After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

When a beam of light appeared on the floating continent where the Kingdom of Eden was located, and two airships slowly moved towards Constantinople along the path formed by the light, all the humans and elves working or strolling on the ground were shocked by the sight before them.

"Can this ship really float and fly? What kind of internal structure makes it so stable?!" Humans were more concerned about the strange phenomenon of the ship being able to fly in the sky.

"They're using magic to create a waterway?! That's incredibly extravagant!" The elves were more stunned by the Edenians' wealth and power in terms of magic.

After all, for elves with a natural affinity for magic, they could clearly see that the beams of light beneath the airship were actually a permanent flow of highly concentrated magic—magic that self-circulated and generated within the channel. In other words, even if no ships passed through the channel for a long time, this magic could maintain its shape and continue to function permanently...

"Truly, these are the Edenites, whose very soil seems to contain a great deal of magic!" The elves sighed. After returning to the city to assist with the preparations for the welcoming ceremony as originally planned, they informed the Purple Palace of this news.

On the airship, Elena, having changed into a light dress specifically for diplomatic occasions, tilted her head in confusion at Alexander:

"Question—Alexander, do I really need to wear these clothes?"

"Of course! Our child, this is your first time visiting another country! Whether you dress well or not not only determines the impression you leave on others, but more importantly, it can improve Mr. Yang Hao's opinion of you!"

"Question: Why specifically mention Mr. Yang Hao?"

"That's for your own good, Elena."

After finally ending the war with the demons, although many facilities in Eden still have not been rebuilt, Eden now has the resources to provide better bodies for every citizen in terms of refinement.

The same goes for the magical dolls. Now, the magical dolls are no longer as primitive as they were when Yang Hao and the others first saw them.

They were covered with skin and artificial blood vessels, and in preparation for the upcoming occasions of eating or drinking, their magical bodies were also equipped with stomachs, tongues, and taste buds to sense flavors.

In order to make a better impression on their allies, they naturally did not forget to make themselves look more handsome or beautiful—especially considering that this was a visit to the capital of an ally, and they did not need to carry too much weaponry.

All the magical dolls appeared to be handsome figures with artificial beauty. Among them, Elena was the apple of everyone's eye.

In order to make a good impression on Yang Hao at this meeting, the magical dolls specially designed a red dress for Elena, a necklace made of rare magical minerals, a touch of lip gloss on her lips, and a small hair accessory on her head.

It's no exaggeration to say that the magical materials Elena possesses could be converted into enough to buy an entire duchy on Earth! But the magical dolls always felt that something was missing, while Elena herself felt that doing so was perhaps a bit too extravagant...?

Is it really necessary to dress yourself up so beautifully?

Sitting on the throne of the floating ship, letting the magical dolls adjust all sorts of decorations on her body, the little synthetic doll muttered to herself: In this way, wouldn't I just be like those wicked women in the book who seduce other people's fathers with their beauty rather than their feelings, making me seem so detestable?

But—the magical dolls say that this is perfectly normal?

Doesn't that mean you don't have to believe everything in the book?

Why is this?

The synthetic doll felt lost. Just then, the navigator ahead sent a message through the magic network saying that the airship could dock directly at a newly built pier in the inner walls of Constantinople—but if they stopped there, they would have to walk to the main hall of the Purple Palace.

"Confirmed: There's no harm in proceeding on foot... Question: Are there any people on the docks inside the city wall?"

"His Majesty Yang Hao seems to be there. With his wife."

Upon hearing this, Elena's body visibly stiffened. The magical dolls shrugged, while the small synthetic doll remained unaware that the most important reason for its abnormal physical condition was an emotion called "nervousness."

She just thought maybe it was because she was caught off guard by the unexpected information that she acted this way? After all, as for a wife... had Yang Hao ever mentioned that he had a wife?

(I don't think so...)

A small sense of resentment welled up inside her. Elena took a deep breath, feeling the artificial heart pounding within her, and prepared to disembark.

Soon, the airship docked at the pier on the inner wall of Constantinople. The airship doesn't physically weigh down the pier; instead, it hovers in the air, meaning it can dock anywhere in a sense.

However, due to awkward circumstances, the two airships could only dock in batches, evacuating the people inside before setting off to allow the other airship to come down.

The two airships each had a displacement of 6000 tons by Edenian standards, making them enormous by the standards of aerial creations.

Each airship is nearly 100 meters long and 50 meters wide at its widest point. The awkward part is that the docks on the inner city walls appear to be at most 150 meters long...

Perhaps this is the bitter fruit of poor communication between the two sides? The United Nations mistakenly believed that the so-called "airships" would not exceed 40 meters in length, so they felt that reserving a dock length of about 150 meters was normal...

However, the Kingdom of Eden believed that anything flying in the sky was meaningless if it wasn't built large, so the standard length of their airships all exceeded 80 meters.

...To avoid repeating past blunders, we need to communicate more. We can't apply our own standards to other countries.

With this thought in mind, Elena lightly jumped down from the entrance. After looking around rudely for a while, she finally met Yang Hao and the welcoming delegation from the Kingdom of Eden who were waiting for her at the dock.

“Welcome, Elena,” Yang Hao greeted her with a smile. “Although I would love to take you to my palace right away, it seems the magical dolls still have a lot of work to do… Sorry, the makeshift dock we have here doesn’t look quite up to standard.”

"Deniement: Mr. Yang Hao, you've already done a remarkable job by making such an arrangement. After all, we didn't discuss the size of the airship with you... And who's next to you?"

Elena turned her head slightly to look at the beautiful white-haired, gray-eyed woman beside Yang Hao. This wasn't someone Elena had seen before; if there were no surprises, she must be Mr. Yang Hao's wife, right?

...So what about his relationship with His Majesty Finn and Miss Nia?

The small synthetic doll seemed confused, but in response, Yang Hao simply smiled and put his arm around the shoulder of the white-haired woman beside him who was slightly bowing.

“She is my wife, Theresa Justinianna.”

......

After a few unremarkable pleasantries and while waiting for the airship to unload all the people and gifts, Yang Hao and his group led the guests from the Kingdom of Eden into the Purple Palace.

The magical dolls roamed freely at the welcome banquet held in the outer hall, experiencing the local customs and culture of their surface allies. Elena, meanwhile, followed Yang Hao and the others to the conference room closer to the interior to begin her work.

Here, Elena saw many familiar faces—for example, Finn, who seemed to have a strained relationship with Her Majesty Theresa, with her hand on her face; Naruja, who was leaning back in a sofa chair, staring blankly at the ceiling; and... um? Where's Miss Black Dragon?

Elena tilted her head, looking at Yang Hao with a puzzled expression. Yang Hao chuckled and explained that due to her own diplomatic situation, the Black Dragon could not intervene in the diplomatic affairs of the United Nations and the Kingdom of Eden—unless she obtained permission from both countries. But even so, she still needed to obtain permission from her home country before coming.

"Surprised: I thought Ysgard was also an important ally of the United Nations?"

“They are definitely important allies. But geographically we are too far apart, so in a sense, the so-called ‘importance’ is actually limited to commercial and some military alliances, okay? If Elena wants to communicate with Nia about anything, I can do it for her.”

"Happy: Thank you."

"It's alright, it's alright... So, let's get down to business."

With the words "Let's get down to business," Elena, sitting directly opposite Yang Hao, nodded and used magic to teleport the contract she had prepared from the Great Library. She kept one copy for herself and pushed the other away from a distance.

Yang Hao took the contract, glanced at its contents, and then solemnly stated that in the current United Nations, during this period of peace, it would be impossible for anyone to travel to the region where the Northern Ice Calamity resides.

On the one hand, the United Nations only has one necessary military operation to deal with recently. Apart from the necessary troops, other soldiers have to temporarily put aside their training and do farm work in their respective fields to prepare for future food reserves.

On the other hand, compared to the Ice Calamity in the north, which might only recur every few years, the Roman Empire in the south is undoubtedly a more worthy enemy to watch out for.

Because within the Roman Empire, there also exists a demon. And if nothing unexpected happens, this demon has probably focused all its evolutionary points on [Intelligence].

After a moment's thought, Elena nodded in response to the information provided by Yang Hao.

"I understand. We also believe that those demons specializing in evolving [intelligence] are more troublesome than Titan demons who only know how to use brute force and special abilities... But why can't we just kill that demon to eliminate future troubles?"

“We couldn’t do it before, and now it’s because even we don’t understand what the situation is like inside the Roman Empire—Elena, take a look here.”

Yang Hao handed over the intelligence he had prepared beforehand. Elena, being rather petite, could only lean forward with difficulty. After receiving the intelligence from Yang Hao and reviewing it for a while, the synthetic doll of Eden Kingdom gained a basic understanding of the current situation on Earth.

how to say?

Unexpected division and chaos. Cannibalism and post-apocalyptic revelry coexist, with separatist forces frantically devouring each other to weaken one another, unable even to feign unity in the face of internal and external troubles...

In Elena's words, this was indeed not something a human could do... Especially after seeing the information that a demon called a "servant" seemed to be corrupting or doing something similar to a person named "Prince Garsen" in the palace of the Roman capital, Elena became even more convinced that this country was doomed.

"Judgment: Although I am not sure whether the United Nations has conducted reconnaissance of the underground areas surrounding the capital of the Roman Empire... if that [Attendant] is indeed judged to be a demon, and has indeed been engaging in corrupting behavior for a long time as you said... then the underground areas of the Roman capital should have been corrupted by [Demon Roots].

Explanation: Demon roots are essential for demons colonizing the world, and also a guarantee of power for demons to ensure local control. Demon roots can generate directly without a mother organism, but this means we need to investigate the source of that servant's [magic power]... Is the area surrounding the Roman capital region rich in magic power?

Yang Hao shook his head and said that it was not enough—but the demon servant seemed to have gone to the Eastern Mines for a period of time before. Although it was only a round trip within a day, the elves judged that the demon must have gone to the Eastern Mines to collect magical remnants.

He wasn't quite sure how much magical residue the demon could collect in a day... but considering that the Eastern Mine was actually a mountain range formed after one of the floating continents of Eden crashed down, perhaps the demon had indeed collected enough magical energy to continue his corruption.

Yang Hao felt helpless about this: after all, he couldn't possibly take his soldiers and gamble that the demon servants weren't ready and could be killed outright.

Elena also agreed with Yang Hao's assessment: after all, a demon that focuses on evolving intelligence and has been learning in human society for many years is probably more insidious and despicable than humans in terms of dirty and despicable methods.

Not to mention that besides the Roman capital, many noble and military districts in the surrounding areas have built annoying defensive facilities and are putting up a stubborn resistance... Rather than wasting soldiers' lives, the best plan at this stage is still to stay at home and develop.

On the other hand, if Your Majesty Yang Hao intends to develop industry and improve people's livelihoods domestically, why did you still launch a military operation against the Roman Empire?

Faced with Elena's curiosity, Yang Hao pondered for a long time the political leanings Elena represented before, under Theresa's increasingly strange gaze, he said that the reason they were conducting military operations was to ensure the security of future new mineral-producing areas.

"Question: So, the goal of attacking...Schkur territory is actually to ensure that it will become a territory of the United Nations in the future?"

"Yes."

Question: Do we need to help with this?

"If possible, we would like to borrow the production lines of the Kingdom of Eden to manufacture some dangerous equipment..."

In response to Yang Hao's answer, Elena simply tilted her head and said: "Production of equipment? Sure. As long as there are blueprints and a production standard, the Kingdom of Eden can produce almost all the equipment in the world today."

But will the Kingdom of Eden be able to obtain a share of the benefits afterward?

Faced with Elena's aggressive, jewel-red eyes, Yang Hao simply nodded and promised: "Of course. However, the specific transaction amount may have to wait until the local mineral resources are discovered."

This concerns the future interests of both countries, and neither Yang Hao nor Elena intends to let their guard down.

While they were waging war at the negotiating table, Theresa and Finn began to whisper to each other.

They concluded that Elena genuinely had no interest in Yang Hao—their communication remained based on the exchange of national interests. Under such circumstances, both sides would only calmly consider their own interests, let alone consider whether they would take any inappropriate actions due to feelings.

This reassured Theresa, but for some reason, Finn had a strange feeling...

'I have a bad feeling about this…' she muttered softly. 'Elena's way of thinking is beyond the comprehension of most people—she expresses her emotions directly in words, without any reservations… I always felt that she was the type who clearly separated her emotions from her work.'

"Why do you say that?" Theresa used divine magic to directly instill her confusion into Finn's mind. "And don't just speak—I've already used divine magic, can't you just think it?"

'But... never mind. In short, what I'm talking about is... the type who argue fiercely about their careers at work, but are still very much in love in their private lives... But I've never seen anyone who can distinguish between them so clearly, have I?'

"So you think Elena might be the troublesome type?"

Watching the two arguing more and more fiercely at the conference table, Theresa thought to herself, "This shouldn't be happening... They've already gone this far with their heated debate, and Elena hasn't shown the slightest bit of consideration for Yang Hao..."

...According to Theresa's idea, after this meeting, these two will probably groan and express their contempt for each other as soon as they leave the room...They've already argued to this extent, do you think Elena still has feelings for Yang Hao?

That's impossible, isn't it?

Theresa relaxed.

Fen, however, remained anxious and uneasy.

And Naruja, who was dragged over to make up the space.

He had already chosen to doze off at the table in this place full of friends.

Finally, around noon, Yang Hao and Elena had almost finished negotiating all the current contracts.

Under the contract, the United Nations and the Kingdom of Eden reached various mutually beneficial agreements. What pained Yang Hao the most was that for every [Artificial Magic Reactor] the Kingdom of Eden built in the United Nations, the United Nations would have to provide tens of thousands of tons of conventional minerals in exchange...

He couldn't help but feel the pinch. If he were trading with Isgard, he would absolutely insist that Isgard provide services to him for free, and even make them pay him out of their own pockets!

But now, he's the one who has to pay... How could Yang Hao not feel the pinch?

He sighed, signed his name on the contract, and stamped it with the seal of the Purple Royal Family, thus concluding the work.