Mission? Enjoy Life in Another World!

Chapter 36: Meeting Council

Two days ago at the The Imperial Palace.
In the meeting room, all the leaders of the nation were having a in important meeting, but it seemed that the atmosphere of the room wasn't exactly good.

“That damn girl! She takes us as a joke! I don't know why we are still wasting our time here! We should be moving our forces to the battlefield!” An old rusty but bulky man with patch in eye screams at the right side of the table. You could see his vein on his forehead was tiching from his rage.

“Please calm down, we can't act carelessly right now. One missed step and we can be closer to repeating history again. Now is not the time to send soldiers to attack the Heart Kingdom.”

Another older man was sitting on the left side of the square table. Contrary to the other man his temperament was more serene but you could see coldness in his eyes.

“That's bullshit! We follow your advice of sending an ambassador to negotiate terms and look at what happend! Now she is declaring war on us! We must attack!”

The emperor at the center of the table had a headache from hearing all the screaming of the two old men. He wanted to send this two to a dungeon to have some peace of mind, but unfortunately he couldn't do it.
The man on the right was the minister of war, Gu Fong. On the contrary the man on the left was the prime minister of the empire and left hand of the Emperor, Yu Long.

The tree of them grew up together on Spear. Since childhood Gu Fong and Yu Long had been at each other's throats. Never agreeing on the same topic, it would be on Fang Sheng hands to keep those to under control.

But the situation wasn't looking any good. Two weeks ago, the Heart Kingdom gave an ultimatum. If the Crown Prince of the Spear Empire didn't marry their princess, there was going to be war.  This brought the emperor to his current dilemma.

At the beginning he followed the prime minister's suggestion to send a representative to negotiate terms to keep the current status quo. But like Gu Fong said it didn't end well. The only thing that they got as an answer was the official declaration of war, and of course the ambassador didn't return.

If possible, the emperor wanted to end this problem the easy way. To begin with, it was the duty of the crown prince to marry looking for the best benefit of his kingdom. But that son of his had to run away even before he could persuade him. It was clear that the crown prince wasn't willing to marry the crazy princesses.

“My Emperor, if I may speak, there's currently only three options at hand.” Behind the seat of the Emperor, his assistant was standing beside him. If Yu Long was the Emperor's right hand, then Cao Dong was his left.

Cao Dong was the Emperor's assistant and confidant. From a humble family of peasants he made all his way up to be in his current position. He excelled during the imperial examinations, if he wanted Caí Dong could be the best scholar in the Empire, but his truly wish was to serve the Emperor directly. Officially his title was of assistant but it wouldn't be a joke to say that he was the brain behind the power. It was very common for Cai Dong's ideas to bring great benefits to the empire.

Hearing his words, Gu Fong like Yu Long closed their mouths and waited to him to speak.

“All we know right now is that the Heart Kingdom demands either marriage or war. So we have three options before us. First is to go to war. The power of Spear is not low. I have no doubts that we could fight and win this war, but a lot of life's would be wasted in a senseless battle if I may add.”

Gu Fong noonded. He, as the minister of war, was well aware how much fighting power they had on their hands. The Spear Empire was the strongest of the three kingdoms. In his eyes, the Heart Kingdom was simply asking for death.

“The second option is to find the crown prince and make him marry the crazy princesses. But, our efforts to do that haven't been giving much results. Besides, I doubt we could wait so long to wait for him to appear, it may begin a war before we show up here.”

This time it was Yu Long who was a little lost. He had taken care of the emperor's children as their own nephew's, he knew the crown prince's nature. Once we decided something there was not easy to convince him to do otherwise. Just look at the current situation, just when he knew that he had to marry that princess he was able to flee from the imperial city without being detected, if that wasn't determination he didn't know what it was.

“Then, what is the third option?” The emperor asked.

“The third option is…” Cao Dog seemed to doubt his mind, but something changed in his eyes and  finally decided to share his thoughts. “Is to offer the second prince to marry the princess.”

“Cai Dong! Are you sure you are in your right mind!?” Gu Fong scream.

The emperor wasn't happy either. If he was told that the crown prince had to marry that fox, he would have agreed. He knew his son. He was strong and capable. He wasn't afraid that he would suffer. He was sure that we would be able to live with the crazy princesses, she may have loose screws somewhere, but at least she was extremely beautiful.
But  then he thought of his second son. Now with the crown prince's unknown whereabouts, his second was the best option to marry away. But his second son had always been sickly and cowardly since little. The emperor didn't believe that Fang Li was a good option.

Like reading the Emperor's mind, Cao Dong continued to say “I'm well aware of the prince's nature. If indeed this had happened two years ago I wouldn't have suggested this. But since a long time ago the second prince had been able to show his talents and know he is well loved by all the people.”

The emperor also knew that. Two years ago, since the second prince woke from almost dying from his illness, he not only began to recuperate but his personality also changed. He began to increase the quality of life of the civilians and also he became closer with his family. It was true that current Fang Li wasn't the cowardly and sickly child anymore. But still he wasn't convinced in his heart.
Cao Dong didn't speak any more. He knew that it was a very extreme idea. But besides going to war he didn't see any other alternative.

“I said to give it a try.”

All the people looked at the source of the voice with surprise.

It had been Yu Long who spoke.  “To begin with we don't know if the Heart Kingdom will agree. But it is worth the shot.”

“You! We already lost a prince because of the marriage problem, and now you want to send Li to that crazy woman!” Gu Dong stood up and grabbed Yu Long by the collar. It wasn't only Yu Long who cared about the emperor's sons as his own family. Gu Dong always doted Fang Li since he was child, thinking of giving his precious nephew to that evil woman made his blood boil.”

“Do you think I want to!?” Yu Long also screamed, but a bittler simple appeared on his face and said, “But you want to repeat the same tragedy again?”

The room fell into silence.

Gu Fong wildy let go of Yu Fong on his chair and left the room angrily. The eyes of the Emperor changed and he had made a decision on his mind.