"But then again..." Chloe glanced at the territorial boundaries marked out in the ceasefire agreement and couldn't help swallowing. "Hehe, this is the first time I've ever had such a huge territory. Moth Chasing Flame has really made it big—we're splitting half a continent with the Empire now..."
"That's land allocated to me, the Prince, and Isabella. Not to you."
"What's yours is mine." Chloe said this as though it were perfectly justified.
"Then do you think we should agree to a ceasefire?"
Chloe looked at the ceasefire agreement, then at Theus. With some difficulty, she set the letter down.
"I think... we shouldn't."
"Oh?"
"With the Empire's foundations and its absurd population, it won't take them long to rival us industrially. Although the Empire is offering a great deal of land, most of it is like the Northern Territory—vast and sparsely populated. Their population still outnumbers ours by orders of magnitude."
According to the divisions laid out in the ceasefire agreement, Castel's final population would probably be somewhere in the high millions. The Empire, on the other hand, had fifty or sixty million people.
Theus nodded. Chloe truly deserved to be Moth Chasing Flame's chief and a legendary cult leader. Her strategic assessment was not far from his own.
Nora, nestled in Chloe's arms, nodded as well. She was now the other head of a legendary cult leader, so she probably counted as a cult leader too.
"Keep fighting. Moth Chasing Flame will support you with everything we have! From now on, whenever I buy fried fish, I'll get you a portion too!"
Theus sighed and handed over another treaty.
"Take a look at this."
"Oho, they want an alliance too? They can form one whenever they please? They'll probably tear up the treaty and turn on us again