"Pretty rough already, huh?" Brody pointed out, walking up to Eisen, who simply nodded his head with a loud groan.
"You can say that again," the old man sighed, already feeling the headache come on, "Did you hear those demands? The central continent literally wants to have giants as slave labour... and Van Horgh? I genuinely do not know what sort of theological education they have in the Holy Empire... They have a completely wrong image of the gods." Your next read is at m v|l-e'-novelhall.net
Xenia walked up and leaned against the side of Eisen's large chair, "Well, what would you expect? Do you know how many religious denominations there are for literally any religion on earth? And it's not like the gods are actively showing them their diaries, so how would they know the details?"
Eisen groaned, "I just figured things would be passed down a bit better. Honestly, it feels kind of... off. There's no way that the Holy Empire of all places doesn't have a way of communicating with the gods somehow, even if it's just that they receive some kind of oracles. So how could they be so wrong about it all?"
"Maybe they're doing it intentionally," Xenia suggested, "There's no easier way of manipulating the masses than by manipulating the information they receive. I don't really know what benefits they would get from that, though... maybe they just want to 'other' the people of different countries, to make the citizens of the holy empire feel superior to them.
Creating a sense of being 'different' is a baseline tactic for that."
"... What do you two think?" Eisen asked, looking over at Ambriel and Satel, who had stepped aside once the barrier dividing the room up was deployed. Satel thought about it for a moment, but just shrugged.
"Honestly, I don't think they're acting ignorant on purpose," the devil pointed out, "Well, maybe at some point in time, but it's not like people really live all that long. Thinking that they changed the way they work in the current generation sounds kinda unrealistic."
Eisen raised a brow. He was surprised to hear Satel's apt insight, but they definitely had a point, "Right... so even if in the past, the Holy Empire tried to change information for their own benefit, at this point, it's possible that this information just became the truth to them all, and now Van Horgh is regurgitating it.
It seemed like their understanding of the gods was spread across the central continent in general, anyway, at least judging from the reactions of the other envoys."
Not to mention, as Eisen had explained earlier, if the envoys lost trust in the words of Satel and Ambriel, much bigger issues could come from that. The two were needed as insurance so that all the envoys fully believed in Eisen and the others' identities, so that this meeting could proceed as smoothly as possible.
And at the very least, it was proceeding. Before long, the two sides had finished discussing each others' offers and demands, and were now ready to come back together. Eisen deactivated the barrier and glanced over to the central continent's side, trying to gauge their expressions. There were really just two people that he had to look at.
Aaron and Van Horgh. And while the former was sitting there with an almost relieved smile, the latter was practically biting down on his tongue, squeezing his hand into a tight fist. And that meant that, as a whole, the envoys from the central continent came to a decision that not only Eisen, but the envoys from the giants' country would be happy with.
Or at least, happier than with the initial list of demands and offers.
"Alright, are both sides ready to continue?" Eisen asked, getting a quick nod from both of the sides' representatives, before the old man looked over at the Irngrad, "In that case, please let us hear your initial thoughts. Then we will hear from the central continent, before I will open things up for the free discussion."
The two sides quickly explained the issues they had with each others' openings, making initial counter-offers and demands. And of course, the Irngrad once more made it very clear that there would be no slave laborers sent over to the central continent. However, instead, he did seem to be happy with the idea of both temporarily sending and hosting workers as a sort of cultural exchange.
Meanwhile, the central continent seemed to be falling back on that issue for the time being, though it didn't seem like they fully gave up on it. But more importantly, Aaron said something that showed that this whole thing was moving into the right direction.
"And lastly, we are willing to discuss the acceptance of all giantfolk as an 'honorary people', giving you at least similar, if not the exact same, rights as people acknowledged by the sytem," he explained, almost ecstatic to say so. Immediately, the giants started talking to each other, surprised that it was so easy to get them all to agree.
But before they could start talking to each other too much, Eisen spoke up.
"Now, it is time for us to move on to the open forum. Please, everyone speak up as you may, but try to be cordial. I will step in and guide the conversation as necessary," Eisen said, mentally preparing himself for what was about to happen.