Chapter 1975: Rumors and Protests

Upon arriving at the intelligence room, Xia Duo reviewed the already archived intelligence while listening to Aiwa introduce the latest situation in Seventon.

"Recently, rumors have been circulating regarding the Ascension Ritual that you mentioned earlier, and it involves an Elf named Eriwen. It is rumored that the Seven Towers made a deal with the Elves, preparing to let the Elves conduct an Ascension Ritual in Seventon."

"That's false. Master Eriwen is human; he only possesses Elf blood and happens to look like an Elf," Xia Duo commented casually.

The fact that such an absurd rumor had emerged indicated that the negotiations between the Seven Towers and other Great Arcanists were not going smoothly. However, this actually highlighted his own importance and would give him more initiative in his upcoming dealings with the Seven Towers.

Following this, Xia Duo signaled for Aiwa to continue.

"This one is likely related to the previous one. Recently, there have been many more Elves in Seventon than in the past. I am not referring to those Siluwende refugees settled in the Nan Cheng Qu, but rather Elf spies."

"Spies?" The movement of Xia Duo's hands as he flipped through the intelligence documents slowed slightly.

"Yes, my lord, Elf spies. This is no longer a secret in Seventon."

Speaking of this, a rare trace of a smile appeared on Aiwa's face—a little of it was genuine amusement, but most of it was mockery. "Those arrogant Elves, despite performing covert work, appear in human territory so high-profile, as if they are afraid others won't know of their existence."

"Oh? How are they doing it?"

"There is a Nameless Bar in the back alleys of the Old City District that is considered the largest underground intelligence trading center in Seventon. Yet, those Elves openly enter it under the guise of Special Envoys to gather intelligence, while the Elf Embassy turns around and refuses to acknowledge such envoys."

"Where are those Elves from? What kind of intelligence are they gathering?" Xia Duo asked.

"Mainly Yierlan. There are some from Cormanthor as well, but very few, and the Cormanthor spies have become very low-key recently. Aside from the Seven Towers' attitude toward Siluwende, the Yierlan side is mostly inquiring about the Ascension Ritual."

After finishing, Aiwa added, "If you hadn't just said that the Ascended God Eriwen was human, I would have kept believing that the Seven Towers had made a deal with Cormanthor!"

"How so?"

"The attitudes of the Seven Towers and Cormanthor are somewhat ambiguous. You should be familiar with the matter of Prince Saier from a while ago, yet suddenly Prince Saier was released. Afterward, rumors spread that the Seven Towers had traded with the Elves to let them conduct an Ascension Ritual in Seventon. Combining this with the fact that Cormanthor Elves have become very low-key, it is hard not to suspect that the Seven Towers' trading partner is Cormanthor."

"As for that—"

Xia Duo shook his head. If he hadn't already met Master Eriwen and understood his background and temperament, he might have been misled by such rumors as well.

As for the point about "Cormanthor Elves becoming low-key in Seventon," if they weren't brewing some other conspiracy, it was highly likely related to the Seven Towers' previous negotiations with Cormanthor.

According to the situation Xia Duo understood, the Seven Towers had the upper hand in the negotiations; at the very least, Cormanthor had already returned the Nether Scroll, so being a bit more low-key was not a major issue.

However, the Yierlan Elves inquiring about the Ascension Ritual made Xia Duo catch a whiff of danger. Regarding the Princess's previous Ascension Ritual, aside from Netheril needing to verify the feasibility of Ascension, the Elves might have needed to verify it as well.

And now that the Princess had successfully ascended, Netheril might still need more verification, but the Elves might have already obtained sufficient information.

In other words, it was very likely that the Elves would not allow a second person in Netheril to successfully ascend.

Xia Duo had previously suspected that the Elves were using the Ascension Ritual to harm Netheril, but "the Elves" here largely referred to Cormanthor, or rather, the Elf main deity.

And the Elves who would not allow a second person to ascend in Netheril referred more to Elf nations outside of Cormanthor that had the ability to stop all of this, such as Yierfalan and Yierlan.

If Yierlan hadn't been held back by Siluwende, perhaps they would have already taken more direct action to stop it.

As for Yierfalan, there is a saying in Xia Duo's hometown: "A barking dog doesn't bite." Don't look at the fact that Yierfalan is currently facing an Orc Tide that was triggered by others; one must know that the Orc Tide was never a major crisis for Yierfalan to begin with.

It was merely a troublesome issue, like a chicken rib.

They had the ability to resolve it completely, but chose to let it be because they didn't want to pay a potentially more serious price. Even Netheril had the ability to resolve all large Orc tribes within its borders, so why couldn't Yierfalan?

It was simply because of the potential cost, and the fact that the Orcs were not within their borders—nothing more.

As long as there was a sufficiently strong reason, Yierfalan might well be able to free up their hands to intervene, and Netheril's second Ascension Ritual was a sufficiently strong reason.

At least, that was how Xia Duo saw it.

Today's Netheril and Yierfalan, after experiencing the Northland Alliance Magic Restriction Treaty alignment incident, were basically at odds despite their outward appearance of harmony.

Originally, both sides had a common enemy—Cormanthor—but with the establishment of the Northland Alliance, it was destined to be difficult for the three parties to erupt into serious direct conflict, so the original alliance relationship needed to be re-evaluated.

Especially since Netheril had already shown a clear trend of rising; if anyone said Yierfalan truly had no thoughts on this, Xia Duo would never believe it, even if he died!

If they truly had no thoughts, why would they support Cormanthor in pushing for some Magic Restriction Treaty!

Think about it: once-hostile sides stood together, allies stabbed each other in the back, and now Netheril was suspected of flirting with Cormanthor.

This perfectly confirmed the famous saying from Earth—between nations, there are never permanent enemies, nor permanent friends, only permanent interests!

Of course, Xia Duo did not entirely agree with this statement, because it was a purely interest-based theory that ignored value-based orientations.

An interest-only theory is just a simple math problem on paper, and the reason sentient beings are sentient beings, besides possessing Wisdom, is more importantly morality, or values.

Therefore, Xia Duo also disliked so-called "purely rational Mages"; such people might be smiling and talking about interests with you one second, and the next second they might stab you a few times for those interests.

Xia Duo believed that whether human or Elf, there would be considerations in this regard. For example, the small tacit understanding between Yierfalan and Cormanthor regarding the Magic Restriction Treaty was certainly not enough to smooth over the huge ideological differences between the two countries.

But then again, Yierfalan and Cormanthor were ultimately both Elf Kingdoms. Despite the current irreconcilable contradictions, as time passed and they remained in the Northland Alliance, they would gradually converge.

By then, Netheril, as a human nation, would appear out of place caught in the middle.

Of course, Xia Duo was confident that before that happened, he would lead Netheril (his base) into a different state.