Chapter 683: High pressure

In a way, this “volcano eruption” incident was a coincidence as well as an inevitability.

We made many preparations for the Holy War, such as turning the entire Northlands into an ironclad alliance. The Northlands became a difficult place to conquer, with few benefits to be gained here even if you conquered it. Additionally, as time passed, the Northlands became ever stronger.

While this sounded quite nice, even as we calculated, others were calculating against us.

Although the Northlands would be difficult to conquer, with few benefits to be had here, meaning that nobody wise would intentionally choose such a difficult opponent… the Chaos Faction still managed to find the Fire Elemental Lords, who wouldn’t care about losses, forcefully turning the Northlands into a battlefield.

“…You want to keep gaining power in a carefree fashion, easily becoming the final winner in the end? Dream on! This world isn’t as simple as you think!”

The Chaos Faction gave us a lesson, letting us know that plans could never keep up with the changing situation. Nobody would be an idiot in this day and age. But, judging from the overall situation, this volcano incident still brought us at least one benefit. At the very least, we now had a great excuse to reject requests to send reinforcements to the inland countries…

“We’re truly sorry. We really would like to send you reinforcements, but we’re having difficulties with our own battles…”

“…Your Highness Roland, please, which plan do you feel is most appropriate!?”

Many plans went through my mind, but I could only dismiss them. The reason? I was currently in the middle of the Mist Alliance’s highest-level conference. All the Mist Alliance member countries had either sent plenipotentiaries, or their kings and princes had come in person.

The tent we were in wasn’t very large, yet it was fully crowded. Major domain lords such as earls and so on could only stand outside in the cold. The conference members inside couldn’t come to an accord no matter what.

It was now one week after the Sharal Autonomous Region had been destroyed. All sorts of rescue operations for the survivors had already begun. Sharal didn’t have a very large population to begin with, so it was quite simple for the Mist Alliance to absorb their population. Although a normal country’s leader should have had objections to their country being dissolved, Sharal’s leader was Kakagar, who right now only cared about making back all the money that he’d just lost.

It wasn’t that we didn’t want to help Sharal reclaim its territory, but that we really couldn’t do much about the new volcano before us.

A new dimensional battlefield appearing in the Northlands would be a major incident affecting everyone here. It was only natural that we would invite the leaders of all the Northlands countries here to discuss things. However, what really made me feel helpless was that everyone was unable to come to a consensus.

“…Those who live closer to Sharal feel that this is a threat. They want the Mist Alliance to swiftly destroy this new threat with all its power. This is understandable, but honestly pretty much impossible to achieve. Meanwhile, others believe that it’s alright to simply blockade this area, and that it will even help raise the overall temperature in the Northlands, which might even be a good thing in the long term.”

There were even also some major nobles who believed that the Mist Kingdom and its affiliated Ice Elemental Plane were becoming overly powerful recently, and that a new Elemental Plane appearing nearby would be a chance for their countries. In fact, there were some who already started attempting to secretly contact the Fire Elemental Lords.

Everyone proposed their own ideas for the sake of their personal benefits. Of course, they wouldn’t directly say that it was for their own sake. They would all claim that it would be for the good of the Mist Alliance. However, neither side was able to convince the other, which meant that this conference would only stall indefinitely.

Since the Mist Alliance was an alliance between numerous countries, listening to the thoughts of the various member countries was unavoidable. It couldn’t be helped that some time had to be wasted like this. We would have to complete this boring process for the sake of appearance. But, in the end, it would still be those who held the power that could make the final decision… Yep, that meant Reyne, and of course myself as well.

I directly dismissed all the member countries’ proposals. Some people would always overthink things… I wouldn’t even consider such proposals.

“…Negotiate with the Fire Elemental Lords? Go personally negotiate yourself if you don’t mind being turned into barbequed meat. Does any of you know how to speak the fire element language? Besides, does any of you understand what an elemental war represents? An elemental war is a life and death battle between mortal enemies. Do you really think that you can stop it?”

I didn’t tell them the complete truth. Actually, it would indeed be possible to negotiate with the Fire Elemental Lords if we invited an elemental expert. If we invited someone like Wind Elemental God Camdian as a mediator, it might even be possible to completely stop the war. However, I didn’t believe that negotiating with the Fire Elemental Plane would be useful for us at this time.

Fire and water were incompatible. The Ice Elemental Plane and Fire Elemental Plane would forever remain mortal enemies. Since we had already chosen to align ourselves with the Ice Elemental Plane, and we also had thousands of years of friendship between the Frigid Nightmares and the People of the Mist, there was no reason for us to change our elemental alliance.

“…Rising temperatures will be good for us? Does any of you understand what will happen if all the snow covering the mountains and all the frozen rivers melt? I hope that you’ll all have learned how to swim by the time that major floods arrive. Otherwise, better hope that you’ll have been transformed into frogs.”

I wasn’t lying here, but again, I didn’t say the complete truth. While the entire Northlands would become an ocean if all the ice and snow here was melted, it would be impossible for even 10 Fire Elemental Gods combined to achieve such a feat. It would actually indeed be acceptable to have slowly rising temperatures to cancel out the Ice Elemental Plane gradually lowering the Northlands’ average temperature on an annual basis.

However, I wouldn’t even begin to consider such proposals, because in my overall defense plan, ice, snow, and low temperatures would serve as our best natural barriers. The Ice Elemental Plane would of course be our most compatible ally. Burning away our own natural defenses for the sake of a little more warmth would be utmost foolishness.

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I wouldn’t be telling the other countries’ nobles and rulers all these actual reasons, because that would mean an endless amount of explaining and discussing, along with an equally endless amount of “hypotheticals” and disagreements due to clashes of benefits. Rather than telling the truth which would only lead to more trouble and wasted time, I preferred to use my truthful lies to obtain at least surface agreement since this would be far more effective.

It wasn’t that only a few people knew the truth. It was that everyone had their own personal benefits to consider, so they would instead choose the “truth” that agreed with their personal benefits. Having so many people gathered together in an alliance meant an amalgamation of various different interests. It wasn’t important whether my truthful lies were seen through or not. What was important was that this was the will of the two core Mist countries, East Mist and Sleuweir, so this would become the will of the entire Mist Alliance.

“From today onwards, the former Sharal Autonomous Region’s territory is now classified as a volcanic district and enemy territory. The Fire Elemental Plane and the Fire Elemental Lords are classified as the mortal enemies of the entire Mist Alliance. According to the wartime regulations of the Mist Alliance, any attempts to secretly contact our mortal enemies… will result in the execution of all traitors, with zero exceptions.”

I calmly stated these powerful words that suddenly caused silence to reign within the tent. Some people opened their mouths but didn’t say anything, while quite a few others exchanged glances. However, in the end, nobody said anything in response.

But judging from everyone’s astonished expressions, they weren’t used to the Mist Alliance representative being so direct and domineering. Well, this was only natural. Both Reyne and Glina were still very young women. Their ways of managing politics would of course be far gentler than mine. They would seek to reach an accord with everyone rather than try to act overly dictatorial.

I, on the other hand… When considering my past reputation, perhaps I was indeed an excellent choice to play the role of dictator and bad cop. Thus, right in front of all the countries’ rulers and nobles, I simply picked up all their proposals and casually tossed every single document into a trash can.

“Well, since we’ve all come to an agreement, let’s carry things out immediately. It’s time for our Mist Alliance army to begin constructing a defense line against our new enemy.”

Yep, since nobody dared to oppose what I said, that meant everyone was in agreement!

Now, since all of the old proposals had become rubbish, and the Fire Elemental Plane was declared to be our mortal enemy, it was time for new proposals.

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“…How boring. Every time that I want to do something, someone will try to stir up trouble. I can understand that humans are social creatures, and that scheming and plotting against each other is almost like an instinct to them, but every time I find myself in these situations, I really miss undead society as undead will only listen to orders. Whatever the boss says is correct. That’s so simple and easy!”

I could only take a deep breath, stomp my feet, and jump up and down in an effort to warm my body as I gazed at the volcano in the distance.

The arguments coming from the tent behind me became ever louder. However, I had no intention of listening to anything that the other Mist Alliance member countries said.

The iron triangle of the Mist Alliance was becoming ever stronger. Since the Mist Kingdom, Underground, and Xiluo Empire were all controlled by me, even if every single other member country of the Mist Alliance banded together, they still wouldn’t be able to do a single thing.

Moreover, as the Holy War went on, efficiency in order to better prepare for battle would always be more important than anything else. If everything truly required an agreement from every member country, with every country also giving their own proposal, then it would become impossible to accomplish anything.

This time, even though this emergency conference was nominally supposed to give the Mist Alliance member countries a voice, it was actually a way to strike a blow against the other member countries. Times of war were different. In a time of war, only one voice would be needed in an ironclad alliance. Naturally, this voice had to be Diffindor’s.

After I finished playing the role of bad cop, Reyne and Glina would naturally play the role of good cop to assuage the member countries’ feelings. But no matter what, the fact of the matter was going to be that the Mist Kingdom’s decisions were going to represent the decisions of the entire Mist Alliance. The other member countries had to understand this in order to prevent worse situations from occurring.

Although the internal politics of the Mist Alliance appeared calm, there were actually dangerous undercurrents present. That was why it was so necessary for me to play the part of bad cop.

“…Is there news?”

“Earl Ben and Prince Sedir have been quite active recently. Many major nobles have secretly been in contact with them. They’re also responsible for sending people to start rumors that ‘The Mist Alliance isn’t an alliance for the People of the Mist, but rather an alliance for Northlanders.’ It’s also said that they’re trying to secretly promote that humans are superior to all other species. Their xenophobia has actually attracted quite a few followers.”

“Oh, Earl Ben and Prince Sedir from the Casola Kingdom? There’re always those who don’t know what’s good for them… Have them assassinated without leaving any traces. No, wait, let’s instead leave as many clues as we can. Make it really obvious who killed them, and make their deaths as terrible as possible. Make sure that others understand what fate awaits them if they dare to scheme against us at this time.”

Those who schemed and those with personal ambitions weren’t actually in the wrong. Humans would always be selfish. If a politician only considered their personal benefits, they would be nothing more than a third-rate politician. Only a politician who tied their own personal benefits to their country’s benefits and species’ benefits would be a first-rate politician.

But at this junction, anyone who tried to split apart the Mist Alliance for their own personal political benefit had obviously underestimated our determination to go to war. This meant that there was no need to waste any breath trying to talk to them.

In front of absolute power, these idiots who couldn’t understand the overall situation were probably nothing more than puppets tossed out by more powerful masterminds behind the scenes in order to stir the waters as the entire Mist Alliance’s foundation became ever more solid.

But if we took a softer approach with them, that would mean that the true schemers would be able to understand our boundaries. In any international setting, tolerance would never be a virtue. It would be a weakness instead. The moment that you showed tolerance in diplomacy, others would start wanting more and more…

“Well, since you’ve reached out your hands, allow me to chop them off for you.”