"Your majesty, clearly the situation in Ferigo is extremely dire," said the envoy from Nefario, wearing a solemn look. "Let us not waste time and directly deal with the matter at hand. A hidden force has taken action against Ferigo and assassinated your predecessor, as well as many of your peers. While we currently suspect demonic cultivators from a rising demonic sect, we cannot deal with that matter until the situation here is stabilized. You yourself have claimed that Ferigo is even having problems with bandits. The situation is going from bad to worse.
"The noble nation of Nefario is already dealing with the savage beasts that constantly invade us from the neighboring Mystic Forest. We cannot afford a neighbor becoming a den of criminals and demonic cultivators, as that will cause us to divert resources away from the forest. As such, the royal family had decided to act preemptively. So long as you give us permission, we can have three battalions cross the border and help stabilize the situation here. We can route out the criminal element and investigate the demonic cultivators, all while keeping the citizens of Ferigo safe."
"The nation of Havi is also ready to pledge two battalions."
"Solis can also send in four. Fear not, we will not allow evil to fester in these prosperous lands."
"How magnanimous," said Lex, as if he was really praising them. Yet the look on his face, and the tone of his voice said otherwise.
"I'm afraid even if I were to accept your help, it would not be so simple for your armies to come in," he said, looking at the envoy from Nefario. "It seems a mortal trader who was using the river to cross into Havi transporting a shipment of Red Lily powder was attacked by bandits as well. As a result, the entire shipment was destroyed and the river was polluted with the powder. The entire river has become a quarantine zone and the cleanup process will take a while."
Although the river was heading from Ferigo to Havi, it crossed the border of Ferigo before heading there, so the excuse was quite believable. Moreover, Red Lily powder was an extremely unstable compound which was used in the production of various medicines, but on its own was quite poisonous.
On the surface, everything seemed fine. But besides making medicine, Red Lily powder could also be used to make an extremely strong irritant which was known to drive beasts crazy and attack with abandon. Nefario, as a nation, was quite sensitive to anything that could aggravate beasts, for they faced attacks from wild beasts throughout the year due to the border they shared with the Mystic Forest, a forest that was home to an endless number of wild beasts.
In truth there was no such contamination, at this point at least. Lex had ordered the powder spilled into the river, also through his newly established 'bandit unit'. Although agriculture in Ferigo would suffer because of this, so would Havi. Moreover, Nefario would begin to suspect Havi was creating those irritants to aggravate beast attacks against it. It was a win-win.
This time, Lex suppressed his smile, as he was supposed to have no idea of the insinuations of the powder, and was merely pointing something out. The envoy had to believe he uncovered this plot on his own.
With such a start, the meeting with the envoys went on for hours. Though they made no headway with Ferigo itself, countless conspiracies had been subtly uncovered during this time, slowly affecting the unity that the envoys came with.
They studied one another from the corners of their eyes, and took mental notes to report as soon as they returned. By now, they were not even thinking of the merit they could gain by bringing this information home. Instead, they were worried about the imminent war that seemed to have been brewing on their borders, all without their knowledge.
The envoy from Solis, which was the richest of all the countries here, slowly began to believe that in truth, Ferigo, Nefario and Havi all were secretly working against it, and in actuality planned to ambush the four battalions they were originally planning on sending.
The ministers, on the other hand, mostly had no idea what was happening. They only kept wondering if they had missed out on some important news, for they had no idea about half the things the King mentioned.
Like this, the first day of negotiations ended, and the envoys were escorted, separately, to their quarters. A full night would be plenty of time for them to reflect on what they had heard today, and begin drawing conclusions. In the meantime, Lex inspected the poison to be sent towards the Havi retainers. It seemed quite potent.
With a smile he nodded his head, and then returned to the hall to have a meeting with the ministers. During this night he had to pass on the plan for developing their country for the next few years so the direction of their development would focus on the right path.
As for the continuation of the meeting with the envoys in the morning, it would never happen. When they woke up, they would be delivered news that due to the declining situation, Ferigo had entered under martial law, and the King had already left to command his armies against the bandits.
That would be enough for them to understand that Ferigo did not intend on cooperating, leaving tem no option but to depart, and quickly.
The reason Lex was doing all this so quickly was because he was certain that as soon as he set things up enough, and put all his plans in motion, the tower would consider his task complete and pull him back. He did not have time to waste on such stupid things as babysitting a country.
Speaking of which, he wondered what happened to Fenrir. He had entered the tower with it, but had been separated afterwards. Was it also sent to save someone by the tower?