The ceasefire agreement made Theus laugh in anger.
Something like this could not possibly have been prepared, drafted, and delivered in just a day or two. As he flipped through the elegantly worded, exquisitely decorated letter, Theus felt a complicated mix of emotions.
Jules had definitely prepared this long ago. He had even timed its delivery perfectly, sending it over the moment Little Gwen and Lina had just been brought back.
Yes, in theory, this letter was a ceasefire declaration, but in practice, it was practically a letter of surrender.
The Empire directly acknowledged that Theus and Isabella possessed the Northern Territory, Blood Port, Castel, Tis, and other regions, with an attached statement declaring them the legitimate lords of those lands.
It did not stop there. The Empire had pulled its front lines far back. Not only had it ceded the vast disputed territories in between, it had even directly given up large swathes of land that had originally belonged to the Empire behind those lines.
According to the territorial division outlined above, nearly half the continent was now under Theus's control.
That sounded like a lot, didn't it? Even if Castel launched an all-out offensive, seizing all that territory would take enormous effort—not to mention the issue of legitimacy.
To people of this era, this was an agreement that could not possibly be refused.
But Theus was not from this era. He knew that a nation's true essence lay in industrialized cities and qualified industrial workers.
The Empire's important cities were all near Rhine, including the factories built by Steel Gospel. Not a single one had been handed over to Castel.
As for the population, all this side could obtain were illiterate farmers. They lived bound to the land, while educated Church personnel and workers had all been withdrawn.