond to this demand. Since their King was dead, certainly the Empire was going to be in shambles even if they won the war. Moreover, it wasn't going to be long before another Empire attacked them if they didn't have a King. The only way for the peace to last was if they also had a King as a deterrence.
"You don't have much time. Think clearly. The Empire of Greed will be at your doors soon. I need time for other's things too. So decide fast. I know it's a long route to go through something simpler, but that route is something which will not only save your life but mine as well.
"I am ready. I think we should do it." The oldest Minister was the first to raise his hand in support of Azekiel. They had no other chance at the moment. Moreover, to them, Azekiel seemed like a really caring person.
"I agree too. If that brings long-lasting peace, I'll support it."
"I support it too."
"I don't think we should do it."
"It's too soon. We need time to think about it."
"We don't have time. We need to decide now."
Even though most of the voices were in support of Azekiel, there were some voices that were also against the idea, even though they were in the minority.
"You all aren't thinking straight!" A dissenter exclaimed. "We are surrendering the Empire in the hands of a King so he could fight another King? No matter what happens after that, many of our soldiers will die. If we're already surrendering to a King, why don't we surrender to the King of Greed? Won't that bring more peace?"
"If we surrender to the King of Greed instead of him, we won't have to go through this battle at all. Moreover, we would also become a part of the biggest Empire to ever exist! No other Empire will dare to hurt us!"
Even though the man spoke some harsh words, his words did manage to convince some of the Ministers who were on the fence until now while irritating Azekiel.
