13 Mink Street

Half of the conference hall was laughing.

The matter had already been hilarious to begin with. With the cardinal leading the laughter, the Chief Archbishops of the various major districts naturally followed suit. The Order priests in the observer section felt no restraint at all and eagerly joined in, pushing the mockery even further.

Karon was laughing. Leon was laughing. Memphis, seated beside Karon, saw Karon laughing and forcibly tugged the corners of his mouth upward a few times as well.

Just then, an attendant pushing a snack cart passed by. Leon reached out, took a packet of roasted sunflower seeds from the cart, and set it on the tea table. Karon grabbed a handful, and so did Memphis. The three of them cracked sunflower seeds while continuing to enjoy the negotiations.

At last, the laughter gradually died down. During the whole process, the Church of Reincarnation made no protest.

Negotiation was, by nature, a matter of demanding sky-high prices while bargaining from the floor. Each side stated its demands, then kept hacking away until they reached the limit. In that regard, the negotiating methods of a church were no different from haggling with a vendor at a flea market.

Seeing that the other side had finished laughing, the handsome male spokesperson of the Church of Reincarnation continued, “I believe this is the foundation of mutual trust between both sides, and also a basic respect for peace.”

At that moment, Leon’s grandfather, Archbishop Wolfram, rose and asked, “Are you finished?”

“This is our first negotiation demand. We believe that only by satisfying this condition first can the following negotiation process proceed smoothly.”

“Very well.” Archbishop Wolfram looked toward Cardinal Claude, who gave a slight nod.

Sitting behind them, Karon thought to himself: It seems Archbishop Wolfram is the spokesperson for Order’s side.

It was an interesting feeling. The nominal leader of the York City district could only serve as a spokesperson when participating in negotiations of this level.

Archbishop Wolfram cleared his throat.

At that moment, all of the Church of Order’s negotiators seated in the central section began straightening their robes. The secretaries beside them stepped forward and started gathering the documents spread across the negotiating table.

This sight made it impossible for those on Reincarnation’s side to remain composed. Shock spread across their faces. The envoys from the other churches, who had only recently entered the hall, also turned to look with interest.

Archbishop Wolfram spoke, “I now declare these negotiations terminated. The war will continue.”

The moment those words were spoken, the entire venue fell silent. No one had expected the Church of Order’s attitude to be this firm and direct.

At that moment, the Order priests in the observer seats also began straightening their robes and rising one after another, preparing to leave as a group. The situation was speeding rapidly toward collapse.

Gatekeeper Romira of the Church of Reincarnation spoke then, “You should understand that this is a negotiation.”

The implication was that since it was a negotiation, everything could be discussed. Everyone could sit down and talk slowly.

Wolfram replied, “Your side should understand who the defeated party is.”

Cardinal Claude rose at that moment. His voice was not loud, but when he spoke, every syllable fell clearly into the ears of everyone present. “Some days ago, the knight regiment commanders who failed to step onto the battlefield sent me enough black crows to dye my house black.

“This is good. Now the knight regiments at the front can rotate to take rest, and the next batch of knight regiments can take responsibility for handling the next round of war.”

The handsome spokesperson of the Church of Reincarnation immediately said, “This is an open provocation! A provocation of war, trampling on the peace. Is Order not afraid of provoking resistance from the entire ecclesiastical world?”

Archbishop Wolfram said, “We have sufficient evidence proving whose people attempted to break through the cage space and attack our knight regiments first.” As he spoke, Archbishop Wolfram looked around the hall and continued, “The side that instigated action first has no right to raise the banner of peace.”

Right after that, all of the bishops behind the negotiation table took a few steps back and waited for the Cardinal to leave first. The order of departure naturally followed the order of entry.

Everyone present understood that this was very likely the Church of Order applying maximum pressure. The Church of Reincarnation’s negotiation method was not really wrong. They also knew they had been defeated, and they understood that they would have to surrender interests as tribute, but they hoped to reduce their losses and preserve face as much as possible. The Church of Order, however, had no interest in playing that game. As the victor, it had greater freedom. What it wanted was simple: concessions, concessions, and more concessions.

But the Church of Reincarnation had no way around one thing: it could not bet on whether the Church of Order’s behavior was merely a negotiation tactic. Even if the other side plainly stated, “yes, I am using this method to pressure you,” Reincarnation still did not dare let them walk out. Once there was no longer any room for easing tensions, the Church of Order might very well go to war again for the sake of its own face.

The Church of Reincarnation’s crushing defeat in the “First Day War” had not merely cost them multiple holy lands, but also much of their active strength. The church’s remaining strength could only be used to reinforce the defenses of Reincarnation Valley as solidly as possible. They had no power to launch a strategic counteroffensive.

Most importantly, Claude was specifically responsible for war for the Church of Order. Having him serve as the leader of the negotiation delegation already made the meaning very clear from the start: if talks failed, the war would continue directly.

Gatekeeper Romira stood and bowed to Claude, saying, “I hope to hear Order’s demands.”

Claude let out a sigh, as though deeply disappointed by Reincarnation’s concession. It almost seemed he would rather continue the war than endure those Knight Regiment commanders knocking at his door again and again. He stated“There will be no next time.”

Gatekeeper Romira gave a nod. “There won’t be.”

Claude sat back down, and the bishops also returned to their seats. All of the Order priests in the observer section sat down once more.

Archbishop Wolfram took out a list and said, “Reincarnation shall satisfy the following eighteen demands of our side...”

As Wolfram began reading Order’s demands, Karon listened carefully. Aside from some minor details and matters of honor, the demands could mainly be divided into five points.

First, the Church of Order would permanently retain one of the Church of Reincarnation’s holy lands, the one located in the very region of the sea where Darkmoon Island lay.

Second, the Church of Reincarnation would pay the Church of Order two hundred million Order Credits in war indemnities. The first hundred million was to be paid in full within ten days of the treaty taking effect, with the remainder settled in installments over the next three years.

Third, every three years, the Church of Reincarnation would send one hundred young priests to study within the Church of Order, so as to deepen exchange and mutual trust between the two Churches. The candidates would be selected unilaterally by the Church of Order, and the Church of Reincarnation would have no right to interfere or obstruct.

Fourth, whenever the Reincarnation Gate opened once every ten years, the Church of Order would be granted twelve slots to enter it for trials.

Fifth, both sides would revise their respective mythological narratives so that the God of Reincarnation had once taken part in a divine war under the leadership of the God of Order.

These were the main five points. The rest were diplomatic and face-related demands, not substantive implementation clauses.

For the first point, the nearby holy land was not one that had been captured by the Church of Order during the “First Day War.” From this alone, it was clear that before the war began, the Church of Order had already planned out the contents of these postwar negotiations. Since the location place could be obtained through postwar negotiations, there had been no need to attack it in advance.

With that holy land, the Church of Order could extend its influence into this region of the sea, removing the threat that faced its ally, Darkmoon Island, and also better compel Darkmoon Island to continue wholeheartedly following Order’s footsteps.

As for the other occupied holy lands, naturally Order’s troops would withdraw, returning those lands to the Church of Reincarnation, because the resources and accumulated wealth had already been long since plundered from those holy lands, but because the journey was too distant, and it was impossible to be so extravagant as to transport everything through teleportation arrays, massive quantities of spoils needed to be sent by sea to the Church of Order’s various branches.

Everything worth taking had been taken. Everything worth destroying had been destroyed. Continuing to occupy the ground would offer little further value and would instead required constant defense against suicide attacks by local Reincarnation believers. Many such incidents had already appeared.

The second point was war reparations. The amount was not outrageously excessive. With the Church of Reincarnation’s foundation, they could fully bear it.

The third point, selecting young people to enter the Church of Order for further study, was simply a reproduction of what the Church of Order had long been doing to the Church of Pamireth. Here it was an open scheme. Both sides knew perfectly well what this meant, but because the candidates would be selected by the Church of Order, they could simply choose young and outstanding figures, as well as those from prominent families. Would Reincarnation dare hide all of them away?

Fourth, the Reincarnation Gate opened once every ten years, allowing young priests to enter for trials. Each time, there were thirty slots. In the past, it was not as if the Church of Reincarnation had never used some of those slots as favors to other churches.

Reincarnation Valley was to the Church of Reincarnation what the Temple of Order was to the Church of Order. One could not say that everyone who entered the Reincarnation Gate for trials would later enter Reincarnation Valley and become an Elder, but every Elder inside Reincarnation Valley had entered the Reincarnation Gate and completed its trial when young.

The fifth point, amending mythological narrative, was a legal-theological shift. Karon once again realized how important the strength and development of a church were to the god itself, because if your believers were capable enough, then a god could lie there and become another deity’s big brother, or even father.

In other words, if your believers were incapable, then even if your god had once been incomparably mighty in that era, one day you might still have to kneel before an opponent you had defeated and call them big brother or father.

The eighteen demands were fully presented.

Afterward, the Church of Reincarnation sent another spokesperson to begin calmly considering and revising the demands one by one according to the outline provided by the Church of Order. In short, the negotiations proceeded exceptionally smoothly.

Before the temporary adjournment at dusk, the basic draft had essentially been settled.

For the first point, ceding one holy land, the Church of Reincarnation accepted, but demanded that the Reincarnation believers there be allowed to relocate, and that the Church of Order would not obstruct them.

For the second point, the reparations, the Church of Reincarnation was willing to pay an extra fifty million in exchange for reducing the third point’s quota of selected personnel from one hundred every three years to fifty.

The fourth point, the trial slots for the Reincarnation Gate opening once every ten years, was debated intensely by both sides. The Church of Reincarnation’s position was that the twelve slots demanded by the Church of Order were simply too many. The Church of Order insisted that the number “twelve” was its lucky number.

The preliminary agreement ultimately reached was that during the next opening day of the Reincarnation Gate, there would be twelve slots. Afterward, the number would decrease by one each cycle, eventually reaching a floor of six slots.

For the fifth point, the Church of Reincarnation agreed to add that mythological account, but requested one more line: that the God of Reincarnation and the God of Order had been inseparable comrades-in-arms.

Well then, two High Gods who had scarcely shared any place in history had, through the tireless efforts of later believers, finally become inseparable brothers-in-arms.

Strictly speaking, every demand made by the Church of Order was severe and exacting, but not excessive. All of them fell within terms the Church of Reincarnation could accept. That alone showed that the Church of Order genuinely wanted to secure gains through postwar negotiations. They had no desire to keep fighting either.

From the standpoint of diplomatic cost and military cost, the longer the war continued, the more the Church of Order would bleed.

The problem was that the Church of Reincarnation no longer had the means to continue the war. It could hardly trade its own destruction for Order’s continued losses.

Reincarnation’s collapse would certainly stir the wider Church world into united hostility toward the Church of Order, but that would require Reincarnation to perish first, and Reincarnation had no desire to assume the martyr’s role.

This day of observing gave Karon great insight, and also left him with deep feelings. Within a street, a town, a city, or a nation, human conduct may still be judged and restrained through law and morality, but once the matter rose to the level of relations between churches, anyone who insists on applying the standards of ordinary interpersonal conduct, loudly invoking justice, peace, and morality, is either a fool or acting in bad faith.

Because between layers of the ecclesiastical world, there was no absolute powerful existence to impose supreme restraint and judgment. Only one’s own strength was the true foundation.

After leaving the conference hall, Karon and Memphis returned to formation. Wolfram led Leon and Larry to the carriage, and the group began returning to their courtyard. Once they entered the courtyard, everyone was dismissed, and the day’s work was considered finished.

Archbishop Wolfram was not the sort of superior who made life difficult for those beneath him. He gave his subordinates a great deal of freedom. Most days, he simply stayed in his room reading and rarely bothered to go out.

Karon followed the captain back to their room. The captain lay down on the bed, removed his mask, and let out a long sigh, as though utterly exhausted.

Seeing this, Karon suddenly felt an ominous premonition.

“Don’t look at me like that. It makes me feel like a prisoner you’ve dragged back after being arrested.”

“Captain, today you—”

“How did today’s meeting go? Judging from Archbishop Wolfram’s expression, it must have gone very smoothly.”

“Things did go smoothly, but your change of subject is far too obvious.”

“Oh, is it?” Nio smiled. “I’m not as natural about it as you. I don’t reject other women that often.”

“Captain, please tell me where you went today, and what happened.”

“Don’t be so serious. During the day, I went to a seafood restaurant, but I didn’t order seafood.”

“And then?”

“Then I wandered the streets, took a walk, entered the basement of a café, and coincidentally discovered a group of Light Vermins having a meeting.”

“And after that?”

“Hey, do you know? That Light vermin sitting beside me was wearing a mask, but I thought he was very much like you.”

“Like me?”

“Yes. At first, I really wondered if you had secretly slipped out of the conference hall and followed me there.”

“How could that be possible?”

“Yes, your tracking skills were taught by me. How could you follow me without being discovered?”

“Captain, that isn’t the point.”

“All right, all right. The point is, the purpose of this gathering of Light vermin was to recruit volunteers. I believe they certainly have a fixed force of their own, but this time they needed to gather additional strength.

“Their original plan was to raid Ancient Marshpool. Sleeping inside is a giant sea turtle called Torathos, which Phileas subdued a century ago. Strictly speaking, it counts as a sea beast, a very fierce sea beast that can use Arts.

“They wanted to awaken Torathos in order to avenge the Darkmoon clan’s betrayal of Light back then. Then, by relying on Torathos’s power, they planned to rebuild mission chapels on the outer islands.

“Because of this conference, the defensive force at Ancient Marshpool is currently at its weakest point in nearly a century, and they saw an opportunity.”

“And then?”

“Then I told them they were a pack of idiots. Awakening the sleeping Torathos doesn’t require going to Ancient Marshpool. It requires obtaining the Covenant Conch, then blowing it within thirty kilometers. Torathos can then be summoned awake. I also told them that the conch is one of Bernard’s burial objects.”

“The Covenant Conch?”

“Yes.”

“Is that a real thing and genuinely useful, or did you make it up on the spot?”

“It really exists. How could it be made up?”

“Then how do you know the pact conch is in Bernard’s possession, and that it was buried with him?”

“That’s why, Karon, your powers of observation still need improvement. Which hotel are we staying in?”

“Bernard Hotel.”

“Exactly. Do you never look at all the statues around the hotel? There’s a very large statue commemorating Bernard at the hotel entrance. Isn’t there a conch tied at his waist?”

“There... is?”

“Then look at this.”

The captain rose from the bed, reached out, and tapped the oil painting hanging on the room wall. It depicted a man in Darkmoon Island noble attire, with a full moon emblem at the collar. “Look at his waist.”

Karon looked carefully and discovered that there really was a conch tied there. “This...”

Karon had truly not expected the answer to be right in front of him all along, even directly before his eyes.

“Basically every portrait and statue shows a conch at his waist. Bernard liked it so much, so what do you think his descendants did with it after his death? If it were some other treasure, they might have been reluctant to seal it away, but this conch only summons a sea beast that hates the Darkmoon clan. Naturally, sealing it in the ancestor’s tomb and letting the dead ancestor continue keeping it safe would be the most secure option.”

“Captain, and then?”

“And then, I personally devised a plan for them to attack Bernard’s tomb.”

“Captain, you promised me you were only going to attend the meeting and wouldn’t give them suggestions.”

“Yes, I did promise you. I was wrong.” The captain suddenly admitted fault and reflected on himself in a way utterly unlike his usual behavior. This instead left Karon at a loss.

The captain then continued, “So I’ve decided to immediately find a way to report this information to Darkmoon Island, so they can prepare and thwart this conspiracy by the Light Vermins in advance. What do you think?”

“Well—”

“Then it’s settled!” The captain stood and walked to the door. At that moment, he looked exactly like Cardinal Claude during the day.

“Captain.”

“Mhmm, what else? Or perhaps you could secretly tell Her Highness Ophelia that someone is preparing to dig up her family’s ancestral tomb?”

“Captain, I think that in this matter, the Light vermin’s revenge is understandable.”

“Pfft... hahahahaha!” The captain could not hold it in and burst into laughter. He pointed at Karon while wiping away tears and said, “See? I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep pretending.”

The captain walked back to the bed, sat down, and continued, “You told me Lady Poelle and you are in a symbiotic relationship. Fine, I don’t intend to ask in detail how this cross-era symbiosis was formed, just like I will never be able to understand your grandfather’s troubles or his choice to blow up the Temple of Order. In any case, it has already happened.

“But one thing I can be certain of is this: when the beautiful love story of Darkmoon Island spread into Allen Manor and reached the ears of Lady Poelle, meaning your symbiotic partner, this time, before you came here, she must have asked one thing of you. That is: dig up Bernard’s grave.”

The captain had guessed correctly.

Nio’s expression suddenly turned somewhat bleak. “Do you know how I met Bernard?”

“Captain, don’t casually make jokes like that.” Who exactly is this “I” he’s mentioning supposed to be?

Nio continued, “It was Genevieve who served as the intermediary and introduced me to Bernard.”

“Captain...”

“Genevieve once traveled together with Lady Poelle. Behind them was Bernard, who remained infatuated with Lady Poelle even after being rejected countless times. Genevieve also came to know Bernard then and became something like an adventuring companion to him.

“Later, Bernard returned to Darkmoon Island and became the clan leader. Lady Poelle disappeared, and Genevieve began searching for Lady Poelle’s whereabouts alone. During that process, she met me, and we fell in love.

“It was through her that Bernard came to know me, and together, they painted for me a beautiful future in which Light and Darkmoon would shine brilliantly together on this island. Heh.”

“Captain, if you keep this up, I’m going to stab you with a sword.”

“Genevieve once told me countless times. She said, Lady Poelle was the best friend she ever had in her entire life.”