欧美亚洲日产综合新一区

After the group finished their business and left, Daniel was about to rest for a bit when Gua Jia approached him with a paper in hand and placed it on the table.

"My lord, the Qing Empire has answered us," said Gua Jia.

"Qing Empire\'s answer? What\'s that about?" Daniel was confused. Yes, he knew that the Qing Empire was gatekeeping him and his city from becoming a recognized country.

Actually, he had returned to see if they were going to stop this nonsense or not. If they didn\'t, he didn\'t care either. Being recognized as a country wasn\'t vital to his plan to create the new organization anyway; it just made things more convenient and legitimate when dealing with other countries.

As long as he had enough firepower to protect his interests, he didn\'t mind if his territory wasn\'t recognized as a country.

Daniel took the paper and read through it. It stated that the Qing Empire would not veto Sector Alpha City\'s petition to the UN for recognition as a country. In return, Astral Corporation would not sell their weapons, armaments, or any military-related services to the Ming Federation.

Okay, now he remembered. He was playing along with Cao Cao and Gua Jia\'s plan to prevent the Qing Empire from vetoing their petition for recognition. Becoming a country would make it legal for him to have a sizable military force.

Even though he thought it wasn\'t that vital, and he already had an armed force in the form of a PMC corporation, it was impossible to have a large number of soldiers, like ten thousand or a hundred thousand, like those in the US standing army.

During the reclamation campaign in the US against the Confederacy, at the end of the day, the US military did most of the work in assaulting and maintaining order because of their superior numbers. His forces could only help in several battles and secure victories, but couldn\'t maintain order effectively.

After Daniel scrutinized the content on the paper several times, he felt like something was amiss. Maybe it was his paranoia at work, but he had an uneasy feeling about it.

"Has Albert detected any foul play in this paper?" Daniel asked, knowing that Albert should be very proficient in this type of game.

Besides his eyes, within his mindscape, he could see that there were several enchantments on the paper. He was sure that this paper was a soul-binding contract, which he had learned about from Envy\'s class. But he didn\'t know the specifics of each enchantment, as he only saw them as enchantments and didn\'t understand their functions.

"Mr. Worseley has already checked the paper, there\'s no foul play," Gua Jia paused, then turned to the side and nodded at one of his men who had come along with the entourage. He continued, "Of course, if you don\'t wish to risk your soul for breaking the contract, this man will voluntarily risk his soul for you, my l—"

"Stop! Don\'t say another word!" Daniel\'s cold voice cut Gua Jia off before he could finish the word "lord." This startled him. "I have my bottom line. I will not let my people risk their souls for me so that I can break a contract with ease of mind," said Daniel before he read the contract one last time and signed his name.

Daniel felt as if some power had registered a part of him into the contract. He signed it without thinking about it much, unaware that this would lead the other side to misunderstand his mindset regarding the petition.

— A Day Later - Qing Empire —

Within the Forbidden Palace, the contract Daniel signed arrived, and the court mages quickly checked for any tampering within the magical contract. But after several hours of thorough examination, there were no signs of tampering.

Seeing Daniel\'s signature on the paper made Zhuge Liang wonder about Daniel\'s motivations, while the Emperor felt a sense of unease and disbelief at the situation.

They knew how powerful Daniel was as a mage, both from their own investigations and from what the Man in the Owl Mask had told them. According to the Man in the Owl Mask, Daniel was able to destroy a Hell Lord and close a hell gate from the outside.

That was a feat impossible to achieve unless one possessed power beyond the comprehension of most mages in the modern day. There were several theories that Daniel might be an avatar of a god, or perhaps even the avatar of the biblical God himself, which would explain why he could use holy power and excelled at dealing with Hell Lords.

But seeing that Daniel Emberweave so easily put his name on the contract first made both the Emperor and Zhuge Liang question his tactics. Was he trying to deceive them, or was he simply oblivious to the political game?

By doing this, it seemed that Daniel saw the Qing Empire as a more prominent figure than himself and Sector Alpha City. Was this a ploy by Daniel to make them drop their guard? They had only sent the contract expecting it to be revised by Daniel.

They had thought that they would need several adjustments to the contract before it was finalized. They even thought they might need to adjust it until the last minute!

True, they hadn\'t explicitly stated in the contract that it was expected to be revised, and they had even included the soul-binding enchantment according to the plan. But still... wasn\'t it common sense for a contract to be revised several times, at the very least?

It seemed impossible that the first draft of the contract would be immediately satisfactory to the other side, especially for a deal involving a soul-binding enchantment.

It was obvious that Daniel wasn\'t desperate or oblivious to the political game. Otherwise, he wouldn\'t have succeeded in attracting Envy, the most powerful witch on Earth and one of the most powerful mages, to his side. He was also the lover of Greed, the wealthiest woman on Earth, and had forced Hightower to retract their influence and retreat to Europe like a turtle withdrawing into its shell.

Zhuge Liang didn\'t believe that the two powerful women would simply like Daniel because of love alone. His power must have been a factor. And he didn\'t believe that a powerful mage like Daniel would accept the two women just because of love. He must have been aiming for them from the start.

And a person like this signed his name on the contract first without much fuss? It was either he saw something in the Qing Dynasty that he needed to be wary of… Or there was something going on behind the scenes that they didn\'t know about… Or the petition was vital to Daniel\'s plan, which is why he didn\'t make a fuss about it.

If that was the case… whatever Daniel was trying to achieve, they must not let the petition pass, as this might be a crucial step in his overall plan.

Zhuge Liang didn\'t realize that the image of Daniel he had formed in his mind, based on the perspectives of those defeated by Daniel and his enemies, was not an objective view. That\'s why he had the image of an all-powerful and calculating mage who still possessed righteousness and integrity.

"Kong Ming, doesn\'t Daniel Emberweave seem a bit too trusting? He acts like he just wants to make an honest deal with us. Doesn\'t he understand that we merely sent the contract for his confirmation?" the Emperor asked.

Zhuge Liang shook his head as he answered, "Your Majesty… I don\'t think he misunderstands. The only reason why he signed the contract first is either he trusts us... or he\'s trying to lower our guard... or..."

"Or maybe he thinks these conditions are favorable to him," the Emperor finished the sentence.

"That\'s right, Your Majesty," Zhuge Liang nodded.

Hearing this, the Emperor nodded and let out a sigh.

"Sigh… Whatever the case, we can\'t simply send it back to Daniel Emberweave and tell him it was a misunderstanding. We\'ll proceed with your plan and see what his true aim is," said the Emperor.

"As you wish, Your Majesty," Zhuge Liang bowed and continued with the plan.

— The Day of the Petition —

Inside the UN assembly conference hall, Daniel sat with Maria, Gua Jia, and Greed, who were there as his advisors. Daniel, of course, was representing Sector Alpha City.

The conference was discussing how to leverage global technological advancements to address the hunger problem in impoverished areas of the world, such as Somalia and other countries in Africa.