Chapter 2103: Public Dissemination

Discussing the plan to stay neutral in an exclusive, yet public, setting like this would ensure that those who needed to know would find out within minutes.

Therefore the conversation between them during the show was entirely for the benefit of the people around them, and didn’t add anything new. But when the paperwork showed up right after the comedic failure reached its climax, they were ready to get down to business.

Ideally to be finished within fifteen minutes, because that was the changeover time between shows, where everyone got a dessert course and some time to discuss the show before the dances began.

Those were the true attraction of the night, in Lala’s opinion.

Sure, the show was exciting, but everyone got much more energetic once the dancing began.

Karl unrolled the very traditional scroll, and carefully read through the details. No skimming allowed today, and he had both Rae and Remi checking it along with him. He would have gotten Dana to do it, but she was currently occupied.

The ladies in the Tiny World were having a girls’ night, and then they were planning to do an early morning run through the dungeon with Dana as their DPS wildcard, because she could make up for anything that they happened to be lacking.

Nachtia was especially excited about it, because she had been so busy with the hatchlings that she hadn’t gotten to properly test the new dungeon yet.

That was something Karl didn’t want to interrupt.

Rae was happy to help, as she wanted to see if there were loopholes that allowed for dealing with stupid people in ways that didn’t pull them into a war. There should definitely be exceptions for stupidity.

Sure enough, only a few minutes into the reading, she found the first clause that could be exploited to have some fun with them, without breaking the agreement.

"Corporal Punishment for civil offences" was the name of the clause, and there were all sorts of limits designed not to provoke the Elders and Clan Leaders into retaliating, but she could work with that.

As long as they weren’t going to stop her from keeping order the way that she preferred, it was fine.

Other than that, the details were about what Rae had expected. Boring and formal, insisting that they weren’t going to do anything fun, even if someone attacked them. They could defend the city, but the neutrality pact agreed that they wouldn’t act alone to retaliate.

So, no wiping out Clans of morons.

Unless she could convince the Legendary Paladin to come along. And that sounded like it could be difficult, since most of the idiots who would attack the Darklight Host were ones that were allied to other idiots who wanted him to be in charge of things.

Well, they could always bribe someone to do it for them, and then she could watch the fun.

That was at least a quarter as good.

"You look like you’re deeply considering the terms. Do we need to make changes to it?" Eryman asked.

Karl shook his head. "I don’t think so, nothing I’ve seen so far has been a deal breaker. It’s just the terms for dealing with Clans that might try to attack us to pull us into the wars. I wanted to check them for loopholes and escape clauses, to be sure that it wasn’t going to be a meaningless document."

Eryman nodded. "There are ways around it, but the way that it’s worded, all parties must agree, so one doesn’t go rogue to bring the group into a battle.

Everyone knows that there are some situations where you simply have to fight, and this won’t stop that, it just doesn’t allow something like what happened in Gralpedrin without consulting and getting approval from the others first.

If they’re far enough out of line, a public announcement can be made, so that it’s clear that they’re being punished in the name of the God of Justice, not as part of some larger political scheme.

That’s the great thing about my deity.

Being Justice aligned, people expect you to commit a certain amount of violence, because it’s necessary to keep order and punish wrongdoing. So, the agreements that we make aren’t pacifist in nature, we need to be able to do our holy work."

"See, I didn’t think about that aspect of it. Yes, you do need to take care of your holy duties. On the other hand, my God is much less demanding, and as long as things aren’t going wildly awry, there aren’t too many urgent and mandatory duties.

There are a lot of optional ones, and encouraged ones, but not mandatory."

Eryman smiled, "Things like making a dungeon with variable difficulty, and a set of Class Advancement Runes in the New Home Merchant Clan?"

"Exactly like those. The World Dragon was most pleased with them, he even adjusted the class advancement stones so that those with better senses can watch the applicants face as they choose.

It’s great entertainment."

Eryman chuckled, as did a number of the eavesdroppers near their table.

Most hadn’t known that you could spy through the separate space for the advancement, but protecting the action while not protecting the dignity of the one advancing seemed like exactly the sort of thing that the World Dragon would approve of.

"So, the document looks good otherwise? Should we sign now before the dances start? Or was there anything that needed to change at your end?" Eryman asked.

Karl conferred with Rae and Remi for a moment as he finished reading the final clauses of the document.

"No, it all looks good for us. Normally, we would put trade agreement terms in there, but that’s a whole other document and a different negotiation. This nonaggression pact to keep us out of the civil wars between the Clans serves its purpose alone.

At least with this in place, we can be assured that at least one other faction isn’t going to try to get us to take this war interplanetary."

And that was the phrase that let the whole room know there was a deeper meaning to the agreement. Nobody wanted to get other worlds, especially ones involved in the Divinity Wars, involved in their Clan matters.

It would be a loss for everyone if that happened.