The Royal Palace, Courtyard

"HAHAHA! We've got them now didn't we!? How pathetic that some lowly country bumpkin has found the Golden Contracts," a man wearing glasses scoffs at The King who paces in front of his close advisors at the Royal Courtyard.

"I mean, really?" the man continues as the others join him in their own stares and chuckles of disbelief at what happened moments ago when Ijohen and Silver Beard walked in bearing the news about the discovery of the two golden contracts. Plus the confiscated Golden Key, no less.

Everyone stares intently at the golden key held and the two golden contracts held by Ijohen; everyone except for Silver Beard, who paces impatiently outside the doors waiting to hear how this meeting would turn out.

One of those stares came from Princess Heleenie sitting beside her father on his right side, taking all this rather personally—it wasn't too hard to see why because she had grown quite fond of the lowly country bumpkin—but unlike most of the rest of them, she doesn't show it openly.

No doubt, she'd prefer that nothing ever happen to him since he and his friend have done so much good for the kingdom despite the circumstances surrounding them.

"What does it matter if they have them or not; they are ours now! Let them rot out there somewhere! Now that the Golden Contracts and Key have fallen into our hands, we will finally be able to reclaim The Golden Pavilion and take control over its precious resources!" the man with glasses said.

"Yes Counsellor Rantama," King Keisan stares straight at the man and says calmly. "But do remember that they aren't just going to hand over the contract to us, especially if some teenage actually found it first."

"And what exactly is keeping them from giving it up?" Counsellor Rantama asks. "I mean, you could always offer an amount of gold and jewels worth enough to cover their losses."

With a loud bang, someone pounded on the table, "Offer gold and jewels to cover their losses? This is the Golden Pavilion we're talking about.

How can anyone think to simply pay The Blackwell Union on top of that with gems and riches when the Golden Key in question here belongs to them?

"That would never work!" he wore a scowl that grew darker by the second before his voice quivered out through clenched teeth.

"We need the Golden Pavilion, but this could cause a civil war! They won't easily let go of something so precious!" Princess Heleenie shakes her head.

"We can only adjourn to later at the Throne Room for an Official Royal Council." The King announced.

***

The Royal Palace was built by using large pillars cut from one giant stone slab deep within the Irricester Mountain Range.

These pillars supported a roof which created an open-air structure that covered twenty thousand paces on each side of its main hall.

This area formed the outer walls of the palace proper, and it faced northwards toward the distant peaks of a mountain range itself.

Within this vast courtyard, the throne room has ten tall stools placed along each side of the central area where the King sits and paces slowly between.

All the stools are arranged to form rows facing The King, while the council members' stools are all lined against the inner walls.

The Throne Room is where all the kingdom's major decisions are made in front of the king himself.

This evening, most of the stools are being filled with people dressed in fine clothes wearing expressions ranging from grudging smiles to displeased frowns.

The only person who didn't show any signs of annoyance at being present is King Keisan himself whose face doesn't seem bothered with his anything.

The central sitting area is almost full of those belonging to the royal family and the noble families, including the prime minister.

'Rantama' or the Counsellor stands beside the stools next to him, holding some parchments.

"My lord," Rantama says, "this document will outline how our preparation should be divided and we're still monitoring the situation at the Blackwell Union closely."

"Ah yes, Mister Feishige," Counsellor Rantama turns around and stares at the young man sitting in the central area.

Instead of replying to the Counsellor, however, The King stares intently at him for a moment before asking; "What are your thoughts regarding the possible repercussions?"

Mister Feishige takes a deep breath and looks down at the floor briefly before responding: "I have to re-assessed our situation because the Golden Pavilion must be under high alert now," Mister Feishige stares back with an unreadable expression.

His eyes darted between everyone's stares, before pausing to gather himself, "The only thing I know to be true is that we have to be prepared for war if we want to claim sole ownership of the Golden Pavilion."

With that said, Princess Heleenie stood up from her chair and stares down at Mister Feisheige, earning the attention of every other member of the Council, "A wise answer, but don't forget the fact that they still have their own set of resources which will help them come up with a counter plan.

"Not to mention there are many members of their clan which could also take part in helping them reclaim their property or even rebel against us in another attempt." she continues as she looks around the room.

"We should really consider this carefully instead of blindly jumping into a war that would engulf the entire region without thinking things through," she said.

"Are you saying that we should return the Golden Key to them free of charge and tell them that they can just keep it since it didn't belong to The Royal Family in the first place?" Counsellor Rantama scoffs before pausing briefly.

"That would never happen, my King! This is a literal Golden Opportunity! Wouldn't it show that we, the Royal Family are afraid of their strength?"

He stares at each person present while pausing to see who will agree with him. His stares became intense again as his lips quivered slightly; almost like someone else was controlling his body now.

"And what about Young Master Ijohen? What would you do about him? Shouldn't we make use of the fact that he had broken into The Great Hall and stole the key from under their noses!" He looked around the room, "Maybe we could punish him by taking away his rank within the clan and—"

Princess Heleenie stood up from her seat once more and pointed to the centre of the Throne Room, "You have gone too far already, counsellor. How dare you speak so rudely towards the young master?"

Counsellor Rantama blinks several times, "…Ah yes. My apologies, Your Highness, but I was thinking that perhaps we could throw him out of the kingdom altogether as we did in the past. And leave him to the dealt with by the Blackwell Union—" the man bows deeply at the waist.

"You dare!" Princess Heleenie stares coldly down at Counsellor Rantama with an unreadable expression which only made him chuckle with glee.