Chapter 94: Alliance

"So, shall we start this meeting?"

Lance and the other representatives of other kingdoms, Ruth, Jasper, Julius, and Alexia, all sat down in their chairs with stiff expressions on their faces. They were aware that the discussion they were having today would be delicate, and they didn't want to jeopardize it.

They are currently inside the Gron kingdom's castle. They all arrived inside via teleportation. Although magic is forbidden to be used in Gron, today was a special case that even let Ruth set aside the rules for. Lance looked at each of the representatives sitting stiffly. He then sighed.

'Damn it, just where did he go? He was gone just when I needed him the most.'

The supposed to be the star of this discussion, Luke, is now not present, which left an awkward atmosphere around. Now that Lance thought about it, they were here because of that bastard in the first place.

Lance internally frowned at that thought and kept a straight face on the outside and faced the stiff representatives. He was about to say something when the room was suddenly filled with a bright light. Lance and the other representatives stood up and closed their eyes to the blinding light. Even the knights who saw the light and barged in couldn't help but close their eyes and point their weapons in all directions.

When the light faded, the representatives and knights were about to charge towards the source of the light but stood frozen when they saw who had arrived.

A silver-haired man looked at the shocked representatives for a while before smiling. He then slowly started to speak.

"We aren't late, right?"

Lance blinked for a few moments while looking at Luke, who was smiling at him. He then looked behind Luke. He noticed two people with cyan hair who appeared to be siblings, as well as Liam, who was frowning at the knights who had almost stabbed Luke with their weapons earlier.

Lance, on the other hand, ignored them and focused solely on the two cyan-haired individuals. His mind was racing because he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Your highness, don't stare at them for a long time like that. That is very rude."

Lance frowned at Luke, who was whispering to him. He then looked at Luke, who was smiling from ear to ear at him. Luke smiled at Lance for a while before introducing the two cyan-headed people.

"Representatives from various kingdoms that are in this room today, and I'd like to introduce the princess and prince of the Mer kingdom, Marina and Trent, who will be here to attend this meeting with us."

The room went silent. The representatives then looked at the two royal merfolk, who were proudly standing tall while emitting a royal air around them. They couldn't believe it. The Merfolk, who has not been seen by humans in over a thousand years, is now standing in front of them. And the one who brought them here is their well-known savior and friend, who is just blankly staring at them.

"Hmm? What's wrong? Aren't we in the middle of a meeting?"

As Luke said that, the representatives of each kingdom snapped out of it and returned to their normal selves. They then did a fake cough and quietly sat back down in their seats. Lance then spoke.

"Ehem, can you please bring three more seats for our guests here?"

The knights quickly nodded and immediately went back with three chairs. They then carefully placed it in front of the royal merfolk and Luke. Luke stared blankly at the chairs in front of him as Marina and Trent sat in theirs. Lance noticed this and asked in confusion.

"Aren't you going to sit?"

Luke looked at Lance in disbelief.

"Uhm... I am clearly an outsider here at this meeting. Shouldn't I go outside?"

The representatives frowned at Luke who was staring blankly at his chair.

He thinks he's an outsider? Yeah right, the main reason why they are all gathered here started with this guy, and now he says he's an outsider?

Lance put his palm on his face and sighed.

"Just... Sit down."

"Okay?"

Luke then silently sat down beside Marina and Lance and kept quiet. Lance and the representatives quietly stared at Luke for a moment before Lance finally started to speak.

"Well then, why don't we start for real this time?"

The representatives nodded and then they started to exchange information. They then started to share what they knew about the empire and how to support each other while being against the empire. Luke just quietly listened... Or not. He was just staring at the blank wall like his soul had flown off of his body.

It went on like that for an hour before everyone went quiet. It was because they didn't have anything more to say. That was all it.

But not until Lance dropped a bomb which made the representatives noisy again. Lance dropped bombs continuously that the representatives didn't even know where to start.

"Dark Eye is allied to the empire."

"What?"

"The three kingdoms of the south have allied their forces and plan to attack our kingdom."

"What?"

"The allied kingdoms' name is the Regle Alliance. And they are also allied to the Dark Eye."

"Excuse me, WHAT?"

The whole room went silent. They then looked at Lance, Liam, and Luke's calm faces as if they expected this. They looked at the three of them with amazement.

'A-amazing... They managed to get that much information in a short amount of time?'

'A-as expected of my friend! He is truly amazing! Look at how composed he is!'

'They have been preparing for war all this time while we didn't know anything...'

'How careless of us. We were in peace for too long that we didn't even notice that the days of war were slowly returning....'

The representatives looked at the three calm men with admiration. They then came back to being serious and started to ask questions. The first one is Jasper.

"So, basically, we have a war with the Regle Alliance coming up?"

Lance shook his head.

"No, the war with the Regle war will be ours. But while we do that, we need you to prepare for the worse."

In shock, Julius inquired.

"Wait... You're going to handle the Regle Alliance on your own?"

BAM!

The representatives, including Luke, then looked at Ruth, who suddenly slammed his hands on the table. Luke then saw Ruth looking at him with a frown, which made Luke feel confused. Ruth then slowly spoke.

"Are you planning to go face to face with three kingdoms? Are you crazy?! That's suicide!"

Luke blinked a few times before looking at Ruth in disbelief.

'Who the hell said that I'll be the one who'll be facing the Regle Alliance? Why are you looking at me? Look at Lance!'

As Luke was thinking about that, Alexia then butted in.

"We can help you. We will support your army with our white knights. You don't have to do everything on your own."

•She's right Dad!

Luke was speechless, and he wondered why they were staring at him.

'I will not face the Regle Alliance! Lance will! Worry about him!

Luke felt that he needed to clear the situation so he decided to explain.

"I will not-"

But Lance interrupted him...

"Don't worry about him. And also, calm down. We have a plan for this war. We will be fine. What's important is that you all prepare for the worse of the worse possibilities that could happen after the war."

Luke looked at Lance, who was smiling while ignoring him with an intense gaze. But Lance just ignored him and kept talking.

They all then started to share ideas and thoughts. The Flor and Mer kingdom plans to secretly provide food to everyone, while the Fairy Kingdom will provide armor. The Gron, Thea, and Reece were tasked with strengthening their forces as much as they could while secretly assisting the forces of the other kingdoms.

The meeting ended on a good note and everyone agreed with the outcome of the meeting. But, of course, the tension was still there, but they were still glad that they were somehow prepared before everything was too late.

"Ehem, before we part ways, I'd like to point out that this meeting is truly top secret. And... we don't want traitors on our side, do we? So, I'd like to propose that we take an oath together."

The representatives stopped and looked at Lance, who was smiling at them. Lance then spoke again.

"I don't like petty promises that can easily break and so do you guys right? So, I want all of us to take the death oath."

Alexia looked at Lance with surprise.

"A death oath, you say?"

"Yes, a death oath."

"But we don't have a priest of Darkness in here."

"I got that."

Alexia then looked at Luke, who suddenly spoke up. And in a split second, a bright light appeared again in the room and transported a black-haired woman wearing a priest's robe of darkness.

Yulia looked at the representatives one by one and then bowed respectfully to them.

"My name is Yulia, and I am the Saint of the God of Darkness."

"A-a Saint?"

Luke then answered Lance's question with a blank face, like it was nothing special at all.

"Yes, she is a saint. The direct child of the God of Darkness."

"M-my God..."

Lance looked at Luke's blank face in disbelief. He was so confused and baffled and the representatives were no different either.

'He got both Saints of Light and Darkness! And he acts like it's nothing?! What the hell is wrong with him?!'

Luke ignored Lance's questioning gaze and offered Yulia his seat. Ruth, who was speechless, noticed this and immediately looked at the knights.

"Ah! Give young Master Luke a chair!"

"Yes!"

Luke looked at Ruth with surprise. It wasn't because of the chair; it was because Ruth today is very different from Ruth in the past.

'When did he learn to be considerate? I thought all he knew was to punch and kill people?'

•Dad! He is very different now! It's so weird!

'I know right?'

Luke then sat down in his chair provided by the knights and looked at Yulia beside him.

"Please start"

'So that I can finally go home.'

It seems that Yulia understood what was in Luke's mind and nodded. She then started to focus, which made the representatives stiffen up.

The Saint of Darkness. If she performs the death oath ceremony, it will be 10 times more lethal than a regular priest. This means that they also need to be 10x careful to not break the oath or a merciless death will fall upon them. That is why they were all stiff and frozen while waiting for Yulia to start.

But some men were bored to death instead of being scared and frozen. It's Luke and Lance.

'When will it start? I'm hungry. The food I ate was not enough.'

'What is there to be scared of? It's not like I'd break the oath to begin with.'

Luke and Lance just sighed, which made the representatives flinch. They then looked at Luke with amazement.

'T-they weren't even scared!'

As they thought of that, Yulia started to speak.

"By the name of the God of Darkness. I shall borrow our mighty father's power and execute a blood oath on the people who are present in this room today...

The representatives' faces tensed as they heard Yulia's words come out of her mouth.

"God of Darkness, may I borrow the power of your loyal descendant, The God of Death, the Grim Reaper's Scythe. And may it be put on the necks of the witnesses inside this very room..."

Black smoke then started to appear behind Yulia and started to fly towards each of the representatives' necks. It quickly transforms into a gleaming and razor-sharp scythe aimed at the representatives' necks. The representatives gulped as they looked at the scythe right in front of them.

"Witnesses, repeat after me. I, as a witness, shall not share the contents of this meeting with anyone. "

The people inside the room then repeated what she said.

"I, as a witness, shall not share the contents of this meeting with anyone."

"If I break my promise, the scythe of the God of Death will cut off my head with the others here as witnesses to my death on the execution ground of the underworld."

"If I break my promise, the scythe of the God of Death will cut off my head with the others here as witnesses to my death on the execution ground of the underworld."

After that, the scythe then slowly turned transparent and the black smoke disappeared. The room's original color was restored, but no one said anything. They were all just holding their necks while gulping. Except for Luke and Lance, though. They were both just holding their necks while staring blankly at where the scythe had been. They then both sighed.

"The meeting has been adjourned due to the conclusion of the discussion."

Lance and Luke were about to stand up but stopped when they saw a hand stopping them. They then looked at the owner of the hand. It was Julius.

"U-Uhm... I uh..."

"Yes? What do you need? Prince Julius?"

"Uh... I-I... I wanted to introduce someone."

"Oh? Who could it be?"

"It's the worshipper of Nature, Polly."