Chapter 425: Sparks (1/2)

Leonel agreed to Mordred's request, but there were a few things he knew had to be done first.

The first was to contact Camelot. It was impossible to accomplish this without putting up a united front. Camelot and the Demon Empire had to come together.

Of course, Leonel got a lot of pushback about this. But, he had to speak reason to them all.

The Empire would never allow civil war within its borders. One way or another, the two would have to assimilate. The question was whether or not they'd act first and get something out of it or if they'd wait to get conquered and receive nothing in return for their grievances.

When Leonel explained it this way, they managed to calm down somewhat and listen to reason.

It was only at this point that Leonel realized the demons seemed to hate humans as much as humans hated them.

While humans thought demons were bloodthirsty creatures who shouldn't be allowed to be a part of normal society, demons believed humans to be hypocrites that hid their true nature, only to reveal themselves to be far worse than the demons the hated so much.

Leonel's second suggestion was to present a shot of strength to The Empire.

Negotiations were only possible for those with strength. If there was too large of a power imbalance, what would be the point? The one with the stronger fist would simply take what they wanted.

Even though it was clear that The Empire was by far the strongest between the two parties, they still had to put in some effort to level out the playing field. Only then would they be able to open up negotiations in good faith.

In the end, these talks boiled down to one fact… Mordred would have to take a trip back to Camelot.

**

”Hm?”

Noah looked up from a map he was seriously observing, his expression colored with surprise.

”You said they sent someone? They want to negotiate?”

Jessica stood before Noah with her usually cold expression, relaying the information she had just received.

”Yes. Their #9 Demon Lord made a trip down the mountain to relay this message. According to what he had to say, the Demon Empire was willing to open negotiations and want to understand more about what it would mean to submit.”

Noah raised an eyebrow. ”Are they trying to stall for time?”

”They arranged for the negotiation to occur in half a month. I have a hard time believing that they could prepare anything in this time. In addition, half a month was the time frame we set for our first wave attack to begin as well.”

Noah nodded.

He found all of this to be curious. From the information they had compiled, the Demons were most definitely not such a race. They were incredibly fond of battle and blood, something like surrendering before a single bullet had been fired was baffling.

Could it be that there was someone leading them? Their Empress should be a human from Noah's understanding, maybe it was her who helped them see reason?