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Chapter 105 – Cretians
“Oh dear me! Look at all of you, welcome, welcome everyone!”
Abraham welcomes the representative of Lezzad, Ains, and the representative of Nemes.
The three are currently at Abraham’s residence.
It’s a mansion sarcastically called by the Lezzadians and Nemesians as Abraham’s palace.
That said, it’s built at a scale that you’d be forgiven for calling it a palace.
At the very least, it’s much larger, beautiful, and luxurious than the Rosythian Palace.
“Thank you, Your Excellency. We would like to thank you for inviting us here for today.”
Ains lightly extends Lezzad’s salutation while Nemes’ representative shortly follows suit.
The three then immediately move to talks.
“Now then, I think everyone here knows what we’re going to talk about. The Rosyth Kingdom is currently the target of a coalition. The king there is a grandson to me. Naturally, I intend to send reinforcements. What about you gentlemen?”
“Our country has also received an official request for reinforcements. Naturally, we also intend to support them. The Belvedere Kingdom is, after all, our arch enemy.”
Lezzad and Gehenna both have huge reasons to intervene in the war.
From Lezzad’s point of view, this is their chance to catch the Belvedere Kingdom in a pincer so there’s no reason for them to pass on this war.
Nemes, on the other hand, finds that point difficult.
“Unfortunately, Our country is not that close with the Rosyth Kingdom. Personally speaking, I also think it’s better if we send reinforcements to the Rosyth Kingdom but the citizens probably won’t agree. Therefore, we are thinking of sending aid in the form of provisions and war funds.”
In other words, Nemes also supports the Rosyth Kingdom.
“Isn’t the topic of today’s talks painfully obvious? Why don’t you hurry up and tell us the main point of the matter?”
Abraham shrugs at Ains’ request.
He then speaks while showing slight disappointment.
“This war will certainly empty the treasury of that country. In any case, they’ve also been busy engaging in huge enterprises up until recently. Therefore, they should be interested in borrowing. 

..As such we should lend the Rosyth Kingdom huge amounts of money and make them slaves to the will of us, Cretians.”
“What we’re more worried about is you using your great-grandchild to eliminate us.”
Ains quips while glaring at Abraham.
Although Lezzad also agrees on the policy of burying the Rosyth Kingdom in debt, Abraham is someone who can’t be trusted.
“Hahaha, I’ll be dead by the time my great-grandchild becomes king. Aren’t I correct?”
“

Yes, you are correct.”
Nemes’ representative makes a bitter smile.
Abraham has a time limit called “life span.”
“Well, I guess it’s fine. Regardless, it’s a huge enterprise that won’t succeed unless the three of us cooperate. I humbly place our trust in you.”
“Our country, Nemes, shall also cooperate.”
“Thank you very much, gentlemen! Haha, unless we merchants put our trust in each other, things won’t start after all!”
Creatians are a merchant people. Although naturally speaking there are some farmers amongst them but that profession as well is done in pursuit of trade.
It’s difficult to raise wheat in Cretia. Instead, it’s easier to raise olives and grapes. Such produce would be sold to other countries like Persis from whom they would then buy wheat.
Where there is money to be made, Cretians would immediately ride their ships, set sail and head for the actual site. Once they’ve filled up their ship with goods, they’d then use the oceans to move island to island, continent to continent.
Ains, Abraham, and the Nemes Representative are also the same – they are merchants.
Amongst them, there are also pirates.
Should trade not go favorably, merchant ships can be quickly changed into pirate ships. With such modes of operation, they managed to sink several Persis and Povenian ships.
These are what makes a Cretian.
Cretians taking control of the Tethys Sea is not a coincidence.
Valor, Seafaring, Negotiations, Trade, Economic Power, and above all, cunning

No race of the various countries in the Tethys sea can surpass such a people.
Battling against the Great Persis Empire and winning many times is proof of this.
It’s not good to make enemies of the Cretian people

.
“Now then, the next problem is who would take command of the army. Politically speaking, I want to say that one from each of your countries should take equal command but

we’ll lose if we divide the chain of command into two. I do not want to do such stupid things.”
“I feel the same way. 
..Actually, I have just the perfect person for the job.”
“Oh? Who might he be?”
Ains answers Abraham’s query.
“Alexios. Alexios Barca. Well, he’d get angry if we call him a Barca but you know who I’m talking about.”
“


That great general from Povenia? Haldir Barca’s son? Certainly, it’ll be most suitable to make him commander huh. He’s not affiliated with any country after all and his abilities are the real deal. If I can recall correctly, it was in the war five years ago, huh

.[TLN1]
Five years ago, a dispute broke out between Povenia and Cretia.
The site of the battle was the island of Trisqueria a little south from the Adernia Peninsula.”
This island is a famous grain-producing region in the Tethys Sea where a lot of Cretians are importing their wheat.
In fact, thirty percent of Cretian wheat imports all come from Trisqueria.
In that war, the supreme commander of the Povenian forces was Haldir Barca while Alexios worked under him as the centurion of an elite cohort.
From the beginning, Povenia advanced successfully through Trisqueria driving Cretian armies into a corner one by one. It was a horrible situation where, at worst, Cretians would have to completely withdraw from the island.
Haldir Barca and Alexios Barca were that troublesome as enemies.
However, for some reason, a strange disturbance in their military movements suddenly broke out.
They didn’t pursue into attack even though they would win if they did so quickly.
They withdrew even though there was no need to do so.
That was the beginning of their strange behavior.
Thanks to that, the Cretians were able to regroup and recover.
This was something Abraham and the others learned long after but it seemed that the Povenian Senate had meddled in the war.
Because of that, they never managed to win even though they could’ve done so.
No matter how effective the generals, all of them would be pointless if the politicians controlling them are incompetent.
This is a good example of that.
“But can we trust him? He’s a man who abandoned his country you know?”
“You can rest easy on that. That man is currently constructing a world only for him and his wife called Melia. He’s an excellent general that we need to properly recruit on our side by interfering in that world. What’s important is that we just need to be careful of not repeating the same mistake as Povenia.”
Abraham smiles with a grin at Ains’ statement.
“Ha, there’s no need for such foolish actions. All would be fine if he would just win for us.”
Abraham open his mouth widely to speak with a huge burst of laughter.


.Thanks to that, his jaw got dislocated, reminding him of the awkward fact that he’s ageing.