Theus and Jules talked for a long time.
But when he returned, he had not signed any agreement.
No alliance treaty had been signed—not even a ceasefire agreement.
Naturally, there would be no alliance treaty. Theus had reservations about everything Jules said; most of it was difficult to verify, and Jules himself had a long history of misconduct. Theus could not possibly trust him so easily.
As for a ceasefire agreement?
Theus could not help but sneer. Jules was clearly at war with Isabella, yet he had sought him out alone to negotiate and wanted to sign a ceasefire agreement with him. Did he really think Theus could not see through that?
Perhaps what Jules said was true, but he was indeed trying to drive a wedge between Castel and the Duchy of Tis.
Unfortunately, Theus did not take the bait. After speaking with Jules, he even refused a ceasefire. The Empire had withdrawn on its own initiative anyway, conveniently leaving behind a buffer zone.
The self-propelled artillery left the negotiation site. After Worker Theus briefly explained things to Chloe, his eyes turned hollow like those of a puppet. Meanwhile, at Tis's forward command post, Theus slowly opened his eyes.
He rose and left the room. When he pushed open the door, Isabella was standing across from him, having long since grown impatient.
"Well? What did he say?"
"...It's hard to put into words. All our previous guesses were wrong." Theus gave a bitter smile.
After realizing that Jules was trying to sow discord between them, Theus and Isabella tacitly raised the level of intelligence sharing between them to demonstrate their stance.
For this negotiation, Theus had first come to Isabella and explained everything clearly to her before having Chloe and Little Gwen set out with his shell.
It took