In the Name of the Queen

Formal documents inviting peace talks were passed back and forth between countries.

With the end of the Battle of White Mountain, various countries have reached a tacit agreement to cease fire on the spot and await negotiations.

In some places, people even took to the streets to celebrate the arrival of peace.

Not everyone is so optimistic.

Negotiations may not always have good results. The breakdown of the last Continental Congress negotiations paved the way for this war that did not last too long but was extremely damaging. Who can guarantee that this time it will end well?

People long for peace, but peace cannot come.

Paradoxical as it is, peace must be watered by the blood of war to thrive.

Countries are also competing over the time and place of negotiations.

Sophia's opinion is that the discussion should be held at Fort Saint-Rulic. If that doesn't work, it can be held in Vaal City. Other places will not be considered.

The opinion of the Sussex Empire is to be discussed in the imperial capital. If that is not possible, it can also be discussed in Vaal City. Other places will not be considered.

The Golden Yuan Republic's opinion is that the discussion should be held in Xidai City. If this is not possible, it can also be held in Vaal City. Other places will not be considered.

Taking the intersection of these options, Vaal City seems to be the best choice.

However, the final venue for negotiations was Francis.

This city is considered the sister city of Franks Fortress.

The Frankish Fortress was the gateway to the Hansa Gate and the Great Northern Plains.

Not far across from her, there is a similar fortress named Francis in the Kingdom of Pruden.

In times of peace, Franks and Francis were the frontiers of trade; in times of war, it became the feeding port of a meat grinder.

The reason for the Kingdom of Pruden is simple. The war starts here and ends here.

If the Wende Empire hears this reason, they will definitely raise a question mark slowly, but they have been divided and their opinions are not important.

The Kingdom of Pruden proposed to use this place as a venue for negotiations, and also expressed its position to other major powers. They believed that the carving up of the Wende Empire was not controversial and did not need to be discussed.

Their attitude is firm and even a bit tough. King Otto VI of Pruden bluntly warned other countries that if the negotiation venue was not Francis, he would refuse peace talks and continue to wage war.

The Kingdom of Tyrol firmly supports the Kingdom of Pruden.

Although he didn't quite understand where Otto VI got the courage, Roland planned to refuse based on the principle of not fighting in the enemy's preset positions.

Just as he was writing a gentle and tough reply in person, Sophia appeared.

"talk."

She didn't say much, but she left no room for argument.

Now that Sophia had made her decision, Roland shrugged and saved the time of writing a letter.

He found the Foreign Secretary and asked him to use standard diplomatic language to express his protest before accepting the other party's arrangement. Finally, he did not forget to add that this was an offense to the empire.

Since the outcome cannot be changed, then get more. This is diplomacy.

Sophia approves, and Roland naturally approves.

Roland agreed, and Sif and Alina had no objections.

Peace negotiations in Francistown were confirmed.

The dispute over the location of negotiations is indeed important, but if there is a huge disparity in power, it doesn't really matter where the negotiations are held.

Roland couldn't figure out whether the Pruden people were so arrogant that they dared to resist Sophia.

The huge crack that spreads from the White Mountains to the Rodinia River is still lying there quietly. So soon, someone is eager to die?

Before the arrival of the Divine Punishment Legion, Roland really couldn't think of anyone who could defeat Sophia with force.

He even felt that Sophia could be invincible all the way until the Legion of Punishment was destroyed.

Roland, who hugged his thick legs tightly, was confident in the negotiation.

Until Sophia sent someone to inform him, "I am very disappointed with the rudeness of the Pruden people. I will not go to this negotiation. The Cardinal will make the decision on my behalf."

Roland: "."

This is a national event, even a major event that determines the future of the mainland. Why not go?

Roland glared at Angelina who was delivering the message. After a moment of silence, he said with a smile: "It's time to show the charm of diplomacy."

Angelina breathed a sigh of relief.

Roland couldn't figure out why Sophia didn't go, and she couldn't figure it out either.

The official reason given by Sophia was in response to the Pruden people, and the reason given to her privately was to go to the Arctic glacier to repair the Blue Fury.

Angelina wanted to say that the artifact could be repaired at any time, or that negotiation was the most important thing, but her words turned into "obey".

She was used to following Sophia's orders, and this time was no exception.

But what was different this time was that she had different thoughts in her mind.

Angelina was startled by her bold idea and hurriedly left.

Faced with Roland's doubts, Angelina was also helpless.

She also didn't understand the Queen's arrangement, so she could only explain it secretly that she didn't want to argue with the common people.

Angelina vaguely felt that Sophia seemed different from before, but she couldn't tell what was different.

She had no choice but to disperse her worries and discuss this diplomatic event with Roland.

Roland's arrangement was simple. Angelina went first to get a feel for the other party's background, and he would go later during the final showdown.

This arrangement is also normal. After all, the foreign ministers of many countries also serve as prime ministers. If the head of state does not attend, the prime minister can take his place.

It would be somewhat rude if Angelina didn't go.

The reason Roland refused to go was because of his sensitive status. He was also the deputy emperor of the Sussex Empire, prime minister of the Golden Kite Republic, and cardinal minister of the Vladimir Empire.

If the interests of these three countries conflict, who will he side with?

It's better not to go.

Angelina expressed her understanding, but she couldn't guess Roland's true thoughts.

How could a cheeky guy like Roland be embarrassed by such a small matter? He just wanted to stay and persuade Sophia to change her mind and go there in person.

Diplomatic negotiations are really tiring. You have to stick to your own position, test the bottom line of your opponent, make appropriate concessions, and compete with your opponent in patience.

Every link is a competition of wisdom, skills and patience.

Every diplomat will do his best to fight for the interests of his country.

Although they are doing the work of compromise, they will not compromise easily.

Only when the capital is surrounded by the enemy army like the Wende Empire can negotiations be carried out.

Angelina has always been vigorous and resolute in doing things. Since she was asked to go, there was no need to hesitate. She quickly handed over the work to Roland and then embarked on the journey.

With seven points of confusion and three points of helplessness, Angelina boarded the carriage and headed west to Francis City surrounded by the envoys.

She has an indescribable feeling for this city.

The war to conquer the Wende Empire was not a real war. The decadent and old empire quickly fell under the impact of three younger and more dynamic countries.

The Wende Empire's bizarre parliamentary system and the intricate local forces meant that the royal family could mobilize less than a quarter of the country's overall strength.

The three major powers besieged the declining and old Wende Empire for more than half a year, which shows the deep foundation of the Wende Empire.

The reason why they did not attack with all their strength was that they did not want to consume too much.

After all, the enemy in their hearts at that time was the Free Alliance and Roland.

In Angelina's view, Roland was the core of the Free Alliance.

Without him, the entire alliance would have to fall apart.

In fact, she was right. Without Roland, the Golden Kite Republic would continue to consume its strength in the civil strife. Without Roland, although the Sussex Empire would still be invincible on the sea, it would most likely give up on land.

At that time, it would be a showdown between the land power country that unified the power of the entire continent and the sea power empire Sussex.

Unfortunately, there is no if.

Roland is there, constantly strengthening the strength of the Free Alliance.

Sophia didn't want to carry out the decapitation operation, and Angelina completely understood. Few normal people would think that crushing ants would bring happiness.

In Sophia's eyes, all life in the world is ants, and she would not crush ants for no reason.

Fortunately, Roland is her colleague now.

With Sophia in military affairs, Roland in literature, and Sif and Alina in diplomacy, Angelina didn't understand what the Pruden Kingdom was thinking?

A week later, Francis City.

When Angelina got off the carriage, she was even more puzzled.

King Otto VI of Pruden personally greeted her.

The power of the prime minister of the empire may be greater than that of the king of the kingdom, but his political status is slightly inferior.

No matter how small the king is, he is also the king of a country, and the prime minister is just an assistant minister.

What's more, the Vladimir Empire now has a cardinal minister, and she is only the third person.

According to diplomatic etiquette, it is enough for the Pruden Kingdom to send the prime minister or foreign minister to greet her.

In Angelina's understanding, since the Kingdom of Pruden wanted to stand out, it would probably send the Minister of Foreign Affairs to greet him.

However, Otto VI greeted him as a state guest, which made her a little confused.

Although she didn't understand, she still maintained her demeanor and followed Otto into the carriage.

Unlike carriages in other countries, the carriages of the Pruden royal family were built according to the standards of chariots.

Bulletproof metal shells, crossbow launchers, and a somewhat ferocious black eagle logo, it was prepared for the army no matter how you look at it.

This is not surprising.

Other countries have established armies to maintain national defense, but only Pruden has its own national army.

The Kingdom of Pruden is full of fanatical militarists from top to bottom, from old to young.

Even the pigeons on the roadside like to fight.

Angelina was not surprised, but what surprised her was the other party's attitude.

Since she couldn't figure it out, she simply said nothing and waited for Otto to express his opinion.

Otto, who was sitting on the cushion opposite her, was already over sixty years old, but he was well maintained and looked only thirty or forty years old.

Angelina had an illusion that King Otto looked younger than three months ago, and his rosy smile made him look more energetic.

She was a little curious, but it was not convenient to ask directly.

Just when she was in a dilemma, Otto was sincere.

"Miss Angelina, this is the power of Alemanni technology."

"Not Otto, but Alemanni?" This time it was Angelina's turn to be surprised.

As we all know, there will always be some war-crazed races and countries in this world, and they will even go to war against the whole world driven by fanatical beliefs.

The war-crazed country in the sixth era was the Odin Empire.

The war-crazed country in the previous era was the Alemanni Empire.

In the mainstream cognition of the mainland, the Odins are the descendants of the Alemanni, or even the Alemanni themselves.

The Alemanni Empire offended almost everyone in the last era and was severely hammered to the ground.

Although the Alemanni technology was the best in the world, although their population was the most educated, and although their fighting spirit was strong, they could not withstand the fact that the whole world wanted them dead.

The war maniac of the last era fell like this.

Before the demise, the unwilling Alemanni people sent countless weapons, equipment and books into the underground city, and then detonated a powerful super bomb.

There was not only one super bomb, but many.

The horrific serial explosions not only sent away the powerful empire, but also caused the enemies who besieged them to pay the price of eternal nightmares.

Most of them didn't even deserve to have nightmares because they were reduced to ash in the explosion.

The Alemannic Empire fell, their history buried beneath the magical empire that ruled the first half of the Sixth Age.

The Magic Empire's technology tree revolves around magic crystals and is not interested in Alemanni's technological crystals.

They believed that mechanical technology could never be an opponent of noble magic, and they did not deliberately persecute the Odins, the descendants of the Alemanni. However, the Odins fired the first shot to overthrow the magic empire.

History is so wonderful, always drawing irregular circles.

Angelina was not surprised when Otto mentioned Alemannic technology. She just responded politely to Otto.

Angelina's attitude did not exceed Otto's expectations. He chatted with Angelina for a few words and then found an excuse to leave.

It wasn't that Otto was rude, but that a new guest had arrived.

The order in which countries come to attend the conference is not positively related to distance, but is related to national strength.

Queen Sif of Sussex would rather set up a tent in the Franks Fortress, which was already in ruins, and wait for the meeting to begin, rather than enter the negotiation venue early.

She is the monarch of the world's most powerful maritime country, how could she arrive before others.

The person Otto greeted was a representative of the Thalia Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Thalia had already started fighting before the continental war began.

They first fought back and forth with the local indigenous people in the southern continent, and then took advantage of the civil strife in the Golden Yuan Republic to secretly move the boundary markers, hoping to gain free access to territory through sneak attacks.

This almost clownish behavior aroused the anger of Marco, the then president of the Golden Kite Kingdom.

If I can’t cure others, I can’t cure you?

Marco, who was originally worried about internal conflicts, finally got a chance to vent. He sent troops to counterattack without hesitation. Not only did he arrest the person who stole the boundary monument on the spot, he also took the opportunity to push back to Thalia. After Thalia knelt down to beg for mercy, Marco Three cities were taken away as punishment.

This is Thalia.

No mask is required to perfectly interpret the magical country of the Joker.

However, after the Continental War began, they unexpectedly sided with the Free Alliance, which seemed to have no advantage at the time.

Sometimes choice outweighs effort.

Thalia is like that.

They were qualified to serve on the table, but the Weimar Federation, which was previously stronger than them, and the Kingdom of Oden, which had similar combat capabilities to them, became dishes on the table.

When the Otto Kingdom saw the representatives of the Thalia Kingdom, they even froze in place and forgot about diplomatic etiquette.

Wait, what's going on?

The negotiator of Thalia Kingdom is actually Lisa?

Otto VI attached great importance to intelligence work and knew the Yingying Yanyan around Roland very well.

Lisa has a special status in Roland's heart. She may not be as good as Sif with her perfect appearance, but her status is not much worse.

Alto suddenly realized.

Lisa is a Thalia, and the Kingdom of Thalia needs a negotiator, so she comes.

Everything that seemed unreasonable was made sense.

Damn so cunning!

Otto VI could not help but scold the Thalia Kingdom for its speculation.

The other countries on the table all fought their way out of the meat grinder based on their ability. Unlike Thalia, they really relied on taking sides.

When they invited Lisa, they were just trying to take advantage of others' strength, but so what, Lisa was now their negotiator.

Even if she didn't say a word, it was enough.

In short, this is a magical world.

Lisa politely exchanged greetings with Otto and quickly got to the point.

"Dear Your Majesty Alto, have you seen Roland? Which side is he on this time?"

The corners of Otto's lips raised slightly, and he responded with a sense of humor that broke the stereotype of Odin people. He shrugged and said with a smile:

"Probably in the middle."

"What does the middle mean?" Lisa was a little confused. Roland's position was her position. However, this time Roland had no position, so what should she do?

Lisa instantly withered, and she was no longer in the mood for small talk.

By chance, she was hooked up with a Thalia.

After rigorous research (and random fabrication) in Thalia Kingdom, they finally found Lisa’s roots, asked about her ancestors, and found the origin of her family.

The Sarah family of Thalia nobles during the Magic Empire.

In this way, Lisa became the de facto Duke of Thalia Kingdom, negotiating on behalf of Thalia.

Although she left Thalia since childhood, Lisa's heart is still in her motherland. Now that the motherland needs it, of course she is willing to stand up.

She thought it was a good job, but she didn't expect that she would have to use her brain to think about politics?

After Lisa's brain shut down for three full minutes, she finally found plan B.

"What about Queen Sylph?"

"She lives in the ruins opposite and refuses to come to the conference area." Otto laughed self-deprecatingly, hiding his embarrassment by arranging his beard.

Lisa was even more confused.

Neither of these guys came to the meeting, so what on earth were they doing?

They were writing letters and playing.

Sif immediately replied to Roland after receiving Roland's letter home.

As the letter was quickly compiled and sent thousands of kilometers away, Sif couldn't help but scribble on Roland's magic letter paper.

She even drew a picture to express her feelings.

She didn't know the special purpose of this piece of paper, so she was laughing and going crazy on the paper.

While she was playing happily, the words on the letter changed.

"Dear, this letter seems to be able to communicate remotely. Did you see what I said?"

"Yes, it's terrible. My cat seemed to be cursed by magic just now. It suddenly went crazy and grabbed the quill and scribbled something on the paper. Did you see it?"

Sif said nonsense casually as if nothing had happened, but her face turned red instantly.

Bad news: Roland saw what she said just now.

Good news: No one else saw it except Roland.

Roland would definitely not laugh at her, but she couldn't stand it herself.

In order to hide her embarrassment, Sif hurriedly continued to write on the letter paper:

"By the way, when will you come over? I want to go to the negotiation area with you."

"Sorry, I am the Cardinal Minister and cannot leave at will. Angelina is going."

Sif did not expect Roland not to come. She was a little disappointed and wrote casually, "Where is the old woman? Did she go to hibernation again?"

"Sophia is only a few years older than us. Be careful that she will get angry if you talk nonsense like this."

Sif snorted lightly, "What are you afraid of? She can't see it."

As if she remembered something, Sif's face suddenly changed, "Wait, do you mean that there are only you and the old woman in Fort St. Rurik now? No, no, this is too dangerous."

Roland stroked his forehead and sighed to remind Sif, "We are friends, not enemies. What danger can there be? Besides, there are still 1.7 million people in Fort St. Rurik."

"It is dangerous. An old woman who is almost 30 years old has a strong demand, like a hungry wolf. You must protect yourself outside."

Sif put down the feather pen with some melancholy and lost the mood to continue writing letters.

She always felt something was wrong, as if something dirty was watching her from behind.

Sophia, the old maid, must have bad intentions.

Sif could accept Lisa because she was half of Roland's relative; she could also accept Alina because she was in the right position.

Except for the old woman.

She was very bad.

Sif sighed melancholy, lying on the velvet cushion, feeling the sharp touch of the small stone through the cushion, and her mood became worse.

She didn't know that she was just in a bad mood. In the summer palace thousands of kilometers away, the old woman she mentioned was now so angry that she wanted to kill people. (End of this chapter)