Chapter 370: Proxy War

Mark arched an eyebrow.

"What kind of step?"

"A military one," Joseph replied without looking away. "I want to propose a mutual defense pact. If Eldia is attacked, your empire would come to our aid, and if anyone decides to march against your lands in the south, Eldia would do the same."

"Mutual defense? Against whom?"

"The Church and the Inquisition," Joseph revealed. "A few months ago, both institutions, together with the kingdom of Eleum, announced the start of what they themselves have dubbed the Great Crusade."

He let out a long sigh.

"Though calling Eleum a kingdom is being generous... For generations they haven’t made a single decision without the Church’s blessing. Their king is little more than a puppet with a crown."

"And what exactly is this Great Crusade?"

"According to them, a holy war to purify humanity and unite it under the light of the goddess."

Joseph made a vague gesture with his hand, like someone repeating a speech he had heard too many times.

"Though its real objective is to subjugate the seven great human kingdoms. Those who surrender will keep their kings as decorative figures, just like Eleum, and those who don’t..."

Joseph shrugged slightly and let Mark fill in the rest on his own.

The crusade had begun on the east coast, where the Church and the Inquisition had their greatest support, and although it was still too early to speak of a continent-wide war, things didn’t seem to be moving slowly.

The first kingdom had lasted less than a month.

The second was still resisting after several months, but Eldia’s spies believed it was about to fall.

Mark frowned.

Now that Joseph mentioned it, he had already seen signs.

Reports from the port of Arvandel had already contained mentions of a war in the east, along with sailors’ tales of armies on the move and besieged cities.

Mark, however, had never paid them much attention.

Humans had spent their whole lives killing each other over crowns, borders, and old grudges.

He had assumed this was more of the same.

Clearly it wasn’t.

"Eldia hasn’t felt the war directly yet," Joseph explained. "Our position on the west coast keeps us far from the front, and for now that has allowed us to keep functioning normally."

Mark frowned slightly.

"Then I don’t understand why you came in such a hurry."

"Because being far away doesn’t mean being safe."

Joseph let that sentence sit on the table for a few seconds before continuing.

"When the Great Crusade finally reaches our borders, my armies won’t be enough. My soldiers are trained, disciplined, and know their trade, but they still fight like ordinary men. The Church and the Inquisition don’t."

"..."

"They can put people on the battlefield capable of breaking an entire line on their own, healing wounds that should be fatal, or turning a cavalry charge into a massacre."

The corner of Mark’s mouth tried to rise.

Ely and Alice were proof that Joseph’s fear was well founded.

"I understand, but... why hide it even from your ambassador?" Mark said, somewhat confused. "Had I known this was the situation, I would have sent you an answer long ago."

"Because I don’t trust my court enough to let a conversation like this exist outside this room. If my ambassador knew the proposal, someone else would end up knowing it too."

"Would that be so serious?"

"Far more than you think. If a rumor spreads that Eldia is trying to form a military alliance with the non-humans, the Church could use it to declare us heretics and make us a priority target."

Mark was silent as he considered his words.

The reasoning was logical.

The proposal, less so.

He had already decided how he intended to act when the time came to enter human territories.

He didn’t want to do it as an emperor, but as just another stranger.

He would travel without a visible escort, look for information about the reincarnated, and move between kingdoms by teleportation, coming and going before anyone could discover who he really was.

That allowed him to make mistakes without compromising anyone else.

Joseph, on the other hand, was asking him to commit the entire south in advance.

A mutual defense pact sounded clean on paper, but in practice it meant that any conflict between Eldia and the Church could automatically become an open war for his empire.

Mark wasn’t willing to take that step.

His people had just emerged from centuries of wars between races. They were barely beginning to get used to a life in which the neighbor wasn’t automatically an enemy.

He had no intention of risking all that by entering someone else’s war.

Much less for Joseph, who could barely hide the contempt he felt for most of them.

"I’ll tell you bluntly, Joseph. I’m not going to drag my people into a human war just because Eldia is afraid of being next."

Joseph held his gaze without changing his expression.

"Then don’t do it for Eldia. Do it for yourself."

Mark frowned slightly.

"Explain."

"The Church won’t stop once it finishes with the seven kingdoms. You know that as well as I do. Your empire is exactly what they have called an abomination for centuries."

Unpleasant as it was to admit, Joseph was right.

A necromancer ruling over non-human races was not something the Church would ignore forever.

If the crusade kept advancing, sooner or later they would turn their eyes to the south.

And if confrontation was inevitable, fighting it far from home was beginning to sound much less absurd.

A proxy war, they called it.

Mark let out a sigh and rubbed his face before answering.

"I’m not going to decide something like this now."

Joseph kept his eyes on him for a few moments, as if weighing whether to insist, but finally nodded.

"That’s fair. An alliance of this kind deserves more than a hasty answer."

He stood, carefully adjusted his cape, and recovered the cordial expression with which he had entered.

"I hope you can give me an answer tomorrow."

With a slight bow, he headed for the exit.

Joseph reached the door, but before opening it he stood still for a moment with his hand on the handle, as if considering saying something more.

In the end he didn’t.

He only tilted his head slightly and left.

The moment the door closed, silence took over the room again.

Mark stared at the empty chair Joseph had just left and, after a few seconds, sank back into his seat as he raised his eyes to the ceiling.

"Shit... why did the Church have to go crazy right now?"