"What?" Ambrose asked unconsciously, watching the person in front of him with wide eyes.
"Oh? Don't you get it?"
"Well, let me put it more simply."
"I want you to kneel in subordination to Black Plain today."
"After that, I will spend a few days here until we dethrone your father, and you assume his position with support from most of the royal family. After that, we will sign Soul Contracts to make sure that everyone here follows the deal."
"Finally, as part of my organization, you will, of course, help me eliminate some of my enemies while they sleep..."
"That's the advantage of having an inside ally, after all." Minos finished saying that, looking more seriously at those people.
"What?"
"How can you say such things? We are not traitors who kill their comrades!"
"That's right! The family has the honor to protect! We cannot do such a thing!"
"And we can't dethrone my father either!" Ambrose said this in concern since he genuinely could not do anything about it. "The Spiritual Church gives authority to the regional monarchs."
"That way, if my father doesn't formally abdicate the throne and the church accepts me as successor, none of this will have any practical validity!"
"Oh?" Minos said in surprise. "It seems you people would rather die..."
Gulp!
The people there trembled in fear, instantly returning to the creepy silence of seconds ago.
As for the queen, she clenched her hands in helplessness, feeling herself in this position for the first time in a long time.
"Your demands are greatly exaggerated! How do you expect us to do all these things?" She asked with nervousness.
The queen had lived long enough, but she did not want to die, much less lose her only living son!
In this way, she had to appeal to Minos to at least try to demand something more affordable.
He then replied. "It doesn't matter what the church says or doesn't say about this matter. As long as you follow the agreement, Ambrose will be king, and your husband can finally retire."
"As for what other people or organizations will think about this, I don't give a damn!"
"You will lead this state anyway, so I'm not worried about that. However, if you do not follow the points of the agreement we will sign, such contracts will bring terrible consequences for your family."
"At this point, it is enough for me that the existence of this family is at risk to ensure that our agreement brings concrete results."
He then asked sarcastically. "Or will King Snow accept the deaths of his son, his wife, and the entire upper echelon of House Snow just to regain his position?"
"Tsk!"
The people there felt even worse for Minos' words, feeling that it was a great dishonor to the king to be used in such an absurd hypothesis.
King Snow would never do such a thing!
Hell, that man was already quite distant from most of the official government affairs of the Snow Kingdom. So, he definitely would not put his family at risk for something he did not even want.
And knowing that, those people were angrier at Minos' words.
Anyway, Minos realized that nobody there seemed to want to say anything, so he continued. "As for the matter of these slayings, that will be for the very good of your organization."
"Once you are part of my power, I will naturally use your means to my advantage."
"And since it might be dangerous for your organization to fight a war against the other regional states, wouldn't it be much simpler if we eliminated many enemies at once?"
"With your family joining my forces, we can quickly eliminate much of the Spiritual Kings of the Brown Kingdom and the Cromwell Kingdom."
"What about the other kingdoms?" Ambrose asked in doubt, still very concerned.
"Don't worry about the others. I have my methods for dealing with them."
But the queen did not like that at all. "You talk as if the war will end with this action, and everything will return to normal. But what about the many reinforcements that the other regional families are bringing into your territory?"
"How do you intend to deal with them?"
Upon hearing this, Minos readily understood that such a woman was talking about the people coming from the Flaming Empire. "Well, aren't your reinforcements coming too?"
"Then, I will use such people to deal with those who come over to the enemy's side!"
Minos had already been planning to use the enemy reinforcements against themselves from the moment he had found out about Gloria's actions weeks ago.
He knew he could not use his mother's help, as Gloria had made a point of specifying that only people born in the northern region, that is, direct descendants of local powers, could come to this place with freedom to act.
But even if his mother were allowed to do anything, he still would not ask her or that organization for help!
No, he would never do something like that, especially in a situation where he had so many alternatives.
Hence, he would instead force the regional organizations to subordinate themselves to him and then use those powers against the counter-revolutionaries on the Black Plain.
And this included reinforcements coming from that state, which had members from all the royal families in that region!
So, he wanted to use the loopholes in Gloria's liberation, which did not specify which side these reinforcements had to fight on to put pressure on his enemies.
And upon realizing such a thing, each of those people there was frightened at him, feeling as if this young man had planned this from the beginning of everything.
"Is that why you decided to travel around the region recently?" The queen asked. "Did you make the same offer to the Carline family?"
This woman asked only about that family because such an organization had survived Minos' passage without human loss, just as it seemed to be the way forward for them if they accepted his demands.
"Hehe." Minos laughed in interest, amazed at that woman's intelligence. "Who knows..."
"Anyway, I'm not here to talk about other organizations but about House Snow."
"Those are some of my demands so that you will not suffer needless deaths. But don't overstep my goodwill."
"And I don't want to hear any moral questions about what should be done on the Black Plain!"
"Just obey when the time comes to act!"
Gulp!
Ambrose then said in a low voice. "All right, we'll take the deal."
"Ambrose!"
"Your Highness!"
The people in that place exclaimed simultaneously, shocked that he had accepted all that so quickly.
"Mother, we have no choice here." He said in a low voice as he spoke into his mother's left ear, "When father left, he said that if anything happened to him, I should surrender to this person."
"So, since we've reached this point, there's no reason for us to take any more risks here."
"Let's just accept that!"
"Is that true?" She asked as she looked into her son's eyes, feeling bad that her husband had made this decision without at least talking to her.
"Yes."
"Sigh..." She sighed softly before accepting the whole thing, "All right, let's do it this way then."
"Hehehehe, that's better." Minos rose from his armchair, pleased with the way these people acted.
"Well, since that's settled, I hope you find a spiritual judge who can validate our Soul Contracts as soon as possible."
"I don't want to stay here any longer than necessary."
"Also, I want you to pass on to me the information from the Scourges of the Devil that you obtained through the interrogation of Dean Chambers."
"What?" One of the Spiritual Kings in that place, the person who had tortured the patriarch Dean before, said such a thing in surprise, not understanding how Minos knew that information.
Apart from a few enemies of the Scourges of the Devil that they had come into contact with, no one else was supposed to know that information.
But from what Minos had said, it seemed that he knew about everything, not only that they had the information but also how they had gotten it.
"How did you know that?" That individual asked.
"I naturally have my means..." He said this as he headed toward the exit of that office, smiling. "Who do you think informed you about the Chambers family?"
...
