Chapter 286: Sovereign

‘Ayteke-Bo’ is the name of the country as well as the name of the city.

In other words, that one city can be considered the whole country, a city-state.

Ayteke-Bo is surrounded by high walls, and it seemed that even if monsters attacked, they would be able to stop them from entering the city.

As a diplomatic mission, the Kingdom Mission entered Ayteke-Bo without any special inspection.

The city of Ayteke-Bo is divided into east and west by a fairly large river running through the center.

The aristocratic district centering on the lord’s mansion spreads out on the west bank, and the urban area spreads out on the east bank.

All the inns were in the east bank area.

Nonetheless, there was no such thing as a huge accommodation facility like where the Kingdom mission stayed when they stopped over in the Empire.

While they do have trade with the Empire’s outer cities … by the standards of the Central Nations, it was quite small.

Even the largest inn could only accommodate about forty people.

Therefore, the Kingdom mission was divided into a total of thirteen inns.

In the beginning, they planned for each country to take four lodgings each for the envoys of the Kingdom, the Empire, and the Union, and the remaining two lodgings were for smaller country envoys…

However, at the will of Hugh McGrath, the head of the Kingdom mission, the Kingdom mission decided to occupy 13 of the 14 houses.

Narrow-mindedness?

No such thing!

That was also for the sake of the Kingdom… it must be… it should be… hopefully…

The manager of the civil officials was Chief Negotiator Ignis, but the escorting adventurers’ manager was Delong, the leader of the B-rank party ‘Coffee Maker’.

‘Room 10’ was also a B-rank party, but ‘Coffee Maker’ was their senior among B-rank parties, and above all, they were one of the parties that had completed the most escort requests among the adventurers of the Kingdom.

Of course, Niels and others in ‘Room 10’ didn’t find any issue with that.

Partly also because the two parties had built a good relationship ever since they teamed up with Coffee Maker for the escort to Whitnash, which was the first escort request for Room 10.

As expected, it wasn’t the same as regular escorting work where the work ended the moment they enter the city. Such as on the way to the Western Countries, when they stayed in Gilsbach in the Empire, they couldn’t consider their work done after entering the city.

They couldn’t know what would happen in the cities.

Regardless of after arriving in the Western Countries, they were always on escorting duty the entire way.

It was also the same when they were at the inn.

“I’m sorry, Niels. I’ll entrust the guard duty for the ‘Enticing Moonlit Night’ inn to ‘Room 10’.”

“Yes, Mr. Delong. Leave it to us.”

“Hey… like I said before, we’re the same B-rank, so please don’t call me that…”

Niels still had a mischievous air, but he is the type to respect his seniors.

“As planned, we’ll be guarding the ‘Spring Sun’ inn, so if anything happens, gather over there.”

“Got it.”

‘Spring Sun’ was the largest inn in Ayteke-Bo, so the leader Hugh and the chief negotiator Ignis were supposed to stay there.

It was, so to speak, the most important base for the escort mission.

Delong’s professionalism was evident when he volunteered to take on the most troublesome place.

His actions might be proof of Abel’s training on the adventurers of the City of Rune from three years back.

Ayteke-Bo, audience room.

There, an audience was held for the Knightley Kingdom Delegation by Lord Zuransu, the lord of Ayteke-Bo.

“So, what will the Kingdom offer this country for accepting the mission this time?”

Commander Hugh McGrath was at a loss for words due to the excessive words of Lord Zuransu.

It was surprising that he made such a sudden request in the first audience, but it was also difficult to understand the use of expressions such as ‘offer this country’ in the first place.

Although he didn’t want to go so far as to say that he should consider the difference in national power between the two countries, but wasn’t there a better way to say it?

When Hugh looked up to say something, Chief Negotiator Ignis took the lead and opened his mouth.

“Your Majesty, I hope that we will be able to clarify this at the negotiation table starting tomorrow. I foolishly think that it will be of mutual benefit if both of us get what your country wants, rather than something the Kingdom unilaterally offers.”

“Hmm. That makes sense. I look forward to the negotiations starting tomorrow.”

Saying that, Lord Zuransu left and the audience ended.

“As expected of Ignis… you ended the audience without offending them. I was about to lose my temper…”

“Hahaha. Leader, if you don’t open your mouth, you won’t shower them with rude words. My main role is to be the negotiator after all. That said, in that audience, he displayed even more self-conceit than expected … or rather, it was leaning toward arrogance. It looks like this will take some time.”

“It can’t be helped if it will take some time. I’ve already given up on it. I leave the rest to you.”

To be honest, Hugh was beginning to think that he wanted to move on quickly before trouble occurred.

However, due to the agreements of the Central Nations, it was decided that they would wait in Ayteke-Bo for the Empire and Union to catch up, so they couldn’t proceed on their own.

“I just heard about it, but it seems that the World Tree disappeared about two months ago.”

“They claim that the World Tree was hidden.”

Priest Etho and Priest Zeke, who seemed to have picked up information about the World Tree in the city, reported that to Ryo.

“Hidden…?”

Ryo asked while tilting his head.

“Yeah. It disappeared overnight.”

Etho nodded and answered.

“The trunk of the world tree is said to be in a forest more than ten kilometers away from here. So, it seemed that adventurers and soldiers were dispatched to find out what happened, but no one has returned.”

Zeke said while frowning.

“Something terrible might be happening.”

Ryo, with a somber atmosphere, pointed out the possibility that it was a serious situation.

For the second time.

However, putting aside the members of ‘Room 11’, the members of ‘Room 10’, who have known him for a long time, weren’t deceived.

“Ryo, you’re saying that with a serious feeling, but…”

“Yeah, he’s still the same…”

“The face of a man thinking about bad things…”

Amon, Etho, and Niels looked at Ryo’s face and commented.

“How did you find out!?”

Ryo was surprised to be pointed out.

The person himself seemed to have wanted to put on a serious face.

Ryo may have difficulty acting serious…

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