Chapter 474.
Chapter 474 – Allegiance 1
“Your Highness.”
Old Marshal MacDonald asked, raising his own head after placing the chess piece he had cupped in his hand on the board.
“You should have sought me out today for more than just a game of chess, right?”
A smile surfaced on Antonio Griffin’s face.
His Highness – the second prince of the Gabella Empire – possessed unrivaled beauty, and his face was as if it had been carved by an obsessive-compulsive sculptor who had spent his entire life’s work, with every detail explaining what perfection was.
The Prince’s smile is extremely lethal to anyone who faces him, including men.
The old marshal who was playing against him was naturally no exception.
What a mesmerizing face.
The old marshal secretly sighed in the bottom of his heart, it was really a perfect inheritance of his mother’s beauty.
Thinking of the imperial son’s mother, MacDonald fell into long ago memories for a moment.
“His Excellency MacDonald, can’t I ask my comrades who were born and died together when we were at the front to meet for a small while?”
Antonio’s reply interrupted the old marshal’s memories.
He said, “Please forgive my bluntness, Your Highness, in your capacity, in my capacity, in this sensitive moment, you do so …… Your Highness, or in your eyes I am a martial man who only leads soldiers to fight, but I also have my own thinking in politics. ”
Antonio smiled and said, “Haha, if you were a martial man in my heart who would only lead troops to war, then you wouldn’t be sitting here today. Your Excellency, you are undoubtedly one of the most important pillars of the empire in my heart, both militarily and politically.”
He looked at MacDonald sincerely, “Old Field Marshal, so what kind of man am I in your heart?”
“Uh ……” MacDonald wanted to speak.
“Please tell it like it is, Old Marshal.”
“All right, Your Highness. You are undoubtedly an outstanding man in my mind, if not the most outstanding man I have ever met, and I am a general of the Empire, but in the military side of things, of which I am most proud, you have shown a talent that I deeply admire, and the time I spent fighting side by side with you is one of the most rewarding glories of my life. But ……”
The old marshal carefully weighed his words.
“In my decades of experience in people-watching – though it has not always been accurate – you seem to have a great deal on your mind, and that mind, again, pardon my bluntness, is likely to be more than just your own origins and the rivalry between your brothers These two things, from what I have observed of you, are both troubling but not enough to worry you.”
Antonio lifted his glass from the table, “I drink to you, Marshal.”
MacDonald immediately lifted his glass in return.
“In that case, Marshal MacDonald, is a man like me a worthy lord for a man like you to serve?”
Emperor Antonio’s bluntness made the old marshal almost choke.
“Ahem! Your Highness, the lord I serve is Imperial Emperor Bartlett Griffin – your father.”
“I am aware of that, His Excellency Nike Donner. I mean ……”
Antonio said sincerely:
“I’m saying that if, at some point in the future, the Empire was in some kind of trouble and you needed to choose who you were loyal to again, what would you choose?”
A hint of seriousness was added to his sincerity.
“Of course, I swear that this choice of yours would absolutely be made in fulfillment of your allegiance to my father, and I can swear to my mother that I would never do a single detriment to the morality that you uphold.”
MacDonald fell silent, savoring the meaning of the royal son’s words.
His Highness seemed to point to three situations:
One, the Emperor had not explicitly designated who the heir would be; Two, the Emperor designated him as the heir;
Three, that the Emperor had designated his brother as the heir.
His Highness should have meant that he wished to support him in the event of the first and second cases.
And in the case of the third, he respected his loyalty to the current emperor and would not use some special means to get himself on his side – as the Diaz family had done to himself.
But if one chose his brother, one would think that one would meet his highness on the battlefield.
Antonio’s oath – not to do one iota of damage to the morality he held to – should be taken seriously; after all, it was an oath to his mother, and MacDonald was sure that even if this Highness could make fun of the Lord of Light he would not make Joke.
Alas!
MacDonald couldn’t help but let out a deep lament from the bottom of his heart.
Pity! Too bad!
Fate is so fond of playing tricks on mortals.
Your Highness, let’s meet on the battlefield.
“Your Highness!”
MacDonald said, holding back his grief, “If you had come to me earlier, perhaps I would have given you the answer you wanted – I would not have hesitated to come to your side. But now …… it is all too …… late.”
“Hahahahaha!”
Antonio laughed heartily.
“Marshal MacDonald, I know what kind of a rock it is that trips you up.”
Seeing the look of surprise on MacDonald’s face, he raised his hand to stop the old marshal who wanted to speak.
“I know that a long time ago, when the Emperor of the Empire was still my great-grandfather, in his last years, the Empire was faced with a situation as it is now, except that the main protagonists then were my grandfather and his brother.”
“…… The end result was that my grandfather ascended to the throne of the Imperial Emperor, and his brother disappeared into the river of history.”
“And your family – Marshal, pardon my callousness – originally owed allegiance to none other than my grandfather’s brother, but switched allegiance to my grandfather for a variety of reasons. ”
A look of shame came over the old marshal’s face as Antonio told it.
“And so, your family made an oath to at least ensure that the bloodline of the original allegiance would be passed on.”
“Am I right? Lord MacDonald.”
The old marshal seemed as if some fetter had crumbled open in his mind, and he covered his face and lost his voice:
“Yes, Your Highness, it is that very oath-and the witness of the stain on the Macdonald family-that prevents me from being on your side.”
“I …… can’t let that child be harmed, I can’t let my family be dishonored again by breaking an oath.”
A look of pity appeared in Antonio’s eyes as he stood up and walked around the stone table where the chessboard was set up to MacDonald’s side before reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder.
He said, “Your Excellency, I understand well the burden you carry. Your adherence to the family oath makes you even more magnificent in my mind.”
“But listen to me now.”
“This stumbling block ……”
“I have moved it for you.”
(End of chapter)