Chapter 142 Exchange of Chips
“The sun will not abandon anyone who is willing to live under its light. As long as you are willing to leave the darkness, it will embrace you again.”

Archpriest Lemming's gentle confession made the believers in front of him feel much more relaxed.

Not long ago, he was still a believer in the God of Nature. He had just changed his faith, and his belief in the God of Nature had not completely disappeared. Under the conflict between the two beliefs, he felt an inexplicable torment and came to the church to seek confession.

It is also the duty of priests to confess these believers and make them relax.

As more and more people of the Windwhispering Principality joined the faith in the Sun God through their efforts, Lemming seemed to feel that he was gradually returning to normal.

The inexplicable hatred towards foreigners is gradually fading.

"My Lord, a letter from the Duke."

It was a letter hoping that Lemming would put pressure on the Crusaders to hand over the elven captives to him.

"When did those guys catch an elf?"

Leiming was a little excited for a moment. Elves rarely appeared outside their forest. A living elf, the Sun God Cult should be able to learn a lot of ancient knowledge from him that the young human civilization did not know.

But soon, Laming gave up his idea.

There is a god behind the elves. Although the god of nature is low-key and has no presence most of the time, any action that harms the elves will arouse his wrath.

Leiming was unable to give this order. Although the hatred of most priests in the Wind Whisper Kingdom towards foreign races was decreasing, the crusaders outside the forest seemed to have not changed at all. Leiming had issued orders several times before to stop attacking the elves, but these orders fell on deaf ears. At first, the crusaders even did some superficial work to perfunctorily obey, but later on, they were too lazy to even do the superficial work.

Laming did not understand the reason for this phenomenon, and could only attribute it to the fact that they had been so deeply affected that their hatred for foreigners could no longer be eliminated.

“May God grant them peace.”

In Laming's mind, these crusaders are beyond salvation. Instead of letting them influence other ordinary believers, it is better to let them return to God's arms as soon as possible.

"Tell the Grand Duke to negotiate with the Crusaders himself. The Church will not interfere no matter what happens."

Laming believed that the Grand Duke could understand what he meant.

Morari can certainly understand this meaning.

"We have already significantly increased the support of the Skitarii, and have expressed great sincerity. I think the elves should also show some corresponding sincerity to enhance mutual trust between the two sides, which will help the subsequent negotiations."

Moralichi's messenger was in the elf town, looking at the elves opposite him.

"The principality is still providing them with support, but the amount has been reduced a little. I don't think it is sincere."

The messenger shrugged.

"So what if we cut off all their logistical assistance."

The elves frowned. The raid by the Skitarii was a bit sudden. The elves' forest had not been attacked for a long time, and the new tribesmen did not have much experience in being attacked. Not long after the bombing by the Skitarii ended, a young forest ranger went to check the damage to the forest and prepare to repair the trees on the edge of the forest that were severely damaged and slow to recover.

Then she ran headlong into the Skitarii charging into the forest.

This accident caught the elves off guard. They were not prepared to negotiate with the people of the Principality, and they did not have enough bargaining chips ready.

The elves cannot afford any casualties now. They must bring their people back, or at least bring her body back to the mother tree intact.

This is why they rarely leave the forest and almost never directly participate in any armed conflicts. Every corpse that cannot be recovered will cause permanent losses to the elves.

Seeing that the elf remained silent, the messenger spoke again.

"We can't order those Skitarii to release them, but for the sake of our partners, the Duke might be able to approve a rescue operation. It's much easier for humans to sneak into the Skitarii camp than for elves." "Tell me, what do you want?"

The messenger smiled slightly. The elf in front of him obviously did not have much experience in negotiations. This was normal. They did not need to negotiate most of the time, so the elf did not seem to realize that his words were no different from surrender at the negotiating table.

"Our conditions remain the same as before. Stop supporting the resistance in the Principality of Windwhisper."

“We are not providing support to the resisters.”

The messenger shook his head.

"I don't think we need to waste so much time. The longer we delay, the more likely it is that the elf girl will meet with an accident."

The last time the envoy went to negotiate with the Crusaders, he saw the captured elf. Those Crusaders did not treat her as a human being at all. They used all kinds of interrogation methods, some of which could not be considered interrogation. They were simply torturing her.

"The Mother Tree needs to be in the Windwhispering Principality, so that the believers of the God of Nature can have a place to live of their own."

This is what the elves want.

They didn't care whether Lysabel could restore the Windwhisper Kingdom. What they cared about was to preserve the belief in the God of Nature in this area.

The messenger frowned; this request was beyond his authority.

All the lands in the Kingdom of Wind Whisper have been divided up. Even every inch of land has its owner. Setting aside a territory for the believers of the God of Nature means infringing on the rights of the nobles.

Not to mention that the Duke has already granted the Sun God Cult the right to preach in the Principality and has set aside a separate territory for the believers of the God of Nature, which is also a violation of the agreement between the Principality and the Sun God Cult.

"With all due respect, this condition is difficult to achieve."

The maximum amount of power an envoy can directly decide is to pardon all resisters.

This was a condition that both sides could get out of. Moralich had already investigated the background of the resistance leader. Lysabel was a believer favored by the God of Nature and a member of the Windwhispering Kingdom royal family who had been deprived of the right of inheritance. This person was very important to the elves, and pardoning him would also allow the elves to keep a thought in mind.

But it seems that this condition cannot be met by the elves.

"This is the Mother Tree's will. I have no right to change her decision."

The messenger rubbed his brow.

"So these believers are troublesome. As long as there is an oracle, they must execute it exactly and don't know how to make any changes. The same goes for those crazy people in the Sun God Cult."

The envoy complained in his heart, but when he raised his head, a smile immediately appeared on his face as required by diplomatic etiquette.

"I will report your conditions to the Duke, but please forgive me for being frank. The longer we delay, the greater the torture that elf girl will suffer."

The messenger stood up and stretched out his hand. The elf was stunned for a moment before realizing that this was the new etiquette of this generation of human civilization. He then stretched out his hand and shook hands with the messenger.

"I will also report the results, but it is unlikely that the mother tree will change her decision."

The emissary left the room, looking relieved that the negotiations had yielded no results.

"You seem very satisfied with this negotiation, my lord."

The messenger glanced at the attendants around him.

"We have more bargaining chips. Negotiation is essentially an exchange of bargaining chips between both parties. If those elves want to achieve their goals, they must eventually give up some of their bargaining chips."

(End of this chapter)