Chapter 959 959 Negotiating Peace
The nobles looked at the menu, then at the long buffet line of hot and cold foods that was already set out before turning to Wolfe with questions.
“How does this work? I am not aware of such a dining custom.” One of the Earls asked.
“There are two options, we can order from the menu and the server will bring it to us, or we can go to the buffet, take a plate from the pile and choose what we like, and as much of it as you care to eat.
That method is a popular way of deciding which local cuisines you prefer, as you can take smaller portions of everything and then go back for your favourites.” Wolfe suggested.
“Like the dessert table at a formal dance.” One of the women realized immediately.
“Exactly. They will come around with more drinks if you would prefer something that isn’t on the table, but for breakfast there are ten different juices plus tea and coffee.”
That got all the nobles headed for the buffet line, where the locals helpfully gave them hints on what was best and what everything tasted like, as they didn’t recognize anything but the eggs.
Even those might not be what they expected them to be, as the scrambled eggs were actually a form of magical plant tofu, and not an egg at all, but the fried eggs were from a form of bird monster.
Petros turned to Wolfe once everyone was seated again, and they had calmed down after the first few bites of their meal.
“So, where should we start? The same basics as last time, a basic peace and nonaggression treaty between your people and mine? Until the King decided to break it, that agreement held very well, and I can still repeat the terms verbatim. Teaching them to new diplomats every year ground them into my mind quite well.
We would only have to alter the terms from the Magi Clans to the Continental Representatives and their wards. We could have that part drawn up in only a few hours, and I doubt that there would be any objections from either side.” King Petros suggested.
“It should likely specify their wards in this world, or you might run into issues in your crusades against the Demon Realms. Some of them are Demon Nobles, after all.” Wolfe suggested.
“You wouldn’t try to use it as leverage to stop the crusades?” King Petros asked.
“I personally think they’re an idiotic idea, but I know for a fact that the Wrath Demons actually enjoy the fact that your armies keep showing up at their doorstep looking for a fight.” Wolfe replied easily.
A few of the Nobles sighed, while Petros laughed. “I get your point. They do enjoy a good fight, and if we showed up only to find out that neither side could fight because of the contract, they would rage.”
The Nobles gave a regretful laugh. The wars against the Demon Realms had cost them millions of lives over the past few decades, and almost every Noble Family had lost at least one or two children in the battles.
They wanted to try to convince King Petros to end the wars of expansion into the Demon Realms entirely, but this was neither the time nor the place for that sort of appeal.
If you wanted to influence policy, you did that in private, not in a foreign world around the leaders of other factions.
King Petros most likely wouldn’t end the battles completely, as he was determined to take the mages of one world under his wing and learn their ways, so his world could use more than Unholy Magic. But wars against human filled worlds were very different from picking a fight with an entire Demon Realm.
At least when attacking human worlds, you were unlikely to come up against a ten-metre tall Rank Eight warrior that lived for combat. Or an entire clan of them, as the case may be.
That was part of why Petros was eager to get a deal signed to take any conflict with this world out of contention. Wolfe was dangerous enough on his own, but with both the Demons and the Fae backing his efforts, if anyone were to seriously attack them, and get past the time loop trap they had set, it would be a disaster of historical significance.
dangerous enough on his own, but with both the Demons and the Fae backing his efforts, if anyone were to seriously attack They would write epic songs about your failure, and the loss of a generation of soldiers.
There were dozens of similar epics, both victorious and monumentally disastrous, but nobody wanted to risk being in the second category. The King that Petros was replacing would most likely go down in history as a Mad King, unable to pick battles that he could win and costing too many lives in his pursuit of fame and glory.
He hadn’t heard the songs yet, but he knew the general sentiment of the people, even before he had taken over. So, if he could get off to a good start and cut back on the invasions with large casualty counts, he could earn a lot of goodwill from the people.
While they ate, the casual remarks of the Nobles were giving Petros all sorts of ideas on what could be improved at home, and what they should put into the second deal they were making. The first would be a binding magical contract for the peace negotiations, but the second could be a less binding trade negotiation, which would be subject to review and alterations on a regular basis, and not only after ten generations.
“Alright, as soon as we finish here, I will have the scribes start drawing up a copy of the peace treaty to include all the lands in this world under the purview of the Continental Representatives. That should be sufficient to solve the issue, and then once I have integrated that other magical world into our Empire, they will fall under the agreement, and there will be no more attacks on your world, only visits to the trial grounds.
Those have proven extremely popular, and I am receiving regular magical communications requesting that access past the barrier be allowed even before we return with a signed deal, so perhaps they should be added in a separate deal.” King Petros announced as he sipped his coffee.
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