Ch.173After hardship, a path will open. (2)

# Chapter 173: At the End of Hardship, a Path Opens. (2)

Our diplomatic meeting with the Uko’Praknar was prepared quite quickly.

As they say, the thirsty will dig a well.

I suppose it’s because Uko’Praknar has a fire under their feet.

They handled almost all the preparations, and we just needed to show up…

No, we just needed to communicate via hologram.

But before we began the formal meeting.

“Minister, would you like to see the intelligence report sent from our spy network in Uko’Praknar?”

“Hmm?”

Perhaps it was because I had the opportunity to receive something from our spy network for the first time since we had restructured and expanded it.

-Ding♪

[Paused]

Along with a notification sound that seemed unnecessary at this point.

Once again with a pause, an event message appeared before my eyes.

[Event: New Wine in New Wineskins]

[The newly established spy network has decided that their first glorious mission to report to you would be to extract internal meeting records from Uko’Praknar.]

[Fortunately, despite being essentially a newly formed organization, they succeeded in extracting information without being detected by Uko’Praknar’s counterintelligence agency.]

[As a result, you now have a general understanding of what the Uko’Praknar leadership was thinking when planning this matter.]

[You are considering additional rewards for the spy network that succeeded in their first mission.]

[Option 1: Good job! (Loyalty of Uko’Praknar spy network +10%, random chance of triggering ‘Excessive Loyalty’ event)]

[Option 2: Isn’t this just what they’re supposed to do…? (Loyalty of Uko’Praknar spy network -10%, event ends)]

‘Wow.’

But upon receiving such an event message, I felt my inner old-fashioned tendencies being severely triggered.

‘Aish, back in my day, we didn’t need to ask for rewards.’

Ah, how has the world come to this?

But as I thought about it for a moment…

‘Well, I guess it’s their first time, so it’s understandable.’

Nodding to myself, I thought it would be best to start with praise.

‘Alright, I’ll choose option 1… and just hope that the random ‘excessive loyalty’ event works out well.’

[Option 1: Good job! (Loyalty of Uko’Praknar spy network +10%, random chance of triggering ‘Excessive Loyalty’ event)]<Selected

After making my choice.

[Pause Released]

“Alright, let’s take a look.”

Releasing the pause, I took the document Riel handed me, intending to check its contents.

-Ding ding♪

[Paused]

‘…you’ve got to be kidding me.’

But apparently this was being treated as another event.

Seeing it pause again just seconds after I had released the previous pause, I felt an indescribable irritation, albeit briefly.

Of course, since I was in a paused state anyway, I could somehow manage that emotion with the abundance of time at my disposal.

So after a (brief?) moment.

I brought up the event message window that I had dismissed without reading, and began to examine what information our reward-seeking spy agents had brought.

[Event: Secret Meeting Transcript of the Uko’Praknar Interstellar Union Leadership]

[Thanks to the efforts of infiltrating intelligence agents, you have learned why the Uko’Praknar leadership requested to become a vassal state of your empire.]

————————————-

There was no special reason why the Uko’Praknar Interstellar Union chose us.

Or more precisely, they actually wanted to align with the Ztrakfor Council instead.

‘I too would prefer to align with the universally acknowledged good guys rather than the gloomy Holy Empire.’

But there was one profound problem that prevented Uko’Praknar from doing so.

And that was…

‘System window, check national rankings.’

[System Update]

[UI Changed]

[Galactic Nations Comprehensive Rankings]

1. Eternia Holy Empire

2. Ten-Ron Guardians

3. Prosnack Union

4. Holy Sebelli Empire

5. Fuksoviet Federation

6. Ztrakfor Council

7. Roirakan Republic

8. Sir-Hod Alliance

9. Nurval Republic

10. Riksi Parliamentary Realm

11. Uko’Praknar Interstellar Union

12. Kar-Du Holy Grand Duchy

13. Mis-Fel Democratic Union

14. Balakur Interstellar Federation

15. Sevan Administration

[Nations below 15th rank omitted]

It was because of one of the ancient precursor empires ranked 2nd in the national rankings.

A place even more isolationist than Eternia, which limits interaction with lower species to an extremely restricted level due to ‘discipline’ and cultural issues.

The ancient precursor empire that calls itself the ‘Ten-Ron Guardians.’

Incidentally, even that name was learned purely by chance from space debris that flowed out from their border.

Before that, there had been no interaction at all, so until just a few months ago, their name appeared as ????? in the national rankings.

Anyway, they happened to be situated right between the territories of Ztrakfor and Uko’Praknar.

By blocking all entry and passage, they had effectively created a state of physical separation.

Of course, one might ask, “Couldn’t they just communicate through transmissions?”

Surprisingly, the Ten-Ron Guardians possessed bizarre advanced technology that literally prohibited ‘the passage of all things.’

This didn’t just apply to material goods and military forces, like ships and personnel crossing their territory.

From visible light and radio waves to meteors and space debris.

Literally ‘everything’ was unable to pass through their territory, due to this extremely strange law.

For the Uko’Praknar Interstellar Union, establishing direct communication with the Ztrakfor Council was virtually impossible.

As a result, whether they liked it or not, they had to choose us as their second-best option.

Of course, the distance made the situation quite strange for us too.

But it wasn’t completely nonsensical.

‘The Riksi Parliamentary Realm is one of the powers trying to devour Uko’Praknar, and Riksi is backed by us…’

From Uko’Praknar Interstellar Union’s perspective, except for Roirakan, they were surrounded by vassal states of our Holy Sebelli Empire.

Given the circumstances, they calculated that bowing their heads to us would preserve their national identity.

The funny thing was that by doing so, they were essentially inviting foreign powers just like the two rebel factions in their territory…

[Within the Uko’Praknar leadership, the prevailing judgment is that it’s better to bow to the Sebelli Empire.]

[They believe that by bringing in the Sebelli Empire, they can block the Riksi Parliamentary Realm’s intervention, which one of the rebel factions has invited, thus rendering half of the rebel factions meaningless.]

‘Oh… that’s clever.’

Moreover, since our empire doesn’t typically make many demands of its vassal states.

Rather than stubbornly maintaining their pride and ending up torn apart by Riksi and Roirakan.

They decided to set aside their pride and use us to survive.

Besides, there were other sufficient reasons.

The other two factions are ultimately ‘rebels,’ so they can’t be recognized as official states or join alliances.

But the Uko’Praknar Interstellar Union is, after all, functioning as an ‘official’ government.

There’s definitely a difference in how the public perceives rebels bringing in foreign powers versus the central government ‘negotiating’ cooperation with foreign powers.

‘But even if they accept us, it will take time for us to send troops, so why are they doing this?’

Despite the apparent issues with the plan that made me think this way.

There was one more reason I wasn’t aware of that pushed Uko’Praknar to proceed with their plan.

[Riksi Parliamentary Realm fleet has returned and is being redeployed; Sebelli and Kerzin coalition fleet has not yet returned as they are conducting fleet maneuver training until peace negotiations conclude.]

[Remaining Kerzin fleets from the former Kerzin Federation territory have escaped and joined up.]

[These fleets are scheduled to be reorganized into the Kerzin exile fleet assigned to the 3rd Fleet.]

It was our 3rd Fleet and the Kerzin exile fleet that I had dispatched.

These gentlemen, due to various issues, had not returned to their home country.

They were near the border between the Nurval Republic and the Uko’Praknar Interstellar Union.

In other words, if Riksi or Roirakan attempted a military intervention in Uko’Praknar without any negotiation…

If they became our vassal state, they calculated that we could also intervene militarily at any time.

And I felt truly satisfied with this aspect of Uko’Praknar’s approach.

[Pause Released]

“Riel, about that proposal from Uko’Praknar to become a vassal state.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s proceed with it.”

Seeing their level of effoooort, I decided to extend a hand to them.