Chapter 716: Coincidental Meeting

Every country’s historical and geographical information would likely be that country’s important historical treasure and inheritance. This information was important enough to determine a country’s survival. In the world of Eich, privately making or keeping your own maps would be considered traitorous evidence of rebellion.

Such historical and geographical information would rarely be found in public libraries or nobles’ libraries. What little information that could be found would usually be rather poor or fake. The best-quality historical and geographical information would usually be kept by the royalty. It would be rare for the royalty to loan this information out to others.

I was too lazy to search by myself. I directly sent the royal palace a greeting using my real name so that it would be easy for me to get an audience.

Of course, I wasn’t foolish enough to directly tell them my objective. I simply claimed that I was here as the Mist Alliance’s representative to discuss matters of the Holy War with them…

“Who can tell me why things have become like this…?”

I was currently in an ancient and extravagant conference room. An expensive magical light was on the ceiling, expensive artwork was on the walls, and even all of the servants and maids bustling about were either incredibly handsome or beautiful, which was a rare sight.

However, what made me feel the strangest were the identities of the two others who were sitting with me at a rectangular table in the conference room.

Those two were Prince Winston and Pope Caloma of the Holy Church.

None of us were speaking, while all three of us were smiling. However, all of our smiles were different.

Prince Winston was smiling slyly as if he was only here to watch the show. Pope Caloma was smiling gently as an elder would.

While I was smiling as well, inside my mind I was cursing, and wondering just what exactly was going on. Why did I just happen to run into the Holy Church having a secret meeting with San Antonio? Not only that, they happened to have a formal meeting right when I came here.

San Antonio was currently allied with the Holy Church. They were fighting on a shared defense line against the demons and ogres. It seemed only normal for Pope Caloma to secretly come and visit San Antonio.

10 minutes earlier, the two of them had been in the middle of a discussion when servants hurriedly ran into the conference room to notify them of Roland’s arrival. After that, since Prince Winston just wanted to watch the show, he told me that he would meet me immediately.

And so, the two of them greeted me in front of the royal palace, and then we came to this conference room and sat around the table, awkwardly looking at each other.

Prince Winston didn’t really care, but Pope Caloma and I were feeling rather awkward. This was because in a way, Pope Caloma and I were mortal enemies who really wanted to kill each other, but on the surface, we were still supposed to be solid allies.

Pope Caloma had a large beard and kindly appearance. He kept his eyes closed, and it was difficult to tell what he was thinking. My first impression of this pope was that he was a sly old fox.

The atmosphere became even more awkward because none of us were saying anything.

It was unlikely that Pope Caloma would be able to discuss the battles on the frontline with me around. Exposing their own secrets was only minor problem in comparison to losing face in front of me, their enemy.

If things were going well on the frontlines, then there would be no need for Pope Caloma to personally come here.

I didn’t say anything, as I felt that no matter what I said, it would only bring trouble upon myself.

My original plan was that once the situation of the Holy War was relatively stable, I would take some strength from every allied country and establish an elite international alliance army, called the Dawn Army, that would support every location which was in danger.

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This was no sudden idea of mine. I had indeed been planning this out for many years already.

I had already chosen Barton, who had been born in a small country, to be the overall commander of the Dawn Army. Barton was currently undergoing cramming sessions in military school in the Bardi Empire. A few months back, he even wrote me a letter which reported on his progress as well as telling me that he was now feeling young again. It seemed that he was doing quite well.

My new army was highly mobile. It included Bardi’s dragon knights, the Mist Alliance’s airships, undead bone dragons, Auland’s fleet, and so on. They were all precious elite forces. This first group in the new army didn’t have much overall combat strength, and their use would be quite limited on major battlefields and in direct fights. However, they would become a critical force when used to support smaller countries.

Perhaps this army didn’t mean much as of yet. However, the meaning behind this army was actually really important. The Dawn Army would become a catalyst for getting rid of the Holy Church. This would be the first allied army between countries that didn’t need to rely on contracts to act.

This was only a seed. However, this seed represented the possibility of mutual assistance between countries without a church getting involved.

Perhaps this army would become a new foundation for international stability in the future. Perhaps the Dawn Army’s system and way of helping countries communicate would greatly reduce the number of wars in the future.

Perhaps, several decades down the road, an international organization similar to the United Nations in my previous world would be born here.

Of course, these goals of mine were still far from being achieved. I wouldn’t even tell others about them, as they would only laugh at me. I was only doing what I could for now. Whether it succeeded or not didn’t matter.

Originally, Bardi and Auland had already agreed to join the new Dawn Army. No matter if San Antonio agreed to join or not, it would be necessary to tell them.

This was a diplomatic secret that was neither major nor minor. Until I succeeded, it wouldn’t be convenient to publicize the Dawn Army, and it would be especially inconvenient to let the Holy Church know about it.

The birth of a new international world order would naturally require trampling over the old international world order. The establishment of a new international authority would mean the weakening of the current religious authority.

From San Antonio’s standpoint, it was likely that Prince Winston viewed both me and the Holy Church as unreliable allies. Thus, perhaps he would even be able to gain something by intentionally putting me and Pope Caloma together.

Perhaps Prince Winston felt that my “coincidental” appearance was because I wanted to prevent San Antonio from getting any closer to the Holy Church. The fact that he unhesitatingly told me that Pope Caloma was here right now was probably in order to show the Holy Church how direct he could be, in addition to the fact that it would be impossible to conceal the news of my arrival.

Too many suspicions danced around in my mind, but all of this was actually meaningless.

When leaders of countries dealt with each other, there wouldn’t always be sincerity or directness involved. There were often situations like this, where none of us knew what to say. Only awkwardness reigned in the atmosphere.

The air in the conference room felt like it was getting heavier and heavier. We just kept glancing at each other without saying anything. Although it would have been fine to say meaningless diplomatic platitudes, that would be an insult to our intelligence at our level.

And so, we all sat around for half an hour while sipping tea and smiling at each other. Nobody said a single thing. This was incredibly boring.

Of course, everyone knew that the true secret discussions and negotiations would likely begin tonight.

Finally, it was now lunchtime. In front of everyone, I directly made my request to look through the geographical information of San Antonio. Prince Winston directly agreed in front of everyone.

Soon, I also learned that unlike how I was travelling alone, Pope Caloma had brought along four Cardinals, two Holy Knight squadrons, and an angel squadron with him, which was quite the large army for the Holy Church.

It would seem that the situation on the frontlines was dire to the point where Pope Caloma and his Cardinals were personally taking action in order to regain some face.

“It seems like I’ll be able to have some fun…”