She Is Not a Witch

The negotiations hit an impasse from the very beginning. After days of waiting and receiving intelligence reports, Loranhil’s side finally understood what had happened at the Vegar Alliance headquarters.

A week ago, Ubere experienced an incident similar to Hopland’s. Four families, with support from Ruluna’s new weaponry and assistance from mercenary mages, launched a sudden attack. They defeated two families that strongly resisted and forced three originally neutral families to submit.

Afterwards, only 7 of the original 9 major merchant associations remained in Ubere. After taking control of the alliance headquarters, they continued to deploy troops and use airships to intimidate other cities, causing other major merchant associations to surrender in succession.

In this way, the Vegar Alliance, originally belonging to the Snow Flower Alliance, largely broke away and became part of the Frost Rose.

Compared to the loosely self-governing Snow Flower Alliance, the Frost Rose centralized power, with most authority belonging to the central organization.

Currently, the organization’s headquarters was in Ruluna. Recently, Ruluna’s mages had also undergone a change, but since the instigators were the leading factions, there wasn’t much resistance. They simply disbanded and absorbed some smaller factions.

Now, all of Ruluna and the eastern part of the Vegar Alliance had joined the Frost Rose. As a powerful government, the Frost Rose planned to divide Ruluna into 3 regions and Vegar into 2 regions in the future, no longer distinguishing by country. They would exchange internal resources, promote mutual development, unify laws, education, and standards, reduce internal tariffs, have each branch directly responsible to the headquarters, centralize military management under the headquarters with local areas only maintaining security forces, and have tax revenues collected by regions and then managed uniformly by the headquarters.

It sounded somewhat like a modern nation, but hadn’t quite reached that level. After all, it was a top-down initiated change, not thorough enough, and many original powers were preserved, which would inevitably become obstacles in the future.

After reviewing the intelligence, Loranhil began to compare and contemplate. Her final conclusion was that she wasn’t optimistic about the Frost Rose. She felt they were trying to have it both ways, wanting to change some things but unable to give up everything of their own and start completely anew.

Strict with others, lenient with oneself. That seemed to be the case. Their slogans sounded very good, integrating the scattered forces of the Snow Flower Seven Countries to fully resist the Verdant Empire. But upon careful consideration of the organization’s leadership and structure, Loranhil found it somewhat disagreeable, even inferior to the original Snow Flower Alliance.

At least Roland back then truly treated others as equal brothers, leading from the front. Western Wind also contributed the most in the Short Bow War. Otherwise, so many people wouldn’t miss this hero, whose deeds spread across the world and became the dream of countless young people.

But now, with Western Wind’s decline and various internal problems plaguing each country, the Frost Rose’s slogans indeed had greater appeal, easily moving those who were anxious and insecure.

People are like this, longing to huddle together for warmth, wanting an elder to guarantee their safety. Even if this elder is extremely harsh, strict, or even cruel, as long as they can protect oneself, they are considered good.

The Frost Rose undoubtedly wanted to take over Hopland, as it was an important node for the organization’s westward expansion. If they could unify Western Wind during its internal turmoil, the organization occupying the vast heartland could radiate its influence across the entire western side of the continent, like the Snow Flower Alliance of the past.

Loranhil sat at the table, slowly sinking into thought. At this moment, the door to the study was pushed open, and Chelsea walked in.

“Young Miss, I’ve brought Ceres.”

“Mm, let him in.” The girl shook her slightly groggy head, trying not to think about the day’s negotiations. She wanted to understand the situation in the Southern Islands.

“Good day, Young Miss.”

Ceres entered the room, wearing a black uniform.

“Are you adjusting well to life in the South?” Loranhil looked over the butler she hadn’t seen for some time.

“It’s not bad. The climate there is warm, and my rheumatism rarely acts up now.”

“That’s good. How are Ig and Mrs. Balya?”

“They’re both doing well. I recently found a teacher for Ig. When he’s a bit older, we can send him to a mage academy. Becoming a mage is a very good choice.” Ceres showed a rare smile.

“That’s good. Can you tell me about the situation with the New Moon Council in the South?”

“Certainly. The Southern Islands…”

Ceres then began to describe the current state of the Southern Islands. The country was uniformly managed by a council, with councilors being the leaders of mage factions and a small number of noble organizations. The council chair rotated every 5 years, alternating between mages and nobles, but the main power in the country was still held by the mages.

Fortunately, the nobles of the Cranberry Kingdom had their fiefs on islands and didn’t have much desire for expansion, so the two sides each got what they wanted and had always coexisted harmoniously. Over the years, they had developed quite prosperously thanks to the eastern sea routes. With money, everyone became more agreeable.

Since the Verdant Empire was on the eastern side of the continent, the most convenient way for the Snow Flower Seven Countries to reach the East while avoiding the Verdant Empire’s control was to go through the Southern Islands, then follow the trade winds and ocean currents to reach the eastern ports. The other side of the ocean had many specialties not found on the western continent, making profits extremely lucrative.

Due to centuries of stability in the Cranberry Kingdom, education was widespread, and their comprehensive strength was very strong, far beyond comparison with the gradually corrupting Western Wind.

After this discussion, Loranhil gained a deeper understanding of the Southern Islands.

Over the next three days, Ubere and Ruluna sent people over again, and the previously stalled issues were finally pushed forward.

The Frost Rose would not give up its path of westward expansion under any circumstances, while Carithes and the Cranberry side insisted on the independence of Hopland and the surrounding areas.

The final result of their negotiations was to split the alliance in two. The original seven families in the east and the surrounding eight families would form one large region of the Frost Rose, becoming one of its four major regions.

The western part, with several families centered around Hopland and the remaining four families, would unite to form the New Vegar Alliance, headquartered in Hopland.

Both parts of the original alliance would withdraw from the Snow Flower Alliance. The eastern part would merge into the Frost Rose, while the western side would begin to connect and align with the Cranberry Kingdom and Cransia.

As a compromise and exchange, the northwestern Misty Pine River of the original alliance was specially allocated to the Frost Rose. This river would belong exclusively to the Frost Rose, allowing them free passage to the five northern countries. The New Vegar Alliance would not interfere.

However, there would be New Vegar Alliance troops stationed on both banks of the river to monitor and prevent large-scale sudden attacks.

Finally, both sides, the New Vegar Alliance and the Frost Rose, signed a non-aggression treaty.

Regarding this outcome, both sides reached a temporary reconciliation, but neither Loranhil nor the Frost Rose representatives were unaware that this was just a temporary compromise.

The Frost Rose hoped to enter the Western Wind Kingdom, expand its influence, and after uniting with forces of organizations in other countries, suppress the New Vegar Alliance again. Loranhil was also waiting for Cransia to unify Western Wind, so that Hopland could face it to the north and south, providing mutual support.

The conflict between roses and starlight would open a new chapter in history.