In the restaurant.

"How come you took so long in the bathroom?" Aske asked curiously.

"My stomach is upset," Miel said with a giggly smile, her face showing no sign of anything amiss.

"Where are the others?" she asked, looking at the empty seats with surprise.

"They had to leave early for something," Aske said, "I packed up the cake on your table."

He picked up the bag and stood up; Miel hurried to keep up with his pace.

Outside the café, the vehicle arranged by the Lixini Family was already waiting by the roadside. Aske took Miel into the car, which then headed in the direction of Ratlan Palace.

"…Recently, the Undead Army has crossed the Gibraltar Strait and brazenly invaded the Iberian Peninsula, His Holiness strongly condemns..." the car radio, after a music interlude, suddenly began broadcasting the news.

"Turn it off," Aske said.

The driver turned off the radio while Miel hesitated for a moment and then asked,

"Is their departure related to this?"

"Yes," Aske said, "During the time we were in the Abyss, the Undead Army of the Hafsi Dynasty declared war on the Aragon-Castilla Empire of the Western Iberian Peninsula. So just now, Nora's household urgently came over and took everyone to Ratlan Palace ahead of time."

"Well, I guess the Church Court hopes we will go to their aid," Miel said.

"You guess correctly," Aske said, "Actually, I don't really want to agree to this because, with the current Magic Tide level cap at Lv.20, your main task is to get stronger as quickly as possible, not to rashly go to an unfamiliar continent and fight an unfamiliar enemy."

"So you're saying we have reasons we can't refuse, right?" Miel's intuition was very sharp.

"If Iberia falls," Aske said, "the Church will lose a large diocese, the Lixini Family will lose a market for dumping goods. The blade of the Undead Army's force could next rest on the Pyrenees, threatening the southwestern frontier of the West Frank Kingdom, or they could seize the Balearic Islands as a springboard to further invade Sicily."

"The Church absolutely cannot accept the former; the latter... we would be the ones in trouble."

"That sounds familiar," Miel pondered for a moment, "I remember now. Thira once mentioned in history class, the Wars of the Third Epoch's earlier period between Carthage and the Solomon Empire, the situation seems quite similar to the current one."

"That's correct," Aske said, "Depending on the geopolitical environment, so the current war situation is almost the same."

The car arrived at Ratlan Palace and stopped in front of a certain church.

Aske walked into the church with Miel, and saw that behind the altar where mass is held, a special curtain had been lowered, projecting the current situation of the Iberian Peninsula.

The Cardinal, Pope Innocent, was sitting on the right, members of the Lixini Family, other nobles of Italy, and the girls of The Azure Longsword were seated on the left.

"Sorry, we're late," Aske said, coming in through the side door.

The Cardinals turned their heads, but there was no sign of dissatisfaction on their faces. The Pope waved his hand, signaling a guard soldier to lead the two to their seats.

"...Andorra Valley." The Bishop on the stage waved his electronic pen and drew a circle on the map of the Pyrenees on the silver screen, "This valley is located on the eastern foothills of the Pyrenees, where the residents are the courageous and combative Catalan Clan, known for cultivating Transcendents. We could persuade the Frank Empire to cede border territory and establish the Andorra Duchy and a special Diocese here."

"In doing so, the Andorra Duchy could serve as a buffer state on the border of the Iberian Peninsula and the West Frank Kingdom, using the terrain to lock down the route through which the Undead Army travels north to invade."

The Cardinals nodded in agreement.

"So what about the Aragon-Castilia Kingdom in Iberia? Are you abandoning them?" Nora's sister Kapaxilin asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"Cough." The Cardinal on stage coughed awkwardly. He could only diplomatically explain the international situation.

It's been nearly half a year since the last Magic Tide, and the next one could occur at any time. So it was impossible for the Church Court to dispatch troops to the Iberian Peninsula. Otherwise, if the war was halfway through and the technological army collapsed, wouldn't that be a joke?

Since the Church Court couldn't send troops, they could only wave the banner of the Holy War to request the Christian nations to send forth their armies. However, the West Frank Kingdom was still engaged in tentative contacts and skirmishes with the Anjou Kingdom across the Channel, over the Aquitaine Region.

Both these kingdoms were too weak and unstable to be relied upon for defending the Christian faith.

The Holy Solomon Empire was greatly weakened by their defeat in the last southern campaign. It was said that the merchants' coalition in the northern towns was experiencing conflicts and friction with the Karma Empire in the Northern Realm. Plus, with the long journey, they probably couldn't support Iberia.

In other words, the nations of the continent were all too preoccupied with their own troubles to respond to the Church Court's call to a Holy War. The only option left was to hire mercenary groups from the continent.

Of course, in the world of "Song of Iron and Fire," mercenaries were always one of the significant military forces on the continent, especially once players got involved... Even without players, a plethora of mercenaries could easily topple any small country.

If there was a super-rich patron scattering large sums of money, all these scattered small mercenary groups could be gathered together.

Without a doubt, the Church Court could only go down this road, aiming to ensure both "quality" and "quantity." The latter meant hiring a large number of smaller mercenary groups stationed in the Andorra Valley to help with defense; the former referred to hiring elite mercenary troops from the continent to penetrate the Iberian Peninsula and assist the Christian Aragon-Castilia Kingdom.

In the face of the Undead, a multitude of Low Rank Transcendents would be sending themselves to death, whereas only High Rank Transcendents could be effective.

After negotiations with the Christian countries, most monarchs expressed strong support for the Church Court hiring their national Large Mercenary Groups—as long as they did not need to provide manpower or funds, all was well.

As for the response from the mercenary circles, opinions were mixed, with both joy and concern.

The joy was in getting paid and having battles to fight, with the possibility of harvesting Extraordinary Power and incomplete Extraordinary Traits after killing Undead Spirits. The concern was that if a nation couldn't withstand an invasion by the Undead Army, sending mercenaries might just be delivering new recruits to the enemy.

(The Undead could resurrect new Undead Spirits from the enhanced corpses of Transcendents, hence colloquially referred to as delivering recruits.)

"Currently, we have contacted and received commitments to fight from the Large Mercenary Groups, including Steel Cross, Free Wind, Viking, Golden Bullet, and Golden Sparrow. The Bull Mercenary Group has already been hired by the Aragon King, so essentially, the top six Large Mercenary Groups in terms of power scale in the North Continent are all participating."

At this point, the Bishop on stage paused subtly, his gaze turning towards Aske, the Squad Leader of The Azure Longsword, who had just taken his seat.

You see, other senior members of the mercenary realm have agreed to join the battle. Aren't you considering making a substantial profit as well?

Following his gaze, the other big shots in the church turned their attention to Aske as well.

"Sorry," Aske shook his head, "we'll have to think about it."

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