Rimuru swept his gaze across the room, cataloging the shifting micro-expressions of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors.
Some looked visibly moved. Others maintained a cold, skeptical detachment. A few just sneered. The old foxes, monsters like Van-Fem and Zelretch, had clearly seen right through his rhetorical sleight of hand.
Rimuru didn't care. Their opinions were secondary. The only vote that actually mattered was sitting on the throne at the head of the table.
His golden eyes locked back onto the White Wing Lord.
Ortenrosse's eyelids were lowered. He was calculating, turning the argument over in his ancient mind. But there wasn't a single trace of yielding in his posture.
It was bad news for Rimuru's immediate negotiations, but completely within his expectations.
Ortenrosse might not have possessed Van-Fem's razor-sharp corporate intuition to instantly dissect Rimuru's verbal traps, but he was a conqueror. A warlord who had successfully carved out an empire and ruled the underworld for centuries. Beings like him possessed an absolute, unbreakable core.
They were made of bedrock.
They might acknowledge your logic. They might understand your perspective. They might even nod and admit you were completely right. But fundamentally change their own ingrained worldview just because of a good speech? Rarely. Almost never.
Well, that's fine too, Rimuru thought, a soft, cynical smile touching his lips beneath the Oni mask.
Honestly, if the legendary White Wing Lord rolled over this easily, Rimuru would immediately suspect a trap. Besides, a flawless victory with zero resistance was just boring.
Ortenrosse didn't deliberate for long. Within seconds, his mental fortress was re-secured. He raised his crimson eyes, his voice echoing with absolute sovereignty.
"Your hypotheticals paint a pretty picture, Leviathan. But they are merely that. Hypotheticals."
Ortenrosse gripped the hilt of his silver greatsword. "The reality is much starker. The Altrouge who survived my betrayal would never fully support me now. And I would never fully trust her if I returned. Furthermore, with a tactician like you at her side, my own authority would be instantly, constantly challenged. It is a strategically disadvantageous position for me."
"So I ask again. Why should I accept your terms? Why should I surrender my ambition for the absolute apex?"
Ortenrosse's eyes narrowed into merciless slits. "I am an Ancestor. I do not deal in 'hope.' I do not place my faith in the 'expectations' of others. I have no interest in debating Her Highness's qualifications any further. The past is carved in stone. But today, we sit at this table as equals. If you want me to bow, you must offer me a tangible, irrefutable reason to do so."
It was exactly what Rimuru had deduced. Ortenrosse did want an alliance, otherwise he wouldn't have convened this summit. But their ideologies were violently clashing. Ortenrosse wanted a co-rulership, a non-aggression pact where they respected each other's borders, formed a mutual defense treaty, and Altrouge made some geopolitical concessions.
Rimuru categorically refused to accept that.
A "co-rulership" meant Ortenrosse's faction would never truly assimilate into Altrouge's. They would just be two rival armies sharing a trench. The moment the external pressure from the Church vanished, that fragile truce would shatter into a horrific civil war.
It was like the historical alliances between rival political parties in his past life. A coalition government between bitter enemies only lasts until the common threat is dead. After that, the purges begin.
Altrouge had to hold absolute, uncontested authority. It was the fundamental prerequisite for Rimuru's master plan to use the Dead Apostles to save humanity. Altrouge didn't hate humans, but Ortenrosse? He was a hardcore vampire supremacist. If he retained his army, he would eventually wage a war of extinction against primates.
Rimuru had to establish a hard red line.
"We can at least agree on one fundamental truth," Rimuru said smoothly. "The Dead Apostles cannot afford to remain fractured anymore. Correct?"
"True. But a unified front invites a far greater threat than a fractured one," Ortenrosse countered, turning the argument back on him. "Let us return to your core premise, Leviathan. You claim the Dead Apostles can only have one King. In that, you are fatally mistaken."
"The Ancestors are immortal and undeniably powerful. But throughout history, entities capable of matching us have always existed. The sheer, overwhelming population of primates is their greatest weapon. Even if a monster like Zelretch is a one-in-a-million anomaly…"
Ortenrosse shot a brief, respectful glance toward the Magician. "…A millennium of human breeding guarantees those anomalies will rise. Their collective power cannot be underestimated."
"If we sign a temporary truce and form a cooperative alliance, the human factions might grit their teeth and tolerate it. But if I truly submit? If we forge a singular, absolute vampiric empire?"
Ortenrosse leaned forward, his voice a rumbling earthquake. "That is a declaration of total war. Have you truly calculated the consequences of an extinction-level crusade?"
It sounded like the cautious, pessimistic rambling of a coward. But Rimuru knew better. Ortenrosse was just playing the fear card to strong-arm Rimuru into accepting the co-rulership proposal.
"I have never underestimated humanity. But you are vastly overestimating them, Lord Ortenrosse."
Rimuru let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "If a dying minority like the Dead Apostles can't even manage to unite, what makes you think the sprawling, infinitely complex masses of humanity ever could?"
"The Mage's Association and the Holy Church will never truly bury their hatred for one another. A perfect human alliance is a fairy tale."
Rimuru stepped away from his chair, pacing slowly. "Yes, human manipulation played a part in fracturing our kind. But if they can divide us… we can turn around and divide them."
"Listen to me, Ortenrosse. I am standing here negotiating with you because Altrouge possesses the legitimate right and the raw power to rule. And I openly challenged the Black Wing Lord specifically to demonstrate our fangs."
"Like I said earlier: negotiation requires equal footing." Rimuru raised his hands, mimicking a balancing scale. "A marginalized race must achieve absolute, unbreakable unity if it wants to challenge the mainstream. You want the world to acknowledge the rights of vampires? Brute force alone won't cut it."
"You need a unified voice. You need the political and cultural power to change the minds of the ignorant, indoctrinated masses. You have to reshape their very concept of reality."
….
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