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Relief, Finally - I

Chervanyy, an island that had continuously seemed to avoid falling into the grasp of the Rigelians yet one that was undisputedly Rigelian of nature. One of her halves had already been beseeched by Grünestadtians, allowed through an agreement signed long ago. But now, she lay beseeched by a foreign force. Thus, the Rigelian crown was forced to abandon her complacency and would dedicate her immediate efforts to annexing the territory into her realm. Sent to oversee the transaction of power was none other than a prince of Rigelis, Egor Torrente, the future chief of staff of the army. But before any of that would happen, he would first need to prove his metal - not in war, but in times of piece. Diplomacy was Rigelis' greatest weapon. She was friendly with the Voltan, Viftaelia, Vyzantia, Biscayye and, of course, the other member states of the Southern Circle. There wasn't really a nation that could say that it despised Rigelis. Those relations all hinged on the skill of Rigelian diplomats, whether of noble birth or not. Every nation had peculiarities, like Voltanese 'gold bloods' or Medilan Beys. Each of these peculiarities required a specific tool, or person, to be amicably dealt with. The gilded characters of the Voltan preferred like-minded individuals of, preferably, equal status. Medilan beys often refused to deal with anyone that wasn't of noble birth. Grünestadtians usually didn't care much for the person in question, as long as they weren't directly related to the monarchy aside from the task that they had been given. Egor was not to fall short of these standards, his father had made that very clear to him before he departed. The annexation of Chervanyy through means other than warfare would prove if the prince was up to standards, or if he needed to go back to the drawing board.

The specific reason that the King had ordered for a peaceful settlement was mostly due to the drawn-out wars Rigelis was still recovering from. It was simultaneously: licking its own wounds from the civil war, having taken a backseat to the war in the North, the war against the Lutheringians and Salvanese, the war against the Zhorovids, and the integration of the territories won in those regions. It may have been a few decades already, but some amongst the elite and populous still did not take well to Viktor Torrente and his 'Torrentism'. That was immediately visible in the amount of resistance the King had to deal with when proposing the change of old laws or making entirely new ones. The creation of an assembly elected by the populous, for example, was a highly fought-over topic. These reasons all culminated into that order: there was to be no war, no more bloodshed.

As the prince set sail with a small guard regiment and a few more accompanying merchant ships, he found himself questioning how much resistance he would face on the island. Were the locals in favor of annexation, or perhaps staunchly against it? Surely, the recent arrival of the Atlavanians would swing the favor in his direction?