World Development System 290 221. Individual schemes.

One of the guards announced John's arrival which stopped the bickering between Friedreich and Melanie as Vlad sighed with relief and thought, 'It good that Taylor did speak to John previously about miss Diana or Lord Friedreich would have chewed me up, anyway we got some useful information which we can use for today's meeting. Well, I only expect official business talks for now. Anyway, his Highness is here at Sky till John's crowning ceremony so there will be a lot of time. I hope our plan works today.'

Duke Friedreich smiled as he first made his formal greeting to John, "My greeting to his highness, John Sky for his successful battle against the invading forces of Aelius and chasing them away."

John nodded and spoke in a calm manner, "You overpraise me, Lord Duke. I am still not crowned yet. As for the previous battle, I wouldn't have won without my men. And I wouldn't have fought unless we were pressed into the corner because of the sanctions."

Everyone present sheepishly smiled as they started understood the meaning behind both of their tones and also the greetings to each other. A lot of Bureaucrats and ministers from Sky were also present over here. One of them was the Foreign Minister of Aelius to Sky, Lord Ambassador Luke.

He thought as he looked at their pleasantries, 'I guess the Peace-trade deal with Aelius is a done deal after listening to the tone of his Majesty Sky. Meanwhile, Lord Duke wants to create more trouble between Sky and Aelius. Anyway, this is a good sign for us. I better keep a good watch on this banquet.'

Diana had immediately rushed to meet Fredric. She meanwhile was quite stunned with the formal greeting between both John and Friedreich. She was going to speak when Vlad interfered and signaled for her to stop.

She thought and understood immediately, 'Now, this is suspicious. Both of them are talking formally but knowing their personalities they usually won't talk in a formal manner. Father and John both usually talk like that when they are going to talk about official business. It seems both of them don't want to seem very close or else Apollyon or some of the ministers might get anxious and plot against Bluesea. As for John, it might be related to the North-South Peace-trade deal. Yes, this might be the reason. Anyway, lets go with the flow as I don't have any restrictions.' 

Diana then nodded to Vlad and signaled him that she understood as smiled and spoke to Fredric, "Father, you just came and went to meet John without even coming to meet me. Hmph... This is very unfair, you are back to work as soon as you arrived here, You would be quite proud after looking at the success of my business. Both you and John should take a rest from work rather than plotting something every day or developing something."

There was an awkward smile between all the officials who came to this meeting as they understood but couldn't dare to speak these words.

Vlad sighed and thought, 'I guess We can't stop her highness from speaking anyway. She anyway won't speak anything inappropriate. It should be ok as long as it is teasing both Lord and John.'

Friedreich removed his awkward smile and nodded as he spoke righteously, "It seems, I was indeed working too hard and hence had decided to tour Sky and tour here for a month until John's Ceremony as Sky has given me quite a lot of surprises. I heard from Vlad previously that you had indeed succeeded in a good venture. We will talk later, you should go with that ha.. (g) I mean Grand Potioneer Melanie."

Both Friedreich and Melanie viewed each other with squinted eyes as if they were rivals.

Melanie meanwhile thought, 'This cunning old coot wants to get rid of me using her own daughter. Hmph... In his dreams. Meanwhile that Dwight couldn't even make a move all these days. I have to teach him a lesson.'

Melanie snorted and spoke, "Old coot, you can piss off if you want to. I am attending this meeting in my capacity as one of the senior officials today. You think just because I don't attend these meetings means that I don't exist and won't interfere? Hmph, In your dreams."

All the officials sighed as no one dared to interfere between them as they understood the power both Melanie and Duke Friedreich held in their hands.

Looking at the silence, At this time, it was Quill who spoke immediately, "I think it would be better if his Majesty John, Lord Melanie, Lord Vlad and Lord Grand Duke, Friedreich speak in private before we can discuss the important parts of the deal which we can speak openly."

No one objected as it was already decided beforehand about the meeting.

A lot of people also noted Quill's position among the ministers and also the fact that he spoke to dissolve the problem between Melanie and Fredric.

Friedreich smiled as he approached Diana enthusiastically and whispered in her ears, "You should wait for later. Vlad told me everything so you shouldn't be worried. I guess I can still have my way since I came prepared for today's discussions. I just can't wait to hold my grandchild." Friedreich told and immediately headed inside without even looking at her daughter.

Diana thought deeply as she looked angrily at Vlad as she blushed and thought, 'Don't tell me he knows about that plan... Damn you, Vlad. For how long have you been reporting my activities to Father. Just you wait, you are not getting away from it this time around. I will certainly remove your flesh and feed it to dogs. Just you wait, don't you damn ruin anything or you will regret it for life.'

Vlad sighed and thought, 'I guess I would have been grilled either way. And she anyway likes John but is too shy since a long time ago when she arrived at the North-frontier town. It's good that I already Informed Lord Duke that her Highness with the help of Blue Paradise is designing the Crowning clothes for John so he can be assured of her feelings and plan ahead. And this is also the reason why all of these brats are busy these days. And from the looks of John, it seems he too likes her but is quite resistant for some reason. Anyway, this meeting today will certainly become a catalyst of this topic whether he likes or not. He can't deliberately ignore the feelings of her highness even though he knows about it.'

Eva, Josephine and Sally too were quite stunned after watching today's events.

Eva meanwhile muttered, "This event looks suspicious, Grandma never usually interferes in administrative matters. Even that Dwight is following me for a long time these days. What do you guys think?"

Josephine thought a bit and spoke, "Maybe, he is trying to spy on you for Medicinal theories and recipes as he might have failed or is too scared to spy on Grandma Melanie. Anyway, beats me."

Sally meanwhile remained silent for a bit and spoke, "I guess it is related to the changing realities about war and hence the abrupt meeting and visit by Duke Friedreich. As for Grandma Melanie's motives, I can pretty much guess about it since the time she got you an office next door to John's office in the Administrative Headquarters. Aren't you, Josephine and Diana vying for John's time for quite a while now. I think it should be from the time when we faced those wolves in the forest."

Chapter end