Leonel’s voice came out with an undeniable edge to it.
Those glasses, with his skill as a Force Crafter, he could easily see through their abilities. Even if this young man wasn’t necessarily using it in a perverted manner, Leonel had no intention on relying on his ‘good nature’.
The young man slowly placed his glasses down on the table before them, wiping away the small shards of glass that hadn’t managed to pierce his skin. Judging by his expression, one would have never guessed that he had just been humiliated.
His treasure could indeed see through more than what the human eye was capable of. As for whether he was truly planning on using his glasses like this, maybe only he was aware of the answer to that.
The young man looked up from his broken glasses to Leonel, his gaze remaining even. Leonel matched his gaze, not a hint of remorse in his eyes.
“My name is Noah Fawkes, I’m here on behalf of The Empire as the representative of the Fawkes Royal Family.
“This is Jessica Scarlet, she is the representative of the Scarlet Grand Prime Minister family.
“This is Tyrron Dove, he is the representative of the Dove Grand Prime Minister family.”
Noah didn’t address the small scuffle between Leonel and Tyrron in the slightest, he made his way forward with introductions without a care.
Leonel turned his gaze from Tyrron, focusing it on his cousin. He had to admit that Noah had perfected the air of a Prince. In this regard, he was far beyond Lionus despite being a few years younger.
“The proposal is simple.” Noah spoke with a royal air, his presence seeming several times larger than his actual stature would dictate. “Camelot and the Demon Empire will be annexed to become the second moon of Earth. Your status will be that of probationary citizens. Jessica.”
Jessica nodded hearing her name called.
“Probationary citizenship allows you two-thirds the rights of official citizens of Earth. You will be protected by the same laws, however your voting rights are reduced by a third and your punishments are increased by the same measure.
“This status will last until the end of the war wherein you will be instated as official citizens of The Empire. Depending on your performance, you may be conferred a Chief Earl title under the Pendragon name.”
Jessica brought out several drafted documents. They piled up onto the table, totaling at least a few dozen pages.
King Arthur frowned at these words. He didn’t like these terms very much at all.
He was essentially tasked with defending what amounted to half a large continent of Earth in return for an … Earl Title?
He might not know what the titles of Earth were and how they compared to Camelot’s, but Earl was an easily identifiable title for him. That was enough to tell him that he would have next to no speaking power.
However, instead of lashing out like he wanted to, he remained silent, leaving these matters in Leonel’s hands. Since he had already resigned himself to this life, it hardly made a difference. Whether he was an Earl or a Duke, who cared if he was no longer King?
Leonel didn’t respond to Noah or Jessica. Instead, he reached for the papers.
Under the confused gazes of everyone present, he flipped through them one by one, not remaining on a single page for more than a second.
Jessica’s brow wrinkled slightly. Was he planning on reading it? But if he really was planning on reading it, why was he flipping through the pages so quickly?
What Jessica didn’t know was that Leonel had already slowed himself down considerably. Let alone a second a page, all he would have to do is spread these pages out and he could read all more than 50 sheets in that same time frame.
After a while, Leonel placed the documents down and closed his eyes.
Leonel quickly organized all the information, jumped through the legal talk and reached the core of the documents.
Ultimately, this document was mostly created to familiarize Camelot with the laws of Earth. Only a small portion of it actually detailed the agreement between the two ‘nations’. But, this was good for Leonel as well. Though he knew the main tenants of Earth’s laws, when it came to the details, he was severely lacking.
The document was unlikely to list all of Earth’s laws. After all, it was only a few dozen sheets while Earth had long since moved passed the usage of paper. Clearly, they had only gone back due to the completion of the Metamorphosis making technology all but useless. But this was enough.
Leonel opened his eyes. The simple action made Jessica shudder. But, the feeling of oppression soon vanished as they regained their focus.
“Accept them as official citizens of The Empire, remove the guaranteed Chief Earl title, and document Camelot as a Probationary Province.”
Noah’s expression finally shifted from something other than indifference. His head tilted slightly, a hint of questioning in his gaze.
“If we do things like this, the Pendragon family will not be guaranteed any title. It is very possible that they will become commoners. Under these conditions, the people of Camelot are no longer of Camelot. As such, their merits are their own and won’t count for the Pendragon family.”
Though The Empire’s initial offer sounded bad, after reading the document, Leonel felt they were surprisingly fair. ‘Probationary Citizen’ sounded like a bad title, but it essentially allowed Camelot autonomy to continue functioning as its own nation until the war ended. As such, the merits of Camelot’s armies would count toward Camelot and allow it to earn up to an Earl title in the end.
But, Leonel was essentially asking to remove this failsafe. By allowing Camelot to become official citizens of Earth right this moment, they were all starting as commoners. How could commoners lead people? Obviously, they didn’t have the right to do so. So, any merits ‘Camelot’ accomplished would be equally spread to its millions of citizens rather than concentrating into Arthur’s or Mordred’s hands.
Though this method would allow the Pendragons a chance to achieve a royal title higher than Earl, it also meant that they could effectively end up with nothing unless they had astounding single person feats.
Though the Code Black of The Empire seemed to throw the nobles to the wolves, the truth was that they still had many advantages commoners didn’t have. As nobles, they had subordinates that were recognized by law. Those subordinates could funnel their merits toward these nobles, making it easier for them to retain their titles.
However, if Arthur and Mordred became official citizens now… They wouldn’t have this luxury any longer.
“I’m certain.” Leonel replied. “After all, as a Prince, I can allocate my merits however I please.”
Noah’s pupils constricted into pinholes.
That was right. There was one family that didn’t have to worry about democracy on Earth, and that was the Fawkes family. But how could Leonel alone amass more merits than those royal families with tens to hundreds of thousands of subordinates?
Just as Noah wanted to open his mouth to say something, a talisman on Jessica’s person suddenly glowed. At first, she listened to the message passed to her in silence, but after a while, her cold expression furrowed into a frown.