By then, the East Sea Alliance had lost vast stretches of territory. Nearly the entire coastline of its eastern region had fallen, and the Vela Nobles' naval fleet could land wherever it pleased.
Almost all of the East Sea Alliance's original northern region had been occupied by the Raine-Vela Allied Army. More than a hundred noble houses had been destroyed, including that of Marquis Joyce, Council Speaker of the East Sea Alliance Noble Council. His family's territory had also fallen to the Allied Army.
After his death, Marquis Erdgao, another great noble of the East Sea Alliance, succeeded him as Council Speaker.
Seeing that the situation was turning grim, Marquis Erdgao had moved his family and most of his wealth south in time. But his territory was also in the north and had been occupied by the Allied Army, leaving his house gravely weakened.
Because of the earlier military setbacks, he soon lost his position as Council Speaker after reaching the south and was forced to surrender it to another marquis whose territory lay there.
But even the newly appointed Council Speaker had little faith in the East Sea Alliance's resistance. After all, they had already lost a third of their territory and half the nation's military strength.
The enemy's losses, meanwhile, had been negligible. Defeating such a terrifying foe would be difficult.
Thus, after internal deliberations, the East Sea Alliance once again submitted an armistice agreement to the Raine Kingdom. Its terms were deeply humbling: the East Sea Alliance was even willing to relinquish the territory occupied by the Raine-Vela Allied Army and pay enormous war reparations in exchange for an armistice, so that the Allied Army would not launch another Southern Invasion War.
But to the nobles of the Raine Kingdom and the Vela Region, the East Sea