Best Friends!

Inside the assembly hall, fully half the room was laughing. It was inherently comical, and with His Eminence the Cardinal leading the laughter and the chief bishops from every region joining in, the Order priests in the gallery felt zero pressure about chiming in to jeer along. Karen was laughing, Leon was laughing, and sitting beside Karen, Memphis saw him laughing and forced a couple twitches of his lips into an awkward chuckle too. Just then, a server pushing a snack cart happened by. Leon reached out, grabbed a bag of roasted sunflower seeds off the cart, and set it on the coffee table. Karen grabbed a handful, and Memphis took one as well. The three of them cracked sunflower seeds, continuing to enjoy the spectacle of the negotiations. At last, the laughter gradually subsided. Throughout it all, the Church of Samsara raised no protest. Negotiations were always a game of demanding the heavens while offering pennies on the ground. Both sides laid out their terms, and then, before reaching their bottom lines, slashed back and forth. In this regard, church negotiations were no different from an old lady haggling over thermal underwear at the street market. Seeing that the other side had finished laughing, the handsome male spokesperson for the Church of Samsara spoke up again. "I believe this is the cornerstone of mutual trust between both parties, as well as a fundamental show of respect for peace." At that moment, Leon's grandfather, Bishop Worflen, stood up and said, "Are you finished?" "This is our first negotiating demand. Our party believes that only by meeting this condition first can subsequent negotiations proceed smoothly." "Very well." Bishop Worflen looked toward Cardinal Kred, who gave a slight nod. Sitting behind them, Karen thought to himself: *It seems Bishop Worflen is the designated spokesperson for Order.* It was an amusing feeling. The nominal leader of the entire York City Region, attending a negotiation at this level, was reduced to acting merely as a spokesperson. Bishop Worflen cleared his throat. Immediately, all the Church of Order negotiators seated in the central area began adjusting their robes. The secretaries beside each of them stepped forward and began gathering the documents off the negotiating table. This sight made it impossible for the Samsara side to maintain their composure any longer, stunned disbelief breaking across their faces. The emissaries from other major orthodox churches who had recently taken their seats also peered over with curiosity. Bishop Worflen announced, "I now declare the negotiations terminated. The war will continue." The moment these words fell, the entire hall plunged into dead silence. No one had anticipated that the Church of Order's posture would be this unyielding and blunt. In the gallery, the Order priests began straightening their robes as well, rising to their feet one after another in preparation for a collective walkout. The situation was careening rapidly toward complete collapse. Gatekeeper Romir of the Church of Samsara spoke up at this juncture. "Your side should understand that this is a negotiation." The unspoken meaning was clear: since it was a negotiation, everything was on the table. Everyone should sit down and talk it through slowly. Worflen countered, "Your side should understand who lost the war." Cardinal Kred rose to his feet. His voice was not loud, but every syllable rang distinctly in the ears of everyone present: "Not long ago, the black crows sent to me by those knight commander-generals who didn't get their turn on the battlefield were enough to dye my residence black. "Well, how wonderful. The knight regiments at the front lines can now rotate back for rest and reorganization, and the next wave can take charge of launching the next round of hostilities." The handsome spokesperson for Samsara immediately protested, "This is a provocation—a provocation of war, a trampling upon peace! Does Order not fear provoking a boycott across the entire religious community?!" Bishop Worflen stated, "We possess ample evidence proving whose people attempted to break through the Cage Space and struck out first against our knight regiments." With that, Bishop Worflen surveyed his surroundings and continued, "The party that provoked first has no right to hoist the banner of peace." Immediately, all the bishops behind the negotiating table stepped back a few paces, waiting for the Cardinal to exit first. The departure order naturally mirrored the procession of their entrance. Everyone present understood that this was very likely maximum pressure applied by the Church of Order. There was nothing inherently wrong with how the Church of Samsara was negotiating. They knew they were defeated and understood they would have to surrender interests and pay tribute, but they hoped to minimize their losses and save face as much as possible. The Church of Order, however, had zero interest in playing this game. As victors, they enjoyed vastly greater freedom. All they wanted was benefits, benefits, and more benefits. Yet what left Samsara helpless was that they could not afford to gamble on whether Order's stance was merely a negotiating tactic. Even if the other side told you plainly, *I am squeezing you using this exact tactic,* you still didn't dare let them walk out the door. The moment room for compromise vanished, the Church of Order was entirely capable of reigniting the war purely for the sake of its own face. Moreover, Samsara's crushing defeat in the First-Day War had cost them not only multiple sacred grounds, but also a massive portion of their active strength. Their remaining forces could barely reinforce the defenses around Samsara Valley, leaving them utterly incapable of launching any strategic counteroffensive. Most importantly, Kred's specific responsibility within the Church of Order was external warfare. Putting him in charge of this negotiating delegation made the underlying message crystal clear: if talks failed, war could resume immediately. Gatekeeper Romir rose and bowed to Kred. "I wish to hear the demands of Order." "*Sigh.*" Kred let out a sigh, seemingly disappointed by Samsara's capitulation. It was as if he would have preferred to continue the war rather than go back to facing the relentless knocking on his door by those knight commanders. Kred said, "There will not be a next time." Gatekeeper Romir nodded. "There will not be a next time." Kred sat back down, the bishops returned to their seats, and all the Order priests in the gallery sat down once more. Bishop Worflen produced a list and began: "Samsara shall satisfy our side's following eighteen demands..." Worflen began reading Order's demands, and Karen listened intently. Apart from minor peripheral details and matters of honor, the core of the demands broke down into five major points. First, the Church of Order would permanently retain one of the Church of Samsara's sacred grounds, and this specific sacred ground was located right within the waters surrounding Dark Moon Island. Second, the Church of Samsara would pay two hundred million Order coupons in war reparations to the Church of Order. The first installment of one hundred million was to be paid within ten days of the treaty taking effect, and the remainder settled in installments over three years. Third, every three years, the Church of Samsara would dispatch one hundred young priests to study and train within the Church of Order to deepen mutual exchange and trust. The candidates would be decided unilaterally by the Church of Order, with no interference or obstruction permitted from Samsara. Fourth, for each decennial opening of the Gate of Samsara, the Church of Order would be granted twelve slots for trials within the gate. Fifth, both parties would amend their respective mythological narratives to state that the God of Samsara had once fought in the Divine War under the leadership of the God of Order. These were the primary five points. The rest were diplomatic and face-saving demands rather than substantive clauses. Among these five points, the sacred ground in these waters mentioned in the first point had not actually been seized by Order during the First-Day War. This made it clear that before the war had even begun, Order had already formulated the terms of the post-war negotiations. Since it could be secured through post-war negotiations, there had been no need to attack it beforehand. With that sacred ground in hand, the Church of Order could expand its influence across these waters while eliminating a threat to its ally, Dark Moon Island, thereby binding Dark Moon Island even more firmly to Order's stride. As for the other occupied sacred grounds, Order's forces would naturally withdraw and return them to the Church of Samsara. The resources and accumulated wealth inside those captured sacred grounds had long since been plundered. Because the distances were too vast, it was impossible to squander teleportation arrays on moving cargo, so vast quantities of war spoils would be transported by sea back to regional branches of the Church of Order. Whatever was worth taking had been taken, and whatever was meant to be destroyed had been razed. Holding the land held no further significant value; instead, it would require defending against suicidal attacks by local Samsara devotees—something that had already happened numerous times. The second point was war reparations. The sum was not outrageous, and with the Church of Samsara's deep foundations, they could easily shoulder it. The third point, sending youths to study and train within the Church of Order, was simply a replica of what Order had always done with the Church of Pamires. Here, it was an overt scheme. Both sides understood perfectly well what it implied. Yet because Order would choose the candidates, they could readily pick the most talented youths and those from prominent lineages. Did Samsara dare to sideline all of them? The fourth point: the Gate of Samsara opened once every ten years, allowing the talents of the current generation to enter for trials, with thirty slots available each time. In the past, the Church of Samsara had occasionally granted some of these slots to other churches as diplomatic favors. Samsara Valley's status within the Church of Samsara was equivalent to the Temple of Order within the Church of Order. While one could not say that everyone who completed trials in the Gate of Samsara would become an elder of Samsara Valley, every elder in Samsara Valley had completed trials in the Gate of Samsara during their youth. The fifth point, altering mythological narratives, was a shift in canonical legitimacy. Karen was reminded once again how crucial a church's strength and development were to its god. If your followers excelled, a god could easily sit back and become the big brother—or even the father—to other deities. In other words, if your followers were incompetent, then no matter how magnificent and invincible your god had once been in that era, they might one day have to kneel down before the very rivals they had once defeated and address them as brother or father. The eighteen demands were concluded. Next, the Church of Samsara sent up a different spokesperson, who began calmly scrutinizing and proposing revisions to each point according to the outline provided by Order. All in all, the negotiations proceeded remarkably smoothly. Before the session recessed for the evening, a preliminary draft was essentially established. On the first point, ceding a sacred ground, the Church of Samsara conceded, but requested permission to relocate the local Samsara faithful without interference from Order. On the second point, regarding reparations, Samsara offered an additional fifty million to reduce the triennial student quota in the third point from one hundred to fifty. On the fourth point, regarding the trial slots for the decennial opening of the Gate of Samsara, the two sides debated fiercely. Samsara argued that twelve slots was simply too many. Order maintained that "twelve" was their lucky number. The tentative compromise reached was twelve slots for the upcoming opening, reduced by one slot each subsequent opening until reaching a floor of six slots. On the fifth point, Samsara agreed to add the narrative revision, but requested the addition of a line stating that the God of Samsara and the God of Order were close comrades-in-arms. Very well. Two chief gods who had virtually zero interaction throughout history had now, through the unremitting efforts of their mortal followers, finally become bosom comrades-in-arms. Strictly speaking, all the demands proposed by the Church of Order were harsh and exacting, yet not excessive; they generally fell within the acceptable limits of Samsara. This also showed that the Church of Order truly wanted to secure gains through post-war negotiations and had no wish to keep fighting either. From the perspective of diplomatic and war costs, continuing the war would inevitably result in sustained net losses for Order. The trouble was that Samsara lacked the capital to continue fighting; it could not destroy itself just to inflict losses on Order. While Samsara's destruction would certainly ignite shared enmity across the religious sphere against Order, that could only happen over Samsara's corpse—and Samsara was unwilling to shoulder that "historic destiny." A day of observing had yielded Karen great insight, leaving him deeply moved. Within a street, a town, a city, or a nation, people could perhaps rely on law and morality to judge and restrain conduct. Yet when elevated to relations between churches, attempting to apply interpersonal templates while loudly demanding "justice," "peace," or "morality" was either pure stupidity or pure malice. Because between religious spheres, there was no absolute power to enforce supreme restraint and judgment. Only one's own strength was the true foundation. Leaving the assembly hall, Karen and Memphis fell into formation. Worflen climbed into the carriage with Leon and Laure, and the procession began heading back to their courtyard. Once inside the courtyard, everyone was dismissed, bringing the day's duties to an end. Bishop Worflen was not an overbearing superior. He granted his subordinates tremendous freedom, and usually stayed in his room reading, never causing trouble or bothering to wander about outside. Karen followed the captain back to their room. The captain flopped onto the bed, removed his mask, and let out a long sigh, looking utterly exhausted. Seeing this, Karen suddenly felt an ominous premonition. "Don't look at me like that. It makes me feel like a criminal you just dragged in." "Captain, today you..." "How did the meeting go today? Judging by Bishop Worflen's expression, it must have gone very smoothly." "It went very smoothly, but your change of subject is a bit too obvious." "Oh, really?" Neo chuckled. "Not as natural as how you change subjects. I don't go around turning down other women on a regular basis, after all." "Captain, please tell me where you went during the day, and what happened." "Don't be so serious. I went to a seafood restaurant during the day, though I didn't order any seafood." "And then?" "Then I strolled down the street, took a walk, wandered into a café basement, and happened to find a bunch of Light remnants holding a meeting." "What happened after that?" "Hey, you know what? The Light remnant sitting next to me was wearing a mask, but I thought he looked a lot like you." "Like me?" "Yeah. At first I really wondered if you'd slipped out of the assembly hall and tailed me there." "How could that be possible?" "Right. I was the one who taught you tracking, so how could you tail me without getting caught?" "Captain, that's not the point." "Alright, alright, alright. The point is that the purpose of those Light remnants gathering was to recruit volunteers. I'm sure they already have a core force, but this time they needed to raise extra hands. "Originally, they planned to launch a surprise raid on Guze Pool. Sleeping inside is a giant sea turtle named Dorons, which Philias subdued a century ago. Actually, it's a sort of sea beast—a ferocious sea beast capable of using spells. "They wanted to awaken Dorons to take revenge on the Dark Moon Clan for their betrayal of Light back then, and then use Dorons's might to establish a new mission house on the outer islands. "Lately, because of hosting this conference, the security at Guze Pool is at its lowest in a century, which gave them their window of opportunity." "And then?" "And then I told them they were a bunch of idiots. To awaken the sleeping Dorons, you don't go to Guze Pool. You find a covenant conch and blow it within thirty kilometers, and Dorons will be summoned awake. "I also told them that the covenant conch was buried with Bernard as a funerary object." "The covenant conch?" "Yes." "Is that thing real and actually effective, or did you make it up on the spot?" "It's real. How could I make it up?" "Then how do you know the covenant conch was in Bernard's hands, and that it was buried with him?" "That's why I say your observational skills still need work, Karen. What hotel are we staying at?" "The Bernard Hotel." "Exactly. Don't you look at the statues everywhere in the hotel? Right at the hotel entrance stands a massive statue commemorating Bernard. Isn't there a conch tied to his waist?" "Is... there?" "Then look at this." The captain got up from the bed and tapped on an oil painting hanging on the wall. It depicted a man dressed in the aristocratic garb of Dark Moon Island, with a full moon insignia at his collar. "Look at his waist." Karen peered closely and found that there truly was a conch tied at the waist. "This..." Karen truly hadn't expected the answer to have been right beside them all along, right in front of their eyes. "Basically every portrait and statue has a conch at his waist. Since Bernard loved it so much, how do you think his descendants would handle it after he died? If it were some other treasure, they might be reluctant to seal it away, but blowing this conch only summons a sea beast full of hatred for the Dark Moon Clan. Naturally, sealing it inside their ancestor's burial chamber for the dead ancestor to keep guarding was the safest option." "Captain, what happened next?" "And then, well, I personally drew up an assault plan for them to raid Bernard's tomb!" "Captain, you promised me you were only going to attend the meeting and wouldn't give them advice." "Yes, I promised you. I was wrong." The captain suddenly uncharacteristically admitted his fault and showed remorse. This threw Karen off balance. The captain continued, "So I've decided to immediately find a way to report this news to the Dark Moon side, let them prepare, and foil this plot by the Light remnants ahead of time. What do you think?" "Well..." "Then it's settled!" The captain rose and walked toward the door, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Cardinal Kred from earlier that day. "Captain." "Yes? Do you have something else? Or do you want to secretly go tell Her Highness Ophelia that someone is planning to dig up her ancestral tomb?" "Captain, I feel that in this matter, the Light remnants' revenge is... understandable." "*Pfft*... Hahahaha!" The captain couldn't hold it in and burst into roaring laughter. He pointed a finger at Karen, wiping tears from his eyes as he said, "See? I knew you couldn't keep up the act." The captain walked back over to the bed, sat down, and continued: "You told me that Miss Purr shares a symbiotic bond with you. Fine, I don't intend to probe into how such a trans-generational symbiosis was forged—just like I will never understand your grandfather's inner anguish and his choice to blow up the Temple of Order. Regardless, it's already done. "However, I can be certain of one thing. "When that touching love story from Dark Moon Island reached the Allen Manor and entered the ears of that Miss Purr—your symbiotic partner... "Before you came here this time, she must have asked one favor of you. "And that was: "Scatter Bernard's ashes to the wind." The captain had guessed correctly. Neo's expression suddenly turned desolate. "Do you know how I met Bernard?" "Captain, don't make jokes like that so casually." *Just whose persona are you using right now when you say 'I'?!* Neo continued, "It was Jennifer who acted as the intermediary, introducing Bernard to me." "Captain..." "Jennifer once traveled with Miss Purr. Trailing behind them was Bernard, who remained hopelessly devoted to Miss Purr despite being rejected countless times. That was when Jennifer got to know Bernard, becoming something akin to adventuring companions with him. "Later, Bernard returned to Dark Moon Island to take over as clan head, while Miss Purr vanished. Jennifer began searching alone for Miss Purr's whereabouts. During that search, she met me and fell in love with me. "It was through her that Bernard got to know me, painting for me the bright future of Light and Dark Moon shining together on this island. Heh." "Captain, if you keep this up, I'm going to draw my sword on you." "My Jennifer told me countless times... "She said... "Miss Purr was the dearest, best friend she ever had in her life."