Chapter 621: The Seven-Tower Debate

At dusk, Xia Duo brought three bottles of strong liquor to Buloutuo's smithy again. After taking the three 【Dragon Hunting Rune】s, he handed them, along with the previous one, to Keyaan, telling him to distribute them to the soldiers under his command to deploy around the Savile Territory. After finishing this, Xia Duo made a trip to the Temple and arranged with Bishop Anbulier to face the enemy together when the dragons attacked, only then returning to the Daxia Territory to wait for Buloutuo's other runes while making preparations for the battle that could break out at any moment.

……

In Seventon to the north, the Scarlet Flash Star had already appeared in the northwestern sky for several days, but the Great Arcanists did not seem anxious at all. Inside a certain secret conference room, the leaders of Netheril gathered once again, yet they never once touched upon the topic of the Scarlet Flash Star.

What they were discussing was another, more serious matter—at least in the eyes of Princess Xiya. She cleared her throat and issued a final inquiry:

"Regarding the plea for help from Cormanthor, are we going to respond? What exactly are your thoughts? Aside from Badijiaer, does no one else have anything to say? Or should I just reject the Elves directly?"

"Don't!"

Great Arcanist Haruisi from the Fenwick Tower immediately spoke up to stop her. "For the always arrogant Cormanthor Elves to lower their heads and beg us for help, the situation must have reached a critical point. If we refuse now, who knows if they might abandon their battle with the Drow and turn to attack us instead!"

"How dare they! Do they want to face a pincer attack from us and the Drow at the same time? If you ask me, we should just make contact with the Drow and wipe out Cormanthor together, so it stops causing us trouble from time to time!"

The one speaking was Badijiaer of the Gustav Tower. He had always been hostile toward Elves, and now that such a good opportunity had presented itself, he felt that even if they didn't join the Drow in an attack, he at least did not want to see Netheril go to help Cormanthor.

Moreover, as soon as he said this, even Huo En, who usually liked to argue with him, nodded repeatedly. Although he did not explicitly say they should join the Drow in an attack, it was clear that he did not support helping Cormanthor either.

"You—"

Haruisi was somewhat exasperated. He knew that if he didn't say something now, the resolution regarding Cormanthor might soon be dominated by Badijiaer. Given Badijiaer's consistent style, he could already imagine the various dangers that would arise once such a decision was made.

"Badijiaer, not long ago you personally cleared out the underground trade routes with the Dwarves. You must have seen the Drow. Does that creature differ from the description of the Cormanthor Elves that Her Highness the Princess just relayed?"

"No discrepancy. They are indeed extremely cruel and cunning creatures!" Badijiaer did not deny this; he had even brought back images and corpses of Drow for the others to see.

"Then how dare you propose cooperating with the Drow? Compared to having the Drow as our neighbors, I would much rather have Cormanthor continue to be our neighbor!"

"I don't believe the Drow are born cruel and cunning creatures. Perhaps they were just screwed over by the Elves and turned out this way. Don't forget that the Drow were once Elves too. Are you going to say that cruelty and cunning are hidden in the nature of Elves? If that's the case, then there's no need to save Cormanthor. Isn't it better to let them kill each other?"

Badijiaer's words were clearly fueled by emotion. Haruisi expressed his opposition without hesitation. "Everything you say is based on assumptions and possibilities. Looking only at the current situation, I believe having the Drow as our neighbors is far more terrifying."

After speaking, Haruisi glanced at the others who were lost in thought and decided to add more fuel to the fire:

"I heard that the appearance of the 'King-Slaying Star' this time is not when it was originally supposed to appear, but that the Drow triggered it early, with the goal of controlling dragons to serve as cannon fodder for them to rush out from the underground."

"Who did you hear this news from?"

Lander, who had been silent and just waiting for the final vote, became interested immediately upon hearing the name "King-Slaying Star." "Do you mean to say that the Drow have a way to control the 【Dragon Madness Mythallar】?"

Compared to the survival of Cormanthor, Lander was more concerned about the 【Dragon Madness Mythallar】. This legendary existence was a subject he had always wanted to study, but past data was too scarce; let alone the 【Dragon Madness Mythallar】, even data on ordinary Mythallars was extremely rare.

Lander stared at Haruisi with bright eyes, wanting him to answer the question immediately.

"This was said by the Cormanthor Ambassador himself." Haruisi threw the question to Princess Xiya. "He should have told Her Highness the Princess as well, right?"

"Yes, he told me too! However—"

"However what?" Haruisi asked hurriedly.

"This kind of thing is only claimed by Cormanthor. We cannot confirm it. Perhaps they said such things on purpose to urge us to help them."

Princess Xiya's attitude was relatively rational, or rather, deep down she was actually the same as Badijiaer, harboring hostility toward the Elves. But this hostility was not driven by emotion, but was a choice made rationally.

"I used a Spell to confirm that he was telling the truth," Haruisi said again.

"Spells aren't omnipotent either. What if he was deceived himself!" Badijiaer retorted immediately.

Haruisi knew the Elves had no reason to fabricate such a thing, but he truly had no way to prove it, so he turned his gaze back to Princess Xiya:

"What is Her Highness the Princess's opinion?"

He knew that the Princess always considered the big picture and never engaged in emotional disputes. If she truly opposed helping Cormanthor, there would be no need to repeatedly ask for everyone's opinions; she could have just called for a vote when Badijiaer first opposed it.

In that situation, his sudden opposition alone would not have changed anything.

And the fact that the Princess left time for everyone to think, diluting the dominant atmosphere brought about by Badijiaer's initial opposition, didn't that just show that the Princess also supported helping Cormanthor?

Princess Xiya did not respond directly to Haruisi's gaze. She did indeed support helping Cormanthor, for reasons similar to Haruisi's—she was also worried that Cormanthor would lead the Drow over, or in their madness, cast aside the Drow and launch an attack directly on Netheril.

Moreover, she was also skeptical of what the Cormanthor Ambassador had said. The situation might be very urgent, but it certainly wasn't urgent to the point of immediate national extinction.

Rather than gambling on the low-probability event that Cormanthor was doomed while the Drow would be good neighbors, it was better to choose to support Cormanthor, which was more familiar to the Netherese.

After deliberating slightly, Princess Xiya stated her view—

"I also support supporting Cormanthor. Badijiaer, if you are determined to join forces with the Drow to wipe out Cormanthor, come up with a practically feasible plan. If there is one, I believe others will consider it seriously. If not, then we can consider how to support Cormanthor, and what we can gain in the process!"

After a pause, seeing that Badijiaer did not speak, Princess Xiya continued: "I just received news from the Arcane Union that the Cormanthor Ambassador has already contacted them privately. Even if we don't agree to support them, others will agree, even if only on a private basis! Everyone had best decide what you want as soon as possible, and confirm with the others from the Arcane Union tomorrow. We must not let Cormanthor get the upper hand."

(End of chapter)