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Volume 3 Chapter 3 Part 3

It was more than clear that the did not want to have anything to do with it at all.

(Yes, this person is definitely Lord Vilar’s enemy.)

Siluca secretly observed the Marquis Bernard of Dawson while pretending to be expressionless.

He is quite slender for his age, and although his golden-colored hair have began recedeing for a bit, there was still a lot of them on his head. His beard was neatly shaped, and his face was covered with a light layer of makeup. He was always stretching out his arms and arching his back, which in the body language meant that he was trying to make his every move and gesture seem bigger than they actually were. There was no doubt in Siluca’s mind that he was actually prideful and arrogant person, like some of those who were already born into the family of Lords, believing that becoming a Lord was their divine right that no one could question or take away from them.

In recent years, The Order of the Crest began to propagate what they called a Crest Divine Theory, which assumed that all of the Crests have been granted to the Lords by the One True God, and ever since the recent happenings around the continent caused more and more people to start believing in the validity of that theory, the number of Lords who were also converting to the faith of the Order of the Crest has also begun to increase, even though all of the current Lords have obtained their Crests either thanks to their own actions and deeds or because they have inherited their Crests from their predecessors.

Aronne, one of the larger countries on the continent is supposed to have been the place where the Founding Lord Leon went to quell the influence of Chaos next after he finished conquering the Chaos in Elam. After building the fortified city of Leclerc as a base of operations for all the future battles in the region, Leon then headed even further to the west. After that, the Free Knights that have been dispatched from Elam ended up going in Leon’s footsteps in order to emulate all of the great deeds that he managed to achieve and spend more than a thousand years destroying every single Demon Nest around Aronne that they could find. However, as soon as all of the Demon Nests disappeared and Chaos was no longer a threat, the independent Lords that appeared all around Aronne began to fight with one another, which ended up forcing Elam to intervene, and that particular incident was what ended up leading to the establishment of the peerage system.

In the present day, the leaders of Aronne are the Durham family that governs Dawson, but the family itself has been divided around the two key Lords of the family: Count Leclerc and Count Lear.There were also several cities on the south bank ruled by independent Lords.

Aronne is such a rich country, and there have been no major battles around its territories in the last hundred years. However, it was only because the Lords wanted to protect their current titles and territories, and above all, their luxurious lives, rather than lose everything in some foolish conflict.

The rulers of this land were had a strong sense of identity as aristocrats and developed an elegant court culture that would match that identity of theirs. Lords formed blood ties, made covenants with one another and swear non-aggression pacts to each other. Eventually, that particular way of life ended up spreading all the way to Halusia in the west and Ismeia in the south, and it became the foundation of what is today known as the Fantasia Union.

On the other hand, due to the appearance of the Demon Lord in the eastern part of the continent, the spread of the War of Conquest of Chaos was delayed, and many Demonic Nests remained unpurged, and the influence of the Time of Extreme Chaos still remained strong, of which Artuk is a perfect example of that, since there are still Witches, who are the decendants of the naturally born Shamans in its territories, and not all of them ended up wanting to live in peace with the rest of the country, just like the Black Witch who lived in the vicinity of The Forest of Eternal Darkness.

「It is fine for you to be confident in your abilities because you know your way around the sword, but do not let that get you too carried away. Your recent victory was only possible because of the prestige of the Fantasia Union as a whole. 」

Marquis Dawson said that to Vilar in an arrogant tone.

「I am perfectly aware of that, so there is no need for you to be worried about it. 」

Vilar nodded quietly.

「If that is really the case, then explain to me why did you not follow along with the consensus the the representatives of the Fantasia Union had established? I thought that the ordes we have received were pretty clear: that we need to refrain ourselves from further fighting with the members of the Factory Alliance. 」

「If it is the consensus that you are talking about, then I would have liked the representatives to at least hear my personal opinion out before they decided to issue that nonaggression notice, but no such thing happen. And besides, important decisions such as that one should be presented and agreed on during the Lords Conference, as it has always been in the Fantasia Union up until now. 」

「In other words, whatever decisions are going to be made during this Lord’s Conference, you are going to respect them and adhere to them? 」

「Whatever decisions are going to be made, I am going to obey them. 」

Vilar shrugged his shoulders. Given the situation that he was currently in, that was the only thing that he could have said.

「Good. Make sure to never forget those words. 」
Marquis Dawson pointed at Vilar with his fingers, turned on his heels and then left.

「It would seem that he took personal offence to the fact that I have ignored the nonaggression notice. 」

Vilar looked back at Siluca and explained.

「I am sorry for that.」

Siluca apologized for the time being. There was no doubt that a battle would have broken out sooner or later, but with both Selvis and Selvis, she was the one that started these battles and the wars that have escalated because of them.

「Looking at it from such an angle, Marquis Dawson must be thinking that this Lord’s Conference will go in accordance to his personal wishes. 」

Vilar let out a wry smile.

「While Artuk had its hands full with dealing with Waldrind, this fine gentleman was already taking care of the behind the scenes work for this Lord’s Conference. I tried my best to make preparations as well, but to be completely honest, I have no idea how this meeting is going to play out. 」

Earl Leclerc admitted bitterly.

「You can probably guess that just by taking a look around these halls. Most of the Lords who have come here do not feel even the slightest sense of danger. They are simply convinced that the time of peace they are living in right now is going to last forever. 」

Siluca’s expression got clouded as she said that.

「You are certainly right, but on the other hand, something like that was unavoidable. After all, ever since the anticlimactic conclusion of the supposedly decisive battle between the Factory Alliance and the Fantasia Union, Artuk and its surrounding countries have been the only ones that have become battlefields. 」

「Okay, but just because your territory is located far from the actual battlefield, it does not mean that it is completely safe. It just means that the potential danger is going to come to their lands later than in other countries, but when it finally comes, it is going to be too late to do anything about it. 」

「Our only hope right now is that more Lords are going to realize that fact, preferably sooner rather than later. 」

「You should let them know about it, Vilar, Earl of Artuk! 」

Earl of Leclerc gave Vilar an energetic pat on the back in order to encourage him.

「Preach to them about the threat posed by the Factory Alliance, and preach that now is our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity ti finally deal with that threat. If the Fantasia Union wants to prevail, we must force the factory Alliance into another decisive battle now! 」
Leaving those words behind, Earl of Leclerc finally went his own way.

「It looks like I will not be able to spend this Lord’s Conference peacefully. 」

Vilar took a deep breath as his shoulders dropped, and Siluca nodded while biting on her lip.