Licht simply stayed quiet, there was nothing he could do now, even if he wanted to fight and cause mayhem, there were currently 4 first evolution combatants in the room together with him, not to mention the king who was stronger than any of them and could fight against 2 to a draw. The only thing he could do now was simply waiting for the verdict and let the king and the higher-ups of Riplas decide his fate.
If he needed to die in order for his people to survive then so be it, he was already prepared to die after losing the fight against Reign and Lisea after all. Of course, it wasn't as if he wanted to die, if there was a possibility that he could live then he would gladly take it, of course, if it was under some kind of slave contract then he would decline, he was a king after all and would rather die than live so shamefully.
"Licht von Strandem, the king of Asuria and one of the people that had decided to wage war against us." The king suddenly spoke as a heavy aura suddenly filled the room, the king was releasing his mana whilst staring at Licht without blinking.
"Your crimes against my kingdom are many, not only did your pointless war cause a great deal of distress to us, but you have killed thousands of my people and kidnapped hundreds as well, usually the penalty for something like that would be a public execution without any kind of trial."
"Your case is a special one however, your people have surrendered without fighting against us because of one reason, your life." The king slowly started walking down the stairs as he continued staring at Licht.
"Thanks to that we were able to not only quickly occupy Asuria, but there was no bloodshed, both your people and mine have managed to keep the casualty rate at the lowest possible because we have agreed that you will live if they surrender, they have fulfilled their end of the bargain, and I and my kingdom are not one to go against our words."
The people in the hall started murmuring after hearing the king's words, it was obvious that he planned on sparing the life of Licht, many understood his reason, not only would killing Licht destroy the image of Riplas, but it would also result in riots suddenly taking place in Asuria, if the unrest continued for long then the neighboring kingdoms could start a war against them under the disguise of helping the poor citizens of Asuria who were fighting back against them.
By portraying the kingdom as tyrants that were evil, the neighboring kingdoms would be able to persuade their people that war against Riplas was necessary and that it was needed for peace to exist in the area. The consequences of killing Licht were definitely heavy and could impact the kingdom very badly.
Sparing him however would not only keep Asuria peaceful and content, but they would also gain another first evolution combatant and one that was very young and talented. The risk, however, was Licht turning against them in the future, he was after all a king, and being beneath someone was not something anyone could tolerate for long.
"Of course, we do have our terms for sparing your life." The king spoke out as he stood right in front of Licht. The king was taller and more muscular compared to Licht who had a slim frame. The eagle-like eyes of the king stared directly into Licht who simply stared back without speaking a word.
"First of all, Asuria will become a part of Riplas, I will not however force you to change your traditions or the structure of the kingdom, you will simply be a part of our kingdom whilst acting the same as you previously did, the only difference will be that the kingdom's funds will be added to ours and we will allocate it to you for what you need."
Licht simply nodded in agreement to the king's words. Asuria was conquered, after all, to become part of Riplas was expected and one could say that the terms the king offered were actually quite generous.
"Secondly, I can't allow you to simply stay there and risk you stabbing us in the back later on, so I will need you to sign this agreement." The king suddenly took out a parchment from his spatial ring, Licht raised an eyebrow after seeing it, if it was some kind of a slave contract then he would rather die than agree to it.
"You can of course check it while I tell everybody the terms." The king simply gave the parchment to Licht who started reading it while the king spoke.
"The agreement is one that binds us to the system, it's a simple one as well. Neither one of us will do any kind of action that is against the other, in any kind of way, I will keep my word and allow Asuria to be part of the kingdom without forcing them to do anything, in turn, I request obedience, you will swear fealty to me, I don't care for your loyalty, but you will never take any actions against the kingdom during your lifetime."
What Licht read was pretty much the same as what the king said, the agreement would force Licht to forever be a friend to the kingdom, never allowing him to go against them. Of course with him doing so, the kingdom would forever be a friend to him, there would be no aggressive taxing to Asuria and they would be treated as the rest of the kingdom was.
"Of course, there is one other thing, Asuria will have to pay for damages of war, the families of those killed have already been taken care of by Riplas, but Asuria will do the same and will send money to them, we will come to an agreement over how much will be sent later."
Licht took a good look at the parchment in his hands before looking back at the king, he gave the king the parchment back before speaking.
"I accept." There was no reason for Licht to not agree, even though he would forever be bound to the kingdom, he still had absolute freedom over everything he did, as long as it wouldn't intentionally damage the kingdom.
With Licht's situation being solved, it was time for the king to give out rewards. There were many people that had gained a lot of merit during the final battle, none however were near what Raigon and Reign had done as it was thanks to those two that the kingdom managed to win in the end.
Many were awarded minor noble titles, some gained some territory and others gained powerful items that would be incredibly helpful to them in the future. Lico was one of those that gained the most merit after Reign, Raigon, and Lisea, which was to be expected of course.
He was already the leader of a noble house and the reward for him was some more land and a rank A item that he liked and was quite helpful with his wind ability. He bowed to the king thankfully before going back to his seat. Lico had previously mentioned to Reign that he would be leaving the kingdom after this was finished as he wanted to complete his evolution mission and go through the first evolution.
He previously paused that as he was needed here since the war was going on, but with the defeat of the coalition, he finally had the opportunity to finish the mission and evolve. If he was successful, which most believed he would be, then the kingdom would have another first evolution combatant amongst their ranks.
"Now for the two that had gained the most merits in the war, without these two young men, we might not have been able to win this war." The king said as he looked at Raigon and Reign who both stood up and went to the center of the throne room.
The king gave a whole speech where he recognized the incredible effort the two took to take down the king of Older. He mentioned the fact that they knew Reign would be an incredible help when they summoned him, but not as much as turned out to be. After a couple of minutes of the king praising the two, he finally came to the rewards.
Surprisingly, Reign was given the rank S sword that the king of Irtil used during the battle against the king while Raigon was given a rank S ring that the queen had. Reign wasn't sure what to make of this, he never expected to actually be rewarded with a rank S weapon, one needed to know that rank S items were quite rare in the area and kingdoms might even start a war in order to get one.
It was obvious how much the kingdom valued Reign however, not only did he help them defend the fortification, but he also helped them destroy their enemy. Without Reign, the war would have probably gone a completely different way for them. To give a rank S item to someone that had helped them so much was nothing much, not to mention that they still needed his help with trying to find Lios.
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