Adrian read the entire letter in complete silence.
By the time he was finally done reading the arrogant, demanding words of the Emperor, the expression on his face didn’t really change much. He just stared at the open scroll and stood there motionless for a few long seconds.
Then he gripped the scroll hard, crumpling the edges, and just carelessly tossed it aside.
The royal scroll just rolled through the dirt of the training field like a piece of useless trash.
Adrian looked at Serena, who was watching him with wide, worried eyes.
"Well. I guess we’ve got to get ready for the war now."
He sounded completely exhausted.
Serena could easily tell that he sounded a little defeated and deeply dejected by how he was just forced into a corner. But there was absolutely nothing that she could actually do to help him right now. She was just a Duke’s daughter, not the ruling monarch.
So at the end, she just gave a slow, sympathetic nod and turned around to go back into the mansion to give him some space.
While she walked away, Adrian just stared at her retreating back. But his mind was already preoccupied by something else entirely.
’This bitch of an Emperor needs to be taught a lesson at this point,’ he thought, his jaw clenching tight. ’But right now, he’s really not leaving me with any good options anymore.’
Adrian frowned and thought about the multiple different options that he could theoretically choose at the moment. He ran through the different kinds of actions that he could take and the outcomes that they would inevitably leave him with.
The very first option was simply to completely ignore the royal decree and not go to the war even after the Emperor specifically told him to come.
But this would only mean one exact thing: having the ruling Emperor as a direct, active enemy. And basically half, not just half, but most of the Empire would turn against Oresfall.
He had originally written that arrogant letter to the Emperor hoping that a specific political plan would work. But it clearly didn’t.
The letter basically consisted of him informing the Crown that he was attacked by the Ironhold Kingdom and that he had high profile prisoners. That was the primary excuse he used to state the reason why he just could not leave his territory. Because the Ironhold Kingdom might attack his place again at any time to get their hands back on their people while he was gone.
It was a perfectly valid, logical excuse to stay home and protect his borders.
But at the end of the day, it did not go according to his plan at all and it severely backfired on him.
The Emperor was now directly commanding him to unconditionally release the prisoners instead. Which was even worse than what Adrian had originally expected.
Adrian expected the Emperor to call his bluff, ignore the prisoner excuse, and just tell Adrian to join the war anyway. But now? He also had to release his only major bargaining chips against Ironhold for absolutely nothing in return.
Adrian let out a soft, frustrated sigh and he really did think about it objectively.
Leaving the Prince and Princess locked up at Oresfall while he was out fighting in the war was actually incredibly risky. He did not know what sort of military forces the Ironhold Kingdom had and if they launched a massive, full-scale rescue attack on his city while he wasn’t there, and while most of his heavy hitting elite army was outside the territory, then there was going to be very little resistance left to go against Ironhold’s top knights.
It would be shockingly easy for them to just storm in, slaughter his remaining guards, and take over Oresfall while he was stuck fighting against Avarice Kingdom.
It was technically a low chance event, but it was still entirely possible. And Adrian did not like dealing with loose end variables like these. As a pragmatic person from Earth, it was a completely normal thing for him to always expect the worst possible outcome in any given scenario.
He just slowly shook his head as he thought about the one other option that was literally just presented to him on a silver platter by the Emperor.
Which was to send the prisoners back home.
Adrian just thought about it for a while. He aggressively fought against the bruised ego of actually sending them back without executing them, but logically, it actually made total sense for the safety of his people.
If he sent the royals back home right now, the chances of the Ironhold Kingdom desperately attacking Oresfall while he was gone would fall significantly. The crisis would be resolved before it even began.
And that safety buffer was exactly what Adrian truly wanted. He did not want his innocent citizens to suffer or die in a siege while he was gone. And if it meant releasing two highly arrogant, high profile prisoners to secure his borders?
Then so be it.
Adrian just let out a soft sigh again. He sent his sleek Orichalcum staff back into his dungeon storage with a thought before he turned and walked back towards his mansion.
He kicked a small stone that was sitting in the middle of the training field and it just flew away, bouncing into the grass. He just looked at its direction before he muttered to himself.
"I will release these two bastards now. But I will make sure that Ironhold will pay for everything they did. I will completely fuck them up the very moment I come back from the war."
He looked up at the sky.
"And this motherfucker Emperor. I am making a solid promise to myself right now, that I will fuck you up too. I will show you exactly what it means to piss me off and treat my territory like a pawn."
Adrian walked inside the mansion with a deep frown etched on his face, looking incredibly irritated.