Removing your hand from underneath your chin, your eyes concentrate on the men before you. Quickly noticing you sitting with a straight back, the heated discussion that had erupted in the chamber begins to die out before slowly becoming inaudible whispers that also soon turn to silence.

“Hear our words.” You calmly say.

“We hear !” Everyone responds in a chorus

“We had made our choice.” You begin. “These foreigners are willing to embrace our faith and our customs, and it cannot be denied that we do require fresh blood for battles to come, let the <span class="mu-i">barbaroi</span> (barbarians) fight and die against each other, sparing the flesh of proper Thephians.”

Once again, murmurs erupt across the chamber.

“Your majesty, if I may ?” Leontius asks, to which you simply nod. “These savages should be exploited for all they are useful for and then discarded.”

In response, Isaac just simply snorts at the comment. “That will make us enemies for generations, whilst I agree that these foreigners should be used for the Empire’s good, to simply disregard our words so easily would make us seem unreliable to all foreigners.”

“These are primitives, as if anyone but them would care.”