"Your Majesty!? Why are you here?" General Frel looked at Claine as he walked into the command tent with a full suit of armor on.
"My people are out here putting their lives on the line to begin a new chapter in my Rural Kingdom. If I am not on the front lines, then for what reason do the citizens of Rural look up to me as king?" Claine asked as he looked at the lizardman in front of him.
"You're absolutely right, your Majesty. I apologize for my earlier outburst." General Frel lowered his head. He felt ashamed for even asking such a question. Why wouldn't their king be here? He was this kind of man. He was always someone who would rush to the front lines when he could. During the last war, it was every one of his children. And this time, it was the king himself. He was a man of action.
"It's fine. I came unannounced anyway. Now then…" Claine was about to ask how things were going on the front lines when a soldier ran into the tent.
"Sir, the Empire forces have raised the white flag. A messenger from the other side is making his way towards us." The soldier reported. But when his eyes landed on his king, he began to sweat as he quickly bowed his head. "I am sorry, your Majesty, I did not see you there!"
"It's fine. More importantly, let's go meet this messenger." Claine walked out of the tent both the soldier and General Frel quickly followed behind.
A human in his mid fifties in silver armor and a long red cape rode his horse with a white flag attached to a long pole that was strapped to his saddle road into the camp. "My name is General Deilic. I am the commander of the human army before you. I have come to surrender."
"Oh? I am King of Rural. May I ask why you have surrendered? I figured your emperor would rather send every one of his people to their death before surrendering." Claine shouted as he pushed his way through his men.
"The King Of Rural..." General Deilic let out a sigh. He wished his emperor had even one tenth of the courage the Rural king did. "This makes things easier then. Your forward force that entered the capital has already killed our emperor and seized the capital. As the last general of the empire, I would like to formally announce our surrender in order to stop the bloodshed. We no longer have a reason to fight."
Claine lips twitched as he tried not to smile and did his best to keep a serious face. But internally, he was cheering Kana on for being able to accomplish such a feat. "I see… Then please dismount and follow me. We will speak in the command tent. Of course, after being checked for weapons."
"Understood." General Deilic nodded his head and followed after Claine.
Ten minutes later, both Claine and General Deilic were sitting across from each other at a long table. "Let's now speak the terms of surrender." Claine waved his hand, and a soldier walked up with a folder with some papers inside. "Read through this and tell me what you think."
General Deilic took the folder and began reading through it, and as he did, his eyes became wide in shock. "This… Are you sure you wish to still let us self govern?"
"No matter what happens in war, even if we were to annex only a small amount of land, the humans living in these cities will not trust or want to deal with us beastkin. Hate can not be washed away overnight. But we can make it so that we can live in harmony. We never wanted to wipe humans off the map. We just want to live in a peaceful situation. Even in the Rural kingdom, there are many humans who have either beastkin wives or husbands and children as well. Many humans run businesses here, chat, play, and coexist with beastkin without issue. But if we slowly begin showing that beastkin are no different than humans as we start to do trade between cities, we can make it so that the lives between humans and beastkin are peaceful.
" This means there will be many new laws imposed, and a clean up of the anti beastkin faction of your nobles will need to be done. But if we work together and set up a new ruler in the empire, we can have the empire as a subordinate state to my Rural Kingdom. It will still fly the Rural Kingdom's flag and still be considered a part of the Rural Kingdom, but it will have its own government for all the humans living there to feel more at ease. I have always been a fair and just ruler. I will do what I can to make the people under my rule feel like they belong to my kingdom." Claine always put his people first, which has gained him the respect of his citizens. But even so, being a just ruler is not easy since many do not think the same as him.
"You are right on that. But trying to find someone to rule is not going to be easy. Especially if you want to ban slavery. Slavery has been ingrained into our society for so long it is part of our everyday life…. So how do you want to handle this?" General Deilic asked.
"I know once slavery is abolished, it will be hard to get people to follow this rule, which is why the empire will become a militaristic state. As for the ruler, isn't there one right in front of me?" Claine said with a smile as he looked firmly at the general. Claine knew what was to come will be rocky. But if claine had the man in front of him run the capital and slowly reform the empire to work with the rural kingdom with the rural kingdom's backing he should be able to do so with ease.
"I see..." General Deilic never expected to be appointed to such a position. "Your idea is sound. With me as the general and my men willing to lay down their lives for me they will easily follow my commands. As long as Rural is willing to back me up and send a squad to help with the southern regions we should be able to free all the beastkin slaves in the empire and. I we can also build a few beastkin towns as well. The empire is vast so being able to slowly merge the two races and form a peaceful unity will be easy…"
With this thought in mind General Deilic stood up, walked around the table and knelt down. "I General Deilic hereby give the Rural King my absolute loyalty. As long as the people of the Empire are not harmed for no reason I will never betray the Rural Kingdom. The Empire front his day forth will now fly the Rural Kingdom flag and become a subordinate state under the Rural Kingdom."
