After entrusting Lotti to take good care of Eleanor, Charlotte left the Church Hospital.
The arrival of the envoy from the Royal Capital was like a clear signal, announcing the end of the war. After negotiating peace with the Violet Duchy, peace talks with Bold were put on the agenda.
After leaving the Church Hospital, Charlotte went to the Tulip Count Domain to complete the factual territory handover.
The Tulip Count Domain had no Lord, only Count Gaston stationed there. With his support, the transfer of the territory went smoothly.
The Tulip nobles, who often intermarried with the Castel nobility and also had frequent business dealings, did not resist but naturally accepted Charlotte’s rule.
This was easy to understand. Geographically, the Tulip Domain was part of the Northern Land, and it was connected through economy and kinship. Not to mention, after witnessing Castel’s defeat of Bold, this pocket Count Territory, without even a Viscount, had no capital to resist.
Bold had long regarded it as a Directly Administered Domain to strengthen control over Castel and had always avoided major noble families there, ultimately benefiting Castel who incorporated the Tulip Count Domain.
Charlotte met with the local nobles at the Tulip fortress, a total of six Barons.
Although the territorial treaty between Bold and Castel had not been formally signed, and the Tulip nobles had not officially sworn fealty to Charlotte, their words and deeds already showed subjection to Castel.
After meeting with the nobles, Charlotte had a private conversation with Count Gaston for an hour.
No one knew what Charlotte had discussed with Count Gaston.
After the conversation, Count Gaston handed over all control of the standing forces of the Tulip Domain to Castel and left Tulip alone, using the Super Long-Distance Teleportation Array provided by the Violet Duchy to return to Bold.
Handing over the Regular Transcendents, which his family had operated for over a decade, was a move that was hard to understand.
Not only those in the Tulip Domain but also the nobles of the Castel Domain were baffled.
Some said it was a secret agreement reached between Count Gaston and Castel; others speculated that it was because Count Castel renounced his bachelor declaration, intending to enter into marriage with the Gaston family; and still more outrageous was the rumor that Count Gaston was infatuated with Castel’s Charlotte, thus first aiding Castel in resisting Bold and then generously handing over the Regular Transcendents...
Even though... Count Gaston was old enough to be the grandfather of Castel’s Charlotte.
That being said, this most outrageous theory was believed by many, including numerous nobles.
Especially those who had seen the young Countess of Castel in person.
"She is indeed a beautiful lady, youthful, beautiful, pure... just like an Angel sent to Earth by the Divine Lord!"
"Burp! Not just Count Gaston but even I, who only caught a distant glimpse of her, could fall in love with her."
A down-and-out noble, who boasted he had once seen Charlotte at a Count Mansion banquet, talked eloquently in a tavern while belching.
In any case, rumors about Count Gaston and Count Castel surged for a time.
The romantic affairs of the Nobles, especially the Great Nobles, even if based on the merest hints and whispers, always aroused people’s interest.
It was all about munching on melons.
In any era, especially times when entertainment options were scarce, such matters were of great interest.
Only when the City Hall at North Port sternly dealt with a batch of rumor-mongering mercenaries and down-and-out nobles did these outrageous rumors start to fade.
Of course, this dampening was limited to the Directly Administered Domain.
In vassal lands where Castel’s control was weak and the areas surrounding Castel, especially in taverns and salons, such topics still had a market.
At the same time, rumors about just how charming, stunning, and beautiful the young Count from Castel truly was spread wider and wider, making Charlotte, who already had the monikers "Pearl of Bold" and "Beautiful Lord," even more renowned...
And the chain reaction that resulted even affected Castel’s diplomacy.
Charlotte, dumbfounded, found that after this, the number of nobles visiting Castel had increased considerably, many of whom were heirs to titles, or even lords themselves.
However, what happened in Bold next gradually made these outlandish rumors lose their appeal.
After Count Gaston returned to the Bold Duchy, he quickly took the lead, organizing the dispersed Bold nobility in the name of Castel’s ally and Bold’s supporter, establishing the Bold Regent Cabinet, and initiating peace talks with Castel.
Among them, Count Gaston, as the most influential count of Bold, was unanimously elected as the Regent Minister by the assembly of Bold nobles.
When this news came out, many astute nobles caught on.
"Count Gaston must have struck some kind of benefit exchange with Castel, on the conditions of supporting Castel’s independence, annexing the Tulip Domain, and taking control of the Tulip Army, in exchange for Castel’s support..."
"As the losing side in the war, it is said that many nobles were captured. No one is more suitable than Count Gaston to represent Bold in negotiations with Castel."
An experienced lord of the kingdom judged.
However, when this news reached Castel, some of its nobles were puzzled.
"Count, you... don’t plan to contend for the position of Regent Minister?"
Viscount Lien Castel couldn’t help but ask.
Charlotte shook her head:
"Contend? Why should I contend? If I became the Regent Minister, I would still be a vassal of Bold. Even if I essentially controlled Bold, what then?"
"Viscount, look to the long term. Our goal was never Bold from the beginning, nor is Bold the final destination we can reach."
Saying this, she laughed lightly:
"Not to mention... Having Count Gaston serve as the Regent Minister makes no difference to us and even gives us an additional helper to distract His Majesty the King."
Count Gaston was swift.
After becoming the Regent Minister, he quickly started "negotiations" with Castel, and not long after, the terms of the treaty between the two sides were made public.
The terms of compensation were similar to those with the Violet Duchy.
The Bold Duchy would pay a ransom of six million gold tana for all captured nobles and soldiers, including Duchess Eleanor, as well as Transcendent materials worth fifteen million gold tana. All ransoms had to be paid within three months, during which all costs for food and lodging for the captives were to be borne by the Bold Duchy.
In addition, the treaty included the recognition of Castel’s independence and sovereignty over the Tulip Domain.
Incidentally, after the treaty was signed, Duchess Eleanor was not immediately released but continued her convalescence in Castel.
With that, the Bold - Castel war officially ended, and as the biggest victor, Charlotte not only unified the Northern Land but also secured a hefty ransom and nearly fifteen hundred sets of standard kingdom standing military equipment.
Yet, despite the substantial gains, Charlotte felt she had forgotten something.
It wasn’t until three days after the official signing of the treaty, when news of the Isaac War Prisoner Camp being attacked by fleeing soldiers from Violet reached her from the north, that Charlotte suddenly remembered - she still had thousands of Isaac cavalry war prisoners who had participated in the Castel rebellion to deal with.