Chapter 398 - Surprising Situation

The nations from Earth were slowly developing back to how things were during the time when everyone was still living on the blue planet. Though things were still in development, it could be said that the Earthlings had finally established a firm foothold in this new world.

With the peaceful development of the kingdom, the modern day trends began to flourish and their culture began sprouting. The uniqueness of modern Earth's culture naturally attracted the Anglaria Kingdom's people and the surrounding native human Alternian kingdoms as well.

Despite things in the kingdom being on the upside, the war currently ongoing between the Goldenia State and the Faustus Archduchy still hadn't been decided even after fighting for nearly half a year.

This month marked the fifth month since the Faustus Archduchy began their assault on the Goldenia State. The only reason why the State was still able to preserve itself was due to the help of the Silvaria Kingdom, the New World Republic and also the United Federations, as well as the smaller countries of the No-Man's Lands that began sprouting up from out of nowhere that dipped their hands into the war.

War was always a profitable venture so while the Goldenia State suffered, not many wanted to see the war ending soon. It was the perfect time for smaller powers to find opportunities to deal with both sides of the war in order to earn a profit.

Naturally, Kaiser and the Sovereign of the Republic didn't quite like this and have been putting up measures to prevent anyone from meddling in the war so that it can be put to a stop quickly, but the United Federation's President had something else to say for that matter.

On the surface, he had been playing his cards right by staying on their side, but both forces had long since noticed that the Federation seemed to have some secret dealings with the Faustus Archduchy.

How and when the two leaders of these countries met was unknown to both the Silvaria Kingdom and the New World Republic, but they couldn't do much until they actually found evidence of the Federation collaborating with the enemy.

On paper, the 3 superpowers were still considered allies, though each nation had their own agendas. When Cecil heard about all this from his butler, Quinn, who was still on the frontlines of the war assisting Katya Goldenia, he found it quite troubling and foolish.

The greed of humans knew no bounds and it was very bothersome for him since his butler had been away from his for nearly half a year already. There was another stupid development on his butler's side and that was the fact that his butler had reported that Lady Katya was now pregnant...

As for who was the father, Cecil could only sigh in resignation and congratulate his butler. After being together for a few months on the warfront, something like this probably couldn't be avoided.

For now, Katya was going to be sent back to the Silvaria Estate while Quinn would remain on the frontlines to direct the battle in her stead. The Goldenia Family who was notified of this development were naturally furious, but they couldn't do anything about it after knowing that the father was the trusted butler of the Silvaria Family's young patriarch.

In a way, the Goldenia family had accomplished their original objective of binding themselves to the Silvaria family, though it wasn't in the way that they had expected or planned. It was better than nothing since everyone in the estate knew that Cecil trusted his butler and cared for him like he was family.

"Well... this is a bit...surprising..." Cecil awkwardly said while facing his butler and the young woman who was sitting bashfully next to him.

Seeing the shy and blissful look on Katya's face and the deadpanned Quinn, Cecil released a tired sigh.

"Goodness, you two really couldn't hold yourselves back, huh? You're in the middle of a goddamn war and yet you guys... agh, never mind, it's not my place to say anything. Since this is both of your decisions, I'll support you two, but Katya, are you really okay with this? I mean, is your family okay with this?"

Seeing that the question was being thrown to her, Katya perked up and cleared her throat before replying, "Ahem, well, it may have been done on an act of impulse at the time, but I don't regret it since I do like him."

"Okay...but you do know that he's my butler and since you're starting a family with him you'll be regarded as my subordinate from now on, right?"

Katya tilted her head in confusion and asked, "So?"

"So? So wouldn't your family be furious?! I mean, you're their heir!"

"What? I was never the heir of the Goldenia Family. Father hasn't even announced who he had chosen as the family's heir!"

"Huh? But... what?" Cecil was a little confused now.

There were times during the past few months when the Goldenia family's patriarch would come over to meet with his father and discuss some things in regards to the war that was still ongoing in their territory.

He had been able to receive some news from the people that he had planted beside all of his family members and the recent news he got from the people that was assigned to his father that Augustus Goldenia was planning to name Katya as the next Goldenia heir because of her achievements in the war.

It looks like all of that was now tossed to the side because of the recent news of her pregnancy with the Silvaria Family's butler.

"Wow, as a daughter, you really aren't filial. You just dashed all of your father's plans with this move of yours..." Cecil remarked.

"When did my father ever care about my well-being? Here I am standing in the forefront of the war while most of his more favored children are relaxing here in the Silvaria Kingdom, safe and far away from the war and the threat of death," Katya quickly countered in a rather humorless and icy tone.

From her tone of voice, it could be seen how furious she was about the situation of her house. It was rather odd why some of the Goldenia family's members and some were taking refuge inside their kingdom

"My choices are mine alone. My family never had a say in what I do and who I choose as my husband!" Katya declared.

"...I thought you came to the family with the intention of seducing me..."

"Hmph, like I'll try to seduce a weird person like you!"

"W-weird?"

"Yeah, weird! You have zero awareness that I'm even a woman! Not to mention that you look like you have no interest to anyone else of the opposite s.e.x other than these two women who're sitting next to you!"

"..."

Katya's words were correct in every way. Cecil really didn't care about anyone's gender other than his own family. He could care less if someone who was unassociated with him was a male or a female, he'd view them indifferently.

"Katya, please remember that he's now also you're master since he's mine. This will be the last time I'll tolerate you speaking out of turn against Master Cecil," Quinn lightly warned.

"Alright, this is the last time because I'm only venting anyway. Anyway, Master~ Cecil, I'm in your care from now on."

Although Katya did somewhat exaggerate the way she greeted Cecil with his title, she was still going to comply and acknowledge Cecil as her family's master from now on since her soon-to-be husband was Cecil's loyal butler.

Cecil shook his head and replied, "I'll be in your care as well. Anyway, this is a surprising yet funny turn of events. I honestly thought that I'd have to arrange for your marriage Quinn since you've always seemed like a block of wood and always avoided interacting with other people..."

"He still is a block of wood, but he's my block of wood," Katya quickly replied.

"Haha! Hahahahahaha!" Cecil began laughing uproariously when she heard Katya's remark and continued laughing when he saw Quinn's darkened face.

"You both have my blessing. Katya, since you're pregnant, you'll stay here in the Silvaria Estate under our protection. I'd like to know if you've already made preparations on who's going to be handling the warfront now, if you haven't I'll send some capable people to act in your stead."

"That won't be necessary, Master Cecil. I've already handed over command of the warfront to my husband. He'll take care of things while I'm here. I also still have that MID you gave me so I'll be able to get daily reports on how the war's going. Honestly, this war is starting to tire out my people. Those Archduchy bastards keep coming back like c.o.c.kroaches and it's really unsettling."

"Hmm..."

"Their higher ups are only throwing wave after wave of humans at us like they're expendable. It also seems like their country's situation isn't all that good. There were some in their soldier's ranks that directly abandoned any notions of attacking us and even defected to our side!"

"Huh? And did you take them in?" Cecil asked in concern. He had been getting updates on the situation of the war from Quinn, but this was news to him. He gave Quinn a slight look but Katya quickly snapped her finger in front of him and quipped up, ��Hey, hey! No need to look over at Quinn!"

"Hmm, I'm just wondering why my butler didn't tell me about this..."

"It's not Quinn's fault. I asked him to not tell you because I know that you'd quickly tell him to dispose of those dangerous factors."

"Since they're dangerous, why'd you take them in? What happens if this is only the enemy's ploy and later during a crucial attack they defected back to their country and backstabbed you?"

"Well that's something that won't happen..."

"And why's that?"

"That's because the people who defected were people who aren't even a part of the Faustus Archduchy to begin with!"

"Huh?"

"After I asked Quinn to talk to them, we found out that the people who defected to our side were people who were captured and conscripted into the war by the Faustus Archduchy. It was all against their will and when they saw our cannons bearing down on them these people just calmly surrendered and didn't even put up a fight."

"...And when was this?"

"It happened around a month ago. Anyway, I tried to send them back to their homes which were on some islands not far off from the mainland, but they refused to leave and I couldn't actually force them out since the archduchy still has a hold of the chokepoint of the Goldenia bay. If I sent them back, they'd only be captured again by the archduchy and sent back to attack us."

"..."

"...Could you at least have a little shred of humani—"

"Katya...Master is just thinking about a solution. He's not planning to abandon them," Quinn quickly interjected.

"Hehe, don't worry about those people. My husband may be indifferent, but he's not evil or uncaring about human lives," Serilla gently said from the side.

"O-Okay..."

"You really should have a little bit more faith in me as a subordinate. I'm not that heartless," Cecil spoke up. "Anyway, if what you said is true and what those people are saying are true—"

"I've confirmed it, Master. I went to scout out the feasibility of their claims and it all matches up. Their people have indeed been forcefully conscripted into the archduchy's army. Due to this, the Archduchy has also earned the ire of the Omnifaust Republic and tensions are now high between the two nations. The islands are part of the Omnifaust Republic and now that the archduchy have encroached on their 'sister' nation, a war just might break out between the two nations," Quinn quickly informed.

"How stupid...they haven't even finished the war against Goldenia and are already trying to pick a fight with another nation."

"The current lord of the archduchy is the brother of the current queen of the Omnifaust Republic. He's probably trying to rely on this relation to feign ignorance that he didn't know that the islands were a part of the republic."

"Hah, as if the queen of that nation is stupid enough to believe him, if they were indeed once siblings, then that means the archduchy's lord should know about some of the inner workings of the republic. He just shot himself in the foot by antagonizing them," Cecil chuckled in amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Exactly! That fool should already be grateful that his sister didn't chase him down for treason after he had left on his own and founded his own nation! Now he's trying to encroach upon the nation he left, he's simply being foolish!" Katya quipped up before continuing, "Honestly, I'm not even sure why they're so fixated on trying to conquer us. The casualties taken from both sides are already so enormous with them taking more damage than us, but even then, they're still pushing forward with this war and haven't once tried to contact us for negotiations about any form of peace."

"That's because they know you're just as exhausted as them. They also most likely know that you don't have any serious help from any outside nation other than our own."

"Huh?"

"They also most likely know that there's a nation on our side that's been preventing us from directly interfering with the power thus prolonging it..."

"W-wait, what're you talking abou—is it the Federation?!"

"Oh, looks like you've already have your doubts about them as well, huh?" Cecil said with a playful grin.