One More Time: Rebirth

Chapter 51: Negotiations

After the battle was over, my teammates and I headed back to the school bringing the prisoners and the children. When we told the Principal what had happened, he looked extremely troubled. We left him with the children who were going to be placed in an orphanage. As for the Eastern Kingdom soldiers, their wounds were treated then they were taken away until we begin negotiations with the Eastern Kingdom.

Due to us attacking first and the Eastern Kingdom soldiers simply retaliating, this case would be difficult to handle. Seeing as all the black-clad students were children of families with unique backgrounds just made this case even more difficult to handle.

A few days after the incident we were now heading towards a conference room to talk about the events prior. As Tsukiyomi and I were following behind the other senpais, I heard a familiar voice.

"EDGE!" I looked behind me and saw my dad was rushing towards me. He quickly hugged me with nimble movements.

"Are you alright Edge?! Did those b*stards from the Eastern Kingdom do anything to you?!"

"No, actually it was us, that kinda attacked first."

"Is that so, well it doesn't matter. A bunch of grown as* men attacking children. They keep on going on about their pride as warriors, but then they go around doing this. Don't worry son, it doesn't matter even if you killed a king, dad's always going to protect you."

'Hey is it really alright to say something like that out loud?' As usual, my dad was so energetic. I couldn't help but chuckle.

"So dad where's mom?" The moment I asked dad showed a weird smile and answered.

"She's doing something rather important at the moment." After he said those words he continued to hug me. It took some time before we headed into the conference room.

When we entered the conference room, there were already people inside. All the other black-clad students were already there sitting with what looks to be their fathers.

I saw Rain-senpai in the corner of the room without anyone beside him. He was looking rather glum and his usual confidence seems to be gone. Now that I think about it during the fight against the Eastern Kingdom soldiers, I couldn't see Rain-senpai. Though there were a lot of soldiers, maybe amidst all that and seeing as I was concentrated on Tsukiyomi I didn't notice him...

On the other side, were the Eastern Kingdom people. There were five of them and those five were exuding a powerful aura.

I could feel that the four were at the same level as the commander Tsukiyomi fought the other day, while the one in the middle was stronger than that. I saw Tsukiyomi glaring at the man in the middle but unlike before she didn't take action.

She already explained to me and everyone else why she attacked in the first place. The commander from the battle a few days ago was someone that felt like he had a contract with an Ethereal and he was a supposed contract breaker. But during the fight Tsukiyomi noticed some oddities and concluded that the sign of the contract must be a fake or something else entirely.

The atmosphere was heavy and once everyone was present the representative of the palace sent here to observe sat down. The moment he did so the leader of the Eastern Kingdom group spoke.

"I'll get right to the point I want my soldiers back, I want the criminals who attacked our merchants, and I want these children who attacked my men to be punished accordingly, especially her." The leader pointed at Tsukiyomi. Hearing what the other side dad started laughing. The other fathers were scrunching their eyebrows.

"Oh, are you sure you want to do it that way? Do you know what race this little lady is from?" Dad gestured at Tsukiyomi and the leader of the other side didn't answer. Seeing his reaction dad smiled and then continued on.

"You see she told us something interesting. So I have a question for you and depending on your answer, I might actually concede on some of your idiotic demands. Are you experimenting with Ethereals? Of course, you aren't I already know that... But what are you doing making something similar to the seal of the contracts that Ethereals use?" Dad continued to speak in a tone that he was looking down on the Eastern Kingdom people.

"Do not push it Leonard Regius. You might be the head of the Regius household, the so called 'Sword of the North' but that doesn't change the fact that right now you are alone here with these other soft-bellied Northerners. I could kill you with one swing of my sword."

I saw the faces of the other fathers. It would seem that they didn't like the way the leader of the Eastern Kingdom soldiers spoke about them. They were nobles of the Northern Kingdom, and they also had the skills to wage war and battle. Even if they weren't a match for the leader of the other side in a one on one situation, they believed that together they could still kill the dignitaries of the Eastern Kingdom.

I could even feel Jester-senpai's mana spiking as he was getting ready to use a spell. The Eastern Kingdom soldiers were already holding the hilt of their swords. The leader was calmly looking at the surroundings and then glared at Jester-senpai. I guess he figured that he was the most threatening of those present in the room. Even Tsukiyomi was getting ready to pounce at the leader. The inside of the conference room was now filled with bloodlust. I could even see that Cliff-senpai was licking his lips.

It was then I noticed that only my dad was still acting calmly as he suddenly laughed a very hearty laugh. The leader didn't appreciate the laughing of my father nor did his men as all their focus was now on my dad. Before the leader could say anything my dad spoke.

"You Eastern Kingdom b*stards are always so quick to anger. Though I doubt you could kill me since if you did that would mean war between our two kingdoms. Surely even you, prideful pricks that you are wouldn't want that to happen. Also, I want to inform you that currently the whole army of the Regius Household commanded by my wife, is near your fortress in Mino and they are about to conduct a military exercise. So if you want me to call them back, you either tell me what you're doing with trying to imitate the contract of the Ethereals, or you can drop your demands and let bygones be bygones. So what do you choose?!"

"Do you plan to strong-arm us?!"

"Weren't you doing the same thing, just moments ago?"

Dad was holding a crystal orb-like object, which seems to be a communication device. The leader of the other side sneered and stood up from his seat. The group then left, but before they left I saw the leader whispering something to my dad, who simply shrugged his shoulders.

Once the group from the Eastern Kingdom was gone, dad spoke to the crystal orb. "Honey, no need to continue, you can retreat." After saying that I could hear my mom's voice shouting. "EDGE! Mommy is-" The transmission was cut off before she could finish what she was saying.