Chapter 683 The Alpha Continent’s National Leaders III
?When David saw Evan, he smiled wryly and shook his head as he spoke.
[Why am I not surprised?]
"At this stage, it'd take a lot more than just this to surprise you."
[Indeed, it will.]
David sighed before glancing around and continuing.
[Profound greetings to the Alpha Continent's Leaders. I hope my fellow Hero isn't giving you a hard time?]
"What's that supposed to mean?"
[I was just expressing my concern for their wellbeing, Evan. Nothing more.]
Seeing as the two of them spoke with such familiarity, the World leaders present began restabilising their evaluations of Evan.
Evan saw the gazes that were assessing him and ignored them, turning towards Rudeus who spoke up before he could even say a word.
[I already sent for her.]
The boy was grateful that the Emperor understood his intentions without him needing to voice them.
Like with Kolvar, Rudeus' image disappeared for a short moment before Laurene's appeared in its position.
The girl looked around with her Mystic Eyes glowing, focusing on David for a few seconds before she finally offered her greetings.
"Now that the three known members of this generation's 'Seven Heroes' are present, shall we take this from the top?"
Evan spoke with a calm smile on his face while David and Laurene sighed internally, taking care not to break their serene expressions.
The three of them held high positions; Laurene was the GWE's Princess who was very loved by the masses who had taken to calling her the 'People's Princess'. Evan was the son of the GWE's Prime Minister, and a High Noble with his own Peerage and Court Rank, as well as someone with quite the track record in Osto, Cheverton and Lacertilia. Then there was David who was the son of a Transcendent and a Prince very much beloved by his people due to his actions which earned him the title of 'Saviour Prince'.
But despite this, seeing them faced with 60% of the World Leaders of the Alpha Continent and still retaining their calm; these powerful men and women had to rethink their evaluations of not just Evan, but David and Laurene as well.
Those with keener insight realised right away that treating them like children simply because they were young was not going to end well, especially with Evan who was currently the most popular of the three.
'He's also the most unpredictable…For their ages, they're not easy to read, but this Evan Eris the one who needs to be paid the most attention.
Although he oozes frivolity and the occasional childishness expected of someone his age, the reports about Osto, Cheverton and Lacertilia I received show the boy is not to be underestimated.
He's a serious enigma.'
Such were the thoughts that crossed through the head of Lloris, and a lot of other leaders present also had similar trains of thought.
[Prince David, it has been some time.]
[Indeed, Chief Grand Magus. I hear you've finally joined the ranks of 'Living Legends'. It was about time.
Congratulations.]
Evan raised a brow when he heard David's words, lightly surprised that this event which happened a year later in the game had occurred a lot sooner.
'But that's good, this means he'd be stronger by the time the war happens.'
[Thank you, Prince David. But I do not wish to speak about me now.
What I wish to ask, is how much do you know about Evan's involvement in the Wolfen situation and the claim of you Heroes supporting it.]
[A lot. I was the one who handled sending the official requests to Wolfen, after all.]
David's reply to Gavin's inquiry was met with a confused expression on the Chief Grand Magus' face, and from this, David noticed he may have jumped the gun.
He turned towards Evan and questioned him.
[You have not told them?]
"I haven't gotten around to doing so."
[Is that so? Then allow me.]
David readjusted his seating position and his hands seemed to be searching for something on his desk as he spoke.
[The GEE were not the only ones who sent official requests for permission to investigate the War Remnant Structure.
Evan her had sent three of them, as did I. But we were both rejected, unfortunately.]
When David explained this, Evan turned to Emperor Isaac and spoke.
"Looks like you're not alone in the Wolfen Rejection crew."
Meanwhile, another nation's King was questioning David's stance on the War.
[Are you also of the same opinion as your Evan Eris?]
[Why wouldn't I be?
The both of us are of the same mind, and it seems the GEE's Emperor took a page out of that.
We know for sure that there is definitely information about the War of a thousand years ago, as well as information about Dimensional Rifts as a whole, and deeper information about the Seal on the Dark Continent's Dimensional Rift in the…War Remnant Structure, you called it?]
David's statement ended with a question to the GEE's Emperor who nodded in affirmation. But besides that, the whole room was abuzz with murmurs as David had just basically confirmed what the GEE Emperor had said were 'beliefs' in his speech.
Some National Leaders frowned when they heard this and Evan noted their names and faces silently, while David continued.
[There is a negative though, if you can call it that.
While I know the information—Information that was not lost during the great Information purge 1000 years ago—is definitely there, I do not know how much is there.
I guarantee it's definitely not something you all are aware of already.]
[I second that guarantee. Especially considering that place most likely belonged to Evan's predecessor.]
Laurene added on with another bit of information that allowed the National Leaders to get a glimpse of Evan's motives in siding with the GEE.
Evan then proceeded to repeat his explanation of how he wanted the knowledge of the Demons Reinvasion to be slowly eased into the populace so as to minimize the amount of Panic it'd cause.
Having the memories of previous heroes and knowing how much people panicked in the beginning stages of the previous Aidos-Demon War, the other two couldn't help but agree with him as they didn't want to have to deal with all that stress.
Somehow, it turned into a conversation between the three heroes while the other National Leaders could do nothing but sit back and listen.
"When we release more of this information to the masses, a lot are going to question the validity of our claims."
[We can simply toss the mantle on Wolfen's head. Saying that we've known about this for a while and not told publicised this would be the height of folly.
People would react negatively, even if we tried to explain how they would also react negatively if we told them earlier.
So, it's best we claim the information was sourced during the Wolfen Invasion.]
Laurene gave her opinion as she leaned back, while David followed up with a light shrug.
[We technically would not be lying though. We, Heroes, are restricted in how much we can say, and then there's also the fact that we would also learn a lot more by unlocking that War Remnant Structure and knowing just what secrets Arlan Maddox left behind.]
From what the three of them had just spoken, the National Leaders present quickly figured out their intentions.
They planned to use Wolfen as a 'Scapegoat' for the rest of the world.
"Although this is the best course of action, it's not the most efficient. There'd be a lot of socio-economic problems, but it's a storm that's gonna pass.
Speaking of Economics..."
Evan turned towards President Damir of Terrok and spoke about the newspaper he had seen the previous day.
"I saw yesterday's paper. Good work on the Economic Reforms."
He gave the man a double thumbs up as he spoke, but this action earned mixed reactions from the other Heroes.
Laurene only deadpanned at the President, not bothering to hide her dislike for everything Terrok-related while David only gave the man a complicated gaze.
Evan noticed this and kept on talking after a short pause.
"Now then, I'd appreciate it if you toned down the slave trade a bit, so King Laiex would be less hostile towards you. At least, he'd be able to tolerate you being in the same room with him."
The Elven Kingdom's ruler narrowed his eyes at Evan when the boy spoke, but Evan acted like he did not notice his gaze and got up to address all those present.
"I would like to state an intention of mine.
I'd like for us to establish a council; World Leaders and the Heroes…something like this, but on a much larger scale.
We'd also have regular Annual or Bi-Annual meetings which would be attended physically. It's for the event that the Rift's seal breaks and we end up faced with a war that gives us no choice but to put aside our differences to repel the common enemy that is the Invaders."
Evan shared his plan with the National Leaders, and just like he expected, their opinions on it differed greatly.
Some supported it, but they were in the minority. Not all countries had good relationships with each other and putting them in a room physically was just asking for trouble.
Lloris even cited President Damir and King Laiex as examples.
However, Evan was going to make this happen, regardless of whether they liked it or not as he also planned to use it to root out spies amongst the Aidosians as well.
This was one of the reasons he was chasing after Intercontinental Influence, after all.
After this, Evan took his leave, with David and Laurene disconnecting soon after since he wasn't there anymore.
◇ ◇ ◇
When she switched off the Magic Projector and disconnected the magic stone from it, Laurene heaved a soft sigh while thinking about Evan's last statement.
"He knows how much I hate Terrok and he wants to put me in a room with their President?
I feel I might punch the man in the face faster than the Elven King can even move a muscle."
The girl clearly still held a grudge against Terrok for the way they acted so condescendingly towards her years ago, and she still had every intention of making their Foreign Affairs Minister pay.
She also wanted to punch the President who had appointed such a Minister in the first place!
But that was for the future, she had more important things to do now.
Walking out of her office, Laurene activated her Mystic Eyes and looked around the hallway, before her gaze settled down on one random point on the ceiling.
"Get down here. Now."
*WHOOSH!
A figure dropped down from the ceiling, as if materializing out of thin air and landed on one knee beside her.
The person's clothes seemed to shift with the light, and in seconds, they had camouflaged themselves to blend in with the appearance of the wall they were kneeling beside.
If someone looked from afar, they would not be able to tell that there was a person there.
"Alert my Guard Detail, I'm going out."
[Location, your Highness.]
"Franta City."
Laurene began walking forward after informing the Shadow Guard of the location. She took a deep breath and summoned her trusted Magic Catalyst, Venus, before continuing.
"I have a Demonic Hand base to wipe out."
(This is what leads to Laurene's scene in the Volume 3 Teaser [Chapter 431])
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l