Cave King – 136
Chapter 136 – We made a pact!
After our father had left, Balpas and I sat down at a table in the storage house and talked.
Of course, there was the fear that my father was still plotting something, and so I had Baris monitor him.
However, according to Shiel’s reports, he had yet to do anything that was suspicious.
When I followed his magic energy, I saw that he appeared to be flying around the ship and swinging his arms. I suppose he was holding a hammer…
“In any case, for now we will sign an anti-war and trade agreement. …Alright?”
“Huh? Uh, yes.”
I nodded at Balpas’s words.
I had become distracted by my father’s movements and wasn’t paying much attention to Balpas.
Balpas stopped his writing and looked at me with a worried expression.
“…Is it unacceptable to you then? If you have other conditions, I will listen to them. As much as I am able to, anyway.”
“No, brother. The conditions you laid out earlier are acceptable to me.”
In fact, there weren’t any conditions for the anti-war agreement.
However, it took much more time to discuss the trading agreement.
This was because monsters were forbidden from walking around the city in Sanfaris.
And while I was told that secret trade often occurred in the countryside, Balpas declared that the idea of making such transactions legal and public would likely be met with strong opposition from both commoners and nobles.
And I didn’t want to send anyone to Sanfaris, where they would be subject to such hostilities.
So for now, it was decided that even if a Sheorl ship was to dock at Sanfaris, only the human crew would disembark. Of course, Sheorl residents were able to change their appearance with Ryukin, so in a way, anyone could disembark if they wanted.
Furthermore, if a Sanfaris ship came here, they would only have access to one district, just as we had always intended. We could not allow them to enter the cave, after all.
And of course, they would have to obey our laws during their stay.
As such interactions between nations continued, perhaps Sanfaris would eventually lift their ban on monsters entering the city. That was my hope, anyway.
Balpas let out a sigh of relief.
“I see…thank heavens.”
“I’m glad that everything went smoothly.”
“Well, if you ignore Oren, I suppose it was quite smooth. By the way, considering the terms we just agreed on, you are allowed to judge Oren here. As he has committed murder on your land. What will you do?”
“Elto is taking care of Oren now. As for me, my mind hasn’t changed. I want him to confess his crimes in the royal capital…”
From what I had seen, he was being kept in a corner of the storage house, where he continued to scream madly. He had apparently attempted to take his own life, so Elto was watching him carefully.
Oren now had the body of a monster, and he had lost both arms and a leg. Perhaps this appearance had plunged him into despair.
Balpas answered.
“…Then we will take him for now. I’ll have reports of the investigation sent to your merchants. Well, it should only take a few months to be complete.”
“…Thank you.”
“What? You don’t seem very happy.”
“Well…he was my younger brother.”
“Huh. I didn’t think you saw him that way… But I suppose it’s hard to not feel a little pity for him now. He will likely never be seen again. Not in the palace or the city.”
As I said before, monsters were not allowed to walk in public in Sanfaris. And of course, Oren was a monster now. But even if the law were to be changed, I doubted Oren would be able to tolerate the looks he would get.
“Besides, I doubt we’ll be allowed to say that it’s Oren. We might say that it’s the monster that killed him, and have a public trial… The one thing father will now allow is a scandal that will lead to blame being put on the royal family.”
Like Balpas said, Oren was a prince.
If the whole truth was told to citizens, it would put the royal family in a bad light.
Father would not tolerate anything that injured the family’s prestige.
On the other hand, he had also branded Oren as being completely useless.
The Cave King will live a Paradise Life -Becoming the strongest with the mining skill?-
Thanks for the chapter
I feel like that should be the price they pay. He should have demanded that they reveal the whole truth