The meeting with the Dragon Lord came to an end like that. Although Hans knew it was a man, seeing him in a woman’s form made him a bit scared. Hans moved his feet.

The delegation was unwinding in the banquet hall prepared at Lionheart Fortress. At first glance, it looked like an excellent meeting ground. In reality, it was a battlefield of mutual restraint.

However, no one would blame them for being foolish. Hans knew all too well that relations between nations would not improve easily. He simply wished for no incidents to occur.

Fortunately for Hans, the delegation also wasn’t looking to cause any trouble. After all, delegations were representatives of their respective countries and races.

So they refrained from any outright disrespectful behavior and maintained decorum and elegance on the surface. Knowing their actions represented their nations, inter-delegation fights were quite rare.

“I heard there was the smell of dwarves, but here you are after all?”

“Be careful with your words, Elf.”

Surprisingly, could you believe that this was their best attempt at refinement? But the Dwarves and Elves were genuinely trying. As evidence, they didn’t belittle each other.

The other race’s delegations seemed accustomed to the scene, merely chatting among themselves or observing from a distance. Only Hans was nervously keeping watch.

However, as if to show that Hans’s worries were unfounded, the Elven and Dwarven delegations refused to clash any further and withdrew from each other. If you only looked at their appearances, they almost looked like unpleasant rivals.

“The food is prepared better than I expected.”

“And the atmosphere isn’t bad either.”

‘Fortunately, the reactions are decent.’

Of course, the menu was modest for a formal reception. But considering the situation, they had put in enough effort. In fact, the delegations seemed somewhat satisfied.

With the positive response from the delegations, the members were regaining their confidence. Thus, preparing the meal turned out to be an excellent decision. After the meal, they entered the meeting.

The delegation didn’t just come uninvited. They brought the crystal orb, available only to the leaders of the racial alliance. In other words, the representatives of the delegations were substitutes for their respective leaders.

The representatives each took a seat at the Table of Equality. Duke Kontras and Ambassador Viral were, of course, present, and even the Dragon Lord took a seat.

“Has everyone come except for the vampires?”

“That is correct.”

“The vampires are so fickle that they are incomprehensible.”

The Vampire Lord. They had mentioned the name Lucy before, but whether that was her true name remained uncertain. The Dragon Lord had acted similarly earlier. Does living long make one lose their senses?

But now was not the time to throw a birthday party for the dementia patients. The reason for summoning all the race delegations together was now. Hans opened his mouth.

“First, I wish to express my gratitude to everyone who has come.”

Hans initiated the racial alliance conference with a formal greeting. Each delegation chimed in, enhancing the meeting’s atmosphere. Then light flowed from the crystal orb.

Soon faces appearing from the orb were familiar to Hans. They were the leaders of each race, revealing themselves through the crystal. All of their expressions were quite bright.

It seemed they were placing many expectations on this racial alliance meeting. Hans nodded. Having expectations for the meeting was a good sign.

Even if it was for their own benefit, as long as it yielded a result that served everyone’s interests, that would be sufficient. Although, most might not desire such ideals.

It was precisely Hans’s role as the Commander of the Royal Knights to achieve that. Once the customary greetings ended, the meeting finally commenced.

[By the way, what’s the reason for holding a racial alliance meeting?]

[Since it’s Commander Hans, he must have something in mind.]

[Our Orcs are ready to follow the words of our friend!]

Sharaka seemed intent on pushing her support for Hans, declaring she would follow him. As a result, the faces of the representatives from the Twelve Tribes and shining Yuyoung in the orb became distorted.

However, Sharaka didn’t care at all. While Hans accepted Sharaka’s sentiment, he also pondered how to effectively convey this news.

After much contemplation, he arrived at a very simple answer.

“If this continues, the world will perish.”

But the response he got was anything but simple.

*

The world will perish.

In some ways, it was a ridiculous claim. However, there were few present who would dismiss Hans’s words as nonsense, given his track record.

Indeed, losing trust is far easier and faster than building it, but that’s only to a certain extent. An hero like Hans, with his achievements, would at least be listened to.

The weight of those words from the Commander of the Royal Knights far surpassed imagination. As proof, the expressions of the delegations turned grave, and the leaders were also troubled.

[The world will perish? What does that mean?]

The first to regain his rationality was the Human King who posed the question to Hans. However, his expression did not look all that great either. Hans nodded and spoke.

“It means exactly what it says. If things continue like this, the world will end.”

In fact, to be precise, it wouldn’t exactly be destruction. However, in Hans’s memory, he knew that the demons were about to stir up some trouble and that the continent’s momentum was fading.

Specifically, after the Royal Knights’ expedition failed, it was around this time that the Demons began their activities again. This meant that the damage inflicted on the Royal Knights had likely been mostly recovered by now.

Of course, Hans didn’t just throw out such claims based on a hunch. After all, he had also clashed with the Blood Demon and witnessed a significant blow dealt to it. The timing could have been delayed but…

Unfortunately, that hadn’t happened. He had found evidence of the Demons’ movements. The first piece of evidence came from the lair of the Black Dragon Zairkan. Hans showed it to everyone.

“This is a document we obtained after defeating Zairkan. It details the movements of the Demons.”

It wasn’t a document authored by Zairkan. It likely appeared to be the document received while dealing with the Demons. The content of the document was about locations and what needed to be done. Hans opened his mouth.

“According to this document, Zairkan has allied with the Demons.”

[A dragon allied with the Demons?!]

[What on earth is going on?! Dragon Lord!]

“I’d prefer if you called me Yuren right now~.”

“…….”

This was no joke; at Yuren’s words, everyone simultaneously fell silent. It wasn’t that they felt a shift in momentum; everyone just thought she was a silly kid acting out of her age.

However, Hans believed this to be just like the Dragon Lord. Nothing restricted her; she was simply a symbol of freedom, doing whatever she wanted.

From that perspective, he should commend the Dragon Lord for attending this meeting. It wasn’t simply playing around and reveling in freedom.

“As the Commander said, it’s true that Zairkan betrayed us. I just returned from Zairkan’s lair.”

“You went there? When did you go?”

“I made a quick trip via teleport.”

“Tele-, teleport?! You’re talking about that spatial magic which can only be used with scrolls now?!”

Thanks to Duke Kontras’s astonishment, Hans barely managed to maintain his poker face. The commonly held belief was that teleportation could only be used with the limited teleport scrolls.

In fact, didn’t the Human Kingdom classify teleport scrolls as national treasures? Even though they had used those three scrolls to save the Royal Knights, the Lord smiled and said.

“Oh, need some? I could whip up a few scrolls for you.”

“Really?!”

“Everyone, quiet down! The important part is not that!”

To prevent the meeting from straying off-topic, Hans raised his voice unusually. His thunderous tone silenced the delegations and leaders.

“Yuren, if you’re willing, could you share the information you obtained there?”

“I’d gladly do so, as it was a serious matter.”

‘A serious matter?’

Instead of responding, Yuren snapped her fingers. Suddenly, a rocky wall rose with a drick drick sound at the center of the Table of Equality. Surprisingly, it was a wall visible to everyone from every angle.

Soon, images began to be drawn on that wall. It depicted the former territory of the Orcs, which Zairkan had taken after killing the Rusted Overlord. The Lord pointed to the place and spoke.

“Zairkan was planning to collude with the Demons to orchestrate something in this mountain range. His plan was to completely collapse the mountains, flooding the north with snow.”

With a scale beyond imagination, everyone fell silent.

Even Hans himself.