Chapter 1325 - 1243: Alliance
After hearing the news that Charles had been assassinated, Horn abandoned his half-finished lunch and immediately went in person to offer his condolences.
This was no small matter: one of the three heads of state had almost been killed on his own turf!
And it wasn’t even an assassination by vampires, but by a domestic youth from the Holy Alliance.
The Cheka had already investigated clearly: the assassin was a retired veteran, a graduate of Joan of Arc Castle Middle School, with a clean background and no contact with any spies.
As for the motive for his assassination, it was purely to avenge Falan’s Holy Sect brothers.
That was where things got troublesome.
Because Charles would definitely demand a reasonable explanation, and a Flanlaya Spy could dig out the truth.
If Horn tried to block Charles, that too would be a kind of "truth."
If Charles, in a fit of anger, blurted out some inappropriate remarks that were taken as a political stance, the triple alliance would break apart before it was even formed.
Hence Horn had no choice but to hurry over—this was itself a kind of political statement.
Sometimes, being a politician was just this exhausting: every word you said and every move you made had to be accounted for.
But when Horn stepped out of the carriage and rushed to the inn converted from the Count’s suburban villa, he saw Charles in the small garden, calmly drinking afternoon tea.
It was the little Attendant at his side who was puffed up with anger, glaring at Horn.
Judging from the look of it, Charles VIII was not overly agitated, and only then did Horn relax.
"Brother Charles comes to the Holy Alliance and ends up suffering something like this. I’ve failed to be a proper host."
Charles, all enthusiasm, greeted Horn as if he were the host instead and invited him to sit and drink tea: "If the enemy is against me, that only proves I’m doing the right thing!"
"You think it was the enemy?"
"Other than vampires and certain half-baked nobles, who else would do such a thing?" Charles said carelessly as he picked up a silver pot and poured Horn some black tea.
Hearing this, Horn understood that Charles knew the bigger picture.
Though the tone was warm, Horn could still hear a faintly sardonic edge beneath his words.
"To be honest with you, Brother Charles," Horn said with a helpless sigh as he sat down. "We’ve already identified the assassin. He’s a Holy Alliance youth with no ties to outside enemies."
"How can a sparrow comprehend an eagle’s plans?" Charles handed Horn the teacup. "There’s no need to haggle with such fools—they’ll only ruin our grand design!"
Horn had made his position clear, and Charles immediately responded in kind.
Cradling the teacup, the Saint’s Grandson’s mind was whirring at full speed.
This matter may have started with an assassination, but what made it truly thorny was that Holy Alliance youth himself.
In terms of his starting point, he wasn’t wrong—seen from the Holy Sect’s perspective, Charles was a demon.
But from the broader perspective of humanity as a whole, Charles was still an indispensable figure.
If you took Charles down, the one who replaced him might well be someone like Duke Rabon or the Queen Mother.
Charles was at least a King who understood reason; change him for someone else and, leaving everything else aside, how much time would be wasted all over again?
Time was precious.
"What do you plan to do with that Holy Alliance youth?" Before Charles could speak, the little Attendant at his side couldn’t hold back anymore.
"Is that how you talk in front of the Pope?" Charles lifted a foot and kicked the Attendant on the backside, making him stagger forward.
The Attendant clutched his rear, but only glared and backed off to one side.
Seeing Horn rubbing his chin in thought, Charles chuckled and said, "What’s the point of killing such a benighted fool? It would only increase his fame. I’ve no wish to play the villain."
Charles hadn’t secured the throne of King without means; in just a few words, he not only gave Horn a way to save face, but also left an opening to talk about compensation.
Horn felt his head throb.
Don’t be fooled by how united the Holy Alliance looked now; it still had its political camps—radicals and conservatives, the capital-and-industry Mountain Faction, the agriculture-based Plain Faction.
And because of the Holy Alliance’s special system of merged legislature and administration, each faction had both an in-government and an out-of-government wing.
This assassination, for instance, had been engineered by radical monks.
They believed the Holy Alliance shouldn’t be cooperating with the other two countries. If the Royal Court was an enemy, then weren’t the Falan Kingdom and Norn Kingdom also enemies?
With the Holy Alliance’s now-invincible military might and its terrifyingly advanced system, they could easily take on twenty at once and simply auto-attack Falan, Leia, Norn, and the Royal Court into the ground.
Horn disagreed with this view because at bottom it was gambling with the nation’s fate—a dereliction of responsibility to all its citizens.
Under normal circumstances, this was the last resort of last resorts.
The primary contradiction at the moment was foreign invasion and the risk of national destruction and genocide; temporary cooperation was an unavoidable necessity.
Horn had originally thought to keep the radicals around, for convenience if they needed to make a sudden about-face in the future.
He had already spoken with several major leaders of the radical factions (the radicals had their own internal factions) and had come to an agreement.
At the same time, the Holy Alliance’s Truth Daily had repeatedly clarified the relevant issues.
They were only cooperating temporarily; it did not mean they would cease to be enemies henceforth.
It should have been a watertight arrangement, yet something still went wrong.
In hindsight, he’d still been too optimistic; they would have to clamp down first, even if it meant being cursed for it.
"That monk, and the other monkish youths involved, I’ll first have a talk with them, and then send them to the Black Legion."
Right now the Black Legion was under siege by Royal Court troops, with Branded City on the brink of collapse.
If these Holy Alliance youths thought vampires were easy prey and that they ought to support their Holy Sect brothers, then let them see the battlefield for themselves.
Let’s see whether they truly cared about the Holy Sect’s ideals, or were just treating them as a fashion accessory.
"Besides that, as a gesture of goodwill, the Holy Alliance will send Falan a batch of high-quality Holy Favor Seeds every month, and will lower tariffs on Falan luxury goods."
"I’ve no objections," Charles shrugged. "Let’s do that."
"The Holy Alliance has already made its stance clear, and you’ve seen the unrest inside the Holy Alliance," Horn took a sip of tea. "Brother Charles, is there any way you can help us?"
Although Charles had gained benefits from the Holy Alliance through this assassination incident, in essence it was still Falan begging the Holy Alliance for help.
So Charles had to make a show of his own attitude as well, otherwise the cooperation would seem less than sincere.
Just as Horn was suppressing the radicals for the sake of cooperation, Charles also had to make a gesture.
In the end, the two of them talked from noon until afternoon before they barely finished discussing the relevant matters.
Charles would call for a reduction of land rent at home, commute hanging sentences for rebellious peasants to exile, and allow citizens to form Brotherhoods under City Hall supervision.
Besides striking a pose, this move was also meant to alleviate Falan’s now-intense internal contradictions.
An assassination incident that had almost whipped up a huge storm was thus quietly smoothed over by Charles and Horn working together.
Another week passed, and once the news had gradually faded from the public’s view, the newly crowned King Norn, Yekas Hausen, finally arrived in Xia Lvcheng.
After three days of closed-door meetings, the three most powerful decision-makers in the Eastern Continent jointly attended a press conference.
Reporters from all over the Eastern Continent flocked to a small park outside Xia Lvcheng to meet the three big shots.
All three held supreme power, yet they were remarkably amiable; no tables were set, just three chairs.
Horn sat in the middle, with the two Kings on either side.
In terms of legal theory, there was no problem at all—Horn was the Pope, after all.
But reporters familiar with the "no detail is too small in diplomacy" maxim saw in this arrangement a distinction in relative status and power.
Not much was discussed at the press conference—only a rough outline of the treaty; the formal documents were not released until the following day.
In view of the vampire invasion, Pope Horn, King of Falan Charles, and King Norn Yekas Hausen formally signed the Triple Alliance Treaty.
An attack on one would be treated as an attack on all.
The three countries would share what they had, grant each other military passage rights and grain-sharing rights, share some alchemical technology and clockwork-gun technology, and cease all border disputes.
At the same time, the treaty set up a General Co-Administration Office in the Holy Alliance, which curious reporters dubbed the Fourth Aier Republic.
After the meeting, the three decision-makers departed one after another over the next three days.
On the first day of July, the ry Court Barracks finally issued an order: from south to north, from west to east, a dozen new training camps were opened.
At the same time, the officer corps from the existing barracks immediately left their bases and moved into the new camps.
Townsfolk across various towns were surprised to find that the proprietors of their local Old Soldier’s Barbecue, Old Soldier’s Barber, Old Soldier’s Furniture, and similar shops had all vanished.
Upon asking, they learned that these owners had left early, heading to military camps all over.
By August, first Norn, then Falan, and finally the Holy Alliance announced that they were entering a state of readiness or a state of war.
The peace treaty signed at the beginning of the year was already on the verge of collapse.