72 – Negotiating alliances without alliances
At that moment when I felt like the conversation was blocked, I opened my mouth while recognizing one fact.
At my request for the right to speak, Congressman Benjamin looked at the messenger for a moment and then nodded his head to express his acceptance.
Immediately after permission was granted,
I spoke to the god of death in front of me with a calm voice…
Looking straight into the face of the man named Eli, he spoke in a cautious tone.
“I do have a question, however. Can you give me an answer?”
“What is?”
“The chancellor just said that he couldn’t help because the situation in the kingdom of Franz was not good, so why did someone who is busy come all the way to this place?”
“Cromwell that…”
“for a moment.”
General Franklin for heeding my remarks, which may sound a little rude.
However, in response to her reaction, Senator Benjamin stopped her and allowed her to continue talking to me.
“The Prime Minister of a country… It must be that there is a reason why a powerful person from a country with a bad internal situation came to this distant colony. Associated with us… Something very urgent and important.”
“… ”
There is a saying that a person who regrets sells a well.
Although he was pretending to be relaxed, if a person equal to the number of prime ministers of a country had come as an emissary, he must have come to deal with something so important.
And in the current situation, it was hard to think of anything other than the important thing being an alliance between the Franz Kingdom and our rebels.
Especially, as the chancellor himself said, it was even more so if the domestic situation of the Franz kingdom was difficult in many ways.
“Tell me, we are in a hurry, but isn’t the Prime Minister just as busy as we are? I think it would be good to get to the point without having to waste time arguing unnecessarily.”
At those words, the face of the god of death showed a slightly hardened expression unlike before.
Immediately after that, for a while, the two of us stared into each other’s faces and remained silent.
And.
“… Whoops… this is true I thought he was great only on the battlefield, but he’s quite quick to notice.”
The god of death begins to relax with a gentle laugh.
Then, while looking at us, she spoke in a more serious voice.
“All right. To be honest, I don’t want the story to be too long, so let’s get to the point.”
With those words, the god of death completely emptied the teacup in front of him and continued talking.
“As he said, His Majesty the King of Franz Kingdom wants us to form an alliance with you. The reason is exactly what Congressman Benjamin just said. It’s because we also want to take this opportunity to feed the British kingdom.”
“… okay. But why do you react like that? If you’ve decided to hold hands, wouldn’t it be necessary to spin the story around like that? In order to become comrades who will fight together in the future, it would have been better to talk honestly and openly.”
“… Whoops… ”
“… Umm… ”
Reaper smiling quietly at my questioning words, and Senator Benjamin showing a bitter smile.
Then, the god of death spoke to me in a soft voice.
“little… It’s a pity, but people like you are not suited to politics by nature.”
“Yes?”
“Let me give you some advice, you may not need it right now… If you happen to set foot here in the future, please keep that in mind.”
She speaks with a meaningful attitude.
The envoy then spoke in a tone like a cold-hearted teacher giving lessons to students.
“There are only two things that exist in politics and diplomacy. It’s just the enemies to be defeated and the tools available.”
“… what is that… ”
A story that makes you feel bad in many ways for doing it in a place where you decide to form an alliance.
However, in response to this, she continued speaking in a cold voice that did not feel the slightest wavering.
“Eternal alliances and trust cannot exist for people living on this floor. No matter how plausible a justification and mass phrase may be used to wrap things up on the outside, in the end, everything is being done on the basis of cold profit, and that is how it should be.”
“… ”
A very political story.
However, I couldn’t easily refute this.
To be honest, on the surface, they were revolting in the name of justice or freedom, but that doesn’t mean the rebels are necessarily good, and the empire isn’t necessarily evil.
As it was me who had been involved in both sides right away, I had no choice but to be aware of this one point.
In the event of a war, the Franz kingdom will also come out with grandiose justifications and phrases such as ‘for the freedom of the suffering colonial people’, but in reality, the interests coincided in the so-called ‘national interest’ that Congressman Benjamin just talked about. could be attributed to
The fact that she showed no intention of forming an alliance from the start and looked at the liver was also to see a gap to maximize their profits from the alliance they were about to form anyway.
In this way, I remained silent for the time being as I tasted the feeling of looking into a fragment of a world that felt very uncomfortable in many ways.
Then, the envoy turned his gaze to Congressman Benjamin again and continued to speak.
“Now then, let’s stop talking about each other and talk about something more specific, shall we?”
“great. If so, let me do it.”
So, from this point on, the two of them started to talk about specialized things that are a bit difficult to understand with my knowledge.
But.
seeing them like this.
I looked at the face of the envoy who was negotiating with a feeling of uneasiness in my heart.
‘What can I say… I don’t know exactly, but I have a feeling that there’s one more thing hiding… ‘
I couldn’t help but go over it because of her so-called ‘talking teeth’, but I saw her look visibly shaken for a moment.
It’s not just what Congressman Benjamin talked about, but it looks like there’s something more hidden.
However, I couldn’t dig deeper into it any longer.
In any case, the subject of this incident is not me, but Congressman Benjamin.
It was because the roles of General Franklin and I were merely escort and sidekick, and even he was not in a position to step forward now that the story had just begun to unfold.
*
Eli, the messenger of the Franz Kingdom, proceeds smoothly with alliance negotiations.
However, at this moment, unlike her relaxed attitude, she was feeling quite tense and relieved inside.
‘little… It was dangerous… Fortunately, I was able to pass it without any major problems, but that human… Aside from his political sense, his senses aren’t common.’
A while ago, the man who had brought out her true feelings as if he had reached out and grabbed her.
Paladin Edward Cromwell.
He had already heard the story that he was a fairly great longevity, but at this moment, Ellie was feeling more wary of his unusual eyes.
To be honest, the fact that she came here with the intention of forming an alliance from the beginning must have been noticed not by Cromwell, but by Senator Benjamin in front of her to some extent.
But, more than that, why is she here…
When I pointed out the impatience she felt regarding the internal circumstances of the Franz Kingdom, she couldn’t help but feel quite a surprise.
‘I’m sure you can figure it out… It’s fortunate that he lacks political sense, but it could have been dangerous.’
As she herself said, there were no permanent allies or enemies on this floor.
As such, it was necessary to hide the weaknesses of this side as much as possible and dig into the weaknesses of the enemies as much as possible to derive the maximum benefit.
And in that respect…
The current weakness of the Franz Kingdom was far more lethal than it seemed.
To the extent that if she hadn’t used some political rhetoric there, it would have led to troublesome situations in many ways.
As a result, she had no choice but to proceed with the standard work for now, giving up on touching the ‘secondary benefit’ she had previously had.
Feeling sorry for such a fact,
And on the other hand, I was relieved that Senator Benjamin didn’t want to dig deep into this point.
Ellie tried to ignore Cromwell’s gaze, who was still expressing calm doubts in front of her.
Negotiations of the alliance proceeded ‘smoothly’.
‘I’m sorry, but I can’t help it… You can’t go wrong with big things for small gains. For Your Majesty… And for the Kingdom of Franz. I have to make sure this is done.’