District 42-Chapter 147: The Council’s meeting
Vick was sitting on the huge rectangular table at the building of the Council of Jarls. It was like a huge commercial room in a building destined to accommodate different types of meetings and other professional events.
The Council had its own place to make the meetings, but since the Princess had asked for an emergency one, they decided to do it in a place around the city she was in, on the 6th floor.
The tension inside the Council was huge. The pressure was turned directly to the Jarls still on the Princess’ side and Vick herself.
She was for a good while trying to hold the people on her side for the longest time as she could, be it bribing them, coercing, or persuading. She couldn’t let them take Casper away from the Real family and mess with their plans for the White warrior. Her dad was trying to maintain the most loyal Jarls on her side, but at the same time it was very beneficial for Vick, it was also a way for him to slap in her face how incompetent she was and how she couldn’t do a thing alone.
Even now, she could not face him and say that she did it right this time. After all, the whole work was made by Casper. At the General Court, Vick helped to polish his actions, but that was all.
"I don’t really care to be called incompetent or to not be useful for them. I am just doing what I do for duty... And it sucks soooo much..." She was paying attention to her mouth, to not say something out loud.
Although at that time she was the only one present in the room, she wasn’t willing to bet on her luck. Most likely, when she showed her true personality, some Jarl would enter there and find out the truth.
Her dad had already said to her a lot of times: Jarls that aren’t intimates of the Real family are always a bunch of snakes with the deadliest poison in the world, and every millimeter of exposed skin will surely be aimed.
Therefore, Vick needed to always keep covered, and pay attention to nothing showing off.
She had taken that advice seriously, and that was why she barely got out of her room. Just now her parents wanted her to take care of a lot of things, due to the war, but in the past, she would spend her time studying what she needed to study.
The things changed in that room when, punctually, the Jarls started to appear, greeting her with deep bows and politeness. She knew how they felt inside, though. They were easy to read. Vick passed all her life studying human psychology, leadership, and human emotions, also as how to influence them. See what was going on inside their minds was one of the most useful quirks that she had, and it could make her notice the good and bad people around her.
The Jarls took a sit on the chairs around that rectangular table, showing unpleased looks to be having such a high degree meeting in a place other than the Council’s Assembly, where they had enough luxury.
After they all settled in their seats and stopped to have their brief conversations, the Princess stood up from her chair, looking around towards them. She didn’t need to talk or make a gesture for those people to pay attention to what she did.
"First, very good morning for all of you, who are attending this reunion today. We are here in our daily meeting, this time as an emergency one, because something really important happened yesterday, and that can change your opinions of an issue that we are tied with for a long time."
Once she spoke about that "issue" their eyes changed, it was safe to say that they darkened even more, the tension raised in the atmosphere so quickly that it was nearly unbelievable.
Nonetheless, after countless days inside that Council, attending to all sorts of environments on those tricky meetings, the Princess was already used to it. She didn’t need to worry or keep anxious. As long as she could maintain herself as calm as possible, everything would be okay.
"As you probably already know, yesterday we had an escape in Halden. Three prisoners escaped from there, and among them was Casper, who, according to testimonials, was the one who planned all that action.", 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
A ruckus started around the table. The Jarls were quickly discussing that matter between each other.
Vick didn’t try to stop then, and instead, she kept quiet and just hearing and noting mentally their reactions. It was a good way to validate her speech and know if she was doing the right thing. Also, that was a normal scenario for the council. Between each subject, there would be times when they will start to develop their opinions and ideas.
Once they finished, Vick took a deep breath and returned to what she was saying.
"However, before you come to any foregone conclusion, I need to say that this meeting isn’t being done in such a rush because I am here to say that everything the opposition talked about Casper was right, or to apologize for my misjudgment. On the contrary, today I have more definitive reasons to make you all agree with me that Casper can be used as a strong weapon, a precious scientific subject, and, even better, an awesome soldier. Also, I want to prove for you all that, as I said, he is not dangerous for District 42, but for every single one that opposes to us."
This time, Vick gave a satisfied smile, looking at all the Jarls interested in her proposals and promises for that meeting. They were curious and excited to know the outcome of it. Even the opposition was interested.
The only one that seemed averted to it was Catrina herself, but she was just a grain of sand in the middle of that bunch of important Jarls.
Vick, then, passed the next three or four hours discussing with them about the judgment session in the General Court from yesterday, the feats that Casper made inside Halden, and the ones that he was aiming out of there.
She also used Casper’s lies to expose Catrina and presented all the artificial proofs that the soldier forged with Adam and Katarina.
The woman tried to argue with them at all costs, but at this point, no Jarl wanted to hear her.
It was for two reasons: first, the points that Vick showed about Casper’s feats and abilities, and his potential to be a disciplined soldier, had convinced them that it could be possible to tame him.
Second, if they didn’t want to have their dark side exposed to the folk, including don’t having problems with non-corrupted Jarls, regarding the inhumanity of Halden and the Third Lab, they needed to cooperate and blame someone.
It was easier this way, and they wouldn’t need to make a huge operation to shut Casper’s mouth and spend a lot of money on it. Besides, Halden wasn’t showing any results in the past years, and it was just a waste of money and risk for their prestige in the end.
That was how things worked inside the Council of Jarls. It was a dog-eat-dog world, everyone there was aware of it. Whether it would be a cruel trap, or then a treasure chest, it depended on how cunning and cynical someone could be.
That meeting ended with the unanimous decision to retire Catrina from her office as the director of the Third Lab; and the split decision of 45 versus 12 to maintain Casper alive and keep trying to find ways to make him useful for the government overall.
Just after the meeting ended and all the Jarls finished their goodbyes, Vick sat on one of the tables again, taking off her mask and resting her reddened and hot cheeks on the cold surface of the table. She finally could breathe properly, and her heart was stopping to race like it was before.
She stretched her arms and back, took long and deep breathes, just trying to make all that tension left her shoulders.
"Now, I think I will not need to worry too much with those constant meetings anymore. Most of the Jarls finally got conformed with the idea of Casper being part of our forces, and now Catrina is off the game as well... Maybe dad will be glad this time..."
She slowly stood up from the chair, putting her mask on again. She didn’t like to wear that thing, but once she becomes Queen, she wouldn’t need anymore, just like her father.
"Anyway, it’s about time to go to the General Court and solve some things. Tomorrow I will need to sort things out with Casper, so I should be totally free by then..." She got interrupted when her cellphone rang. A message popped up on its screen.
"Another one died. They are good." Was the message that one of her spies sent, with the signature of confirmation: Sgail.
Sighing, she kept her cell phone in her pocket and walked off the building.
