Xu Yi watched Marquis Descartes speaking with Count Didamans, director of the Rulson Kingdom Foreign Affairs Office and the kingdom's representative at these talks, with undisguised scrutiny in his eyes.
The Candel Empire's initiative in proposing peace talks was both expected and unexpected.
As the war continued, the Candel Empire had suffered one crushing defeat after another. Those defeats had taught them that the powerful army they took such pride in and the Archmages they relied on most were now meaningless, so they were bound to realize that winning this war would be exceedingly difficult.
Under those circumstances, proposing peace talks was an inevitable step for the Candel Empire to preserve its territorial integrity and prevent further losses. If the talks succeeded, they would at least buy the empire a great deal of time.
What Xu Yi had not expected was for the Candel Empire to recognize so soon that it could not match the Xinfei Merchant Guild on the battlefield, and thus propose peace talks far earlier than he had anticipated.
That was enough to prove that not everyone in the Candel Empire was trapped in tradition, still clinging to the belief that they were the best in the world. There were quite a few clearheaded people who could accurately assess the situation.
That was why Xu Yi had personally attended these peace talks as the Xinfei Merchant Guild's representative.
If the Candel Empire truly understood the situation and could offer a proposal that satisfied him, he had no objection to making peace.
Ultimately, the Candel Empire was one of the continent's two great empires. Given the Xinfei Merchant Guild's strength, even with several other countries helping, swallowing the entire empire was essentially impossible.
Nor did Xu Yi want to see the Candel Empire battered and devastated by war.