Lacus's words left Reid speechless once again. He could only think to himself, "That's Lacus for you—her grasp of the psychological dynamics within the three Earth Alliance nations is truly accurate."
If PLANT were to repair the abandoned colony satellites in the L4 Colony Cluster to house Earth refugees, the three Earth Alliance nations would absolutely oppose it covertly.
Yes, they could only oppose it in secret. After all, if they couldn't solve the refugee problem themselves, and someone else offered a way out, opposing it openly would be indefensible in the court of public opinion.
As for sending people to bomb refugee ships—that was out of the question. Even during wartime, such an act was a serious crime. In peacetime, daring to do so would allow others to trace the perpetrators and socially destroy them.
After all, space was PLANT's domain, and it was nearly impossible to hide anything there.
As for attacks on Earth, Reid was certain that Lacus would place the launch sites in either the New Misurugi Kingdom or Orb, making it difficult for the three Earth Alliance nations to carry out bombings.
Reid also couldn't stand idly by and allow the Earth Alliance to conduct terrorist attacks on his turf.
After analyzing the situation, Reid concluded that the three Earth Alliance nations would most likely pressure the new governments of the refugees' home countries to take them back.
The result was that if Lacus's plan proceeded smoothly, it seemed they would only need to manage the refugees for a limited time.
Moreover, the choice of management lay with Lacus. She had never said she would take in refugees from every conflict zone.
With this in mind, Reid asked an ultimate question with an exceptionally serious expression:
"Lacus, I have only one question: How can you guarantee that the organization you're establishing will remain absolutely neutral, and not use the banner of rescuing refugees to secretly weaken one side's combat capabilities or interfere with their military deployments?"
Reid's question left Lacus silent. At this moment, Kira looked surprised and asked:
"Mr. Reid, don't you trust Lacus?"
To this question, Reid replied just as seriously:
"Reid Isaac can trust Lacus as he is. But the Military Committee Chairman of the New Misurugi Kingdom cannot trust her based solely on a plan and a few words. I will not joke about national policy."
"Although your plan doesn't require funding from major nations, Lacus, their endorsement is essential for the organization's legitimacy. Otherwise, you could easily be labeled as a malicious terrorist organization by those with ulterior motives."
"For example, if someone fabricates scenes of mass civilian casualties and accuses your organization of being a disguised black-market labor group, you'd be too busy defending yourselves to accomplish anything. Worse, you might end up tarnished by the accusations."
Hearing this, Lacus nodded because she had already considered this.
By proposing this at the meeting, she aimed to secure Reid's support first. She was also confident about persuading PLANT.
After that, she planned to convince the more reasonable East Asian Republic, then launch a publicity campaign. Under domestic public opinion pressure, the Eurasian Federation and Atlantic Federation would likely grudgingly accept it.
After all, the organization Lacus wanted to establish was essentially an international rescue team, which posed no threat to major nations.
However, this time, Lacus intended to create an international rescue team with armed forces and the ability to speak with authority.
However, Reid's skepticism was reasonable, and Lacus understood that she would have questioned things too if she were in his position. So she said:
"Absolute neutrality would allow each of the five major nations in the Earth Sphere to send one inspector. Every mission would require a vote among the five nations, with the minority yielding to the majority.
Moreover, the organization I'm establishing will strictly control the number of military assets, though the specific quantity can be negotiated.
Additionally, the headquarters will not be located in any of the five major nations. How does that sound?"
Reid nodded, indicating that it seemed relatively reasonable.
But deep down, Reid actually didn't want Lacus to create another Compass. However, there was no need for him to play the villain.
He would let the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation—two parties that were certain to oppose the plan—deal with Lacus first. As long as he remained noncommittal, he believed the East Asian Republic would resort to diplomatic evasion. With only PLANT's support, nothing substantial could be accomplished.
So Reid smiled and said:
"Draft a charter first. I won't take a stance until I see it. Moreover, Lacus, you must convince the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation to at least not oppose your plan. That will be the most challenging hurdle in establishing this organization."
Reid's words made it clear that, for now, he did not support the organization's establishment and that a more comprehensive proposal was needed.
Lacus wasn't too surprised. After all, a nation's policies weren't decided so easily. The fact that Reid hadn't outright rejected it meant there was room for discussion. So she replied:
"No problem, I'll refine the plan further. After all, the current proposal is too rudimentary to present to the other nations."
Reid nodded with satisfaction upon seeing that Lacus wasn't rushing to demand his support. He then turned to Kira and Athrun and asked:
"Setting aside whether the organization can be established, Kira, Athrun, will the two of you join Lacus's organization afterward?"
Kira didn't hesitate at all and nodded:
"Yes, I think Miss Lacus's idea is sound."
Athrun, however, hesitated for a long time before finally answering firmly:
"I don't plan to join Lacus's organization. I have other ideas and want to see the world from a different perspective before making a decision."
Reid wasn't surprised by Athrun's response. He had never been the type to selflessly devote himself like a Saint.
Of course, this wasn't to say Athrun was flawed. In Reid's view, the behavior of Lacus and Kira, who saw world peace as their personal responsibility, was even harder to comprehend.
It always felt as if these two were inherently overconfident. After all, when Reid first obtained the system, his only thought was, "I finally have a chance to turn my life around," not "I finally have a chance to control the world."
Perhaps this was the confidence genetically instilled by Ulen Hibiki and Orla Maha Haibel.
However, one's ultimate personality is shaped by their upbringing, not their genes. Otherwise, Kira wouldn't have developed such a laid-back personality, and it was uncertain how long his current enthusiasm for saving others would last.
Thus, Reid decided to continue observing the actions of Lacus and the others. If Lacus wanted to establish an international relief organization, she couldn't bypass the New Misurugi Kingdom. Otherwise, with her team consisting almost entirely of Coordinators, the nations on Earth would never trust her.
And so, the debriefing meeting with Lacus and the others concluded. Reid had to rush off to his next meeting as if he were hopping from one event to another.
This closed-door meeting was precisely the one that led to Reid being dragged out of the Royal Palace by Une—jointly invited by the three nations of the Earth Alliance and PLANT.
It was said to be aimed at signing a series of arms limitation treaties among the parties to prevent an unrestricted arms race. Reid could easily guess that the restrictive clauses were likely variants of the Junius Treaty's arms limitations.
After all, the New Misurugi Kingdom had explicitly stated it would not participate in the peace treaty between the Earth Alliance and PLANT.
Thus, the restrictions in the peace treaty could not bind the New Misurugi Kingdom. Under such circumstances, while everyone else was limiting their military development, how could the New Misurugi Kingdom be allowed to develop unrestrained? It was inevitable that another meeting would be convened for negotiation.
In fact, Une had already attended this meeting several times, but she was unaware of Reid's future technological plans and had not agreed to anything, which naturally stalled the agreement.
That was why Une had forcibly dragged Reid out of the Royal Palace.
The three nations of the Earth Alliance and PLANT clearly attached great importance to this meeting, with participants at the level of foreign ministers. After exchanging pleasantries, Reid sat down and began carefully reviewing the draft of the proposed treaty.
The conference room fell into utter silence as Reid read the treaty. Everyone present had excellent composure and appeared very patient.
After confidently reviewing all the clauses, Reid had a rough idea. He deliberately feigned an amused yet exasperated expression, casually tossing the draft agreement in front of him, and said:
"Gentlemen, I see it now. You are not here to discuss peace in the Earth Sphere—you are here to dismantle my New Misurugi Kingdom.
Every clause in this treaty restricts my country. Let me be clear: if you truly want to fight, then be straightforward. Although my nation values peace, we will not sign a treaty that cripples ourselves."
Reid's reaction was clearly within the expectations of the various nations. The foreign minister of the East Asian Republic, who had relatively good relations with Reid, stepped in to mediate:
"Mr. Reid, please don't be angry. This is only a draft. We are here to discuss the specifics of how to proceed. Feel free to voice your opinions—we can all discuss them."
Upon hearing this, Reid sneered, picked up the draft agreement again, and pointed at it, saying:
"Fine, let's start with this clause limiting the scale of large Mobile Dolls for each country.
Tell me, how many Mobile Dolls do each of your nations possess? Combined, can you even muster ten thousand? And here it says each country is limited to five thousand—and only for security purposes?
What are you trying to do? Disarm my country? If you want me to agree, then tell me: who will decommission the excess arms beyond this treaty? I guarantee that once they are disposed of, I will not produce more."
The East Asian Republic certainly wouldn't take on that responsibility, so the "bad cop" stepped in. The Atlantic Federation, whose relations with the New Misurugi Kingdom were already poor and had nothing to lose, had its foreign minister speak up:
"Mr. Reid, limiting Mobile Dolls is to ensure that none of us pour all our resources into these weapons of war, which serve no other purpose. It is true that your country leads in this technology, but we are not incapable of developing it. If it truly comes to mass production, are you sure you want to see us churn out unlimited numbers of Mobile Dolls?"
Upon hearing this, Reid expressed that he'd believe it if PLANT said this - they indeed had the potential to quickly break through Mobile Doll technology. But the Atlantic Federation? You needed Kira's help just to accelerate your Natural OS development. If you'd followed the regular pace, it's questionable whether you'd even have the Natural OS ready by now. You claim you can achieve breakthroughs in Mobile Doll technology? Nobody would believe that.
So Reid didn't hold back as he said:
"If the Atlantic Federation truly possessed Mobile Doll technology, you wouldn't have been forced to retreat and defend the still-rebuilding Panama Base during the South American conflict."
Reid was typically hitting where it hurt most. The Atlantic Federation's foreign minister's face stiffened slightly, and he could only stubbornly insist:
"Hmph, our nation is maintaining hard-won peace by not fully committing to destroy South America's resistance forces. Otherwise, with just South America's makeshift troops, how could they have held out until now?"
Actually, the Atlantic Federation's foreign minister wasn't wrong - if the Atlantic Federation went all-out against the South American Independence Alliance, the latter indeed had no hope of victory.
But that would require the Atlantic Federation to restart its war machine and commit fully.
One could only say that if the Atlantic Federation needed to go all-out just to fight the South American Independence Alliance now, other nations in the Earth Sphere would laugh their heads off.
Moreover, having no hope of victory didn't mean they would lose - the Atlantic Federation would definitely get bogged down in South America's war quagmire (the Atlantic Federation had accumulated longstanding resentment in the Earth Sphere, and if such an opportunity arose, all major powers would secretly push them in), potentially ending up like the Red Bear of the previous era, directly dragged down and collapsed.
The Atlantic Federation had recognized this and decided to negotiate peace with the South American Independence Alliance.
Seeing the Atlantic Federation embarrassed and only able to stubbornly insist, the Eurasian Federation stepped in as peacemaker. Their foreign minister spoke up:
"Actually, Mr. Reid, if you have objections to this clause, perhaps you could share your opinion. This is a discussion, after all - we should hear everyone's requirements."
Upon hearing this, Reid immediately made an outrageous demand:
"Actually, restrictions are fine, but you all know our country's current situation. I think maintaining 200,000 Mobile Dolls is a reasonable number. If you have the capability, I wouldn't mind you also producing 200,000 Mobile Dolls."
Reid was completely talking nonsense - the New Misurugi Kingdom's total Mobile Doll count was just over 20,000, and that was after occupying Australia and temporarily manufacturing several additional batches to address security shortages in many areas.
Of course, if Reid didn't care about costs and purchased Mobile Doll manufacturing materials from the G-Coin store, he could indeed assemble 100,000 units in a short time.
But this didn't stop Reid from demanding ten times the actual number during negotiations. After all, the other nations had no idea how many Mobile Dolls the New Misurugi Kingdom actually possessed. Such ready-to-deploy equipment didn't need to be displayed openly during peacetime.
Naturally, the other four nations also knew it was impossible for the New Misurugi Kingdom to have 200,000 Mobile Dolls. If they had that many Mobile Suits while other Earth nations were in a weakened state, the New Misurugi Kingdom could consider world unification plans.
But the other four nations believed the New Misurugi Kingdom definitely had more than the publicly known 20,000 - probably hiding another 20,000-30,000 secretly, making around 50,000 total a reasonable estimate.
During this period, such a large number of Mobile Suits was indeed a terrifying quantity. Even though the performance of New Misurugi Kingdom's Mobile Dolls wasn't particularly strong, when it came to high-performance Mobile Suits, New Misurugi Kingdom still held the lead.
If a real conflict broke out, none of the nations present would dare claim they could currently defeat New Misurugi Kingdom.
Thus, the newly appointed PLANT diplomatic representative said:
"Mr. Reid, two hundred thousand is simply too many. Considering your nation's circumstances, how about ten thousand? After all, Mobile Dolls are just machines. If future wars are all fought by machines, there would be no need for soldiers to exist."
"Moreover, if artificial intelligence technology makes breakthroughs in the future, Mobile Dolls might potentially become a threat to humanity."
Reid looked at this newly appointed PLANT diplomatic representative, thinking this person was quite desperate - directly telling science fiction stories just to make him reduce military forces.
Though, he did possess one strong artificial intelligence himself. But why was this kid spending most of its time acting cute these days?
(End of Chapter)