Esper Harem in the Apocalypse
chapter-291

"You, what?" Virgil asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"I, Luis Alucard, the king of Alucard Kingdom, propose a marriage of my son Liam and the child of the blue moon," Luis declared in a loud voice, seemingly wanting his voice to be heard by everyone present in the hall.

"Oh, I heard that for the first time. But what's the…" Virgil cleared his throat and uttered, "May I ask why so suddenly?"

"We were looking for a perfect bride for my son, and we thought marrying him to either of the princesses would be beneficial for both kingdoms. Don't you think it's finally time for the world's two biggest kingdoms to become one?"

"With no offense, this kingdom doesn't need an ally, nor my granddaughter is going to marry your son," Virgil responded nonchalantly.

"Hmm? Are you saying that you are going to defy the alliance pact signed by our ancestors?" Luis said with a judging look on his face.

"I don't remember such a pact having a mention of marriage anywhere," Virgil responded.

"You must not know about it. That was even before you were born."

"I have—" Virgil was about to say something, but a soldier approached him from behind and whispered something in his ears.

"Oh? I see."

The soldier then retreated and stood behind Virgil like the rest of the soldiers who were his elite guard, protecting Virgil from any surprise attack. Not that Virgil required anyone to protect him.

"What's wrong?" Luis smirked and said, "It seems the soldier knows more than you."

Virgil raised his hand in the air, and everyone else stepped back in surprise. Luis and Liam had a petrified look on their faces, and the guards had come forward to protect them.

After watching that, Virgil scoffed arrogantly and conjured a sealed scroll in his hand. He showed it to them and opened the seal in front of them, seemingly opening it for the first time after it was written.

He opened the scroll and read the contents in his mind to confirm before reading it aloud.

"This is the written alliance pact that shall come into effect one day if time and fate serve us well. I, Vlad the 7th, the seventh heir and the 17th king of OrionHeart Kingdom, hereby announce a marriage between the heir of OrionHeart family and Alucard's family," Virgil read.

"See?" Luis pointed his finger at the scroll and said, "This is the written proof. And I, we, the Alucard family, honored the promise while you forgot about it. How disgraceful."

"No one forgot about it. The contents of this letter are not the same as you mentioned," Virgil responded and resumed reading.

"However, there will be certain conditions about this. Firstly, both the bride and the groom have to agree on the marriage and have mutual feelings towards each other; love.

Secondly, in any condition, neither the groom nor the bride should be forced into this marriage.

Thirdly, either of the parties must inform the other party about this three years prior to marriage. Give them time to get to know each other if they don't, and let them decide their future.

Failure of any of the above conditions will cancel this alliance pact."

Virgil finished reading and stared at Luis and Liam with an unamused look on his face.

"That can't be true! There were no such conditions!" Luis yelled.

Virgil tossed the scroll at Luis and said, "You can read it yourself."

Luis angrily read the paper and muttered, "Impossible."

"Even if it didn't have these conditions, I had no plans to marry my granddaughter against her wishes." Virgil raised his brows and uttered, "And besides, I opened the seal in front of you. Are you implying that this sealed scroll is fake?"

He asked with a judging look on his face.

"Yes, I am! I don't remember it having any conditions at all!" Luis retorted.

"Then maybe you never actually read the scroll properly," Virgil commented. "I am sure your family also got one copy of this scroll."

Luis ripped the scroll into pieces and yelled, "This is a fake one! I will provide you with the real one soon enough."

"So you came all the way from your kingdom to this kingdom for a marriage proposal to honor your late grandfather's promise of alliance with my forefathers but didn't bring the so-called 'real' scroll with you?" Virgil asserted with a furious look on his face.

"That's because I never expect the OrionHeart Kingdom to back out on their words and tamper with the content of the scroll to avoid the alliance pact," Luis responded angrily.

Virgil and Luis glared at each other until a voice rang in the hall.

"Arara~ So you are telling me that the person who wrote the content of the scroll is also lying?"

Everyone present in the hall trembled in fear after hearing that voice. Luis's legs grew weak, and he needed his soldiers to support him, while Virgil's eyes widened as he muttered:

"Mother…?"

The voice belonged to none other than Nyxia, the Mad Queen.

She casually passed through the soldier and stopped in front of Virgil.

"When… when did you return from your trip?" he asked in a calm voice.

"Yesterday morning," Nyxia replied.

"Then why did you inform you or come to meet me?"

Nyxia frowned her face and uttered, "Why do I need to inform you about my arrival or departure?"

"I didn't mean—"

"And for your information, I came to the palace to meet you yesterday morning, and I searched for you for 30 minutes, I repeat, 30 minutes! And I couldn't find you. Where were you?!"

"I… had something to do. Anyway, welcome back, mother," Virgil welcomed her with an awkward smile on his face.

Nyxia ignored him and turned to Luis, whose face had turned pale because of the fear. She frowned her face at him and asserted:

"You should be glad that 'he' is not here."

Thanks, @jMori2010, for the gift!