673 Shadowy Alliance (1/2)
The essence of negotiation was compromise. Both sides would need to give up certain things in order to come to an accord.
That's why, if you accidentally revealed what you wanted the most in a negotiation, you would completely lose initiative. If the other party caught on to what you wanted the most, then it would only be natural for you to lose the negotiation.
Thus, when I learned what Sandro wanted the most, it was destined that I would have the upper hand in our negotiation. Since our positions were unequal, it wouldn't be possible for me to lose in negotiation.
He needed my help. Meanwhile, I would be fine both with and without him. This unequal negotiating position allowed me to take the initiative as well as demand whatever I wanted.
”…At least I know that Aso definitely didn't desire a country only for the undead. He spent so much effort on corroding Bardi from the inside all in order to reestablish the Tark Republic as a country where the living and the undead could coexist. A country purely for the undead won't possibly last long in the mortal plane.”
A country only for the undead would break the Cycle of Reincarnation, cutting off the power of belief at the same time. Even if the Gods could tolerate it, the natural balance of the land would gradually be destroyed.
The Undead Emperors were also mages. It wouldn't be possible for them not to know about this. Even when the Tark Republic was at its peak, they hadn't been foolish enough to transform every single citizen into an undead. That would mean cutting off the entire country's future as well as hope.
”…Then, there's only one path you can take to realize the revival of the Tark Republic. Rather than spending so much effort to conquer some land from the humans, and then using countless years afterwards to try and obtain human friendship again through showing good will, you might as well instead join me. The Mist Alliance has already accepted the Xiluo Empire, so it's no big deal to add a Tark Republic.”
In a normal situation, actually reviving the Tark Republic would first require obtaining victory in the Holy War, as well as managing to secure some land during the vicious fighting between Order and Chaos. Only then could the Tark Republic be reestablished. Moreover, after the Tark Republic was revived, they would need to consider the diplomatic relationship with other species, as well as the attitudes of any new Gods who gained power in this Holy War.
This would obviously be of mythic difficulty. The Undead Emperors were no weaklings, as those old artifacts were powerful enough to give pause to even Gods and Main Gods. Although Conservation was at Main God power level, she wasn't anywhere close to being the strongest Undead Emperor. To my knowledge, Sandro who was currently before me was more dangerous than 10 Conservations put together. But, even if the Undead Emperors were truly able to work together well, the outlook of their winning the Holy War still wouldn't be that optimistic.
The undead army was quite powerful. They had high-level undead as well as weapons of mass destruction. They had endless cannon fodder. The undead's greatest weakness was the living's natural enmity for the undead. It would be impossible for the undead to have any ironclad allies. The giants would worry about the undead making them into bone giants, the dragons would naturally loathe the undead for making them into bone dragons, and the Gods hated the undead the most for breaking the Cycle of Reincarnation and wasting power of belief.
The undead didn't currently have a true territory of their own, so they were still in a weak position here. The world didn't view them with enough importance yet. In fact, the world even saw the undead as a pawn that could be taken advantage of. But if the undead truly did conquer enough land to reconstruct a new Tark Republic as an empire for the undead only, developing it smoothly… That would mean that the entire world would suddenly become their enemy!
The Xiluo Empire would definitely vouch for this. After so many years, they still didn't have a single ally. Even though their land was territory that the living wouldn't be able to live in, with nothing but deserts and swamps filled with death, the other countries still viewed the Xiluo Empire with immense hostility, always being on guard against it. If the Xiluo Empire dared to attack any human country, they would definitely be met with an ”allied army of justice”.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
This wasn't fair. However, this was reality. Compared to racial discrimination in my previous world, the living's discrimination against the undead here had the additional traits of being viewed as just and only natural. It didn't help that the typical behavior of the undead and undead mages in history gave plenty of factual evidence to support this anti-undead discrimination.
”…Unless the Undead Emperors also find a territory that's inhospitable to the living, it will be impossible to successfully reestablish the Tark Republic.”
I believed that the individuals wise enough to become Undead Emperors would definitely understand this.
However, Undead Emperors were existences that had broken past theoretically impossible boundaries for undead. So, Aso forcefully found another method.
His plan had been immense. He slowly moved his pieces, and invaded Bardi from the inside as a parasite would. He used the name of Bardi to slowly develop international relationships as the living and the undead began to live together in Bardi. The undead also gradually became high-ranked members of the Bardi government. This would slowly make other countries tacitly accept the existence of an undead country and lower their hostility by using the appearance of the Bardi Empire. Once things reached a certain extent, Aso would then change out those in power for only the undead… Basically, he was performing a foreign takeover of the Bardi government without others' realizing it. This would lower everyone's hostility as well as reduce possible unknown factors.
However, this was no longer possible.
The moment that Aso died, the undead invasion had already half failed. Thanks to the memories and knowledge that he passed on to me, I respected him even more as I now better understood his ”intent” in passing these memories on to me.
Aso had a ”nuclear bomb” aimed right at the Truth Symposium in the Cloud Tower. Aso had a potion that was capable of transforming all Bardi citizens into undead. Aso also had control over Emperor Orloss, along with a list of high-ranking humans in various countries who had fallen for undead temptations and were now working for the undead. All of these were major weapons that could cause inconceivable harm in the hands of anyone ambitious.
This was all a gamble to Aso since he didn't have anything else to lose regardless. Thus, he felt he might as well toss all this nuclear information over to another Undead Emperor. He would only possibly win, not lose. If I had been a normal Undead Emperor… No, just an Undead Lord with a personality like Harloys', or even an ordinary human, would likely do fearsome things with all the information that Aso gave me.
Aso's plan was that I would take over all his information, and use it to transform all Bardi citizens into undead, continue controlling puppet Emperor Orloss, gain full political control over the entire Bardi Empire, kill all the strongest archmages of the Truth Symposium whenever I wanted, and thus finally end the most dangerous adjacent external threat.
And then… the Holy War would truly arrive, bringing the Undead Emperors' descent and an Undead Calamity.
During all of this, I would gain many personal benefits, and even be able to fully control the Bardi Empire, which was the strongest country in all of Eich. This would make me into one of the most powerful rulers of all. But at this time, the Tark Republic would also be able to successfully revive with the Bardi Empire as its foundation, giving the Undead Emperors the best start possible. The Undead Emperors would never miss this golden opportunity to revive the Tark Republic, and this would also greatly reduce the likelihood of the Undead Emperor alliance splitting up, thus realizing Aso's dream.
This was no guess of mine at all. As I analyzed Aso's memories, not only did I discover why my analysis had been slow to progress, I also discovered the key that Aso set for analyzing his memories: ”The desire to become stronger and gain more power.”
”Do you wish for power and higher status? I shall give you the information and strength necessary to reach the very top.”
Although this sounded like something out of a chuunibyou anime, this was indeed the key Aso set to unlock his memories. Very few people would be able to resist such a natural temptation with such treasure right before them.
Desiring more power and status would almost be a base instinct. Anyone ambitious who obtained such information that could help them would naturally use it, which would realize Aso's goal.
It could be said that if it weren't for how strange I was… Ahem, I meant if I weren't a little different from others, I really could have fallen for his trap.
Since I didn't have such ambition (which would be incredibly inconceivable for an Undead Emperor), my analysis of his memories was slower than others' would be. The nuclear bomb left behind aimed at the Truth Symposium would have likely been set off by one of Aso's other plans if I hadn't done anything about it. This would have destroyed the Undead Emperors' greatest threat had they invaded Bardi full force: the human archmages.
Even right before Aso's death, he managed to complete his plan which deeply understood the nature of humans. He would profit no matter what. Even if he died, his dream could still be realized. Even though I had countlessly raised my assessment of Undead Emperor Aso many times, I could only exclaim over how impressed I was.
Ahem, I was getting off topic. In a way, killing Aso was truly a fortuitous accident for me. Aso's death also meant a huge obstacle for the Tark Republic's revival.