＜Infinite Dendrogram＞

□ [Brilliant Cavalry] Ray Sterling

As soon as Cardina talked about it, Azrite's expression showed a different cloudy way than what we had talked about the two countries before. I have a tough eye for what you're conceiving.

That appearance seemed, in short, to see Cardina as an enemy.

"... I know very little about that country. So I only have the answer 'I don't know' with me now"

If I insist... I was indirectly involved in that case of the Gozmaids Bandits, so much so.

Is there a strong negative impression, although it is slight at the moment?

"Is there something in Cardina?

"... there is no darkness behind that country, like Legendary. I don't have the most recent problems, like Gran Barroa."

If that's all, it doesn't look bad as an ally.

"After the last defeat, even the dispatch of four was proposed by that country."

"Four!?"

I've heard that Cardina has nine < super >, about half of them.

If that's true, the kingdom doubles.

Other forces will be able to fill holes with dispatches from Cardina.

"That, too, is a proposal for an alliance unrelated to the matrimonial relatives. backlash against the Empire in union in the Kingdom and Cardina. On the condition that Cardina acquires imperial territory and technology, and that the kingdom reclaims the area taken by the Empire."

The kingdom can take back what it lost in the great power of Cardina.

That's just a delicious story......

"... what is the cost of mobilizing the or?

"Cardina will have it all. And the cost of hiring a master in the kingdom."

The story is too delicious.

From the kingdom, we can get back what we lost without any bitterness.

But why......

I feel something terribly thin from this suggestion......

"... but you didn't choose, did you?

"Yes."

"How could that be?

"When things went as Cardina suggested... there was too much Cardina could get."

First and foremost, Drife's excellent mechanical skills and territory.

While the mechanical technology that characterizes the drife is further developed, the land will also have an extra use compared to the desert area of Cardina.

In addition, the Imperial Territory is also buried in the Karcheratan. What you get from it is also very large.

Second, the accession of the Imperial < Master >.

Even if the Empire is gone, the Imperial < Master > will remain. There will also be a large number of them operating across other countries.

It is Cardina who will rule the imperial territory that they choose as their first destination.

Cardina will also continue to pay the broken rewards presented by the Empire to the Master.

In the first place, this alliance also says it will send four Super and Master armies.

When it comes to what Cardina damages in this alliance, it's about a reward to the Master, but Cardina has enough money to rot.

Once Hugo talked about the Empire experiencing a financial crisis with a reward to the Master, but I guess the Empire could also pay for the blood reflexes with a nostril.

Thirdly, the disintegration of the siege net where Cardina is currently located.

Currently Cardina is besieged by the three western countries to the west and the Yellow River to the east, and the sea to the south by Gran Baroa and five countries.

If we defeat Drife here and form an alliance with the kingdom, 40% of our enemies will disappear.

In that case, it is possible to invade other countries, such as the Yellow River and Legendary, with an even higher number depending on the flow of the Dryfe merger.

In other words, it's no exaggeration to say that if you form an alliance, Cardina takes almost all the benefits with no risk.

Ultimately, it can even be the end of becoming a united continental nation while this first momentum of victory remains.

It was also natural for Azrite to be suspicious.

"Still, there must have been a way to work with Cardina."

He who drowns also grabs the straw. I can't choose without a choice.

It would naturally have been possible for a kingdom in distress to do so.

"But the kingdom... it's not the only choice yet. Because it's not broken yet."

Azrite looked me in the eye for some reason when she shrugged like that.

It was as if through my eyes I was remembering something I once saw.

"Azrite?"

"... it's time to get back to work"

Then let's just say it's time.

"... thanks for coming today. As you told me, Elizabeth and I are going to tell you everything again."

"Right."

"Thanks to you... I think I can do one thing for sure"

"Fine. Because I just didn't want to feel bad about the aftertaste."

That's what I said, and I left Azrite's room.

◇ ◇ ◇

□ Welcome Hotel

Dropping off behind Ray leaving the room, Ultimia exhales one thing after the door closes.

"You're the reason the kingdom didn't break, Ray."

Ultimia thinks. "The kingdom did not break because Ray expressed hope to Tian of the kingdom in Gideon that day," he said.

Many nobles watched that battle, which was also relayed to the Wang capital.

The trust of the nobles who saw it and their hope for the future of the kingdom were painfully unbroken.

So the kingdom was the easiest, but not the choice that would be full of poison.

If Ultimia's guess is… what lies ahead of the easiest choice is the future in which Cardina will eventually be the champion of the continent.

And the future of a kingdom that will become a nation or be lost under it.

Just early or late, and the result itself is equal to losing to the Empire... worse than that.

Still, if there was no hope, I might have chosen to help now.

In fact, many aristocrats claim that we should coordinate with Cardina.

While many of them claim in their circumstantial judgment that they can "surely beat the Empire on the easiest path," Ultimia believes that there are also a significant number of people who are connected to Cardina.

In fact, some documents have been found from the mansion of the Marquis of Borozel, which was recently cut off in a separate case, concerning a back deal with a merchant in Cardina.

Cardina seeks to root for the kingdom nobility through a focal point called the merchant.

"The enemy who can cross spears in the war in front of us is the Empire, but the enemy who tries to stab him from his back is Cardina. You'd better think so."

In fact, Cardina has moved strangely since Ultimia turned down her alliance on the terms she told Ray.

We have asked for an amendment with regard to the Trade Pact, and there has also been a slight change in circulation.

That much would still be good.

Worst of all, she thought it could also be possible to assassinate Ultimia to stir up a sense of crisis and support the Cardinian connoisseur nobility to have Elizabeth or Theresia sign an alliance with Cardina as the king's deputy.

"That witch...... Cardina's chancellor, La Plus Fantasma, could do that much"

Nor did I tell Ray because it was an unsubstantiated story even as Ultimia, but the invasion of the Empire also threatens to see Cardina pulling the thread behind it.

Before and after the replacement of the Empire, Cardina is beginning to curb food exports to countries.

The face says "changes in the system with the increase of", but Ultimia does not fall to her heart.

In addition, information has recently come in that the interior of the Empire is in a state of great famine.

Strangely enough, the intelligence agent who sent it to the Imperial side didn't give you this report. It was only because Ultimia sent a request to the < Master > that the internal state of the Empire was finally discovered.

Either way, the food export suspension in Cardina overlaps with the great famine, and the Empire is in distress.

Alternatively, Ultimia thinks that Cardina may have stopped food exports because the Empire is starving.

To steer the Empire so that it moves in search of food like this now.

The empire cannot keep up with food production in its own country due to famine.

One of our neighbours, Gran Baroa, can only take seafood, and much of the food relies on imports from other countries as well as the Empire.

Another neighbor, the Kingdom, is breaking up its alliance with the Empire after the replacement of the King.

Legendary lies ahead of the kingdom that has destroyed its alliance, and the Yellow River is beyond the great desert of Cardina.

Ultimia can also understand that the only way for the Empire to get food was to make a southbound trip to the kingdom.

But I'm not convinced.

It is against the empire that has invaded - against its own country.

In the first place, Ultimia considers it odd to destroy the alliance by the kingdom.

Why did her father, the King, and [the Great Sage], who was also an adviser in politics, forsake his alliance with the Empire?

Ultimia has also heard rumors that the current emperor took the throne of the king by killing all his relatives but his own sister. It's understandable to risk it.

But for one reason at a time I even went so far as to destroy the alliance...... I don't feel like she has anything else.

"... it's troublesome."

Cardina's move, one case of inexplicable intelligence, and the destruction of the alliance by the kingdom.

It was as if the intentions of more than one person were involved and caused a war between the kingdom and the empire.

All I can say at the moment is that one of them is not the chairman of Cardina, who is also known as a witch and a monster.

"... a parasite is better than a witch."

Parasites...... The Dependent Moon Night makes the kingdom make a bitter choice for the benefit and protection of its religion, but it also brings benefits to the kingdom. In other words, she thinks it's a parasite of beneficial worms, and so on.

But the Cardina witch is different.

Ultimia has faced each other in the diplomatic arena only once before.

Her sentiment at that time was "a bucket of sweet honey at first, instigating, and finally squeezing everything out".

"If you don't even pay attention to Cardina's trends from now on, the situation may exceed my assumption of the worst...... my head hurts"

Even though it's just a matter with the Empire, Ultimia sighs.

The empire has had no movement since that calcellatan.

He said he moved a lot of power, including super, to secure that monument, but he hasn't taken any approach to the kingdom since.

Has the earlier action caused problems inside the Empire, or is it a precursor to something significant?

…………

Even if there was some plot, the kingdom and the empire exchanged spears, a lot of blood flowed, a pattern that could even be said to be impossible to turn back already.

Ultimia was convinced, along with bitter thoughts, that nothing was going to end as early as this.

"... Claudia. I wonder what your brother is going to do now."

of her friends in her studies...... she sighed again as she called her best friend's name.

◇ ◇ ◇

□ [Brilliant Cavalry] Ray Sterling

I'm done talking to Azrite, so I decided to take a stroll around the city.

It's a corner festival, so if you don't enjoy it, it's a loss.... there may be new trouble tomorrow.

"So you're going around with someone today?

Nemesis asks, waking up and coming out of the crest.

Well, the truth is, he was up in the middle of that conversation.

I just thought it would be easier for me and the two of us to talk azulite too, so I seemed to hold back inside the crest.

This guy is surprisingly caring, isn't he? Except when it comes to bulimia.

"Mmm. But we all have plans."

Azrite is at work, seniors are logged out, and Luke is dating Xia.

Marie just got in touch, but Elizabeth and Tsanron are going on a date, so that escort and tail. The same seems to be true for Liliana and Xuan Yu.

By the way, my brother also said "I have plans" in [Telepathic Cuffs].

I hear the duel rankers are helping out with the festival event.

Naturally, the only person around the festival is the nemesis next door.

"I wonder if the erasure method left me."

"No, even if I didn't, I wanted to go around with Nemesis today"

"Right. I was just... Huh?

Because I had a consultation, but I wonder if Nemesis, who now has a frightened face, also had something to do.

"What does Nemesis want?

"No, I just had a few things I wanted to buy."

"What do you want to buy?

Is it a love festival limited edition sweet or something?

"Your Lord's everyday clothes"

…………

... Well, there's trouble with armor all the time when you walk around the city... okay?

"It's a problem before it bothers me. I'm not attentive, but it's a noisy story to wear armor all the time in the city in the first place, don't you think?

It makes sense.

So today, I'm going to go buy clothes while watching the festival?

Speaking of which, how will the others get around this festival?

To be continued