Just A Reincarnation Story (Summoning Japan Edition)

Chapter 47: Confluence of Ambitions

"I knew it was only a matter of time before it comes down to this!" exclaimed one middle-aged man after his eyes scanned through the page as if hanging on his dear life. His lamentation was echoed by a number of others.

"I hope the God of War curses those northern alliance kingdoms for being routed so easily! What in all hells were they doing!?"

An indignant merchant who had been to the Kooze Kingdom before instead vented his frustrations to the countries that were Parpaldia's enemies in the war. Even though the other three countries that allied with Kooze were not entirely dependable, he had harbored an inkling of hope that at least Kooze can bloody the rampaging imperialist's nose by cleverly using their geographical advantage and force the Parpaldians who were suffering from a famine to an attrition war. The truth about this supposed 'victory' will not come out until later, but the headlines, which use the Parpaldian government's official statement, were unambiguously printed with the word 'victory' in them. Naturally, the common Altarans assumed that the four northern alliance kingdoms were utterly slaughtered by the invaders in this war.

In another corner of the square, the topic of discussion was a bit different. A well-groomed man surrounded by similarly-dressed colleagues of his exuded a more contemplative air compared to the descending despair around them. After he finished reading the headline, a man sitting on a bench beside him spoke almost immediately.

"...To be fair, we should have seen this coming. Parpaldia's strength is unmatched on the continent. Domestic crisis or not... they will overwhelm the weaker northern alliance eventually."

"But shouldn't they stop and try to fix their internal unrest first?"

"Hah! I don't think so, my brother. They might just kill every dissenter they can find and be done with it. We're talking about Parpaldians, after all."

"That's true... but now that they've conquered the northern alliance, what will be their next target? It can be anyone, even us!"

Chimes of agreement sprouted one after another at his words. However, a hopeful voice interjected.

"Then it will be very idiotic of them to do so! Let us not forget the Holy Empire's increasing presence in the past seven months. Don't you know that they are the ones the Parpaldians feared the most? Look around you, there's already that many of them over here!"

"He's kind of right..." and other grunts of affirmation sounded at this man's exclamation.

"Bah, I hope they are really that stupid," another man spat contemptuously. "I'd pay to see Milishians and Parpaldians destroying each other—"

"Shush! You're being too loud!" the well-groomed man who had led the huddle warned him with a stern look.

"Hah? What is it?"

"Uh, that..."

As the group's discussion became too loud for the well-groomed man's liking, he immediately quieted them down and subtly gestured to a direction near one of the food stalls at the square. There, they can see a young and tall black-haired foreigner who was eating at a street food stall, staring back at them with an unimpressed look the moment one of them began making too much noise. The young man's attire, a collared tunic suit in a certain shade of dark blue with four symmetrically placed pockets and golden cuffs, unmistakably belonged to the Holy Milishial Empire's diplomatic corps. Seeing him, they nervously shuffled away and lowered their voices to hushed whispers before continuing.

The stare of the young Milishian man's lavender irises lingered on the huddle for a while before shifting his attention back to his almost-finished meal with an almost inaudible scoff.