“We can destroy Rain City, and we can even kill the Queen of Storms. How much are you willing to pay us to help you reclaim your capital?”
When he heard this, Darsos wanted to laugh out loud, as if this was a really good joke. But when he thought about the special identity of this messenger from the Northlands, he just couldn’t laugh or dismiss it as a joke. Instead, he fell silent.
This messenger was Glina, the Queen of the Sleuweir Kingdom from the Northlands. She had personally made an unexpected visit to the Auland Empire, which was still in the middle of warring against the Sea Tribe—quite astonishing in itself, but it wasn’t as inconceivable as her proposal. However, since it was her, Darsos had to carefully consider everything she said.
Glina was the messenger and representative of that person. Or perhaps the more accurate term would be to call her his successor.
The times were changing without people realizing it. More and more people were beginning to pay attention to the changes that occurred in the frozen Northlands. The miracles that occurred after that person returned to his homeland had already caused observers to have a glimpse of the future. There was nothing that could stop the newly-born Mist Alliance from ruling over the entire Northlands.
Too many miracles had already occurred in those formerly barren wastelands.
The Northlands was the birthplace of magical engineering, which was becoming more important by the day. It was a model for how different species could peacefully live together, and it was the holy origin of the Concept of Law. The Northlands also consisted of an alliance between elves, beastmen, undead, the Underground and humans. Their new social structure allowed countless species to live together without major conflict. Even enough sand gathered together could build a castle, not to mention how those that gathered there were species skilled at war. Those with foresight were predicted that a new, powerful faction would soon be born in the Northlands within the next two to three years.
Unlike how the countries in Eich were always chaotically warring with each other, the Northlands was relatively peaceful. Perhaps it should be said this was a deserved period of respite after their previous tribulations. Other countries and species in the mortal plane were currently busy dealing with their own troubles, yet the Northlands received an opportunity to grow and become powerful in a peaceful environment. It even had the free time and power to help other countries like Auland.
Two women were at the core of power in this newly-born faction. One was Reyne Qin Mist, who Darsos had already met. The other was Glina, who was currently before him. Of course, Darsos didn’t realize that he had already met her other form, Clint.
In the world of Eich, where royal authority was everything, the ruler’s personal abilities and charisma were extremely important. The saying that a despotic ruler would ruin a country and a wise ruler would lead a flourishing country was no exaggeration.
As for his Northlands allies, Darsos had already analyzed both these princesses of the Mist. He had only a slightly higher assessment of Reyne compared to before. Although she now had plenty of combat achievements and obvious progress in her power level, his spies’ reports confirmed that she habitually ran away from handling political tasks. She had evolved from a flower vase into a brave warrior who only specialized at fighting and nothing else. On the other hand, Darsos had only a one-word comment for the other Northlands Queen who rarely appeared in front of others: unfathomable.
Ever since she was young, assassins had been hunting her. She escaped into the Underground and matured in that chaotic society before forcefully taking back the country that belonged to her. Any excellent bard or author would be capable of spinning this tale into a classic story about a princess’s revenge.
Perhaps ordinary people would only treat this as a story, but a powerful emperor like Darsos saw many other things in this tale.
“The Underground. Didn’t he return from the Underground as well? Could it be that Glina obtained his recognition while in the Underground, which was how she was able to regain authority over her country?”
Often times, how accurate the truth that one could derive from the “facts” in reports would depend on the cognitive abilities of the analyzer. For schemers and those with authority, they saw zero coincidences in the world. They believed everything to be the result of planning and foresight.
However, Darsos’ opinion was that his spies’ reports were indeed quite accurate. This teenaged young girl appeared exactly her age, but she happened to possess abilities far surpassing what her age and physical appearance would suggest. She was skilled at government, industry, economy and political maneuvering. She had gained authority over her country for just a year, but she already had Sleuweir firmly within her grasp. Her kingdom was even beginning to flourish.
Some things could be explained away by saying it was natural talent. Yet succeeding at governmental and industrial affairs would require sufficient practical experience and theoretical knowledge. It would be impossible for someone as young as Glina to acquire all this experience and knowledge without a veteran showing her the ropes. One time, Darsos’ spies heard the young queen address Roland in a certain manner that explained everything.
“Adopted father.”
So Glina was that person’s adopted daughter. That person would also often have private discussions with her. Now that Darsos thought back on it, he must have been teaching Glina various things.
And now Glina represented far more than a single country. She was one of the most active leaders in the newly established Mist Alliance and worked hard at integrating all its members. She personally made decisions on every major political decision. As the Mist Alliance became more mature, Glina was becoming one of its greatest authorities.
In fact, whenever Roland wasn’t in the Northlands, everyone there recognized her as his representative. This was no easy matter—it was basically a case where Princess Glina had full authority.
The Northlands citizens were also firmly beginning to recognize their suddenly returned young queen as their rightful leader. In fact, Glina even had a reputation equal to the incredibly well-liked “Princess Knight” Reyne. They were known as the “Twin Star Princesses,” obviously a comparison to the legendary Twin Star Princes, Roland and Karwenz.
And now the People of the Mist viewed the courageous and talented warrior Reyne just like the reckless combat maniac Prince Karwenz. Meanwhile, the wise and talented Queen Glina was clearly the successor of Prince Roland with her abilities, even if she didn’t always have a kind smile like the “Child of Light” did.
“Thanks to our Twin Star Princesses, our People of the Mist will finally be able to lead good lives again.”
The era of three hundred years ago belonged to the Twin Star Princes. Perhaps these two princes ended up dying together with the Mist Kingdom, but no country or powerful individual would be able to ignore how brilliantly they shone in the end. Their final, angry roars made the entire world tremble. How the Mist Kingdom defeated seventeen allied countries by itself was considered an incredible miracle. Not to mention, two Undead Calamities and a demon invasion followed after because of this. Even though everything was finally destroyed, people still remembered their names and deeds. The Twin Star Princes’ statues were commonly found in the Northlands. They had become symbols of the Northlands’ spirit, worshiped like totems.
But now the world learned that the Mist’s bloodline and inheritance hadn’t died off. The destroyed Mist Kingdom’s Prince Roland had been hiding and acting in the shadows. When his chosen successor finally waved the banner of the Mist, all the people of the Mist naturally chose to return to this flag. Every day, countless People of the Mist would arrive in the Northlands, having traveled thousands of kilometers through treacherous terrain in order to return to their homeland. This newly-born Mist Kingdom and Mist Alliance was becoming stronger every day.
Truth was always stranger than fiction. Fate had played a joke on everyone here. Actually, Reyne was Roland’s true successor as he was her teacher, while Glina had technically been Karwenz’s descendant until her demon blood was replaced with Roland’s. It would seem that some things were destined to work differently from how they would seem, while other things would return to the starting point.
At this moment, after Glina made the incredible claim of being able to destroy the Rain City, she didn’t even attempt to hide the dangerous glint in her demon eye. Darsos could only gulp down his thought about asking if she was only joking.
This little girl who looked to be only ten years old despite being a teenager was expressionless. Darsos didn’t dare to wrong her in any way despite her appearance. In his opinion, Glina would become an existence equal to himself in the future. Someone like her wouldn’t possibly travel thousands of kilometers just to tell him a joke. And as long as it was something she claimed, no matter how ridiculous it seemed, he would need to seriously consider it.
After a long contemplation, Darsos gave his answer.
“I originally wanted to joke and say that as long as you could accomplish it, I could even give you half of Auland. But when I think about your adopted father who’s capable of accomplishing almost anything, I feel like I probably shouldn’t joke around like that.”
The emperor paused for a moment before making a promise.
“I won’t make any empty promises like swearing to be eternal allies. Neither of us would believe as ethereal a concept as ‘eternal.’ But as long as you do this for us, our two countries will naturally become the best of friends. And as Emperor of Auland, I promise, that as long as you can accomplish the miracle of destroying the Rain City, we shall give the Endo Dukedom and Safa Kingdom to the Northlands. We shall also fully open up our markets to you, tariff free. You’ll be able to buy anything you want with gold that Aulanders can buy at the same price. This will be in place for a limit of thirty years.”
The Endo Dukedom and Safa Kingdom were two of Auland’s subordinate countries located in the north. The Endo Dukedom was mountainous, but it was also a country rich with mineral mines. However, the mines’ production had slowed down in recent years, beginning to run out of resources. Meanwhile, the Safa Kingdom was a country where many different species lived together, with the most common species being mountain dwarves and gnomes.
From Darsos’ offer, it could be seen that he had truly done his homework on the Northlands. Neither of these two countries he offered were large. Nor did either country have a sizable population or any combat potential. However, these two countries had what the Mist Alliance and Northlands lacked the most—a large number of expert miners, smiths and craftsmen.
The Northlands didn’t lack mines. What they lacked were experienced miners. The Northlands also didn’t lack cutting-edge technology and researchers, but they lacked outstanding smiths and an industrial foundation. If the Mist Alliance obtained these two countries, it was a definite that this would greatly increase its power after but a short period of time.
Meanwhile, opening up the market with zero tariffs appeared simple, but it was actually a tremendous offer that was almost impossible to come by in this feudal generation. Transportation in Eich wasn’t convenient. Merchant convoys and other travelers would have to risk their lives to travel to other countries. It was only natural that one country’s local specialties would be increased in price by ten times after being transported to another country, a country which greatly lacked and needed such a specialty product. But despite the huge profits to be had in the import-export trade, the biggest trouble of all would forever be not being able to purchase what one wanted.
Let’s say that during wartime a certain type of secret weapon would require sapphires to be crafted. However, you might not be able to purchase any sapphires. Or perhaps your food stocks weren’t high enough, but none of your neighboring countries would be willing to sell any food reserves to you. Such affairs were common in Eich.
Auland was a semi-mega empire. It had vast territories and an abundant amount of leisure goods, military resources, rare metals, magical weapons, food reserves and crop seeds. These would all be crucial strategic resources for any small country, but none of this was that much to Auland itself. And if Auland completely opened up its market to a certain country, it would form an absolutely ironclad relationship of shared mutual benefits with that country. Although Auland would definitely sacrifice some profits by not charging tariffs, the Mist Alliance and the Auland Empire would become the best of friends.
This was Emperor Darsos’ strategy. What he gave the Northlands wasn’t all that important to himself, but it was what the Northlands needed the most. Besides, in the end, he would be able to obtain more benefits than what he’d given up. As long as he successfully reclaimed the Auland capital, his reputation would succeed even the founder of Auland. With his citizens fully supporting him, his country’s power would reach its peak in history together with the birth of his airship squadron.
As for giving up some subordinate countries? It was quite common in this day and age for subordinate countries to change masters. Forcefully sucking a subordinate country dry of all it was worth wouldn’t bring that many benefits. As long as it wasn’t widely publicized that the subordinate countries were given away, it wouldn’t be a big deal.
“Give us the Milos Federation as well.”
The Milos Federation was another subordinate country of Auland. There was nothing special about this country. However, it was geographically connected in the mountains to the other two subordinate countries being offered. Having the region would help the Mist Alliance solve the difficult problem of transportation to these two new countries. It would seem that Glina had done plenty of political homework as well.
“Does the Mist Alliance intend to expand southwards?”
“We won’t be expanding any farther south. The area we can protect is limited. Blindly expanding will only give us trouble.”
“Deal.”
And so Darsos and Glina shook hands. This trade, which involved the fates of the Queen of Storms, the Auland capital and three countries, had now been agreed upon.