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

"This is a fair deal—so, what decision are you planning to make?"

The demon servant didn't speak, he just stared at the head maid.

Finally, he nodded.

He simply couldn't understand the head maid's way of thinking—but never mind.

Since we still have a choice... let's leave it at that.

......

After making a deal with the demon servant, the head maid immediately went to the outside of the Roman capital.

Although the Roman Demon Realm as a whole still maintains a stable state, the Roman demons outside have already ravaged the seemingly stable realm, leaving it riddled with holes.

Everywhere there were visible gaps, and everywhere there were Roman demons either fighting each other or resting in their own corners. Closer still, the slimes evolved from Roman demons were relentlessly destroying the soil ecosystem, while the primordial demons of the Roman capital were trying their best to prevent the environment of the demon realm from deteriorating further.

In a sense, the Primal Demon was in an extremely awkward and exhausting predicament because of the Roman Demon—although the Primal Demon would fight with the Roman Demon, as long as the Roman side did not take the initiative to attack, it could still sense the Primal Demon's attempts to communicate with the Roman Demon.

However, such communication is meaningless. The Primal Demon wants to communicate, but the Roman Demon clearly does not want to communicate—every action of the Primal Demon is met with the Roman Demon's greatest hostility, and these resistances may eventually escalate into another war... Then the Primal Demon will have to back down while ensuring the safety of the Mother Nest.

No wonder the demon servants even considered destroying the Roman Demon Realm to hasten the Great Demonic Calamity. After all, there's no point in dragging things out; it would only continue to waste the realm's resources...

But this was incomprehensible to the head maid.

Since the Roman demons outside... the Romans are not on our side.

Why not just kill them and plunder them?

Isn't this perfectly normal?

The head maid gazed thoughtfully at the distant horde of Roman demons. Wasn't this perfectly normal?

The Romans' glory began with plunder.

Plunder was the trajectory of the Roman Empire's development—for the vast majority of Romans, although they had donned the guise of civilization at that time, their understanding of the world was essentially based on plunder.

Especially for the Romans who lived outside the city before the founding of the nation, they had to plunder in order to survive... Why didn't that demon servant know this, even the Romans knew it?

Or perhaps they know, but are unwilling to do it?

...strangeness.

I can't understand it.

The head maid twisted her neck.

Then, her figure vanished into the shadows. She appeared at the center of the Roman demon horde after the shadows overlapped.

She leaped from the shadows, easily transforming them into instruments of confinement and weapons. After crippling but not killing the vast majority of the Roman demons, she successfully plundered everything from the first batch of Roman demons.

But that's far from enough—fortunately, the Roman Demon Realm is not lacking in Roman demons.

...If all else fails, she can choose to leave the Roman Demon Realm and plunder people from other areas in the surrounding regions.

I wonder how things are at the military region. I also wonder what happened to the mining council and Sir Robert, who ran away back then. Where is that shameful traitor and cowardly, withdrawn fool now?

"Never mind. Let's get the work done first."

The head maid murmured, dragging a vast number of demons away from the place.

And at the highest point of the capital.

The demon servant observed the head maid's every move.

“It’s a special ability of the concept of ‘Shadow’… Hmph, perfectly suited for a blindly loyal servant.” The demon servant sighed heavily. “Also, a special demon with almost no recorded births in Purgatory… But never mind. Her ‘true form’ doesn’t seem very powerful. If we can take her down before she infiltrates into the shadows, then everything will be fine…”

"...But on the other hand, as long as Prince Garsen remains in the Roman capital, will she be the best pawn in the entire Roman Demon Realm...?"

"That's fine too. Anyway, Roman the Devil loves infighting the most—so let you fight amongst yourselves."

"I only need to make the crack appear in advance... then all the sacrifices will be worthwhile."

With the head maid's help, the demon servant quickly gained enough of his dying life force to support his plans.

With the death of the Roman demon, he successfully summoned three rifts—but these rifts still need time to heal and require further life force to nourish them.

其中，欧尔罗斯大陆的裂缝会在三年——也就是帝国历010年的12月份彻底开启。而艾露西亚这边的两道裂缝，则会在5年后的帝国历012年1月启动。

Moreover, the demon servants successfully made contact with the newly emerged [Dominator Demon] in Purgatory... If nothing unexpected happens, on the continent of Elusia, the Dominator Demon will once again become the core force in invading the world.

The demon servant felt he had done almost everything he could.

Now all that's left is to wait and see... and see if the head maid can bring more good news.

.......

Meanwhile, in Issugard.

In the face of national crisis, Miss Margarita finally took her small step—a giant leap for Ysgard.

"National merger...that's exactly what it sounds like."

National merger.

Strange phenomena appeared in the sky.

The devil is watching us intently.

Even the people of Isgard themselves are unable to investigate the strange phenomena in the sky, and can only watch helplessly as the magical dolls of the United Nations change bodies and fly into the sky.

The entire nation of Issugard will have to face a reality in the future—the reality that Issugard cannot survive this calamity alone.

Naturally, since Isgard could not survive the disaster, it would be reasonable for it to merge with the United Nations to unify political power and development as much as possible.

After all, politicians might be able to escape to the continent of Elusia, but where can the tens of thousands of people on the continent of Orros go?

Margarita, even with a clear conscience, knew how to capitalize on the impending surge of public opinion. But the battle over national unification had only just begun.

Although I've already lowered my standards as much as possible... it seems that if His Majesty Yang Hao intends to use my people as cannon fodder, then I still have to...

...Margarita glanced discreetly at her ring. Just then, the elf on Yang Hao's side let out a sigh:

"Although we don't know what the demons did, it's true that national unification is necessary—if we don't unify now, we'll have no chance. Even if we were willing to provide full assistance to Isgard, Isgard itself certainly wouldn't be able to convince everyone to prepare for the final battle, would it?"

"Yes. As you said—after all, we are a democratic country."

"We are quite democratic too. It's just that we practice democracy according to the [national] system."

"..."

The elf's words made Margarita frown.

Margarita and Nia had generally communicated about the political structure of the United Nations.

It was an extremely... peculiar political structure.

The strongest bond between the three nations of the United Nations today is not only because they once fought side by side, but more importantly because they are now inseparable from each other.

Bayerjas cannot escape the rare resources and industry of the Elven Kingdom, nor can the Elves escape the population and market of the Bayerjas. Based on this, the Kingdom of Eden also shares resource needs with both nations.

They must cooperate with each other, exposing their backs completely to each other, in order to survive together—but that's not the most important thing.

The most important point is...

The most crucial figure who enabled normal communication between these three countries was Yang Hao.

Just as the elves crossed paths with the Queen of Bayern because of Yang Haocai, the two queens of the earthly kingdoms crossed paths with the Queen of Eden because of Yang Haocai.

Based on this, no matter how hard Yang Hao tries to downplay his influence, his wife and even his people will not approve of his actions—so in the end, it seems he simply accepts this?

...Has he considered that if he were to die, the alliance would begin to crumble?

But on the other hand, if you think about it the other way around...

Will he really die?

Margarita stared blankly at Yang Hao's body.

In her vision, Yang Hao's body was already surrounded by various forces.

The power of the gods, the power of the gods' followers, the natural magic of the elves, and the artificial magic of the Kingdom of Eden... His body was being transformed by this power almost constantly. In the end, if he were to live to the day when he should have died of old age, he would be surprised to find that his body showed no signs of aging.

What a terrible alliance. Margarita thought to herself. If only she could be a part of it.

After all, if we consider it from the perspective of a "nation", the United Nations is indeed very democratic.

“I have a general understanding of the political structure of the United Nations… so if the safety and individual rights of my people can be guaranteed, I am willing to hand over most of the political power to the Parliament of the United Nations… or rather, to His Majesty Yang Hao.”

However—Margarita was not a fool who would sit idly by and wait for her fate.

She knew very well that Yang Hao was already working beyond his capacity in some respects. It was absolutely impossible for him to take on political work for another country while also planning industrial development.

"...This won't do, Margarita. I'm not familiar with Isgard. You should handle the politics of Isgard."

As expected, Yang Hao immediately made concessions. This relieved Margarita slightly, but also made her realize that the upcoming negotiations should not be underestimated.

They had a meeting that lasted about an hour.

Before the magical dolls could draw conclusions based on their examinations, they had already reached some valuable agreements.

one.

Issugard will join the United Nations system, along with Bayrzan, Gaparia, and Eden, provided that most political sovereignty is guaranteed.

However, due to the strong demands of the elves and the synthetic dolls, Ysgard must, and can only, appoint Margarita as its representative to participate in politics—in other words, the United Nations simply don't care about democracy in Ysgard. Given that democracy is now a matter of life and death, Margarita reluctantly accepted this condition, putting Ysgard at risk of crumbling and regressing.

Secondly, although the two countries will engage in almost comprehensive resource exchange, and the issue of tariffs will be resolved after negotiations... the first thing to do now is to expand the portal network's nodes in various regions of Issugard to ensure the safety and speed of future logistics transit.

Of course, this doesn't mean completely banning logistics services in Issugard. In reality, for groups outside of Eden, the vast majority of large and heavy goods still rely on regular trains and ships for transportation—but even so, some powerful politicians in Issugard's logistics sector will surely be unhappy about it, right?

"I'll handle it. At most, a few people will die."

Margarita accepted the job casually. However, judging from Yang Hao's observation, this might not be as simple as just "a few people dying."

After all, what the superiors do, the subordinates follow. There should be quite a few middle and upper-level logistics personnel in Ysgard who have become traitors who will try to stop this national merger. Can Margarita really kill almost all the traitors?

She really can.

Thirdly, and this is quite crucial...

"Isgard needs to improve its industrial and scientific capabilities as soon as possible... Based on our experience with demons, they are extremely resistant to individual attacks."

"you mean..."

"I suspect the same applies to scientific investigation—our United Nations' strongest area of ​​development is magical research. In other words, we also need the assistance of Ysgard's [physical research] to study those rifts."

"But Yang Hao, you should also know that this is impossible in the short term. Scientific advancements are measured in decades, and that's already considered short."