Chapter 134
Chapter 134
Chapter 134
Negotiation
The Overlord Galdran.
The last king of the ancient kingdom of Britannia that existed 1700 years ago and the leader of the 'Continental Alliance.'
At that time, the continent's history was in a catastrophic situation comparable to China's Five Barbarians and Sixteen Kingdoms period, and it was also an era when the conflict between humans and other races reached its worst.
Galdran was the king who gathered the human nations of that era to create something called the Continental Alliance and waged war against the other races.
As a result, humans won the war, but immediately after the war, taking advantage of the weakened forces, beings from other dimensions attacked, and Britannia and the Continental Alliance suffered near-destruction.
As a result, human civilization greatly declined, and humanity walked through a dark age of civilization until the Celestial Magic Empire appeared 900 years later.
Galdran petitioned the gods to protect the continent, but the gods, who had little interest in the affairs of the lower world, ignored Galdran's plea.
A few archangels showed interest, but ultimately the Kingdom of Britannia was destroyed...
Galdran disappeared with the very few survivors who followed him.
Afterward, he founded the Seven Arks and dreamed of revenge against those who had taken everything from him over a long period of time.
***
"Hheheh, what a pity..."
Galdran clutched his heart.
But even so, he couldn't stop the blood flowing between his fingers.
"I wanted...to get revenge..."
"Your stubbornness wasted countless opportunities. It's your own fault."
Galdran, who had lived in an era before Celestial, hated the gods who had abandoned him and the other races he had fought against his entire life through continental wars.
He tried to use anything for his purpose, but he couldn't compromise on the truly important parts.
"Even knowing that the Seven-Colored World was the best shortcut to your goal, your mistake was dreaming of a world for humans alone until the end."
"Heh, heheh...even so...i don't regret it."
Galdran's body collapsed forward.
"Layla...the rear..."
THUD!
There was no way those fighting above wouldn't notice that Galdran's life had completely extinguished.
"Your Majesty!"
"Galdran!"
Layla and Dugrid were the first to lose their composure.
They were founding members of the Seven Arks and those who had been with Galdran the longest.
But they paid the price for daring to turn their gaze away while facing an opponent like Maria.
"You damn bastards, look ahead!"
Not missing that opening, Maria launched a massive fireball that surpassed Hellfire.
Britian gasped and cast a huge divine barrier, but it immediately shattered and all three were swept up in the flames.
"Aaah!"
"Aaaah!"
With both the front and rear losing focus simultaneously, Britian alone couldn't do anything.
Seeing the tide of battle immediately turning, Rudian let out a sigh of relief.
'Phew, it's roughly over...'
WHOOSH!
However, Rudian didn't let his guard down and burned Galdran's corpse with simple incineration magic.
That Layla over there getting beaten by Maria and falling.
Despite how she looks, she's the continent's strongest necromancer.
If Galdran's intact corpse fell into her hands, all the hard work here would be for nothing.
'Yev is holding up well... I should join Maria.'
A Great Magician's domain is hard to escape from, but it's also damn hard to enter from outside.
Rather than carelessly making a hole and risking letting Zigmund escape, it's better to safely eliminate Dugrid.
Having organized his thoughts, Rudian flew straight into the sky.
***
The battle after Galdran's death was easily settled.
Among the remnants, Dugrid put up some resistance when Rudian joined, but eventually gave his life to Diablo.
The same with Zigmund.
When Layla also burned up, Britian panicked and surrendered, and Zigmund also had his neck severed by Rudian's hand.
"Please spare me."
Unbecoming of the noble position of Saint of Luuren, Britian prostrated herself before Rudian and begged for her life.
"Hmm..."
Maria glared at the back of her head with a slightly displeased expression.
Normally, such beings should just be finished off to avoid future troubles, but for some reason, Rudian opposed killing Britian.
Britian certainly has looks that would be loved by everyone, just from appearance.
'Surely not?'
Rudian received a suspicious look from Maria but tilted his head, not knowing the reason.
However, regardless of such looks, Rudian steadily completed his negotiation with Britian.
"Yes. I'll do that..."
"If it's you, persuading the Pope shouldn't be too difficult."
"Of, of course!"
"The actual leader Galdran is dead.
Now only Rowen, Jarsen, and 'Layla who returned to her main body' remain."
FLINCH!
When Rudian mentioned Layla, who had become a burnt corpse, Britian's shoulders shook greatly.
"There's really no reason for you to continue staying with the Seven Arks, which has effectively had its power cut in half, is there?"
"Th, that's right! I think so too!"
Britian desperately nodded her head to survive.
Knowing that even the immortal power bestowed by Ruura was useless before these people, she couldn't dare resist.
Rudian placed several restrictions on Britian and obediently sent her back to Luuren.
Maria expressed concern about letting go of a power that would clearly cause future troubles.
"Will it be okay?"
"If we kill that woman, the Sacred Kingdom of Luuren will immediately turn against us. We're already at war on two fronts, so it would be big trouble if we made more enemies there."
Britian is the only member of the Seven Arks who has a kingdom as backing.
She's also the Seven Arks' source of funding, so now the Seven Arks will be placed in a situation that's practically disbanded.
'Layla is the only variable though...'
Rudian looked at Layla's charred corpse and then turned his gaze to Maria.
"Yeah. This is definitely a fake body."
"...As expected."
Layla was a necromancer and also a puppeteer whose skills had reached the extreme.
Using those skills, she survived tenaciously like Asmodeus in the original work and interfered with Abel's party.
'I do know where the main body is located...but the question is whether Evan will be safe until we can get there.'
Now we must soon enter the Hall of Heroes.
In the worst case, we might waste at least several years there.
However, one fortunate thing is that now the Seven Arks' main power is effectively just two people, so as long as Rowen doesn't let his guard down, he should be able to protect Evan from their hands.
'Now the only ones left targeting the Morian Empire are about the Iron Guard?'
Those guys, well, Giovanni will keep them in check properly.
"Let's go back."
There's not much left to worry about in the Great Forest.
***
After the Seven Arks matter was roughly wrapped up, only the Golden Dawn Society and matters with Dormel Paon remained.
But as soon as we returned to Elven Forest, an unexpected person appeared waiting for Rudian.
"So you're Rudian Belstad."
'Oh, he came personally?'
The alliance proposal sent to the Golden Dawn Society would certainly have been conveyed through Dormel to the true leader who leads them, the 'royalty' of Rohans.
But I never thought that royalty would grace this remote place with their presence.
"I am Falsion de Rohans, who carries on the legitimate bloodline of the Rohans royal family."
A sturdy young man who appeared to be in his late twenties to early thirties appeared, escorted by those wearing the same attire as Dormel.
"Nice to meet you! It's an honor to meet a hero!"
Falsion grabbed Rudian's hand and shook it up and down.
Rudian inwardly chuckled at that friendly attitude.
'He seems quite desperate.'
Falsion, the second prince of the Kingdom of Rohans, was the only surviving royalty at this point.
The other king and queen, as well as other royalty, had long been replaced by doppelgangers or other demons in disguise.
Thanks to the help of Rohans' secret society, the Golden Dawn Society, he was barely maintaining his life and continuing the struggle, but the situation probably wasn't very good.
Rudian muttered while looking at what the Golden Dawn Society had brought to Elven Forest.
'Hmm, they brought quite a lot of various things.'
They brought an armful of food, clothing, tools, etc. that elves and other races would like.
It's probably to somehow smooth over Dormel's intimidation of the elves.
"Yes, I heard from Duke Domenec. You want to propose a joint fight in exchange for information about our kingdom?"
"You heard correctly. In addition, I'd also like to know about why the Golden Dawn Society caused such a commotion in the Great Forest."
No matter how much it's to check demon forces, coming all the way to such a jungle area to cause trouble is a serious waste of manpower.
Since they should be using all their strength just to reclaim the Rohans mainland.
"Hmm..."
But unexpectedly, Prince Falsion's expression, which I thought would answer quickly, visibly hardened.
He let out a slight sigh and said.
"Well, fine. It's a royal secret, but there's no point hiding it now."
Is there a correlation between the Great Forest and royal secrets?
"Actually, we were trying to find a path from this Great Forest to the Southern Continent."
"...Why the Southern Continent suddenly?"
"To make contact with the dragon race."
"...?"
It's an even more puzzling statement.
Of course, the Southern Continent is indeed a place that can't be reached by normal navigation.
The dragons joined forces to install a barrier around the entire Southern Continent that blocks others' access.
But even if you break through that and meet the dragon race, it would be completely useless...
"Don't you know that the dragon race has no interest in this world?"
"..."
"Even if you ask for help, they won't listen at all, right?"
In fact, the dragon race is even more self-centered than the gods and has no interest in the world.
To the extent that when the Day of Great Liberation came and the world was about to be destroyed, instead of trying to save the world, they even took an ark and fled to another dimension.
Then Falsion mentioned quite an interesting fact.
"Actually, our Rohans royal family carries the blood of the dragon race."
Oh...?
"The founding queen was a dragon who came to the human world for amusement during the nation's founding period. When she disappeared, she promised that if the nation faced a crisis of destruction, she would provide help just once."
"Hmm..."
It was a setting I'd never heard before.
In the first place, such an event wasn't even mentioned in the original work.
Given the timing, it probably wouldn't be Kirchrus, and it would likely be one of the Blue Dragons who are relatively friendly to humans...
'Will it work out?'
Naturally, even at the start of the original work, the Kingdom of Rohans belonged to demons, and the Golden Dawn Society was also the same as now.
That means their persuasion or search ended in failure.
'Then whatever they do, there's not much to worry about.'
As long as they don't get in the way, it doesn't matter.
Anyway, the main purpose of joining hands with them is to obtain information.
"Good. That's an understandable reason."
"Then let's negotiate in earnest."
Falsion and Rudian negotiated over various aspects including the Morian Empire and Rudian's group's scope of intervention, information to be provided, and post-war handling.
After hours of meticulously questioning each sentence and item and going through psychological warfare, a rough outline was completed.
Falsion, exhausted by Rudian's persistence, sighed.
"...You're quite skilled at negotiation. And you give the feeling of having worked under someone for a long time. It's like dealing with my aide."
"...I'll give no comment on that."
If you suffer under a bastard like that for three years, you will become this good.
"I'll prioritize sending information about the Rohans regular army that has currently invaded the border territory. That's probably what's most urgent."
"Please send the information to Nevan. I'll tell you in advance."
Falsion nodded.
"Currently, most of the Rohans regular army is tied up in the Iskar territory. In particular, I heard that 'Knight of Fire Calline,' the son of Count Rickart, is currently leading the army in standoff. If it's him, he'll probably block the offensive without problem."
'Huh? Wait, what did he just say...?'
The moment he heard those words, Rudian's expression completely darkened.