Under everyone's gaze, Allen won over all the lords with just two strokes of his sword, then talked the imperial army out of attacking. Yes, talked them out of it.
Besides giving a full demonstration of the power he now possessed, Allen also spoke at length with Marius I about the past, chiefly the Snake Cult's schemes.
Two hundred years earlier, the Snake Cult had been behind both the fall of the Pendor Royal Family and the destruction of the old Baccus Empire. An evil god had cursed Pendor's royal bloodline and unleashed the terrifying "scarlet plague."
Allen's branch of the family had barely survived thanks to the protection of Junomia, the Goddess of Zeal. For that, the goddess herself had been gravely wounded by the evil god.
The gods of the Pendor Continent really did step in when trouble struck. Their powers were just a little too weak.
The emperor of the Baccus Empire at the time had also been murdered by an assassin sent by the Snake Cult, and the old Baccus Empire had ultimately fallen under the cult's control.
Yet the evil god had not been satisfied. It drew power from faith and souls, and so it had also set its sights on the people of the Pendor Continent.
Allen told Marius I that the evil god's understanding of human nature was terrifying. The Snake Cult's sudden restraint could not possibly mean that its strength had suffered. Some exceptionally vicious plan had to be lurking behind it.
War between the empire and the Pendor Kingdom was not out of the question. Sooner or later, Allen and Marius I would have to settle which of them was stronger.
But this was not the time. Allen proposed to Marius I that the two countries sign a nonaggression pact until