Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 994: Possible Conflict with Another Kingdom

Chapter 994: Chapter 994: Possible Conflict with Another Kingdom

The nobles were then dismissed and allowed to see their captured children to say their goodbyes before they were sent to the Magic Tower prisons.

Marquess Sibruh sighed in relief when all the summoned nobles had finally left the castle.

He looked like he had aged ten years in a matter of hours.

"Please, sit down, Marquess," Arabella smiled.

"M-my apologies!"

The Marquess blushed in embarrassment when he realized he had let his guard down for a few seconds in their presence.

It was understandable, though, since he had to process everything he had just learned recently.

He was the one suffering due to his father’s mistakes in managing the marquessate.

Unfortunately for him, there were more issues they needed to discuss.

The stressful hours were not done yet.

"There’s also something more we need to discuss. Would you like to have the discussion now or on another day?" Arabella inquired.

[There’s more?!! What else did Father’s pride and carelessness cause?!]

Marquess Sibruh thought it was more problems related to his father’s actions.

[It’s better to discuss it now. I won’t be able to sleep thinking about it anyway.]

But of course, the Marquess did not say it out loud. Instead, he said, "Whenever is most comfortable to Your Majesties."

He left the decision up to them in fear that he would possibly offend them if he accepted being the one to decide when speaking with them.

"I see, then let’s discuss it now to have fewer tasks for later. Please ask all your family members who help out in managing the territory," Arabella said.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Marquess Sibruh replied and got out of the room for a bit, and instructed his butler.

Meanwhile, Arabella glanced at Ferdinand and Alwin. They discussed what to do while the Marquess was gone.

They agreed to finally inform the Marquess about the missing butler and the spies they had caught here in Sibruh.

Of course, they would leave some details to remain secret. The truth about her ability and how they learned about the presence of spies, for instance.

They had a tea break for a few minutes while waiting for the Marquess family to arrive.

They began their discussion when all the Marquess’ family members who helped him manage the territory were complete.

It was Alwin who did the talking for Arabella and Ferdinand.

Arabella’s task this time was to listen to the thoughts of the Sibruh family and ensure that none of them would betray Valeria in the future.

She had been listening to their thoughts the past few days as she had been looking for spies, and none of them so far had traitorous thoughts.

But who knows?

It could be because they did not touch the topic directly.

If they were asked about it directly, their honest thoughts about it might surface.

Thus, as Alwin did the talking, she listened to their thoughts while Ferdinand observed them closely.

"Thank you for gathering promptly. What we will discuss today is highly confidential, so I hope all of you can keep this a secret to prevent more chaos here in Sibruh," Alwin began.

"But before we begin, do any of you here plan to betray Valeria in the future?"

"!!!"

The Sibruh family was alarmed at his question and nervously glanced at each other.

The Marquess had briefly informed them about what had happened earlier, and they feared they were also being tested.

Of course, they were. The question was asked with this in mind.

They wanted to see if any of the family members of the Sibruh family were possibly traitors.

[Did someone spread false rumors about us because of Father’s actions?!]

[Father is prideful and careless at times, but he never thought of going against Valeria.]

"All of us are loyal to Valeria! We will never dare betray Your Majesties!"

The Sibruh family knelt as they made an oath of fealty.

[They are greatly helping us recover from what would have been famine and starvation in our territory. We never thought of betraying them.]

[Our territory had been safe from attacks ever since we joined the Empire. Father only had the luxury to be prideful and selfish because we were not busy with conflicts with other territories or always on alert to defend in case bandits came. With this assurance, it never even crossed our minds to leave Valeria someday. Joining them had only done us benefits. We were the ones who became careless due to the safety from outside threats we had because of them.]

[From past records, even monster attacks had greatly lessened ever since we joined Valeria. It was because they sent a huge number of Imperial Knights when we just joined and cleared monsters in a vast portion of the areas near us.]

[Betraying them would only cause trouble for us. Aside from the fact that we are no match for them, ]

The Sibruh family had various thoughts, but all in all, none of them planned to betray Valeria.

They liked the safety that came with being part of it.

The tribute they paid to the Empire yearly was so much less when compared to the expenses and losses the former generations once had from conflicts with other territories and monsters or bandits’ attacks.

{None of them had traitorous thoughts so far.}

Arabella informed Alwin and Ferdinand.

They nodded, and Alwin then continued.

She would keep listening for now and warn them in case she heard something that said otherwise.

"I see. That’s good, then. I hope it remains as such in the future. Why I asked about it specifically was because of the nature of our agenda," Alwin clarified.

The Sibruh family sighed in relief when they realized they were not getting accused of being traitorous.

Alwin then continued, "His Majesty had suggested building higher watchtowers and raising the walls and reinforcing them for a reason."

"!!!"

Just those words alone were enough to alarm the Sibruh family.

[I tried to assure myself that it was part of the maintenance and construction projects because it had gotten old. I tried to avoid this line of thought even when I considered it, but it seems I wasn’t wrong to suspect something was amiss.]

Marquess Sibruh had already suspected something when the walls and watchtowers were included in the construction projects.