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The previous things I mentioned were all just additional conditions of our alliance. The true core of this alliance was still the fact that the Southern Sect and Mist Alliance had managed to secretly achieve reconciliation with the Holy Church.

This was no small matter at all. If news of this was to spread, it would likely make a super headline that was more important than a God’s death or San Antonio’s current situation. Commentators and strategists would likely review and discuss this for more than half a year.

The Southern Sect wasn’t just another Holy Light worshipping sect. The Southern Sect now had influence in every corner of Eich. The Southern Sect’s teachings were easier to understand and more approachable. The Southern Sect was able to show concrete Holy Light miracles. Most importantly, the Southern Sect wasn’t as arrogant and forceful as the Holy Church, which allowed it to gradually replace the Holy Church as the prevailing church in more remote areas.

If the Southern Sect and Holy Church were to join in alliance, these two churches alone would possess more than 70% of the power of belief of all humanity.

Also, the mega empire Bardi was behind the Southern Sect. When considering the Mage Country’s relationship with Bardi and the Southern Sect, this was a gigantic southern alliance.

Meanwhile, the Mist Alliance was something I didn’t need to explain. The Mist Alliance dominated the entire Norhtlands.

The Mist Alliance had elves, beastmen, humans, and undead. Although the prevailing religion was Law rather than Holy Light, the Mist Alliance would still have astonishing influence in human society.

Additionally, the Hell Gods were behind the Mist Alliance. The Hell Faction was a mega faction that was powerful enough to stand against the entire Order Faction. The world still didn’t know what else the Hell Faction might have.

The Order, Chaos, and Hell Factions were all hostile to each other. Each faction would be on guard against the other two, but secret negotiations and agreements would never stop between the factions.

In the Holy Church, there were quite a few who viewed the Mist Alliance and Southern Sect as the #1 enemy, a threat more dangerous than even the Chaos Faction.

Even though the Holy Church and the Chaos Factions were mortal enemies who wouldn’t stop until one of them was dead, the Holy Church had a rather strange relationship with the Mist Alliance and Southern Sect where the Holy Church worried that these two would take advantage of the situation in the end if the Holy Church finally managed to defeat the Chaos Faction.

What did this alliance represent for the Holy Church? What would they gain from this alliance?

The alliance didn’t write anything about this. In fact, the alliance only stated everything that the Holy Church would give to us. Was the Holy Church that foolish?

No, of course not. The Holy Church would be able to obtain tremendous benefits that they could’ve only previously dreamed about. However, those things couldn’t be written into the alliance, since they were far too underhanded and shameless.

“With the Holy Church allying with the Mist Alliance and Southern Sect, this will mean that all of human society will recognize the Holy Church’s ‘right to lead the Holy War’. At least on the surface, the Mist Alliance and Southern Sect won’t publicly challenge the Holy Church’s authority. This means that the Holy Church can make better use of its combat strength that was previously on guard against us. Also, they’ll be able to do something major that ‘goes against morality.’”

Indeed, the major something I was referring to was betrayal—betraying all of San Antonio.

Before this alliance with us, if the Holy Church dared to abandon San Antonio and retract itself from San Antonio’s civil war, all kingdoms and factions would verbally attack the Holy Church forever by claiming the moral higher ground, challenging the Holy Church’s “right to lead the Holy War”.

“You can even abandon San Antonio, one of your most loyal supporters? You still want others to trust you? Who knows if you won’t sell us out next time?”

In this world, the Holy Church’s authority didn’t come from royal authority. Since the Holy Church was relying on religious authority to rule and lead, having its reputation be tarnished would be no small matter at all. Damage to its reputation would cause irreparable losses.

However, if the Holy Church allied together with the Mist Alliance and Southern Sect, as we represented major factions in the north and south, then betraying and abandoning San Antonio would become a decision made by all of human society, or at least the combined factions which represented a majority of humanity.

This wouldn’t only make blaming the Holy Church impossible; only San Antonio would be harmed by this decision. This was the foundational reason why I nicknamed this alliance the “Traitors’ Alliance”.

There was no more saving San Antonio, so we should simply give up on San Antonio.

Even if this was the truth, anyone who said such a thing was destined to be shamed by history.

Of course, it would be the Holy Church who officially made this decision. The Holy Church would also be the one shamed by history for this, but at least all of human society would tacitly permit this to happen, and view it as some “dark history” for the time being rather than using it to attack the Holy Church.

That was the true benefit of this alliance. Both us and the Holy Church knew about it, but nobody would say it out loud.

Still, it was a definite that the Holy Church would do this as their next move now that they had allied with us.

Although the Holy Church would suffer serious losses, it would still be better than constantly losing more and more in this bottomless pit, along with constantly losing reputation by being forced to slaughter fellow humans.

Betrayal? Yes, this was indeed a betrayal.

San Antonio was a ticking time bomb. The people of San Antonio would forever remember the day that the Holy Church betrayed them. All San Antonio survivors would forever view the Holy Church as their mortal enemy. They would hate the Holy Church even more than the demons and ogres who had destroyed their country.

However, the prerequisite was that anyone from San Antonio even managed to survive their current calamity.

Meanwhile, we would obtain precious time to prepare for combat.

San Antonio was still the most powerful human mega empire, after all. It had plenty of foundational strength, which was more than sufficient for them to last at least a few more decades. No matter who won in their civil war, and who ruled San Antonio in the end, the ruler definitely wouldn’t allow their country to be filled with demons and ogres.

This was simply the way that countries would interact with each other. Only benefits mattered. Emotions wouldn’t even be considered. Even if another country had to suffer, that was better than oneself having to suffer.

Moreover, we wouldn’t be the traitors. We were only observers on the sidelines. We were even generous enough to help the Holy Church out in its time of need, so the Holy Church should be grateful to us.

“Grateful to you? Just this matter alone has made Pope Caloma destined to become greatly shamed in history. He probably wants to devour you right now, yet he still has to smile at you and try his best to forget previous unpleasantness. Today is probably the most aggrieved that he’s ever been in his life.”

The silly cat… er, the silly little girl’s comments were as sharp as always. Judging from how distorted Caloma’s expression had been, Harloys was probably right.

We tacitly agreed to forget about any previous unpleasantness between us and the Holy Church. All of us pretended as if Seraphim Winton’s attack on me and death had never even happened. Perhaps this was the boring way that politicians would make tacit agreements.

Of course, how long this alliance between us could last would depend on who first gained an advantage between us. As long as there were enough benefits as motivation to break it, this alliance would become meaningless, but as long as there were shared benefits to be had, this alliance would be unbreakably solid.

Actually, all international alliances and agreements were like this. Without a powerful arbitrating organization enforcing things, anyone who broke an alliance or agreement would have no fear at all. All so-called alliances and agreements could only be maintained by using shared benefits. The moment that shared benefits weren’t possible anymore, the alliance would naturally become nothing more than scrap paper.

I left by myself with the scrap paper alliance. I then directly got on a flying airship headed northeast. I had no intention of sticking around here and enjoying the sensation of being surrounded by assassins. There were countless within the Holy Church who wanted me to die.

It was likely that everyone who participated in this secret meeting today would later be reviled by history. Still, I didn’t care about my own reputation, since my reputation was already bad enough. It was also good for me that the Holy Church’s reputation would be tainted a bit more by this.

The only one who would really lose from this agreement was San Antonio, the uninvited third party. However, sacrificing San Antonio would help the entire world to obtain more time in order to strategically prepare for war against the Chaos Faction. That was why even though we and the Holy Church were so hostile to each other originally, we still tacitly agreed to sell out San Antonio.

I disguised myself as an old man who required a walking staff as I sat on the edge of the flying airship and looked down at the flourishing city beneath me. I couldn’t help but exclaim.

“How many San Antonio citizens even realize that their country, the strongest country in the land, is already finished…?”