“We are aiming for what lies beyond the <Demon Forest>. We believe that our objective and yours are aligned, at least in regard to opening the road to your Holy Land.”
“...That is correct. That is the objective of the Chimiya Family. Until now, many have spoken those same words and tried to form an alliance with us, but never once was that promise fulfilled.”
That was what the representative of the Chimiya Family said.
Apparently, even within the less than two hundred years of the country’s history, many spies had slipped in and tried to win the Chimiya Family over.
But.
“The flow of supplies is cut off. No people are sent. And yet they ask us to dispatch our warriors. We do not trust outsiders. We do not rely on them. We do not make promises. We never provide anything from our side.”
“What we ask of you is simply that you keep moving forward. That you open the road. We can do that by ourselves as well, but with your cooperation, we will advance farther.”
“...You have shown your strength. Our country is now under your control...”
It seemed they had gathered at least that much information. Of course, <Iris> was also collecting as much information as possible. The Chimiya Family had temporarily halted development because of a shortage of supplies.
Naturally, that had been caused by <The Tree>’s invasion.
However, it seemed that even before that, development itself—and maintaining the route—had already been reaching its limit.
“Our invasion happened because your country launched a war outward. We answered a request for help from our friends, and that is why we decided to invade the Prava Divine Kingdom.”
“...I see. Is that so. ...Then for us as well, it seems it truly was a rash choice.”
It was the Pope who had decided on the campaigns abroad.
There had been plenty of land within the country, but not enough people.
Even if they tried to increase food production, output had already reached its limit. But opening up the <Demon Forest> required vast amounts of food.
On top of that, they had needed to equip themselves with arms and armor.
The Prava Divine Kingdom’s metalworking technology was not very advanced.
That was why they had turned to foreign countries for these things.
Understanding that their own military strength was extremely high, and judging that they had more than enough chance of victory, the Pope had decided to move outward.
“We will prepare all necessary supplies. I am not asking you to trust us immediately. But if you ask, we are prepared to provide as much support as possible.”
“...We will follow your words. We too wish to avoid conflict with you. A battle against those who defeated the Archbishops would become unbearable hardship even for us.”
“Our views and yours are in agreement. To begin with, we have now confirmed on both sides that we will not fight.”
With that, Ichihatsu=Iris and Ureberia shook hands.
There was still much that had to be decided.
But an all-out clash between the Chimiya Family and <The Tree> had been avoided.
◇◇◇◇
“They really don’t feel like citizens of the same country.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. To begin with, we were unable to hold a conversation with the cleric-soldiers at all.”
While occupying villages and towns, they had repeatedly used precious doll-machine communicators to request dialogue.
But cleric-soldiers, priests, and Grand High Priests alike had all been impossible to negotiate with.
No one knew what kind of ideology they had been acting under, or by what principle they communicated with one another, but no matter where it was, no matter who it was, they had never responded to surrender recommendations in the slightest.
Dialogue had been impossible. <The Tree>’s units had been judged enemies, and they had always resisted.
“What a strange country. But that national unity... or rather, the unity of the cleric-soldiers, is abnormal. It really was a good thing we crushed them at this stage.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. You could say we were fortunate to strike them at such an early stage.”
“Big Sis, this is an unbelievable threat! This Prava Divine Kingdom is only one state in part of a single continent. And even then, its technology level was the lowest, its civilization level was low, and all it had was extremely specialized magical ability! And even so, it still had military strength that made us work this hard! If we don’t get a proper grasp of the situation on this planet soon, it might already be too late!”
Asahi, who had been brought back to <The Tree> to help with the data analysis, shouted beside Eve.
“We’ve barely managed to finish surveying the southern part of the northern continent! What about the east? What about the west? It’s about time we started sending in full-scale survey teams!”
“She’s right. We’ve got a path toward securing communications routes now, and we can assemble expeditionary units too.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Satellite imagery has accumulated, but many regions remain impossible to analyze. We need to investigate as quickly as possible whether any civilizations exist that could threaten us.”
◇◇◇◇
After Ichihatsu=Iris finished the first round of negotiations, the next step was immediate construction of a base camp.
From the units waiting farther back, multi-legged heavy machines came running while carrying materials. Those were assembled in the blink of an eye, and an improvised supply depot appeared.
What was carried into it was a massive quantity of food packed inside containers.
Bagged wheat, grains such as biscuits.
Smoked meat, salted meat.
Processed preserved foods like calorie bars.
Water and alcohol in sealed packaging.
Rock salt and refined salt.
Honey, sugar, and syrup.
All of that, packed to the brim into several containers, was handed over in full to the Chimiya Family as an initial complimentary delivery.
Future supplies would be bartered in exchange for things of value. Basically, monster materials were expected, but ores and the like would probably be accepted as well.
In addition, as product samples, they had included things such as fabric and thread.
Both the fabric and the thread appeared to have been made from plant fibers like hemp, and the Chimiya Family had shown considerable interest in the high-quality goods made by <The Tree>. These included cellulose thread, nylon thread, and cotton whose production had recently begun.
That said, when it came to strength and beauty, it seemed they already had thread produced by monsters, so it was not as though they had been astonished by it.
From the portions they had checked as potential exchange goods, it seemed to be something like silk.
According to Asahi, there was nothing particularly unusual about its chemical structure, and its strength was appropriate for what it was.
Apparently, though, some kind of monster produced it in large quantities, and they harvested it.
Lastly, metal goods.
These had been received with tremendous enthusiasm. Metal that was not just strong and hard, but also tough and resilient, was apparently extremely valuable for weapons.
Food was important too, naturally, but that could at least be obtained to some extent through hunting and gathering, so what they wanted desperately was weapons.
For the time being, the current assessment was that they would likely accept things if a simple refining plant and forging facilities were prepared for them.
At present, it seemed the Chimiya Family had pulled its base back to the shallower parts of the forest.
According to them, they lacked the supplies needed to go deeper. In the deeper regions, monster attacks basically occurred constantly, and producing or gathering food was extremely difficult. Those things had to be produced in the shallower parts of the forest, or outside it.
But if they kept bases in the deep regions, then defending those bases and transporting supplies to them would consume their manpower. Without outside supply, it was difficult even to maintain the bases themselves.
Originally, they had apparently planned to pull back only temporarily during this war, leave only maintenance personnel in the deeper region, and then push in again once supply had stabilized.
But <The Tree>’s invasion had thrown all of that into chaos.
Until now, the Prava Divine Kingdom had been located on the frontier, so even when it expanded its territory, no serious clashes had occurred. But several decades ago, it had come into contact with the border of another country, and that expansion had stalled.
From the Chimiya Family’s point of view, instead of forcing military strength outward, they had apparently wanted to push into the <Demon Forest> as far as current conditions allowed, and only then build ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ up their bases gradually. But the Pope’s side had wanted rapid expansion, and that was what had set off the Divine Kingdom’s large-scale invasion.
When he heard that information, Duke Amajio Silverhead reportedly let out a sigh and muttered, “What a diplomatic idiot...”
In any case, the provision of supplies had given relations with the Chimiya Family a good start.
After that, all that remained was to build a cooperative relationship while increasing the benefits on both sides.
