After hearing Kara's speech, Minos let go of this young woman's shoulders. But, at the same time, she made a strange expression, as if she was disappointed about something.
However, Minos just associated this with his harsh method of starting this dialogue. So, he just moved on with the matter. "How nice that there are sensible people in your family, Kara."
"I offered a big deal to a woman named Linette Carline, but she just refused, saying that if I wanted something, I should take it by force..."
"What do you think of that?"
"Aunt Linette?" Kara's eyes sparkled as she remembered Ford's mother. "What have you done with her, Minos?"
"My father is very attached to each of his wives... He truly loves aunt Linette..." She looked at him thoughtfully, feeling that things were only getting difficult.
"I took it easy on her and just taught her a little lesson."
"Don't worry. She should be fine."
Kara then stared into Minos' brown eyes, processing this information. She knew that Linette was on the Black Plain because of the news of James Cromwell's death. But the regional periodicals had no critical details of that battle.
Hence, Kara did not know how Linette and Minos had interacted.
She then asked. "What did you offer her?"
"I asked her and her state's troops to depart from the Black Plain, and with that, I would forget that they had acted against us."
"Sigh..."
"It's only natural that aunt Linette said that, after all, our family was the strongest in the region until recently..." She said this in a low voice, looking complicatedly at Minos.
The Black Plain could not be considered stronger than the Kingdom of the End, nor could the local army be superior to House Carline. But Minos alone could already threaten that family, which took the status of the strongest family in the region away from House Carline.
And as someone who had grown up most of her life in that place, it was not easy for her to talk about this with Minos.
But she understood that there was no point in lamenting over spilled milk.
Things had already reached that point. Only by trying to work around the situation could her family have the best possible results.
"In any case, I hope you won't take aunt Linette so seriously."
"She doesn't know what you're like. Furthermore, she probably thinks that if the family gives up this confrontation, you could go to our headquarters demanding things in the future."
"But if you let me take care of it, I can try to work it out with my father..."
"You're not going to do absurd things after winning the war, right?
"What's in those periodicals about you wanting regional peace is your intentions, right?" She asked this, still face to face with Minos, almost close enough to him that she could feel this young man's breath.
Minos then looked at Kara's beautiful face for a moment, looking down due to the height difference between the two, subtly seeing this young woman's full cleavage. "Too late, Kara."
"Now your family will have to pay something if they want to get out of the war. Otherwise, we will go to the ultimate consequences."
"I offered a great way out for your family, but such kindness was refused. So, now I fear that even if your father gets his forces out of the Black Plain, he will have to pay high costs."
After hearing this, Kara's gray eyes twitched as she moved even closer to this young man. "Minos!"
"You are making things difficult here!"
"You were so kind before... You said things not long ago that you wanted to resolve this situation without confrontation... How can you make things so difficult like this now?"
"What's wrong with you?" She said as she took one of Minos' hands and squeezed.
"I need to set an example, Kara."
"Everyone who stands against the Black Plain now will be punished once the war is over. That is not for a desire for revenge on my part but for the sake of peace in my state."
"I don't want to deal with dozens of families who have dangerous ideas regarding my state and maybe think they can easily escape the consequences of their actions."
"I will show them all that heavy consequences await those who flirt with dangerous ideas regarding the Black Plain."
"This is so that in the future, those who think of acting against us understand that they will suffer from punishments never before seen in our region."
Kara then shivered in concern as she heard the coldness with which Minos spoke about this, understanding that he was not joking with her.
Gulp!
"Fine." She said before giving her opinion about it. "I don't like the way you're acting right now, but I will at least try to get my family on the right track so that at some point, they can get off the Black Plain."
"So, what do you want to demand from my family?"
He then replied. "To begin with, all those who have killed members of the Black Plain Army or allies of Dry City should have their spiritual cultivation crippled..."
"No, your family should hand those people over to the Black Plain Army for them to be crippled in Dry City."
Upon hearing this, Kara's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. She swallowed her saliva, wondering if this were just the beginning, then her family would be finished.
"In addition, your family will have no access to the Black Plain for the next 30 years. Any member of your family, with a few exceptions, who enters our state, will be summarily executed if caught."
"Finally, King Carline will have to bend the knee, ask for forgiveness in public, and declare his subordination to the Black Plain for the next 100 years."
Gulp!
"That's it? Are you sure you don't want to demand anything more?" She asked sarcastically, feeling that Minos could only be making a joke.
Minos' second demand was even quite acceptable since, historically, the Carline family had never come to the Black Plain. So, she thought, this would not bring any harm to them.
The first part was ridiculous, and if it were accepted, probably all those who came to the Black Plain would have to have their spiritual cultivations crippled!
As for the third part, although 100 years may not seem like much for cultivators, spending that long subordinated to a newly created organization was extreme!
Consequently, Kara could not help but joke about Minos' line.
To her, he probably did not want to resolve the conflict peacefully. He was citing conditions that were impossible to meet!
"Kara, I'm not joking." He looked earnestly into her beautiful eyes. "This all is already considerably light..."
"I'm only doing this because I don't want to destroy your and Ford's family. Otherwise, I would probably demand something that I am sure you are unwilling to give up..."
Gulp!
"Minos, how you..."
"And the conditions I cited are only harmful in the short term. But eventually, your family could have the autonomy it currently enjoys. Moreover, our relations could improve when someone replaces your father in the future."
Seeing the fearful look on her little face, he insisted on that so that everything was evident in her mind. "Do what you can to save your family, Kara. Others will not have that opportunity."
"And you should know that there is a time limit on this offer of mine. Once I reach level 54, there will be no turning back."
Minos was already very close to reaching level 53. And considering his cultivation speed at the 6th stage, such a time limit should be close to a year.
And as the Kingdom of the End and the Black Plain were not close, the time Kara and her family had was not long!
'I will personally kill all the Spiritual Kings from each of the families against me now!'
'That will be a historic punishment in this region, something so that this population will not forget what happens to those who act against the Black Plain.' Minos thought quietly, without pointing this out to Kara so that such a thing would not leak out and prevent his enemies.
Minos would not exterminate families, but everyone who fought against the Black Plain and all the experts of those families would be killed as an example.
He was not an authoritarian leader, but starting a state with such a massacre would not be bad. After all, being feared was as important, if not more important, than being adored!
