The Divided Antir

"Hey, as the prince of Lorinvik, I can't even collect a hundred Gold Coin a year. Even if I become king, after selling all the grain, I still won't make a thousand Gold Coin a year..."

"It's unreasonable for you to ask for a ransom of three hundred Gold Coin."

"I only have one First Order Profession with you, but I have six First Order knights in my hands..."

"Don't you think that from this perspective, your demands are completely illogical?"

"I know."

At the Horn Pass, Darian held another negotiation with Seras, the envoy sent by Duke Theodore, Horn Pass.

During the negotiations over the past month, the two sides have tentatively agreed on how to reclaim Horn Pass and how to ensure the orderly evacuation of Darian's people after the recapture of Horn Pass.

They even agreed on various details regarding the hostage exchange, except for one thing.

That is, how much ransom Darian needs to pay, and the current situation is not actually in his favor.

During the days that Count Ian led his forces to sweep through the entire territory of Antir, Darian's actions at the negotiating table became increasingly weak.

He wasn't some madman who would knowingly gamble everything on something impossible; without inside information, such an action would be meaningless.

He knew that if he didn't withdraw now, everything would be in vain; if he waited until Count Ian could withdraw, the negotiations would be meaningless.

"Prince Darian, out of respect for your status as a prince of a neighboring country, I shall remind you of a small matter: most of our knights have sons and children."

"Coincidentally, of the descendants and families of those six knights, only one expressed disagreement..."

Seras spoke without any change in expression, as if he were stating something unrelated.

But Seras paused immediately after speaking, then quickly added.

"Of course, Theodore won't agree to this being done. That's what their family thinks, but neither Theodore nor I think that way."

"Because if we do that, how can those knights still be willing to pledge allegiance to Theodore? Don't you agree, Prince Darian?"

When Seras addresses Theodore, he doesn't add the suffix "Duke," but simply calls him Theodore. In some special circumstances, this could be considered a transgression, even though Theodore is not yet the true king.

Darian knew that Seras was reminding him that the six knights he held in his hands were not actually that important; they could be easily replaced.

But what about Prince Darian himself?

To him now, every First Order Profession is invaluable, and if possible, he still wants to bring that captured First Order Profession back with him.

The Lord of Shadows could designate several people to immediately become Formal Rank Profession, but he couldn't, and because of this defeat, he was already somewhat reluctant to go to the Lord of Shadows.

If they could find another First Order Profession, he might be able to stabilize the situation without having to seek out the Lord of Shadows.

But all of this was disrupted by Count Ian's decisive actions.

On the first day of negotiations with Seras, Darian had the upper hand, but he was not satisfied with the offer of only thirty Gold Coin as compensation.

He was betting that Theodore couldn't resolve the external conflict and wanted to wait and see how things developed.

However, as he sensed the Throne of Antir becoming less and less attractive to him, Seras's toughness gained more and more confidence, coupled with the rapid arrival of news of Count Ian's victories in battle.

He was about to back down and accept the thirty Gold Coin as compensation, but Seras went straight for the outrageous demand of three hundred Gold Coin.

Darian initially thought it was a joke, after all, where would he get three hundred Gold Coin? Even if he could, he'd be in for a world of trouble once he got back to Lorinvik.

Therefore, he thought this was a negotiation tactic of first proposing an extremely high price and then lowering it to get the other party to accept it.

But after persisting until yesterday, he suddenly realized that the kid in front of him didn't seem to be joking; he seemed to be serious.

"I reiterate, Baron Seras, your proposal is utterly unfeasible. Three hundred Gold Coin —only my father can afford to pay that around here."

"Could you perhaps ask your father for this small assistance, Prince Darian?"

A silence fell over the room. Darian stared at Seras with a stiff, unchanging expression, his eyes fixed on him, speaking without the slightest hesitation.

Darian lowered his head slightly, though he didn't know why Baron Seras had achieved such a stunning result in the negotiations.

But now he had to admit that, regardless of whether the other party had taken money from the six knightly families or had a grudge against Duke Theodore, the negotiations could not continue.

If Count Ian's progress is difficult, then with negotiations proceeding at this slow pace, he would probably have been recalled by Duke Theodore long ago.

However, it is precisely because Count Ian's actions have yielded great results that Duke Theodore has tacitly approved such negotiations, because even thirty Gold Coin would be a significant blow to Antir.

No one stipulates that only one party can say at the negotiating table, "We can talk slowly." Now that the situation has dragged on to this point, Duke Theodore is actually satisfied with this delaying tactic.

"I heard Ian has gone to White Flower Territory in the rear, where something happened too. Judging from the current situation, it should be resolved soon..."

"Even if it doesn't happen that quickly, those lords who are free to act will still contribute their share given the current situation."

He raised his head and looked north behind Seras, where there was a small mountain range, and beyond that range lay a convenient road leading to all parts of Antir.

"We can let those believers begin infiltrating Antir, let them burn down the granaries, and retrieve the precious jewelry to stop the Shadow Cult's bleeding..."

Darian wasn't stupid; knowing that things were unlikely to make progress, he naturally wanted to have a backup plan.

Allowing believers to infiltrate directly and seize their money in a crude manner is absolutely the worst approach.

This would not only cause him to lose another batch of subordinates, but it should be noted that not all subordinates are highly proficient in the Lord of Shadows's divine arts.

Moreover, doing this would hardly bring back much Gold Coin. These subordinates might be able to plunder a dozen or so Gold Coin from Antir at most.

When it came time to hand it over, Darian had no doubt that these people would only give him three Gold Coin in the end.

However, this is a last resort stop-loss plan that should only be implemented when there is absolutely no other way. Judging from Seras's completely indifferent attitude, he knows that he needs to activate the stop-loss plan at this time.

Darian braced himself on the table with both hands and quickly stood up. Since he already knew that the negotiations could not possibly yield a satisfactory result, he simply decided not to continue.

He turned around, said nothing, and glanced at Seras, whose face remained unchanged.

"When I come to kill you tonight, will you still have that indifferent expression on your face?"

Darian turned around, having decided to begin his operation that very night, and led his men toward Horn Pass.

Just as he stepped out of the makeshift negotiation venue, an unusual sound came from the north.

He turned around, his face full of astonishment, because if he wasn't mistaken, this direction and the feeling he was getting indicated that this was the Royal Capital of Antir.

He felt the throne of Antir tremble, just as it had when the Antir prince, who had never ascended the throne, died.

This time, however, he felt the throne of Antir was more attractive to him, and more importantly, Theodore should never have made such a big mistake.

What exactly happened?

Just then, Seras stepped forward, his face now bearing the same astonishment as Darian's.

He seemed to be trying to persuade Darian to continue negotiations, but he didn't expect this to happen at this moment.

"Now we can continue our discussion."

Although Darian didn't know what had happened, the situation had changed, and he knew that Seras wouldn't last more than a few days. If there was no progress, Theodore would definitely change the negotiating partner.

Under these circumstances, negotiations can begin.

In the River Valley City, Anna was sitting next to the former lord's castle. As for why it was called the former lord's castle, it was because the entire castle had long since been demolished.

Instead, a small church was erected, because for some reason the construction period was very tight, so the small church was located on the site of the old castle that had not yet been demolished.

Even so, Anna thought it was quite remarkable. Although the structure of this small church was simple, it was made entirely of bricks that Fran had personally mixed, and it also used a new type of adhesive called 'cement'.

This is what allowed the small church to be built in such a short time.

Such exaggerated speed is extremely rare even on the continent. Anna had only heard of the Alliance's Construct School and Alchemist groups on the continent possessing such power.

Even more outrageous is that the construction process did not utilize Profession skills at all; at least Anna felt that those believers who were already apprentice-level Profession were of little help in this matter.

"Anna, have you been bored lately?" That familiar voice appeared in Anna's ear, making her body tremble.

Although she meant to say it wasn't too boring, after all, Fran had recently made Anna do some pretty demanding things, with a lot of work to do every time she went out.

But Anna still didn't say anything, because she was indeed a little bored, and secondly, the motivational work ethic brought by Fran's powerful equipment was clearly still in effect at this point.

"It's time. This time you can take... three hundred men with you. They'll all be armed... The destination is Flying Eagle Territory, south of River Valley Territory. It's quite far from the Royal Capital, which will avoid provoking Theodore too much."