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Chapter 131: Opening of the Council of Seven Sphin Nations

The Council of Seven Sphin Nations is held for three days every year. Considering various circumstances this year, however, Ruzark made a schedule that would allow the whole process to be completed in two days. The main purpose of this was to narrow down the timing of the attack.

As Her Highness Princess Luna said at the informal meeting, we have three goals to achieve: “Defeat or eliminate the demons”, “Assassinate the Emperor”, and “Safely hold the conference”. For that reason, it was decided to divide the personnel into three groups: the Emperor assassination team, the Guerrilla team, and the Guard team for the imperial conference hall. These three teams will act while sharing information.

To start with, the Emperor assassination team consisted of Princess Luna and Nelfie.

The goal is to infiltrate the castle through one of the emergency escape routes and assassinate the emperor. I wanted to add one more person to this team to increase the certainty, but since covert action was the basis, we kept it small.

The guerrilla team will be made up of Drake and Shinku. Their role is to monitor the surroundings of the Imperial Capital Conference Hall and respond immediately if any trouble occurs in the Imperial Castle.

Next, Ruzark will act as moderator for the Council of Seven Sphin Nations, and Legenda will provide support.

The guards within the venue will be me, Kinu, and Zen. In addition to this, 1-2 personnel are attached to each country’s dignitaries. However, the only people other than us who know information about the demons and such are the shogun of Bukyo and his aides.

This is because the positions of other countries are unclear. And there is a possibility that people from the other countries have already been brainwashed by demons.

It is difficult to imagine that the Bukyo Kingdom which is in a state of semi-isolation and has a large number of individuals with high military power would easily be mind controlled. Considering the possibility that the Arto Kingdom’s personnel alone would not be able to bring the situation under control, it seems that they disclosed information regarding the demons and seeked for Bukyo’s cooperation.

If the Zen’s negotiations hadn’t gone well, Arto Kingdom would have been forced to decline to participate in the Council of the Seven Sphin Nations. In which case, wouldn’t that be exactly what the demons would have wanted?

≪Aun-sama, Drake and I have arrived at our positions.≫

≪Copy. Continue keeping an eye on your surroundings.≫

≪Understood.≫

It seems that Shinku and Drake have arrived at their positions. Since information sharing can be done via telepathy, it is possible to perfectly understand the current situation of each team. This alone will be a great advantage in fighting the demons.

Immediately after that, Nelfie also called via telepathy.

≪Aun, this is Nelfie. We just arrived at the exit of the escape route and are about to infiltrate the imperial castle.≫

≪Copy that. If the demon’s attack as we think, I will contact you immediately. Launch an attack on your target at that timing.≫

≪Understood. We will head to the imperial castle and wait for the order.≫

≪Okay. Be careful.≫

Nelfie’s team seems to be doing well so far.

The participants and escorts from each country were just about arriving at the venue. I used [Appraisal] to scan the arrivals, and there was nothing out of place so far.

Ruzark greeted the dignitaries of “Beastman Kingdom, Garun” and “Elf Kingdom, Charlat” who had just arrived and explained the details of the meeting. As expected of a member of the royal family, he had very high diplomatic skills. It seems that he was trying to grasp the other person’s attitude and position while using the tricks of the conversation.

I’ve heard that beastmen and elves had their own kingdom, but I was a little surprised that they actually existed.

It seems that the Arto Kingdom did not get along well with these two countries because of their human supremacy policy until before the Ranking Battle. But Ruzark will probably change that in the future.

The participants gathered one after another after that. And the last to appear at the venue was the shogun of Bukyo and his aides.

「Nice to meet you. My name is Ruzark Arto, the second prince of the Arto Kingdom. I would like to sincerely thank you for your prompt response to my letter the other day.」

「Umu. I’m the shogun of the Bukyo Kingdom, Kunitsuna Kagura. So you are His Highness Ruzark… I have heard from Zen of the Suigetsu family that you are very promising man.」

「No, I am not even close to Shogun-sama. Thank you very much for coming to this meeting.」

「Fuhahaha. Excessive humility is not always a good thing, you know? You seem to have the courage to thread the line between life and death by the looks of it. Well, let’s see how it goes.」

A man with an atmosphere and composure of a warrior that makes even chills run down my spine… I’m sure if I appraised him, I would be found out. Let’s stop…

「Oh? So you are Aun? That was a good decision.」

「Excuse me. So I was found out after all?」

「Well, yes. In Bukyo, we have a culture of not wanting to be appraised unnecessarily. And there are many warriors who can feel it when being appraised. Be careful when you come to Bukyo.」

「Thank you for your advice.」

「Bukyo welcomes strong men like you. Judging from the finest kimono and the sword on your waist, are you interested? If you want to come, I will send you a notice so that you can enter the country.」

「Thank you. I’ve been thinking about going there sometime.」

「I see, I see. You can come whenever you like! In exchange, I’d like you to have a mock match with a few people. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?」

「Not at all. I don’t dislike fights.」

「Fuhahahaha! What an interesting guy! I’ll be looking forward to it.」

The shogun laughed as he walked towards the designated seat.

If I had appraised him, I might have been attacked by the aides behind him. Those two must have the same or more combat strength than I do. Even without Appraisal, just from the conversation and the atmosphere, I could tell that he was one or two steps higher than the others in this venue.

It means that the world is still vast…so I’m looking forward to going to Bukyo!

After that, the ringing of the bell announcing the scheduled opening time resounded from the clock tower in the center of the imperial capital.

When the atmosphere inside the venue calmed down, Ruzark stood up and declared the opening of the Council of the Seven Sphin Nations in a dignified voice.