System S.E.X. (Seduction, Expansion, eXecution)

Chapter 755: Chapter 755: The True Request

"Regardless of the severity of their wounds, your warriors will survive," Ethan stated with certainty, holding the sovereign’s gaze. "Furthermore, there are still vast quantities of this liquid. We can create immortal armies without limit, Your Majesty."

King Alaric von Dragonia slowly adjusted himself on his stone throne. He rested his arms upon the carved armrests and locked a deep, penetrating gaze onto Ethan. He then shifted his eyes toward his daughter, Isabella, and finally scanned each of the generals and nobles present in the great hall.

The silence that followed was almost unbearable. No one in the room dared even to breathe loudly.

After contemplating for nearly an hour in complete stillness, the King finally broke the silence. His voice echoed off the marble walls with an ancestral weight.

"You offer an extinct medicine whose formula only you know... whose crafting only you master," the King began, weighing every word. "Furthermore, you surrender the location of the materials entirely and report that vast quantities exist... It all sounds far too good for me and for my kingdom. The only thing I fail to understand is: why do you do it? If you kept it solely for yourself, no one would ever know, and you could negotiate infinitely greater benefits. I know you stand under my daughter’s banner, but your contribution alone in destroying the southeastern sects is more than enough for me to annul any contract or servitude you hold with her."

"Father...!" Isabella intervened immediately, taking a step forward with a tense expression.

The King simply raised a hand in midair, silencing her instantly without turning his eyes away from Ethan.

"However, you hand over something even more valuable..." Alaric continued. "Tell me what you are truly asking for. I cannot accept that this is merely out of the goodness of your heart."

Ethan maintained an upright posture, unblinking beneath the sovereign’s crushing pressure.

"I can assure you, Your Majesty, that my gratitude toward the Princess surpasses the heavens, and I have no ulterior motive other than paying my debt," Ethan replied with composure. "However, while traveling, I learned of certain details and rumors that I would like to verify with you, Your Majesty."

The Southern General narrowed his eyes and took half a step forward, warning him in a low tone:

"Be careful with what you are about to say, young man. Do not ruin your life by being reckless."

Ethan offered a faint, bitter smile.

"I had enough time to contemplate it," Ethan declared, keeping his voice firm before the entire court. "And if my small contributions can repay even a fraction of the favors I have received, I will gladly run the risk. I wish to request that all my contributions be surrendered in exchange for Princess Isabella being freed from the yoke that binds her."

The King sighed deeply, while Isabella could no longer contain the tears welling up in her eyes.

Looking at his daughter, Alaric’s heart softened for a brief moment. He was a ruthless and brutal being, a heartless killer who had stained countless battlefields with blood; however, he had always been weak when it came to his only daughter. Despite that, he knew all too well the responsibilities he carried as a king, and she, as a princess, was not exempt. Her yoke was not something he could break simply on a whim.

For her part, Isabella could only weep in silence, her chest tightening with overwhelming emotion. She had always been strong, completely alone, seeking to break her yoke by her own means, fighting against everything and everyone without stopping for a single second. She had bled, fought, and suffered in solitude. Her mother had once spoken to her of her destined one; she told her that her eyes would guide her and that an invisible thread would lead her straight to him.

Isabella dreamed of finding the end of that string. In her visions, she could only see a golden thread stretching far to the south, seeming to have no end. One day, while traveling with her father, she reached the southern coast and saw that the thread continued beyond the vast sea. For that very reason, she enlisted in the realm’s navy: she wanted to see how far it went. But no matter how much she explored, no matter how far south she sailed, the thread never stopped. There was no end, no destined one in sight; only an endless, fruitless path.

Until that day.

The day the thread suddenly shifted direction. Isabella followed it, dreaming that her mother might have been right. Despite having lost all hope, she decided to trust in that mysterious destiny one last time. And deep within enemy territory, she found that young man: a broken youth, nearly dead at the hands of the Crimson Sect, clinging to the edge of death. In an outburst of rage she herself couldn’t comprehend, she wiped out every captor on the spot without weighing the political consequences for the realm.

And now, here stood that same man. A warrior who feared nothing, risking his own neck before the most ruthless king just to set her free. How could she not be deeply moved?

The hall fell into a deathly silence, marked only by the suppressed sobs of the princess.

"Do you understand what you are asking for, young man?" the King spoke in an intensely serious gaze, locking his silver eyes on Ethan.

"Completely, Your Majesty," Ethan replied, keeping his head held high and his gaze fixed on the monarch.

Alaric let out a long sigh before speaking, exposing for the first time the sorrow of a father over the stature of a king.

"My daughter’s marriage cannot be decided even by me..." the King declared with restrained bitterness. "That has been a thorn in my heart for years, and there is nothing I would want more than to abolish it... but only the Empire holds the authority to do so. Extermination wars are strictly forbidden among the kingdoms under the rule of the Golden Dragon Empire, so I cannot simply march out, kill her fiancé, and crush the Silver Dragon King."

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