Chapter 682.1: What Has This Got To Do With Us? |
The New Alliance Building’s office area for the Foreign Affaris Department was bustling with activity.
It had been going on for some time. With the representatives of the Enterprise, Academy, and the Army all gathered in Dawn City, more and more small and mid-sized settlements, smelling an opportunity to fleece some benefits, sent envoys to the New Alliance.
Some headed over with sincerity in their desire to join, but many were there to mess around, and among them were even marauders who disguised themselves as normal settlements hoping to extract benefits.
Just recently, such a case occurred.
A supposed survivor settlement registered 200 kilometers away in an abandoned urban zone had, in reality, been a marauder camp dealing in human trafficking and organ harvesting.
It turned out that merchants from the Bugra Free State, seeing so many foreign envoys gathering in Dawn City, bribed the managers of that marauder camp, set up a disguised radio station to transmit and receive signals, packaged the settlement as an innocent little white rabbit, and successfully tricked the New Alliance’s signal-location checks and callback verification procedures, obtaining proxy authorization on behalf of the community.
The merchant gambled that the New Alliance wouldn’t have enough manpower to verify each settlement in person.
If successful, he could receive diplomatic immunity in the New Alliance as a foreign representative, and then fleece benefits from all major factions in the name of representing a thousand-person survivor community.
To be honest, he had judged the New Alliance’s foreign affairs capacity quite accurately.
On the very same day, several players parachuted into that area. After discovering the drastic difference between the mission description and reality, they immediately submitted an offline report through the official website.
Though the location was far outside the New Alliance’s enforcement range and the Guard Corps could not be dispatched, the semi-official organization, the Home of Refugrees, based on player intelligence, issued a marauder-clearing task for the camp and placed a bounty on rescuing hostages.
At that point, the department’s work ended, and it became the job of the New Alliance’s various corps.
It was said the Silver Corps took the follow-up mission. The entire battle lasted less than half an hour. The players who captured the camp found the radio station used to interact with the New Alliance’s Foreign Affairs Department and brought it back to Dawn City, along with the prisoners captured during the battle.
With massive amounts of evidence, the merchant from the Bugra Free State was arrested for fraud, becoming the second merchant of the Free State arrested by the New Alliance, after Sindison.
Faced with such overwhelming evidence, even Noreg, the Bugra Free State’s Foreign Minister participating in the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee meetings, couldn’t argue and could only swallow the bitter loss.
Since that incident, the New Alliance’s Foreign Affairs Department strengthened the review procedures for settlements outside the River Valley Province. The workload of every department doubled.
As usual, the New Alliance’s Foreign Minister, Cheng Yan, sat in his office reviewing documents. All of a sudden, his deputy walked in with a letter, placing the envelope on his desk.
Cheng Yan set down his pen and glanced at it, raising an eyebrow. “What is this?”
“A protest from the Xilande Empire.”
Seeing Cheng Yan’s astonished expression, the deputy made a helpless face and pulled a crumpled newspaper from his file bag, placing it beside the letter. “… It was triggered by this newspaper.”
Cheng Yan didn’t open the letter. Instead, he picked up the newspaper and glanced at it. The headline photo was the one that had been causing a commotion recently.
“… The Goblin Observation?”
The deputy nodded. “Yes… but it’s not about the headline, it’s about the article on page two. You’ll understand once you see it.”
“I’ll take a look.” Cheng Yan flipped immediately to the second page.
Unlike Survivor’s Daily, the Goblin Observation was an unofficial, privately run entertainment newspaper outlet, produced by shelter residents.
After the Sindison incident, the New Alliance Council passed the Media Qualification Review Act, and they drafted detailed regulations. But they only required that current-affairs reporting not fabricate facts or include obvious subjectivity, and that commentary articles cite reliable news sources.
Some had suggested that the New Alliance government directly review media qualifications, but Chu Guang refused, following the long-standing principle of letting the experts handle operations, while the public supervises. The management authority was given to the committee composed of field experts, while supervision was entrusted to the Council.
In other words, procedurally, the Foreign Affairs Department could not act against the newspaper. Even if they wanted to, they would need the approval of either the Council or the administrator…
Rubbing his brow with a finger, Cheng Yan looked at his deputy and asked uncertainly, “They’re protesting that we accepted Moonfolk refugees?”
The deputy sighed, “No… they’re protesting that we called them refugees. Then they mentioned some parable about the Ox God of the Sun. To be honest, I didn’t understand a word. Basically, they demand we use derogatory terms like criminals or sinners to refer to them, and then, out of respect for their empire, expel them.”
Cheng Yan couldn’t help but feel the corner of his mouth twitching.
“Well, great, there’s another Great Stag God…”
The deputy gave him a helpless look. “I told him we respect their faith, but they should respect that we’re atheists… but that guy was very aggressive. He even threatened to oppose us in the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee meetings.”
Cheng Yan stared at him. “This… what does that have to do with Mutant Slime Mold?”
The deputy shrugged, muttering, “Who knows… damn it, I feel like the Wislander are behind this. I knew those big-nosed bastards had bad intentions when they dragged these idiots into the committee!”
“You can’t put it that way. The Poro Province is still part of this land, and any progress, no matter how small, is worth encouraging… even if some factions aren’t progressing very noticeably.” Cheng Yan coughed lightly and asked, “What’s important is how to resolve this. Are these all their demands?”
The deputy hesitated, but answered truthfully. “They also want an audience with the administrator.”
Cheng Yan blinked, unsure if he heard correctly. “An audience with the administrator?”
Are these people dreaming?
The deputy muttered unhappily, “Yes. They believe we are at fault.”
Cheng Yan’s expression became serious. “This was proposed by that Duke Garawa?”
“I’m not sure. The written request was delivered by his attendant, a man named Niyan.”
Cheng Yan thought for a moment and sighed, “If anyone could demand an audience with the Administrator for something this absurd, our administrator would never be able to work… I happen to be free tomorrow afternoon. I’ll meet the Xilande ambassador myself.”
The Xilande Empire wasn’t a small faction, they occupied an entire administrative region. Even though their demands sounded ridiculous, borderline unreasonable, Cheng Yan felt it was still worth hearing them out.
Perhaps there was a misunderstanding.
Just as the administrator always said, misunderstandings arise from lack of communication, and many problems can be solved through dialogue.
The Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee itself was founded on that principle.
If the factions of the wasteland could set aside old conflicts and cooperate on matters concerning humanity’s shared fate, at least on some issues, then this land might truly see a new era.
For the future of human civilization, he felt it necessary to speak with the ambassador face-to-face.
…
The next day, Cheng Yan summoned Duke Garawa and scheduled the meeting in Conference Room 2 of the Alliance Tower.
With a long, stiff expression, Duke Garawa stepped inside. He didn’t sit immediately. He scanned the round meeting table, saw only a foreign minister sitting there, and his brows lifted with arrogance and disdain.
Back in the meetings of the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee, he had at least met the New Alliance Administrator.
A mere minister? Did he deserve to sit with him?
But for the sake of diplomatic etiquette, Garawa forced himself to sit. Tapping the tabletop with his finger, he spoke first. “Where is your administrator? Tell him to come speak with me.”
Facing this aggressive start, Cheng Yan simply looked at him calmly. “Our administrator’s schedule is currently very full, so arranging a private audience in the short term is difficult. However, he instructed me to fulfill my duties as host and attend to the guests’ concerns. Hearing your complaint from me is no different…”
“This is not a complaint,” Garawa interrupted rudely, narrowing his eyes. His tone carried a hint of threat. “I’ll repeat myself, you are provoking the Xilande Empire’s wrath.”
Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, Cheng Yan reminded himself to stay solution-oriented. He continued patiently, “I’m here precisely to solve that issue… so first, I would like to understand: what exactly is the conflict between you and the Moonfolk?”
He flipped open his notebook, pen in hand.
But before he could write a single word, Garawa’s angry shout echoed through the room. “They are sinners!”
“What do you mean reason? The Ox God of the Sun…”
“Enough, Duke Garawa. You know we don’t want to hear that!” Unable to bear it any longer, Cheng Yan finally interrupted.
Seeing Garawa’s shocked expression, he raised his voice. “We wish to understand the origins of your grievances. For example, did they kill someone? Commit theft, robbery, human trafficking, anything like that? Consider this a hearing. We will listen to both sides and work toward a mutually acceptable outcome. If we can help the two parties reconcile, all the better… don’t you agree?”
Garawa stared at him as though looking at a bizarre creature.
… Reconcile?
He suspected he misheard. Why should he, with noble blood, reconcile with lowborn creatures who deserved only to kiss his toes?
