Ch.233Let’s not fight and try to live peacefully together.

# Chapter 233: Let’s Live Peacefully Without Fighting

To be precise, an event message appeared separately before the quest.

The problem was that from my perspective, it was the kind of message that made me frown.

[Event: The Shepherd Boy Who Told the Truth.]

[The Foxviet Federation is a nation that hasn’t even existed for 10 years.]

[During this time, they’ve displayed all sorts of diplomatic misconduct, leaving a very negative impression on their national credibility throughout the galaxy.]

[However, this particular incident was something that even the Foxviet Federation found completely unfair…]

…

(Omitted)

…

[…As a result, this misunderstanding has now escalated to the point where both sides are sincerely pointing weapons at each other.]

[Goodwill -50 toward the Foxviet Federation from ISTO (Interstellar Security Treaty Organization) member nations]

[Goodwill -50 toward ISTO from the Foxviet Federation]

‘How ugly.’

Despite presenting a plausible story with convincing narrative,

In reality, it just rambles on with excuses and ends up giving a debuff that tanks goodwill.

Of course, the goodwill between us and the Foxviet Federation wasn’t particularly important anyway…

Still, wouldn’t anyone feel annoyed seeing their goodwill suddenly drop for no apparent reason?

‘Could this also be because of that goodwill reduction event…?’

That thought suddenly occurred to me, but as a player, I shouldn’t be affected by such things.

I dismissed that 5,700-character event message to clear my mind, but…

‘This is the problem.’

I brought up the “Quest” message that appeared next and began to ponder.

Of course, it wasn’t because the quest content was particularly strange.

It’s just…

=================================

[Quest]

[War Mediation Event]

[Content: There is nothing more foolish than a war started by mutual misunderstanding. You must stop this senseless conflict between the two forces, resolve the misunderstanding, and defuse the crisis.]

[Objective: Mediate the war crisis between the Interstellar Security Treaty Organization, ISTO, and the Foxviet Federation.]

[Reward: Increased probability of positive events, random positive trait granted to Minister Arto Virtorius Sevelli]

=================================

‘Why did the quest message window change again?’

I don’t know where the previous solid message window went.

Has this system UI finally undergone a user-friendly update?

It presented something that looked much better than the previous mess of a message.

However, what was frustrating was that there was another quest that appeared…

[Quest: Managing the fleet is managing the nation.]

[Samiya has returned to her homeland, unable to watch 60,000 elite fleet units melt away against Eternia’s fleet.]

[And it seems the Emperor too will pay little attention to the Prosnack fleet once his objectives are achieved.]

[So if you time it right, the Prosnack fleet could fall completely into the hands of your new wife, Samiya.]

[Reward: Normalization of diplomatic relations with the Prosnack Union, Goodwill +100 between the Holy Sevelli Empire and the Prosnack Union, Goodwill +10 toward the Prosnack Union from ISTO member nations]

‘Why is this one displayed differently?’

Unlike the war mediation quest, this one maintained the same format as before.

The inconsistency of the quest messages and the system UI’s behavior of pushing them onto me…

It was a cold reality check for me, who had been excited thinking they’d finally implemented a user-friendly update.

Anyway, what was important now was that I had received two quest messages after a very long time.

And one of them, this war mediation event, was giving me a splitting headache as I tried to solve it.

[Unpause]

But as you can see from me unpausing like this,

The conflict between ISTO and the Foxviet Federation was already entering its final stages.

“Minister, our intelligence network in the Nurbal Republic and the Sir-Hod Federation has leaked the documents you mentioned to their leaders.”

Unless our intelligence network was completely destroyed like after the Warlord Incident,

My spy network, which I had carefully built up using the Nurbal Republic as a base and which had now gloriously ascended with ISTO membership,

Could no longer be defeated by any country’s intelligence or counterintelligence agencies.

“Very good. Then I assume we have predictions on how the situation will unfold?”

“Yes, the Consul Pavladis of the Sir-Hod Federation has been viewing our information positively from the beginning.”

“Has the Nurbal Republic said anything about what they’ll do?”

“Umm… President Forti Su-Pe of the Nurbal Republic will probably not believe the information we submitted at first.”

Our puppet President Forti Su-Pe not believing our information?

That seemed rather disappointing, and I was about to shake my head when…

“By the way, the intelligence network chief said that for President Forti, it might be more effective to leave ‘clear’ traces that it was sent by us?”

“Ah, I see.”

“But since that seems beyond his responsibility, he plans to proceed with the operation after getting your approval, Minister.”

Looking at the approval document on Riel’s terminal, I felt a slightly peculiar sensation.

‘Is it because he was a puppet president that he rejected information he thought wasn’t from us?’

Seeing this strange display of loyalty to the Empire, I nodded and said,

“If a field expert is so adamant, it’s worth considering… Very well, proceed as planned.”

“Yes, sir.”

—————————————–

After finishing the ISTO-related work,

I sat in my favorite sofa-chair in my office, pressing my throbbing temples, trying to enjoy a moment of peaceful rest.

“Minister, I’ve brought you lemonade tea this time.”

“Nice.”

Of course, beside me was the (self-proclaimed) flawless humanoid Riel, who had been freed from the Ransom-Emperor-Ware thanks to the system UI, placing a cup of tea next to me.

As the sweet and tangy aroma wafted up, I lifted the warm cup and said,

“Once we complete the mediation between ISTO and the Foxviet Federation, next will be the Prosnack fleet issue.”

It was rather sad that I naturally brought up work topics when I was supposed to be resting.

But since we didn’t have much else to talk about,

I suppressed the rising sadness with the taste and aroma of the sweet lemonade tea and continued.

“But according to our intelligence network, the Prosnack fleet has gathered somewhere near the border between the Sir-Hod Federation and the Foxviet Federation and isn’t moving?”

“Hmm…”

I too had my doubts about that.

When the fleets first mobilized, they moved with such momentum as if they were about to wage war against someone immediately.

But after reaching their current position, they’ve just been sitting there without any additional movement.

“Haa… that bastard Emperor seems to be plotting something.”

“I think so too, but there’s no way to know exactly what he’s doing.”

Riel agreed with my exasperated sigh, showing that

The stationary state of the Prosnack fleet was truly bizarre.

“Oh, maybe they’re deliberately watching from a distance, waiting for ISTO and Foxviet to destroy each other?”

I nodded at Riel’s suggestion, finding it quite plausible.

However, the current situation was still less than a week after I had been squeezed by Arthraia and Samiya and then released.

So I thought it was better to wait and see for now.

But…

-BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!

When a “VERY” urgent alarm sounded on both my and Riel’s terminals, we immediately pulled them out without hesitation.

And right after that,

[Massive warp reaction confirmed in Ka’zan orbit, at least asteroid-sized single entity warping in!]

[Evacuation order issued, First-class combat readiness declared for the capital defense fleet and orbital defense command]

Seeing the sudden warning, I was seized by the thought that perhaps that son of a bitch Emperor had come to attack us directly.

But a few minutes later,

Seeing a situation completely different from what I expected, I began to clutch my head for a slightly different reason.