Do ratmen dream of the sacred tree of spirits?

Chapter 78 Dawn City

Narns Empire, Dawn City, Holy Kingdom Consulate in Dawn Province of Narns Empire

After several rounds of negotiations with the Duke of Dawn Province, Count Arlin and his entourage finally achieved some results.

"Everyone, I've checked it several times using clairvoyance and spirit world divination, and there's nothing wrong."

However, you should also carefully inspect this place and familiarize yourself with its layout; no one has been here for many years.

"Yes!" Sloan, Paul, and Frantin answered in unison.

Slo knew that Earl Arlin was far more powerful than them, and since he had inspected the place, it meant there were basically no problems.

The purpose of having them check again is to familiarize themselves with the area.

—This is the long-abandoned consulate of the Holy Elf Kingdom in Dawn Province.

This place was shut down ten years ago after the war between the Holy Kingdom and the Nanes Empire.

All of the Holy Kingdom's consulates in the Narns Empire have been closed. In recent years, only the Holy Kingdom's embassy in Narns City has been operating normally.

Of course, Slo also knew that this was not the Narns Empire closing its consulate, but rather an action taken by the Holy Kingdom to proactively avoid risks after the start of the war.

Ten years ago, after the Holy Kingdom evacuated a large number of its citizens stranded in Nunns, it ordered these properties to be "sealed off," and the staff also left the area.

Otherwise, who knows what those barbaric Nunns might do to the Holy Kingdom's embassy?

Later, although the Holy Kingdom won the battle, its relations with the Narns Empire essentially ceased, because the Holy Kingdom's victory was a passive response and it did not gain much benefit on Narns's own territory.

If these consulates had been reopened a few years ago, they might have become targets again for the Naons, who are extremely hostile to the Holy Land.

Slo also felt that even during the negotiations with Dawn Province regarding the employment of workers, the nobles of the Narns Empire seemed completely indifferent to those low-status workers. Compared to them, they probably felt that "face" was the most important thing.

As Slo used his clairvoyance and spiritual perception to examine every corner of the consulate, his thoughts drifted.

Not long after, the three returned to Yarlin, but they couldn't find anything wrong with the examination.

"The task of reopening the consulate in Dawn Province has been basically completed."

This is also a signal of thawing diplomacy to the Nunns Empire, which we need to take seriously...

Let's go check out the liaison office in the basement first.

The group arrived at the basement of the consulate's office.

This is a secret safe house, and also a communications room equipped with instruments capable of communicating across oceans.

"Not bad, those Nunns people did a decent job on the surface in this regard."

They only searched this place once, but I could see the spiritual traces of magical searches left over from many years ago.

Thankfully, they didn't damage the facilities here...

"Slo, you help me operate this communication device."

Count Arlin and Sloe operated together a huge spiritual instrument in front of them, which occupied an entire wall.

"This instrument, which requires a large amount of spiritual materials, was quite advanced even now, let alone ten years ago. There are only a handful of such instruments in the entire Holy Kingdom."

"But basically, only messengers can operate it." Count Arlin explained to everyone as he operated the communication device's panel.

Slo took out a lot of spiritual materials and filled them into the instrument.

"By the way, Slo," Count Arlin suddenly said:

"Didn't your Church of the God of Death set up a remote information processing system a couple of years ago? It was pretty good."

Our Church of the God of War has also purchased some remote information processing systems and sent several messengers to participate in their maintenance and repair.

I don't know if its distance is sufficient for communication between the Holy Kingdom and Dawn Province.

To be honest, the device I'm operating right now is quite complex. Although it's simple for me, it's rather troublesome for a typical messenger who needs to learn a specific third-tier operating technique beforehand. Plus, it consumes a lot of spiritual materials.

"Lord Yarlin, haha, yes, that's the most talented young man our church has produced in recent years."

We're also considering promoting this remote information processing system; however, although lower-level superhumans can operate it, it doesn't consume many spiritual materials.

However, maintaining this system requires a large number of messengers to the shallow spirit realm, which is still quite challenging...

Oh right, let me think... his name is... Victor, that's right, Victor Zaitsev. This is the result of his doctoral studies in spiritual studies at the First University of the Holy Kingdom.

I recall seeing this remarkably talented young man speak at a regular meeting of the Church of the God of Death in the Temple of Eternal Rest…”

"Zaytsev?" Count Arlin asked.

"Slo, is he a member of the Zaitsev family, the court counts?"

As the chief secretary to His Majesty the Holy Kingdom of the Elves, Earl Arlin is very sensitive to certain surnames.

"Your Excellency, I am not aware of that. Although Viktor Zaitsev and I belong to the Church of the God of Death, I am not familiar with him."

"I remember now," Count Arlin continued:

"This name was mentioned once in a report given to us by the Foreign Affairs Committee before we came to the Narns Empire."

What a coincidence!

He and a bishop named Andrei were the chief officials of the Lorraine Territory in the Eastern Region. It was they who first established a poor school in the Holy Kingdom that accepted the children of employees of the Narns Empire. Didn't we mention it to the Duke of Dawn Province when we met him recently...?

The two chatted casually while activating their communication devices, while Paul and Frantin listened silently to their conversation.

"Lord Yarlin, the communication with the spirit world has been established." After some operation, this large instrument has been revitalized after ten years.

A muffled static came through, and Earl Arlin tentatively said:

"This is Artoria Arlin, from the Diplomatic Council of the Holy Elf Kingdom."

After a while, a clear voice came from the other end:

"This is the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Holy Elf Kingdom. Receiving. Lord Yarlin, congratulations on successfully activating this spirit realm communication device."

"I need to speak with the Foreign Secretary about what has happened recently."

After a while, a male voice came:

"Artoria, thank you for your hard work. Please tell me about what has happened in Dawn Province recently."

"Your Excellency, we have been in Dawn Province for several days now."

I have spoken with Duke Nicholas Alexander of the Province of Dawn several times.

To be honest, they were rather rude.

It's hard to say these Nunns people are genuinely interested in negotiating with us. On the very first day, they wanted us to target the poor of Nunns, and the Duke also proposed many unrealistic rights protections for the employees in Nunns.

By the way, the Nunns Empire will likely send about 500,000 able-bodied men to the Holy Kingdom as laborers this year…”