All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 307: Vassal Terms

The command house route hall still lacked its eastern wall when Marrick opened Dreth’s territory-war declaration across the salvaged door table.

Rain cloth covered the unfinished records wing, while two militia guards watched the sealed capitulation ledger beside Lana. Hajin remained standing because sitting pulled the bandage across his chest tighter than Vella allowed.

Juna occupied the open wall with both arms folded, keeping every Wing closed while surrendered Flint officers waited beyond the western threshold. Uriel stood inside without taking the empty command chair at the table’s head.

"The declaration names House Flint as the full claimant," Marrick said, tracing the Patriarch’s seal toward the final disposition clause, "it stakes the House’s campaign authority and governed estates against the territory it tried to take."

The law offered a victorious defender two choices after witnessed field capitulation. Hajin could absorb Flint’s governed holdings into the Sixth directly, or preserve the House beneath a binding vassal compact.

Direct absorption would replace every Flint civil office with Sixth appointments until the Crown reviewed the conquest. Its inventory clause also treated occupied homes, workshops, tenant contracts, plus household stores as captured holdings.

"That makes every dependent pay for a war they did not command," Uriel said, looking at her father’s seal, "but leaving the House intact gives him another desk to hide behind."

"The House can remain without returning his authority," Hajin replied, placing one hand beside the declaration, "write the vassal compact and remove him first."

Marrick placed a blank disposition sheet directly over the rejected annexation form. The first line preserved Flint’s civil territory as a subordinate holding beneath the Sixth rather than dividing it among occupying officers.

{Disposition: House Flint accepted as a vassal house beneath the Sixth Region.}

{Annexation of civilian homes, workshops, tenant holdings, and ordinary household property: rejected.}

The next clause carried the only name missing from every battlefield roll. Hajin’s father had signed the invasion from his estate, leaving Dreth to spend soldiers plus civilians beneath the authority of that signature.

He wrote former before the Patriarch’s office, then drew a complete line through every military and territorial power attached to it. Crown review remained necessary for final judgment, but the wartime disposition removed his command immediately.

{The former Flint Patriarch is removed from household command, territorial authority, military appointment, and estate collection power pending Crown and Sixth hearings.}

{Officers recorded inside Dreth’s command structure are suspended from command pending individual review.}

Uriel read both written clauses without asking Hajin to soften either one. Her hand tightened around the white lamp when Marrick added the custody order beneath her father’s removal.

"The central estate guard still answers the household seal," she said, setting the lamp beside the declaration, "my witness seal can carry this disposition, but I am not signing as acting head."

"Sign only for the surrender you witnessed," Lana replied, leaving the office line empty, "nobody fills that chair inside another clause."

Uriel placed her seal beside the capitulation reference rather than above the compact. The distinction let her authenticate Flint’s defeat without accepting command over its people.

Hans brought the surrendered captains inside before Marrick drafted the military limits. Their wrist cords remained numbered, although each officer could hold the page while reading the restrictions.

"No private territory war from this day forward," Hans said, indicating the line where Flint’s old claim power ended, "and no army forms behind another name while these prisoners are still being counted."

{House Flint may not declare or support another private territory war.}

{No militia, household army, contracted formation, or armed collection force may mobilize without recorded Sixth consent.}

{Civil watches may retain weapons only after their names, posts, and equipment enter the joint audit.}

The third-standard captain stopped at the civil-watch clause before passing the compact onward. His soldiers had families inside Flint estates, and several had served as gate guards before Dreth turned them into a field company.

"Do they lose their homes because they followed the capitulation," he asked, keeping his bound hands beneath the page, "or their wages because our standards crossed your road?"

"Anyone who honored surrender keeps both unless a hearing proves an individual crime," Hajin replied, meeting the captain’s stare, "their families do not enter custody with them."

Marrick added the protection without converting it into forgiveness for recorded acts. Soldiers remained answerable for personal crimes, while service beneath a surrendered standard did not create guilt by itself.

{Ordinary dependents retain homes, lawful wages, tools, personal property, and existing civil employment.}

{Soldiers who honored surrender face no collective punishment; individual charges require a named act, evidence, and hearing.}

Juna read the clause from behind Hajin’s shoulder, checking every word before giving Marrick one silent nod. The same House that had called her an animal would receive no permission to make lesser targets from its own defeat.

The final section transferred control of dangerous records without granting the Sixth unrestricted ownership. Flint’s anchor stores plus armory entered sealed custody, while debt books and estate-labor rolls entered a joint audit.

Lana marked herself as witness-record lead, with Marrick responsible for inventory chains and civil account copies. Uriel entered only as a Flint records identifier who could name false shelves, altered seals, or missing household series.

"I know which debt books father kept outside the main archive," Uriel said, touching the audit line without signing it yet, "some estate rolls use servant names where workers should have contract numbers."

"Then identify the books, not the guilt," Lana replied, attaching a Witness Office limit, "we follow each entry before deciding what it proves."

{Joint audit leads: Lana / Marrick / Uriel Flint.}

{Scope: anchor stores, armory, debt books, collection claims, estate-labor rolls, and campaign accounts.}

{Seizure applies to weapons, evidence, and proven unlawful claims; ordinary property remains protected.}

Hajin read the complete compact while the open wall carried construction noise from the guildhall across the square. Nothing in its pages granted him ownership of a Flint resident, nor did any clause return power to the people who started the war.

He signed with the title the King had forced upon him after the Beast King Gate. The same lordship his father treated as an insult now removed that man from command with one witnessed line.

Marrick stamped the regional record beneath Hajin’s signature, followed by Lana’s witness seal and Hans’s field-custody mark. Uriel sealed only the attached surrender reference, leaving Flint’s governing office visibly unsigned.

{Vassal compact entered under territory-war disposition.}

{Effective authority: immediate.}

{Final judgment: pending Crown and Sixth hearings.}

Three sealed copies left the table beneath three separate guard assignments before midday. One remained with Lana, one traveled toward the Crown archive, and the third went east with Uriel’s household sequence for the Flint estate gates.

"If the central guard obeys its own law, my father enters protected custody before sunset," Uriel said, watching the eastern rider leave, "the holding estates will receive the same writ afterward."

"Send audit teams before collection officers can empty anything," Hajin replied, closing the rejected annexation form beneath the compact, "start with the armory and every debt index they kept away from it."

Marrick opened the first Flint property inventory as the surrendered captains returned to custody. Its attached index listed a chain of holding estates beneath collection numbers instead of family names.