This Lich Requests More Remuneration
Chapter 531 - 480: No One Understands Peace More Than I Do

Chapter 531: Chapter 480: No One Understands Peace More Than I Do

The Heart-stealing Demon’s confession provided Amberser with an unexpected gain. This negotiation, conducted amidst the humility of the Heart-stealing Demon and Amberser’s "politeness," went very smoothly.

Perhaps this was the result of previous efforts. When your status rises, many operations that should be problematic naturally get omitted. Many people, fearing to offend you, take the initiative to solve those little troubles for you.

Information about the enslavement of the Kuotuo Murlocs was in hand, and Amberser had more or less figured out the attitude of the Orcs.

Amberser then proposed a peace negotiation between the two nations.

"Now that winter is almost here, war becomes difficult to wage. Can’t you Orcs negotiate peace with Laine?"

"Negotiate peace?"

The Heart-stealing Demon General first showed surprise and delight, but ultimately shook his head and sighed.

"I’m afraid it’s not that easy."

But Amberser said, "What’s so difficult about it? I know the world peace thing well. I mediated between the Dwarves and Elves in their war, I prevented the Gith Yankee invasion, I even successfully helped the Mermaids fend off Dimogorgen’s minions."

Amberser spread his hands confidently, "No one understands world peace better than I do!"

Urbano Pacheco had a surreal feeling. In this day and age, it was one thing for a Heart-stealing Demon to be captured and made a general, but for a Lich to be advocating world peace, the world was changing too rapidly; the Heart-stealing Demon, a Short-lived Species, really couldn’t understand it.

"I too wish we could stop fighting, but unfortunately it’s not possible."

Urbano Pacheco could only explain to Amberser that the Laine People had previously mistreated the Orcs too harshly. Now, the most numerous slaves within Laine were either Dwarves or Orcs, treated like livestock. After the city was breached, the Laine People didn’t discuss human rights with the Orcs; those who could be enslaved were made slaves, and those who couldn’t were all killed, hence Allen had his revelation behind the city walls at the Dragon Field.

Those Orc families all perished, how could they let go of their hatred?

It’s thanks to the current Commander being a Heart-stealing Demon that he could approach the war with rationality. If it were any other Orc Commander, regardless of how wide the Emerald River was, they would swim across it to tear the Laine People apart.

Urbano Pacheco helplessly said, "Master Ultraman, I can understand your approach—fight and pause, maintaining the status quo, which is best for you as a weapons merchant. But unfortunately, this peace talk will likely fail. You can’t understand the state of the Orcs right now. My Mind Reading is often not used to issue orders, but to suppress the Orcs’ anger. They see no possibility of negotiating with Laine; even if I agreed, the Orc King would behead me with his axe that very day."

"But now the war has become a quagmire. Do the Orcs really want to transport sea vessels up the Emerald River? Are the Orcs prepared to starve half their population to sustain this war?"

Amberser doesn’t understand military affairs; forcefully building ships would take a very long time.

Playing a war of attrition with Laine would take years to conclude, and continuing such a badly conducted war for such a lengthy period, the Orcs would be the first to falter; they lack the capacity for such intense external warfare.

"The decisive battle will soon arrive; winter is coming, and the Emerald River will freeze over. Just a touch of magic can turn it into a solid block of ice."

"If you can mention this, it seems the Laine People are also aware."

Urbano Pacheco’s tentacles crossed, resembling a human’s tangled mustache as he said helplessly, "I do wish to keep it secret, but the Orcs’ mastery of magic is too weak. It’s already hard to successfully perform such large-scale strategic magic spells, let alone keep it secret. The Laine People are already aware; it can’t be hidden from others."

Urbano Pacheco felt helpless; according to the current habits of the Heart-stealing Demons, he should be quietly altering his host, planning to escape upon reaching adulthood and then settling down in a secluded village seldom frequented by people, where he would use Mind Control to hypnotize a few Orcs and implant them with tadpoles to breed more Heart-stealing Demons.

When he grew old, he would let the younger generation scatter and hide, thus living on simply and safely.

Perhaps when other Heart-stealing Demons from different Planes return, they can board the shell-warships and return to that glorious Empire.

But now, Urbano Pacheco has been exposed and completely caught by the Orcs, turned into a machine for war. This tie to the Orcs’ war wagon assures mutual downfall if not joint success.

If not compelled, humans fighting Orcs would be none of his business.

Even more helpless is the fact that the overall strength of the Orcs is inferior to that of Laine. Despite currently faring well, the moment Laine decides to call its troops from other borders for reinforcement, the Orcs will face utter defeat.

Urbano Pacheco also knew that the best outcome of this war was the Orcs’ defeat, then severely damaging Laine, causing it to falter from being overstretched.

But Urbano Pacheco guessed that the Orcs wouldn’t see Laine’s moment of destruction. If an exceptionally wise and martial leader from Laine were to turn the tide, then the Orcs would truly perish amidst wails and unwillingness.

The population and national power advantage accumulated over hundreds of years couldn’t possibly vanish in a short span of time.

Like Amberser, this Heart-stealing Demon believed that a giant like Laine couldn’t be smashed by external forces; one must wait for its internal divisions.

Unfortunately, the Orcs couldn’t wait; they were already too eager to annihilate Laine, but the result was like hammering Laine into a single iron plate.

Urbano Pacheco wished to withdraw, but it was truly not up to him.

Perhaps for this reason, Urbano Pacheco was very honest with Amberser; this Heart-stealing Demon perhaps hoped that Amberser could bring some changes to this doomed war.

However, peace negotiations were impossible; the Orcs could not accept negotiating peace with the Laine People.

Without the blood of Laine People filling the Emerald River, the Orcs would not stop.

This is the fate of extreme racists and extreme religious zealots. When you promote this ideology, others can only counter with even more extreme measures.

If I don’t discriminate, doesn’t that put me at a disadvantage when you’re being racist?

If you enslave us with your religious zealotry, aren’t we just waiting to die if we don’t reciprocate fiercely?!

Amberser began to understand why Arthur Laine treated the Dragon Race as equals. Perhaps he had already seen the dangers of extreme racism and was trying hard to avoid it. What he hadn’t anticipated was the tremendous inertia; one Holy King was simply not enough.

That is to say, the orcs are now determined to fight the Laine People to the death.

Having realized this, Amberser dismissed the idea of a peace conference between the two nations.

Many people think that a fight to the death is just heat-of-the-moment passion, but that is not the case. The war is continuous. There’s fighting every day, people die every day. It’s not only when the charge is sounded and everyone rushes forward yelling.

In fact, during the course of war, people constantly receive various kinds of information about the war. You keep hearing who lost and who won; you continuously see comrades falling.

Under such circumstances, even the hottest blood should cool after a few days.

Being able to maintain such a strong fighting spirit isn’t just a matter of getting overexcited; it’s real national and familial hatred.

Both Laine and the orcs are the same, setting aside right and wrong. This war isn’t about impulsive action but about decades of suppressed hatred erupting.

But it’s not a big issue for Amberser. He was just looking for an excuse to cause trouble. If peace talks weren’t effective, he’d switch to another tactic.

Amberser pondered for a moment, then said to the Heart-stealing Demon General, "The orcs hate Laine so much, and Laine hates the orcs just as fiercely. How about we have a battle before the war begins? What if the Orc King challenges the Emperor of Laine? Do you think the orcs would agree?"

Urbano Pacheco was taken aback, surprised, "Master Ultraman, you just mentioned striving for peace..."

The Lich had not spoken like this before. He had even brought up his previous role in mediating the war between Dwarves and Elves, claiming no one understood world peace better than him.

"A duel is also for world peace. If the Emperor dies in battle, the war might end. Regardless of who wins or loses, everyone gets to vent their feelings, and far fewer people die. Isn’t that beneficial for everyone?"

It sounds reasonable, but this rhetoric doesn’t mean much to a Heart-stealing Demon.

The racial heritage of Heart-stealing Demons is unique. From the moment of their transformation, Heart-stealing Demons come of age with all necessary knowledge suddenly available in their minds. Thus, every Heart-stealing Demon has immense spiritual power and is cunning from previous generations.

Everything experienced by a previous generation is selectively imparted to the next, so there are almost no fools among Heart-stealing Demons. Amberser’s words might deceive a fool, but they were insufficient for a Heart-stealing Demon.

This Lich must be up to something, but Urbano Pacheco couldn’t fathom what exactly the Lich intended to do.

Rumor has it that this Lich is extremely greedy. Encouraging a duel between two emperors... could it be to sell tickets?

Although this idea seems absurd, it seems to be the only explanation that makes sense, as it’s surely not about world peace.

"Master Ultraman, your suggestion isn’t bad. The Orc King would probably be very interested in publicly executing the Emperor of Laine, but how do you ensure the Laine People would agree? Their emperor doesn’t seem like a particularly brave warrior."

From Urbano Pacheco’s perspective, the more variables there are in battle, the better. While the orcs seem to have the advantage, they cannot decisively defeat Laine, and the more variables, the greater his chances of surviving.

"Don’t worry, the Emperor of Laine isn’t as weak as others imagine,"

In others’ eyes, transforming into a dragon and killing his own people was the Emperor of Laine’s greatest disgrace. Nobody would think such an emperor could stand on the battlefield.

Even if the Emperor of Laine had somewhat improved later, it was only in terms of "strategy," not courage.

Only Amberser knew that in an Arena, this Orc King would be beaten by the "Emperor of Laine" to the point of being unrecognizable even to his own mother.

But this was even better. When everyone saw the Magic Dragon Tyrant revived, then all the races would unite to collectively punish the Magic Dragon. If all went well, all troubles could be resolved in a single day.

Urbano Pacheco pondered and said, "I’ll try my best to persuade the Orc King on your behalf, but I can’t guarantee he’ll agree."

"The orcs are bound to lose in battle; only a duel could turn defeat into victory. The Orc King is particularly focused on honor, and with your Mind Reading ability, if even this can’t persuade the Orc King to agree, then I’d say your Orc King might just be a Goblin in disguise."

Urbano Pacheco chuckled; this did indeed make sense.

It’s very likely that the Orc King wouldn’t refuse, but everything depends on whether Amberser can truly arrange for the Emperor of Laine to participate in the duel.

But why would he?

As the Lich said, the orcs see no future in war, so they need to gamble, but Laine doesn’t need to.

Who would abandon their advantage for a move that could lead to self-destruction?