Chapter 174: Underworld Negotiations XV
Jeanne's main point of doubt laid in Sirzechs' sentence about revealing Lilith's truth.
"Why would it be fine to reveal it during open hostilities?" Jeanne wondered, it was understandable that it would be fine if everything was stable as it would make dealing with disturbances easier but why was the other extreme fine as well.
Artoria was about to explain as before but Morgan cut her off.
"This is not about politics but about the effects of war. Think about it and a smart girl like you should understand." The Fairy Queen spoke in a rae show of agreeableness. Maybe Jun was rubbing off on her and softening her attitude after all.
And just as Morgan predicted, Jeanne arrived at the answer almost instantly. Getting used to relying on others too much did impede one's ability to deal with things themselves if one was not careful.
"If making an enemy out of us now is inadvisable, then doing so in such a precarious situation where enemies are breathing down upon you from every side is an even worse idea. That would go for not only the devils but every other faction." Jeanne began to lay out her thoughts.
"In a situation where one must be wary against multiple different enemy factions, us possessing something others want is not a strong enough reason to take the risk, especially since it is very unlikely they would find any measure of success in such an endeavor." She concluded.
Morgan merely affirmed her thoughts through silent approval and Artoria smiled in agreement as well.
Still, now that they had received their bribe, it was time to get ready for the official negotiations. Morgan was not at all keen on tolerating insults towards her or her husband but it was a lesser evil.
Tolerance was not really a characteristic she approved of, much less fostered so it would be a challenge for sure but the fact that she knew the opportunity to teach the buffoons the error of their ways would swiftly come her way, made it significantly more tolerable for the Fairy Queen.
Moving to the opposing party in the secret negotiations, the Four Satans, they were gathered to discuss the information they had gleaned from their talks with Morgan. Grayfia was also there, by her husband's side as per usual, even though the silver haired maid usually stayed silent.
"Well . . . Things are not looking good." Sirzechs commented.
*sigh*
"Indeed. Things are going quite well all things considered but even that "quite well" leaves far too much to be desired." Serafall agreed, lacking a bit of her usual upbeat tone but still far more energetic and optimistic than her peers.
"In my opinion. Things are not really as bad as they may seem." Ajuka interjected with a contradictory opinion.
"How so Ajuka?" Sirzechs asked, his tone and expression showing his respect for the opinion and intelligence of the green haired Satan who he considered to be his best friend.
"There were three things that can be considered good that we got from this bribing." Ajuka started.
"Three?" Serafall began mentally reviewing the meeting, trying to figure out what those three things were.
"We've confirmed they know a lot of critical and dangerous information so our choice in avoiding conflict at almost any cost is proving to the right way to go more and more?" She threw out.
Ajuka nodded in response, affirming that was indeed one of the things he thought of.
"Beyond that however, although you were put out of it by the content of the demands, none of them were something they truly needed our input on. and this means two things, a two in one point." He continued.
"They informing us was both a warning and a gesture of good will by letting us prepare for the future, thus, while the primary intent was putting pressure on us, which they succeeded, it also shows that they have no particular wish to go to war with us and that we don't have anything they truly want."
"After all, other than the very first and most casual request, the others were not really things under our control that we could give as compensation." Ajuka concluded.
"The final point is a little more controversial but . . . If we play our cards right, we can definitely profit from this." He further added.
"Jun-kun's targets within our Devil race right?" Serafall had also thought of it.
"Indeed." Ajuka nodded.
"So you want to take advantage of them to clean out our rival factions?" Sirzechs was not too fond of the idea.
"It will leave our security in tatters." Falbius also pointed out.
"From that woman's attitude, conflict is almost certain to break out and we will most likely be unable to stop it. Since it is inevitable, why not make use of it?" Ajuka said in response.
"While purposefully letting such a thing happen in order to let outsiders take care of our internal problem when we could have stopped it is certainly quite unsettling, since it is going to happen no matter what, then not making use of it is simply making the losses we are about to incur in vain." He further added.
"Still . . ." Sirzechs still resisted but was clearly pondering on the idea as Ajuka's words certainly made sense.
As for Falbius, since the breach in the security he was in charge of was inevitable, using it to conveniently take care of other security risks was most certainly a plus in his book.
"It's not like we need to actually do anything to damn them. We simply need to covertly prepare to pick up the pieces and reorganize things once Jun-kun's envoys sweep through." Serafall pointed out.
"Well . . . It certainly does not feel good but it is indeed the best option." Sirzechs finally agreed.
"Moving on to the specifics however . . ."
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