Equipment Printing School Mage

On the surface, Elturgard's side had the upper hand, and the devil had no choice but to grant whatever demands were made.

——However, the compensation given in the devil's treaty did not mention the items that Elturgard was most concerned about from the beginning.

The various bribes given before were indeed tempting, but they were far from enough.

Emiya was certain that the devil did it on purpose.

If any force on Elturgard's side could not resist raising that question, the offensive and defensive situation of the entire negotiation would be reversed in an instant.

This struggle is not as one-sided as it appears.

Emilia didn't turn his head, but he noticed that the Hell Knights and Tyr Church present had cast their eyes at him more than once.

There is an uncontrollable anxiety among them.

Polias and Asur had previously refused to attend, most likely because they were worried that their presence would only add to the burden of the negotiations.

Emiya sighed softly.

Bayer might have taken out the Taser Codex on purpose.

This great devil wanted the presence of the Tyr Church.

Because, the Tyr Church, which seems to be the least materialistic, is actually the force with the most demands.

soul.

The Church of Tyr is the leader of the Three Pillars of Justice and the backbone of the Knights of Hell.

Countless heroes of the Church of Tyr have fought in Eltoril—

Therefore, the Church of Tyr, the Three Pillars of Justice, and even the souls of countless Eltoril and Elturgard people are still suffering in hell.

The devil gave the list of the first batch of Hell Knights who had set out on the expedition to Hell.

—What happens next? The souls of generations of warriors who shed their blood for Elturgard still linger in Avernus.

But Baierti didn't even mention it.

These are Bayer’s real trump cards on this trip.

Facing Bayer's endless chatter, Emiya shook her head: "We have made enough concessions on our side - the current compensation is as low as silver coins per square meter. If you don't agree, then there is no need for us to continue the discussion. In any case, it's good to have made progress. Next, let's discuss the mental damage -"

"Stop, stop."

Before Emiya finished speaking, Bayer couldn't help but wave his hand, interrupting her. "If we keep wrangling over every clause, there's no chance of this negotiation ending. This trend makes me very uneasy. I think we need to change our approach."

"Oh?"

At the other end of the table, Baier continued his speech: "I came here with sincerity, bringing a complete and reasonable peace agreement. But you are obviously not satisfied. To avoid all our previous efforts being wasted due to a dispute over a single clause, we should simply make the implementation of different clauses independent of each other. First, reach a basic consensus, separate the less important and relatively easy-to-implement parts, and ensure that they are not affected by these complex clauses."

"At least we have an expectation of the subsequent wrangling." Bayer sighed. "Threatening to invalidate all the terms at every turn is too drastic."

Emiya narrowed her eyes slightly: "This clause seems to be more beneficial to us."

"The premise is, Mr. Emiya, that you don't keep trying to confuse the influence of various clauses." Bayer knocked on the table. "Even if a large area of ​​territory was destroyed, we agreed to compensate tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of gold coins. But we ended up paying 20 million gold coins for it. If you propose another clause, you will blackmail us for another 20 million gold coins?"

"Are we paying simply to compensate Eltoril?" Bayer snorted in dissatisfaction. "Any random, inexplicable clause demands a astronomical amount of compensation—I can't just sit there and watch the compensation spiral to tens of billions of gold coins."

"I give up," Bayer snorted. "Let's get straight to the point—I want the surrender and the armistice separate from the prisoner return treaty."

Bayer pulled out two sheets of parchment and was about to start writing when he simply pushed the tools and papers toward the Church of Tyr. "A treaty, a simple surrender. We admit defeat and are willing to compensate Eltoril. The specific amount can be negotiated later, but the war and conflict are officially over, and an armistice is signed."

"The second peace treaty." Bayer took a deep breath, scratched a tear on the blank parchment, and waved it in front of everyone: "- Let us only discuss prisoners and souls."

"You return the captive Zariel, and in return, we will release the first group of holy warriors who invaded Hell."

Emilia looked at the blank parchment and said coldly, "This is not enough."

"Aha." Bayer shook his head. "Now, instead of talking about the equivalence of life and soul, you've started ranking people by seniority. You've begun to realize that the Fallen Seraphs are different from humans, and that Grand Duke Avernus is different from ordinary warriors. Thousands of warriors and..."

Emiya and his teammates had already figured out how to deal with this kind of rhetoric.

"You're wrong. We're not asking for one person against one person." Emilia shrugged. "We're asking for all against all—"

Emya stood up and opened her hands. "Those who were present, and those who were not present but participated in the Battle of Elturgard are on one side, and the demons are on the other side."

"Both sides will conduct a complete prisoner exchange. Any captives who have any connection to either of us, including friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, will be liberated under this agreement," Emiya said firmly. "Before arriving today, we had already contacted every wizard in Elturgard—we even persuaded them to release the demons they had bound in various ways."

Such outrageous and unheard-of terms and conditions made Bayer's eyebrows twitch involuntarily. The compensation of tens of billions of gold coins seemed extremely lovely at this moment.

During the Arcane Scourge, countless people undertook a mass migration to escape disaster, especially Baldur's Gate, which took in countless refugees.

Among those present was a person from Baldur's Gate.

If a modern Baldur's Gate person were to start using various networks to build relationships, perhaps most of the continent of Faerun would be involved.

Bayer did not answer immediately, but instead took another simple surrender and compensation contract.

"Let's call a truce first," Bayer said coldly. "Otherwise, by the time I report the terms you requested, my superiors will probably declare war on the Material Plane."

The Tyr Church frowned together: "Is this a threat?"

"That's straight talk!"

The great devil was so angry this time that he almost couldn't maintain his human form: "This clause must not be passed as is!"

"Oh." Emilia said coldly, "Then what is the range you can accept? How about the souls of the entire Western Central Land within two hundred years?"

"That's impossible!" Bayer immediately rejected it. "To put it more broadly, even Zariel set out from the Western Central Land to Avernus!"

In the Arcane Plague, the devils were eating too much. If Bayer had ordered the other devils to spit out what they had eaten, he would not have to stay in the Nine Hells anymore.

"This won't work, and that won't work either." Aimia's voice was filled with a hint of impatience. "Are we playing a game of right and wrong? Do we have to narrow it down step by step to the answer we all know?"

"……snort."

Bayer snorted.

The well-known answer was finally given by Bayer himself.

The big devil finally pulled out a chair and slumped down on it dejectedly. "Maybe it's feasible. But... let me be frank. This is different from wealth and information."

"This is literally taking money out of the devil's pocket. It's bound to require a tug-of-war, word by word. The affected devils are likely to take desperate measures." He patted another armistice agreement and said, "I suggest we formally cease fire first."

"why?"

"Once word gets out about this, the other devils will oppose us like a tidal wave. Some will pressure us from Hell, while others will mobilize their power in the material plane." Bayer sneered. "Your hopes are rosy, but no devil can sit still in this matter. If we don't sign a ceasefire agreement first, you won't be able to sleep tonight."

"Such an attack would have to be completely spontaneous. Only Asmodeus could restrain them, but the Demon King wouldn't specifically order it for your safety," Bayer replied. "If it really came to that, even if Zariel couldn't be saved, there would be nothing that could be done. Zariel is important to the Blood War, but not every Archdevil considers a Blood War commander more important than his own interests!"

"This request is too extreme, so don't go too far."

Emiya scoffed, "So, money can be excessive?"

The great devil pondered for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Don't waste any more time on a truce agreement. The Soul Exchange is a massive undertaking involving countless forces. I will not only fight with you for every single one of them, but also with the other devils!"

Bayer quickly wrote a number on the white contract that would shock the entire Faerun.

"Eighty million gold coins!!"

Bayer growled, "Whatever you want in exchange for other property is fine. I promise, if you want to haggle with me, we have plenty of time to do so on another contract. You take the money and repair the city, and I'll guarantee the safety of my own life and property. I think that's fair."

After a long silence, Emiya looked around.

"Everyone? What do you think?"

Under Bayer's series of small actions, the attitudes of the participants began to show obvious signs of loosening.

At first, everyone was united in their hatred of the enemy. Now that the devil has generously placed the reward on the table, the various factions with different demands have begun to make different choices.

Woods didn't bother to hide it and simply said, "We have little to do with this matter. Since the compensation has been negotiated, we naturally hope to get it first and use the Shadow Druid list to do something."

Although the Church of Chauntia wasn't closely connected, after a moment's hesitation, the church replied, "We don't really have much to lose. But to be honest, we're tired of watching people haggle over money. We can discuss compensation, but since we already have such a significant advantage, we're probably not willing to risk losing everything."

After hesitating for a while, Polias and Asur finally walked over to Emilia and whispered, "Let's be clear—if we can get the souls of our comrades and predecessors back, we don't need financial compensation."

Only Fenwe looked at Emilia deeply and replied, "I don't think it's the time to express my opinion now."

But regardless, the situation is clear.

Of course, the benevolent forces weren't so ruthless as to say they didn't care about money. Tens of millions of gold coins were certainly a figure that would make one's eyes water. However, their pursuit of wealth was much less intense. Therefore, the Church of Chauntia had expressed satisfaction with the current compensation. The two members of the Church of Tyr simply desired their predecessor's soul.

In any case, even if they were to sign a compromise agreement, they would have to check all the terms page by page with the Tethyr Codex to confirm that they were correct.

Polias and Asur couldn't possibly memorize the thick code with dozens of versions, but they were competent searchers. They quickly found the origin of almost every term in the first contract.

——Another small pile of hills.

There was only one devil in front of them, and on this side were Candlekeep and the Church of Tyr, but Emilia still felt a little sweaty.

"...Overall, there shouldn't be any problems." The usually irritable Bolias couldn't help but use conservative words at this moment. "I haven't been able to find any obvious traps or omissions in this peace treaty."

Asul also shook his head: "I didn't find it either."

After receiving double confirmation, Emiya said to the other end of the table: "Then, Lord Bayer, let me confirm again - all terms and explanations of the contract we are about to sign will refer to the Tethyr Code on the current table in the Eltoril Conference Hall..."

"The Thirteenth Edition of the Tethyr Codex," Bayer corrected solemnly. "The Thirteenth Edition of the Tethyr Codex shall prevail."

Emiya shook her head and confirmed it one last time.

He started from the last word of the first peace treaty and found the first sentence.

His fingers kept moving through ancient books that were perhaps hundreds of years old.

Suddenly, his fingers paused.

Not right.

On the page with the term "Surrender," Emilia discovered that the stitching of the Tethyr Codex in her hand seemed unstable.

Deep inside this page and the next, some unusual traces remain.

It's like a page torn out of a book with great care.

It turns out to be here.

It turns out to be here!

[…Shig, please contact the great reader Christine. I'd like to confirm the interpretation of the word 'peace treaty' in the 13th edition of the Tethyr Codex, Volume 23.]

It was a shame that both Bolias and Asur were here now, and had joined them midway. Any action by either of them would make Bayer extremely alert.

[Don't let Bayer find out.]

Sig understood and stretched lazily: "...So boring, Emiya, I don't want to read these crappy books anymore, I want to go out for a walk."

"Please go ahead." Emilia replied without changing her expression.

As if nothing had happened, Emiya raised her head and said, "Sir Bayer, we have no objection to the peace treaty. I think we can start signing."

Bayer let out a long sigh and began to speak a series of instructions in an orderly manner. "To ensure fairness, after both parties sign, we will confirm it with something sufficiently effective. Blood, seal, instructions—and at the same time, these things must be clearly known to both parties as to what the other party is using in order to be effective. Is that clear?"

"Now, we have to call on all forces to sign the peace treaty..." Emilia said coldly, "Because Eltoril has been administratively disbanded and has not resumed operations."

Bayer's face twitched: "...Please go ahead."

Obviously, the devil hoped that Emya did not realize that all official seals of Elturgard were now invalid.

Currently, those who participate in negotiations can almost only participate as individuals, teams, churches and ring associations.

Elturgard, Eltoril can no longer appear as the second party in the peace treaty.

While both parties were waiting, Christine's communication had already reached Emilia's mind.

[Emmia. I found the interpretation of the word "peace treaty" in the 13th edition of the Codex Tethyr very interesting.]

A peace treaty is a treaty signed by two warring parties that legally ends the state of war between them and releases prisoners from both sides.

Few codes emphasize the subject of prisoners.

...Release prisoners from both sides?

Emiya's pupils shrank.

In the version in his hand, the entry for the peace treaty was right at the end of the page—

That is:

A peace treaty is a treaty signed between two warring political entities that legally ends the state of war between them.

The page containing [Ending the Detention of Each Other's Prisoners] was torn out.

However, Bayer made it very clear that their peace treaty was based on the thirteenth edition, but he did not say it was based on the edition on the table.

Bayle also never said that the version of the codex he gave was perfect.

in short.