“You praise me too much through your words. I am afraid I cannot take a step in shoes so heavy with responsibility and expectations of the people. I am but a human which is why the royal family needs capable people to help manage the empire.”

George nodded as his outlook on the royal family changed for the better. It seemed that the most talked about prince was a true prince. He was humble, prudent and meticulous in his words. It wasn’t for nothing that the prince was the voice of the king amongst the people. Those who couldn’t meet the king knew that the words of the Prince Olaf represented the will and the attitude of the king.

“I am afraid praise should be given where applicable. Still, I don’t want to keep you here for the rest of the day in order to make my point. So, I can only relinquish my protest in this matter. Let’s head inside first. Maybe we can discuss whatever it is you are here for at a delicious supper.”

George knew the techniques of entertaining authorities through his experience and made use of them to please the Prince as much as he could so that he could delay any possibility of a clash between his family and the royal one.

George led Prince Olaf and his advisor to the dining table while the guards and his escorts were stationed outside the room as per the Prince’s instructions.

A hearty supper was served and dishes were laid down on the table from end to end with no space in between. An especially beautiful servant was tasked with serving the guests food from the table.

This time, Prince Olaf was the one to initiate conversation instead of the host.

“I believe that the official business should be taken care of during the meal as well, otherwise the purpose of my visit would remain untouched. Mr. George Elizabeth, head of the Elizabeth family the business leader in Elizabeth city, I, Prince Olaf Norman on behalf of the King, have come hither to announce his royal declaration.”

The prince took a pause at this moment which lasted a little longer than what George’s heart could handle. He barely took control of his runaway emotions and waited for the next part of that conversation with abated breath.

“The King has deemed it fit to raise the rank of your family to Marquis thereby bequeathing you with the title of a Marquis of the royal family. You will act on behalf of the King when it comes to the matter of your estate and you will wield the authority of the King within the confines of your estate. This title will be the part of your inheritance and your inheritor will enjoy the same privileges after you that is as long as your family stays loyal to the King.”

“Huh?” George had no words to describe the shock he felt at those words. He couldn’t imagine how the news for the arrest warrant had turned into the Elizabeth family being given the status of Marquis. If anything, the royal family should have been hostile to them for aiding Zach against Prince Kolt. There was no doubt that Prince Kolt had already reached the royal capital and must have reported back everything after adding spices of his own in the story.

Still, he gathered his wits that were spread too far surrounding him and felt flattered. This was by no means a small thing. The number of common aristocrats like the barons and the viscounts may be huge in the empire but the number of Marquis was by no means a large sum. There were only a handful of them and only the King’s favored were given such a title.

George didn’t feel that he had that level of favor with the King. Therefore, the only reason for such a gift was that the king needed something in return but couldn’t ask for it directly. And that was when his mind clicked into place.

George called for his son Barry with a loud yell.

“Bring me the share ownership documents for our new transportation business; the one employing trucks.”

Barry nodded and bowed before taking his leave.

Before long he came back holding a stack of documents with him and handed them to George who could barely hide his smile by then. ｂｏ𝚟𝚕.

“Since His Majesty has granted me such a favor, it is only natural that I must present a gift as a token of my loyalty. These are my shares for the transportation business that our family has recently acquired in collaboration with the brilliant inventor who happens to be my son-in-law as well. This is currently my most profitable business and has the potential to advance trade by decades. I want to present these to the King as a way to thank him. I hope that you will convey my loyalty and goodwill in kind, my lord.”

George didn’t hesitate at all before handing over all the forty nine percent shares to Prince Olaf as if they were chump change. They had the potential to revolutionize the transportation industry and yet George didn’t blink an eye before parting with them. He knew that Zach was capable of far more than this and there would be a lot more chances than this in the future.

In reality, Olaf had been sent to acquire the secrets behind the trucks that had become so popular among merchants recently. But George had acted before Olaf could ask for it in order to let him preserve his grace and Olaf appreciated his gesture as well.

Another reason why George didn’t feel any pain parting with the trucks was that the status of Marquis was enough compensation for the earnings of 500 trucks. He believed that with Zach gone, it was only a matter of time before the trucks would fall to ruin or would become unusable due to the lack of technical expertise. Most of the skilled labor responsible for the maintenance of the trucks belonged to the Luther family all of whom had joined the Luther family on their exodus. Therefore, the trucks were running on borrowed time. George knew that too well because only a handful of his people could barely carry out the daily maintenance of the trucks after receiving special training at the Luther estate.

George had expected that the Royal family would use some hard tactics in order to grab a hold of this innovative technology that seemed to be destined for greatness. Therefore, this treatment of the royal family seemed very suspicious of him. Still, he couldn’t outright reject such a favor even in his sleep. So he decided to go with the flow on this one and figure out the reasons behind this slowly.

Olaf on the other hand didn’t intend to leave anything to time. He was quite outspoken about the decisions taken by the royal family in the past. Moreover, he wasn’t the type to hide or defend the shortcomings of his own or his people. Therefore, he didn’t spare any words while talking about his brother who had granted George a visit previously.

“I know that you must be doubtful of the royal family’s intentions regarding you considering that you had to deal with Kolt. I want you to understand that the decisions taken by Kolt were not at all backed by the King or the royal family. The entire royal family’s prestige was dragged through the mud by him and for that he is going to get what he deserves. For you it means that he wouldn’t be coming to harass you anytime soon.”

“I can only thank you for putting my mind at ease.” George breathed easy after hearing that Kolt was acting on his own and not on royal orders otherwise George might have found himself on the receiving end of the sword instead of a title.

Olaf further explained that the royal family came to know of the potential of Zach a long time after Prince Kolt did and by that time Kolt had done irreversible damage to the potential relationship between the royals and Zach. Therefore, they could only punish Kolt as per the family rules and keep him under watch until the fire of vengeance in his heart extinguished for good.

Despite the punishment, the damage done could not be reversed because Zach had departed from Elizabeth city into the unknown and couldn’t be located for the time being. The issuance of the wanted notice was withheld by the royal family as a token of their sincerity and goodwill towards Zach who was now possibly biased towards them.

Even so, the royal family didn’t believe that even if they found Zach, he would be willing to work for them or with them considering his impression of them due to Kolt’s obsessive antics.

Therefore, the royal family after countless sessions finally came to the decision that their only breakthrough in establishing a relationship with Zach would be through the Elizabeth family. It was either Christina who had almost become his wife or George the family head who helped Zach establish the business and was a close business partner of Zach.

The offer to make George a Marquis was a well thought out plan that was executed after quite a lot of deliberation in to the subject and Olaf was sent for the execution process because he was the most direct and the most sensible amongst the Princes.

“Mr. George on behalf of the royal family I want to ask you to do us a favor.” Olaf waited for a moment so that George could consider his words properly.