Dragon Princess Will Do Her Best To Prevent The World's Destruction

Chapter 24: The Markiah Agreement

The other party's reaction to my offer was pretty much expected, they were all expressions of surprise. I expected that much. After all, that offer was thrown out of the left field. Heck, I even saw a brief flash of discomposure across Tenko's face. Rin had a bit more difficulty in hiding her expression unlike Tenko, but she soon returned to her indifferent stare.

"Do elaborate, Your Majesty," the principal asked, but he was already trembling.

Was my proposal grounds for fear? Was it!? Well, whatever. He might have misunderstood my intentions of asking that, after all. I mean, who wouldn't be suspicious when someone who had the advantage in a talk suddenly offered you something positive?

"If you are afraid of being invaded due to one of your main transport routes being crippled, then we can remedy that," I drew their attention to the map, using my finger to trace the would be border of Eden once this negotiation went through. "Once this territory is ceded to us, we will share a massive border with the other nations."

"This is where the defense pact comes into play. Although I had described it as such, it is a pact with limitations. We will only interfere if any offensive declaration of war is made by a nation from this side, where we will be sandwiched in between. In this case, our military will effectively fill up the weakness of a demilitarized zone, while keeping the threat of an invasion low."

Although, that last bit was merely an excuse, "As a result, any war that would be declared on you from the opposite side, the west and north areas, we will not step in. After all, your army will not have any issues moving since the demilitarized province will not be in the way."

Rin spoke up, being the strategist here, "Of course, we expect this to go both ways. Were we to be invaded by a foreign power, we expect you to come to our aid."

Everyone wanted to shout and retort to Rin's nonchalant statement, but they kept their cool. Although their help definitely wasn't needed, Rin probably proposed this aspect to let them keep their pride or something. Still, I think this had the opposite result, considering we nearly wiped out their army off the face of this world.

Well, I better keep the conversation moving, "Anyway, this defensive pact, as implied, will only be be triggered if either of us is in a defensive war. If you are to invade the countries beyond our territory, then we will merely be observers."

Minister one said, "To confirm again. This defense pact will not apply if an attack were to come from the countries to the north or west?"

Well, I could understand why they wanted to ask that. They probably understood our military power by now, and they wanted to secure our assistance by any means. In fact, I wasn't against that.

It was good that we were making good progress on our international relations, after all. Still, it would be shady of me to simply just give them that. I had to level it up to a proper defensive pact, while under the pretext of something.

"If you let us station troops on those borders of yours as well, then perhaps I will consider including all defensive wars, and not just limited to the ones near our border," I stated.

I thought that was a fine idea. We basically had the right to station troops in their territory already, because of the military access clause. If they did not object to that clause, then it was probably not something as important to them. If so, I could simply use that as a 'price' for signing a defensive pact. Yes! I was on the path of forging friendly ties! And yet...

Why was the atmosphere in the room getting so heavy!? Why was the principal quivering so hard that the entire table was shaking!? Why did the king and his ministers' expression all darken to the point where I comically wouldn't be able to see their faces!? Why was Rin grinning like a madwoman!? Why was there an extremely dangerous glint in Tenko's eyes!?