Spending My Retirement In A Game

"Pretty rough already, huh?" Brody pointed out, walking up to Eisen, who simply nodded his head with a loud groan.

"You can say that again," the old man sighed, already feeling the headache come on, "Did you hear those demands? The central continent literally wants to have giants as slave labour... and Van Horgh? I genuinely do not know what sort of theological education they have in the Holy Empire... They have a completely wrong image of the gods." Your next read is at m v|l-e'-NovelBin.net

Xenia walked up and leaned against the side of Eisen's large chair, "Well, what would you expect? Do you know how many religious denominations there are for literally any religion on earth? And it's not like the gods are actively showing them their diaries, so how would they know the details?"

Eisen groaned, "I just figured things would be passed down a bit better. Honestly, it feels kind of... off. There's no way that the Holy Empire of all places doesn't have a way of communicating with the gods somehow, even if it's just that they receive some kind of oracles. So how could they be so wrong about it all?"

"Maybe they're doing it intentionally," Xenia suggested, "There's no easier way of manipulating the masses than by manipulating the information they receive. I don't really know what benefits they would get from that, though... maybe they just want to 'other' the people of different countries, to make the citizens of the holy empire feel superior to them.

Creating a sense of being 'different' is a baseline tactic for that."

"... What do you two think?" Eisen asked, looking over at Ambriel and Satel, who had stepped aside once the barrier dividing the room up was deployed. Satel thought about it for a moment, but just shrugged.

"Honestly, I don't think they're acting ignorant on purpose," the devil pointed out, "Well, maybe at some point in time, but it's not like people really live all that long. Thinking that they changed the way they work in the current generation sounds kinda unrealistic."

Eisen raised a brow. He was surprised to hear Satel's apt insight, but they definitely had a point, "Right... so even if in the past, the Holy Empire tried to change information for their own benefit, at this point, it's possible that this information just became the truth to them all, and now Van Horgh is regurgitating it.

It seemed like their understanding of the gods was spread across the central continent in general, anyway, at least judging from the reactions of the other envoys."

Brody let out a loud yawn, clearly bored by all of this right now, "You got any idea of how to deal with that? Cause I doubt they'll just start believing you if you keep saying it. Faith ain't that simple."

"I'm not going to deal with it," Eisen replied bluntly, "Frankly, I don't think I need to. As long as we can stop their shitty demands from going through, and as long as we can stop any further 'favors', it really doesn't matter what they believe. At the very least, everyone seems to understand that Ambriel and Satel are the real deal."

"... We may have been banished, but out divine auras can't be suppressed that easily. Any cleric would be able to tell what we are, even if they are novices," Ambriel pointed out, tightly squeezing Satel's hand, "But... we could use that to our benefit as well. We can try to convince them of the truth, of the fact that the gods did walk this world in the past.

Something that even I, as an angel, didn't believe until recently."

Eisen looked at the angel, quickly shaking his head, "No. I don't think that's a good idea. The main reason you two are here is to make sure the Holy Empire doesn't fully act out, and so that we can reasonably shut them down when they try to. If we push things too far, things might flip the other direction and they'll believe that you're only telling lies.

And frankly, you two are the easiest way to verify our identities to everyone in this room right now, so we can't jeopardize that."

"B-But I... isn't it better to tell them the truth? Isn't that the most important part?" Ambriel asked, slowly trying to build up a bit of confidence again. While Eisen was glad to see that they were trying to get better, bit by bit, he also had to make the priorities clear.

"No, Ambriel. That is not the most important part about this all. The most important part is to ensure that this war will not happen. That a proper treaty will be signed," the old man explained, "If we need to, we can try to re-educate the people of the central continent later on, but that's really, really not important right now."

Ambriel looked back at Eisen, carefully nodding their head. They understood what the old man was saying, but it was still claerly bothering them somehow. Like they were trying to make up for their mistakes of the past, but Eisen was telling them not to.

The old man understood what they were worried about, but at the same time, this wasn't the best moment to talk about this and properly explain to Ambriel why they shouldn't push things.

Of course, Eisen wasn't telling them not to tell the truth; otherwise, Eisen would never have let Martira explain that she was a descendant of a goddess, nor would he himself have explained the context further. But it was one thing to put the facts out there, and another to insist on re-educating the envoys on their theology.

Not to mention, as Eisen had explained earlier, if the envoys lost trust in the words of Satel and Ambriel, much bigger issues could come from that. The two were needed as insurance so that all the envoys fully believed in Eisen and the others' identities, so that this meeting could proceed as smoothly as possible.

And at the very least, it was proceeding. Before long, the two sides had finished discussing each others' offers and demands, and were now ready to come back together. Eisen deactivated the barrier and glanced over to the central continent's side, trying to gauge their expressions. There were really just two people that he had to look at.

Aaron and Van Horgh. And while the former was sitting there with an almost relieved smile, the latter was practically biting down on his tongue, squeezing his hand into a tight fist. And that meant that, as a whole, the envoys from the central continent came to a decision that not only Eisen, but the envoys from the giants' country would be happy with.

Or at least, happier than with the initial list of demands and offers.

"Alright, are both sides ready to continue?" Eisen asked, getting a quick nod from both of the sides' representatives, before the old man looked over at the Irngrad, "In that case, please let us hear your initial thoughts. Then we will hear from the central continent, before I will open things up for the free discussion."

The two sides quickly explained the issues they had with each others' openings, making initial counter-offers and demands. And of course, the Irngrad once more made it very clear that there would be no slave laborers sent over to the central continent. However, instead, he did seem to be happy with the idea of both temporarily sending and hosting workers as a sort of cultural exchange.

Meanwhile, the central continent seemed to be falling back on that issue for the time being, though it didn't seem like they fully gave up on it. But more importantly, Aaron said something that showed that this whole thing was moving into the right direction.

"And lastly, we are willing to discuss the acceptance of all giantfolk as an 'honorary people', giving you at least similar, if not the exact same, rights as people acknowledged by the sytem," he explained, almost ecstatic to say so. Immediately, the giants started talking to each other, surprised that it was so easy to get them all to agree.

But before they could start talking to each other too much, Eisen spoke up.

"Now, it is time for us to move on to the open forum. Please, everyone speak up as you may, but try to be cordial. I will step in and guide the conversation as necessary," Eisen said, mentally preparing himself for what was about to happen.