Chapter 160: Affairs of the Alliance

Patrick also prepared to leave and return to the City of the Sun, but a spellbreaker attendant came forward and said, "Councilor Patrick, His Majesty the King requests your presence."

Patrick did not say much and followed the spellbreaker directly to the side parlor. His Majesty the King chose not to receive him in the Sunfane Spire, and the significance of this was self-evident. It seemed King Anasterian had already discovered something.

His Majesty looked the same as he had during their last meeting, but Patrick could clearly see an extra wrinkle at the corner of the old king's eyes.

"Councilor Patrick, it has been a long time. You truly bring pleasant surprises." The old king's expression was grave, lacking his usual hypocritical smile. This was Anasterian's truest expression. "Have you advanced to Legend?"

"Not yet, Your Majesty." Patrick looked straight into Anasterian's eyes, giving the old king his answer.

"The Ninth Tier, yet you can ignore another Ninth Tier's mental attack." The king's expression was hesitant, clearly harboring disbelief toward Patrick.

Finally, Anasterian's gaze turned sharp, and Patrick felt the surrounding space compress instantly. Spiritual energy assaulted him like crushing pressure.

A flash of blue light appeared as Patrick's arcane shield manifested, resisting Anasterian's mental shock. After a long moment, finding that his spiritual energy could not pierce Patrick's arcane defense, Anasterian withdrew the probe. Patrick did not mind, knowing Anasterian was merely testing him without any genuine hostility.

"Although you have not advanced to Legend, you are immensely talented and your future is limitless. A spellcaster who can reach your level at the Ninth Tier is utterly unprecedented in Quel'Thalas. Even I, back in my youth, could not have achieved this." Anasterian's praise was direct and gratifying to hear.

"Your Majesty flatters me," Patrick nodded in return.

"No, you deserve it. Concealing spatial restrictions beneath your arcane shield to achieve all-around isolated defensive effects, and even counterattacking opponents inadvertently—you possess great ingenuity and exceptional talent."

"There are still a few matters regarding which I need to know your intentions."

"Please ask, Your Majesty. I shall tell you everything I know."

"Do you truly despise the Council to this extent?" The king's gaze pierced directly into Patrick, as if capable of looking straight into his soul.

"Does Your Majesty believe that the conflict between the Council and myself can be reconciled?" Patrick did not answer directly, instead posing a question back to King Anasterian.

Anasterian smiled, acknowledging that this was indeed somewhat insolvable. "What if both sides took a step back?"

"Your Majesty, the Council has always viewed me as a threat. I have personally taken no provocative actions, yet what remains of the entire Capobロン family in Silvermoon City? It is they who time and again scheme against me. In the past, I merely yielded, but today's events have crossed my bottom line."

Patrick met Anasterian's gaze. "I believe Your Majesty is clearer than I am on what the Council has done. They worry that their family's authority will be shaken, and they fear someone will challenge their positions. Over thousands of years, what have our Quel'Thalas Councilors accomplished for the kingdom's development, or what have they changed?"

Anasterian was also left somewhat speechless. He had originally intended to mediate the internal conflicts within the Council today, but the facts were precisely as Patrick described. The Council was relentlessly aggressive, leaving Patrick no choice but to launch a counterattack. Given the Council's character, the king, who had lived alongside them for millennia, understood their nature all too well.

"Let us set aside the issue of the Council. How do you intend to handle matters concerning humans?" Anasterian raised another heavyweight question.

As the king of Quel'Thalas, he naturally grasped every facet of this nation. The notion of absolute constitutional monarchy restraining ambitious men existed only in fairy tales. His Majesty the King was clearly well-aware of what Patrick had done within the floating citadel.

When a king completely loses control of his kingdom, the countdown to his reign begins. Even regarding certain heavily praised constitutional monarchies of later generations—where people claimed their queen and system remained unchanged for 400 years, the monarch was merely a figurehead, state power was entirely held by parliament, and sovereignty belonged to the people—Patrick believed that was utter nonsense. If the royal family held no trump cards or control over vital lifelines, the queen would have been overthrown long ago.

When enormous interests are at stake, ambitious men care nothing for slogans of legitimacy or royal rights. In their eyes, there are only interests, and tangible, tangible interests—these were what ambitious men loved most.

"Your Majesty, I recall that we once had an alliance with humans."

"Millennia ago, we allied with humans. With human assistance, we defeated those forest trolls. At the time, we taught humans how to use magic, and we signed an alliance treaty with the Arathi Empire, establishing the allied relationship between the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas and the Arathi Empire."

Changing the tone, Anasterian sighed regretfully, "However, the Arathi Empire no longer exists, so our alliance naturally ceases to exist as well."

Indeed, the king's words were reasonable. The Arathi Empire was no more, and speaking of the former alliance was merely empty ink on paper. After all, the entity that signed the treaty with Quel'Thalas was the Arathi Empire, not the current "high officials" of Lordaeron. If the United States were to fracture into fifty countries today, and each minor state continued to brandish the treaties signed with us in the past, demanding that we honor agreements made with America, we would treat it as a joke.

Reflecting on future events, when Quel'Thalas was breached by the Scourge, Patrick did not feel that humans refusing to render aid was excessively vicious; after all, if you do not help me, I do not help you—that was entirely logical and fair. The sole catalyst for Silvermoon City's withdrawal from the Alliance should be Garithos's actions, alongside Dalaran and Stormwind secretly supporting and fracturing the Quel'Dorei through the Silver Covenant.

After all, the most hateful beings are always traitors, and those who secretly establish puppet regimes within your country to attack the legitimate government are even more detestable. It was entirely reasonable for Quel'Thalas to refuse the Alliance of Lordaeron.

Patrick voiced his thoughts: "Anduin Lothar is the final bloodline of the Arathi Kingdom, except that he has lost his right of succession to the country."

Anasterian said with vested interest, "Oh? Humans of Arathi blood still exist?"

"The intelligence I obtained confirms it. According to the Stormwind royal family tree, Anduin Lothar is indeed the final descendant of the Arathi bloodline."

Royal family trees and bloodlines were practically common knowledge among human society. Anasterian naturally knew that Patrick commanded an organization called the Watchers, so it was hardly a major secret that Patrick possessed such information.

However, the Watchers' primary intelligence source came from that group of adventurers under Lor'themar Theron. The royal family had historically shown no interest in adventurers, and the Watchers had not excessively interfered with the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas, nor were they an organization scouting the royal family. Thus, the royal family's Fire-Runes organization simply quietly observed the words, deeds, and missions of the Watchers.