act14side

Tch. It's taking too long.

Keep it down, Sciurus. You're interrupting my train of thought.

What's to think about? Enciodes has to hand his land over this time.

Yucatan, your opinion?

...I agree with Rus, but Sir Enciodes won't just lie down and take it.

At least you think before you talk. Unlike your wife here.

Oh, who exactly is this about?!

You, of course, my beautiful little sister.

If only it wasn't for Arctosz and his idiot face firing off at anything to do with Karlan. I didn't want to fall out with Enciodes this soon, that's for sure.

People like Enciodes are a handful. Even if he croaks, he'll be sure to put us on the brink too at least. Not to mention...

Something tells me he won't accept his sorry lot, and it's telling me loud.

Hmph. In my view...

I said keep it down, Sciurus. If you really have something to say, you can go outside, and then tell the mountains about it.

Of course, I won't let you back indoors.

Tch. Fine, I'll just shut up then.

(Murmured) So happy to talk to yourself.

Sir Arctosz arrives.

At the summit of Karlan in winter, the frigid winds never rest, but the look in Arctosz's eyes, and the sound of his great axe as it drags along the ground in bursts, come to fool people—it's as if the winds are his to bring.

Look who's here, Arctosz, my fine friend.

Enciodes?

Who am I to answer that?

I thought you would've bumped into each other outside and settled everything there, and that way I wouldn't need to be tormented in here, and I could go home happy.

How surprising that something can even torment you, Ratatos.

Of course. I've got torment to the nines.

Such as, more and more people in my territory wanting to work for a living at Enciodes's instead.

Or, Gulo, the most able officer you have, not showing up today. Why?

He caught a cold.

Kjerag's sturdiest soldier catching a cold. That's no good omen.

Looks like we'll need that man under Enciodes to give him some treatment. Gnosis, that one.

He'll get better on his own.

Fine, fine. No good deed of mine goes unpunished.

Seeing as you're here, it looks like we're just missing Enciodes now.

The three o'clock chime has not yet sounded.

I see I've kept the two of you waiting.

S-Sir Enciodes and the Great Elder arrive!

Hm?

Tch, there's a mystery. Why are the two of them together...?

Enciodes, don't tell me you went praying to the Saintess before coming to this meeting?

Far from it. I met the Great Elder along the way, and had a few words with him.

Great Elder, you first.

A fine courtesy.

The entrance to the hall slowly shuts, the air inside settling down in an instant after.

The Great Elder sits straight in the middle, Arctosz and Ratatos stand to one side, and Enciodes to the other.

The gulf of difference is stark.

Former Tri-Clan Councils always had us sit together, talking of the year's crop of affairs, of whose house had done more, and of whose required assistance after blights of snow.

I had not foreseen such a topic at today's council... *sigh*.

You'll want to really grill Enciodes about that.

No need for such aggression, Arctosz.

As the Great Elder said, the Tri-Clan Council should be no place for us to blame and reproach each other.

I wonder if you've heard one about the pot and the kettle, Enciodes.

Enough, enough. Given we are all here, we shall commence this meeting of the Tri-Clan Council.

By Kjeragandr.

By Kjeragandr.

I presume all three are aware of the purpose of this Council.

On Mr. Arctosz and Ms. Ratatos's proposal, last meeting, that the Silverashes would cede governing authority over the valleys and mining regions, for the Paleroches and Browntails to then administrate.

In addition, the Silverashes' withdrawal from the parliament of the Tri-Clan Council.

Gnosis Edelweiss has been expelled from his post by myself. I believe both of you know this already.

What good does knowing that do? Gnosis is your aide. How could his actions not have been according to your instruction?

If you think pinning the blame on him will let you escape punishment, then think again!

Arctosz, why come to such an arbitrary conclusion?

Enciodes, there's much I can tolerate from you. You can open your factories in your territory, do your business, recruit your foreigners.

That is your territory. Whatever ghoulish form you twist it into, it's not my concern.

But never should you have led your railroad to Karlan, bringing the copper stench onto holy earth. And your mining up to Karlan's foot, extracting resources in secret, is beyond the pale.

What do you take the ground of Karlan for—what do you take the land of Kjeragandr for?

You even plotted against any inspection teams so that they wouldn't investigate your factories. My subordinates are still bedbound for it.

Is that what you want to say? That these are all the doing of that accursed Edelweiss, and nothing to do with you?!

Gnosis was once my most trusted partner, and I mistakenly gave him too much power.

For that, I am deeply regretful.

What of you, Ratatos? Is there really no leeway to reverse course between us?

*sigh* I really would love to help you, Enciodes.

After all, six whole years ago, it was me who paved your way back into this hall. Of course it hurts, pushing you out again by my own hands.

But in the end, when it's about all of Kjerag, I just can't defend you.

Though I believe the Browntails have benefited, greatly, from business in Turicum.

Am I denying that? It's not just money in our pockets, we can reap the rewards with our subjects too. Who wouldn't be a fan? Only sticks-in-the-mud like Arctosz.

But even though people talk behind my back thanks to it, crying witch about me, I still have a bottom line, Enciodes.

I don't know what you read or learned in those four years you studied outside, that drives you to abuse our trust to this point.

I was wrong about you six years ago, Enciodes. I'll pay for that in time—but you're going to pay first.

Ceding the valleys and mines under our jurisdiction, as well as the Silverashes' seat at the Tri-Clan Council. These are your demands. Is it not an excessively high price?

Karlan Trade has already stricken its then-director in these affairs, Gnosis, off its register. The company's growth policy has recently mildened too, that much is plain to see.

Too late, Enciodes.

If this price wasn't high, how would you ever remember it?

If you wanted to seek forgiveness, you never would've done any of this in the first place.

But since you have done it already, then today, here and now, you must pay something for it.

Are you handing over governance of the valleys and mines, or are you not? Are you seceding from the Tri-Clan Council, or are you not?

All I have done up to now was for the development of Kjerag.

That it would worsen our relations with the Paleroches and Browntails to this present extent, was never my wish.

And from the exchanges I've just had with the two of you, I see this worsening is already unavertable, and unredeemable.

I somewhat foresaw it, but to arrive at this moment in reality, at this time of grievance and ultimatum in this hall, still fills me with sorrow.

But I truly cannot bear to see a fissure arise in the three clans that govern Kjerag together.

Dissent in the three clans signifies dissent in Kjerag. It signifies, that Kjeragandr's people, are soon to lose their collective homeland.

Enciodes, if you truly thought so, if you truly ever thought so for even one moment...

You would have sent yourself packing from Kjerag, back to your Victoria, and been a worry less on Kjerag herself!

Arctosz. I, Enciodes Silverash, am the head of the Silverashes.

This means I must bear my responsibility for the future of Kjerag, and fulfil what is obliged of me.

I don't know what makes you feel I should have stayed in Victoria. Is it because those days of only two clans in parliament made you feel so much more powerful?

Not to mention, my reforms in the years I've led the Silverashes are a done reality...

The people of my territory haven't just gained from the way of life I've brought, they've continued to advance such lives by their own accord.

Even if I leave, the machines will still work, and the trains on the tracks will still set into motion.

Or do you truly believe that if I hand off the valleys and mines today, and cease operation of those factories and railroads...

That the people working there, the people benefiting from what it produces, will accede?