Kapitel 44: Chapter 44
I have successfully gotten Suphia on my side. She liked…loved the whiskey a lot. She drank the whole bottle. That bottle was supposed to be around 45% ABV. Man, I'm thankful we don't have to go through the whole natural process. It would normally take 3 years to age it in a barrel. Well, If I have to be all technical and stuff some of this stuff would be bourbon. Well, not really since it's not made in the United States. I don't really care though, I'll call it what I want. I've never met a person who cares about all that stuff. As far as I'm concerned, some guy in the Philippines can make bourbon, call it bourbon, and sell it as bourbon and I wouldn't care. It's all basically the same process anyway with barely any difference.
After standing around waiting and passing the time by talking to Shuna while trying my best to ignore a tiger's pleading, Albis finally returned.
"Lord Carrion will meet with you. But only you. Your companion will have to stay behind. We will watch over her while you talk with Lord Carrion.".
"That's okay with me.".
I told Dun Stallion to wait here, but before doing so, I grabbed the bag that had a bunch of drinks in it as well as one more just in case I needed it for Carrion. Shuna was going to help me out a bit here, even if we were going to be separated.
"Follow me.".
We followed her to the palace and entered. It was exactly what I imagined a grand and luxurious palace would be like. Gold and shiny things were everywhere, exquisite pieces of furniture and art, stuff made of the highest quality they had. Honestly, it was way too much. I get decorating things, but there's a limit. Whatever, it's not my place. Carrion can do what he wants with the place he lives, doesn't mean I have to like it.
Albis led us to a set of massive doors that were adorned with a bunch of small details and engravings.
"This is where Lord Carrion is waiting for you. Your companion will stay with us while we wait for you and Lord Carrion to finish.".
"Hold on a moment.". I turned to Shuna and gave her one of the bags I brought with me. I leaned in close to whisper to her, "Use what's in here to influence them. They are heavy drinkers, so use that to your advantage.". Shuna just nodded and they proceeded to go somewhere else.
I watched them leave to what I assume was a guest room or something like that. Once they were gone, I looked back at the large doors and just entered. He's already waiting for me so I might as well make this fast.
I entered the room and saw Carrion sitting at a luxurious desk. Immediately he started being aggressive. He was looking at me as if trying to analyze every part of my being. He was trying to intimidate me. Probably trying to measure my strength. I'll have to respond in kind.
I didn't let out any aura or anything like that, but more of that invisible pressure. The kind where you know that you shouldn't mess with someone.
"I recommend not wasting any time trying to see through me. I can guarantee you're not stronger than me, but you're welcome to try.".
I saw Carrion let out a small smile. "Is that any way to talk to someone you're trying to make an alliance with?".
"Come on, we both know that strength is what really talks in this kingdom of yours, and wouldn't you want to ally with someone strong? It fits with the ideology by which you run this kingdom.". I told him as I sat down in front of him.
"That's true, but you'll need more than that to try to convince me in the first place. How did you even know that I sent Phobio to investigate your town?".
Here we go. I have a lot of cards to play with here. Let's start of heavy.
"Milim told me.".
I saw Carrion's eyes narrow, but I could see some surprise in them.
"How much did she tell you?".
"She told me enough to know that you sent some people to our monster town to investigate.".
"Why did she tell you? Me and her had an agreement that we wouldn't interfere with each other.".
I see what he's doing. He's only involving himself and Milim. He's not giving any indication that there are others involved. Too bad for him, I already know all this stuff beforehand. Let's unleash another bomb.
"Well, I made an alliance with Milim. Our nation and Milim's nation have entered into an alliance. After she visited our town, I was able to convince her to make an alliance with us. She liked our town a lot, so that played a huge part in it. In fact, she even declared that she is going to live there from now. That's not really feasible since she will most likely be a bit busy soon, but I want her stay to be comfortable and without problems. I certainly don't want one bad apple to cause some kind of ruckus and get her involved in anything.".
He was contemplating my words when I saw his eyes flash in realization. Once again, Phobio is helping me a lot and he doesn't realize it. Not that I'll give him any kind of compensation. Not when he's going to be responsible for Charybdis reviving and attacking town.
"How do you know Phobio so well? I can definitely see him doing something bad. Wait.".
There we go. Now he got the point. Since we're allied with Milim now, an attack by a military group or personnel on us qualifies as an act of aggression that could lead to war. Now going to war with us is one thing, not counting me or Rimuru, you definitely wouldn't want to fight a large group of kijins and dragonewts. That's not even including our other forces like the goblin riders and orcs. But then you add me, Rimuru, and Milim into the mix. Your chances of winning drastically go down.
That's the tiny message I want to get across without actually saying it outright. Is it a threat? No, it's not, I never said anything about some kind of retaliation or anything like that. Carrion came to the conclusion that he probably wouldn't want to fight against a strong military force such as ours let alone Milim.
He can still save face though. As long as he makes an alliance with us, anything Phobio does can just be chalked up to a tiny mistake or lapse in judgment. Or just pin all the blame on Clayman and his group of circus clowns. Which in my eyes is completely true.
This time he was really thinking. If I was in his place then I would totally just sign an alliance. If he doesn't, then he won't have any face left to save at the end of whatever battle takes place.
I didn't say anything the whole time, I just let him stew in his own thoughts. From here on out, he'll do most of the work for me. When it comes to a battle against Milim, he might get excited, but he should still know his limits, nothing delusional about really fighting her. And he only did so 'cause Milim was the one attacking him and I think it might have been part of a plan in the first place,
Point is, whatever he comes up with in his own mind will be his own worst-case scenario that will be the most possible, at least according to him.
He looked back up at me. I could tell he was really considering it, but he seems like he needed just one last push.
"First of all, do you have any proof that you actually have an alliance with Milim?".
"Apart from her breaking whatever agreement you two had as part of our alliance? Then yes, I do.". I reached into the other bag I brought with me. It was the document of our nation's alliance with Milim's with me, Rimuru's, and Milim's signatures on it. I showed it to him and he finally looked convinced about it. There is one more thing I could say, but I think this is enough.
He nodded to himself and he let out a small chuckle. "You're right, strength is what really talks in this kingdom and you certainly have more than enough of it. Let's start talking about this alliance. One thing though, I understand you are one of the leaders of the town. Are you supposed to represent the slime as well?".
"Well, we don't have to make a complete alliance on the spot right now. We can do more formal talks at a later date with envoys and whatnot. For the time being, we can sign some more smaller scale things like a non-aggression pact for starters, so we can set the foundations later. How does that sound?".
"That's fine, you have a deal then.".
Me and Carrions shook hands to seal the deal. After that, me and him signed some papers to make it official while establishing more formal talks at a later date. I made sure to make it after the Charybdis attack. We made some copies which I put in the bag alongside Milim's and then we parted ways.
Two down, one more to go, Next stop, the Harpy Queendom of Fulbrosia. This one should be easier. The hardest part will actually be getting taken seriously by the harpies there. Since I have no wings and neither does Shuna. I say hardest, but it will actually be kind of easy. Just mention Charybdis and bam, I'll be talking to Frey about an alliance in no time.
Let's see how it's going on Shuna's side.
/\\//\\//\
I go to the guest room where Albis, Suphia, and Shuna are supposed to be staying. I entered the room and to say the least…Shuna did a really good job. She was giving belly rubs to Suphia, who was in her tiger form, and Albis, in her half-snake form, was sprawled out over a couch all disheveled mumbling something I couldn't make out while she was holding a bottle of liquor. Suphia wasn't much better. Shuna was literally controlling some of her actions with belly rubs. She had a little bowl that was filled with whiskey that she would drink while getting belly rubs.
I looked over at the bag and to my absolute surprise there were still some drinks in there. Shuna was able to do all this and still have some stuff left over.
She noticed me and smiled at me. "How did it go, Artoria? Did everything go well?".
"Yeah, it did, Shuna. It went really well. We've established some foundations for a later date for more formal talks. Although, I think you had much greater success than me. We should start saying goodbye. We have one more place to visit and then we can go home.".
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein