The sounds of merry-making drifted upwards from the battalion squares, but Aziz and Marie, who were sitting on the roof of the barracks allocated to them, couldn’t find it in themselves to join the kids below. The two of them were more interested in the great gods, which had descended along with their Divine Kingdoms in the middle of the land bridge.

It would seem that the conclusion of the peace process had drawn the great gods over, but Aziz didn’t quite understand why such a thing would compel the great gods to descend.

“Maybe it’s because such a peace has never been seen before?” Marie suggested, in response to his vocalised thoughts. “I mean, it’s a landmark. The conclusion to the war of a hundred thousand years. Why wouldn’t the great gods in the outcome?”

“But to appear in person…” Aziz glanced at the land bridge, which was flanked by the Divine Kingdoms of Conrah and Thasvia. “Is this really so important that they must appear in person? They came in another form for the Conference of the Four; descending like this must have taken a lot of energy.”

“Or it’s the other way around,” the marshal mused. “Who knows?”

“Either way, however, this doesn’t seem like good news to me,” Aziz replied. “Look. The fighting’s ended, but the great gods have all decided to show their faces. If you ask me, they’re here to tell us something. An oracle. Whatever. Maybe they think that the Wildlands should be invaded en masse, and that we shouldn’t hold back after all.”

“…It’s disturbing how I cannot say that you’re wrong,” Marie replied darkly. “After all, the possibility of the gods descending to stop the talks and to wipe out the delegation from the Wildlands isn’t zero. Maybe they think that having an eternal war and an enemy of the world is the best choice for the Five Lands or something.”

“Let’s hope that’s not the case, then.”

“If they didn’t come for that, then there must be another world-ending threat, since the great gods rarely act in concert. Maybe the Demon Sovereign isn’t dead or sealed after all, and we’re going to have to fight against the mad Asteria.” Marie shrugged. “And the demons, who have recovered from their insanity, have been invited to join in the crusade against the Demon Sovereign.”

Aziz pondered over her words for a moment. To his alarm, he found such a possibility rather plausible, as if it was a plot from some highly-acclaimed book or something.

“Darn it. That seems very possible,” Aziz muttered. “Wouldn’t put it past this world to screw us soldiers like this over and over. Against that Demon Sovereign, we’re nothing more than a bunch of weeds to be reaped over and over.”

Marie grunted. “Tell me about it. I want to resign, but whenever I think about the possibility of the boys being thrown into yet another unwinnable war, I cannot help but hold off my retirement. I owe them that much.”

“As do I,” Aziz replied. “Never mind. Forget about it for a moment. Let’s go down and have fun with the kids.”

“You do know that they’ll just shut up and stop their revelry if we show up, right?” Marie asked.

“That’s the first part of our fun,” Aziz replied, a wicked grin on his face. “And then, we order them to party even harder! They’ll fall over themselves to act as wildly as possible, just so to avoid being censured.”

“You are an evil, evil man.” Marie glanced down at the battalion square, which was full of life and joy. “Still, such a prospect does sound fun, no?”

“Yeah, let’s go—”

The Radio sitting on Marie’s shoulder crackled at that moment, and any thoughts of teasing the soldiers dancing below faded away from Aziz’s mind.

“Marshal Marie. Head over to the Guardian Barracks. The War Council has sent out a call to all military commanders to gather.”

“Minister, what’s going on?” Marie asked, gesturing at Aziz to keep quiet. “At such a time too.”

“Why not make a guess?” Pauline’s voice, tired as it was, took on a playful tone. “For what reason would we need to call every single commander to attend this conference late at night?”

“Which one is it?” Marie replied. “Let me guess. World-ending threat, world-ending threat or world-ending threat. Which one is it?”

“Boring.”

“Minister, other than world-ending threats, there’s no reason why the great gods would descend on the peace conference between Wildlands and the Five Lands,” Marie answered. “And you’re calling us over like an emergency summons. Only fools would think that there’s a celebratory feast going on or something.”

“Well, you seem to have a good grasp of the situation, at least.” Minister Pauline’s voice crackled. “Bring Aziz with you, and then head over to the Guardian Barracks post-haste. We will brief you on the situation there.”

The Radio paused. “And I’m quite sure you’re next to him now, so don’t dally. Just hurry over. It’s a serious situation.”

With a small pop, the Radio fell silent.

“Well, you heard the minister,” Marie replied. “Let’s hurry up and get over, before the minister throws a hissy fit and prevents us from retiring early. Do you think she’ll accept it if I were to hand in my notice of resignation now?”

“From how serious the whole thing is, I think she’ll kneel and beg first,” Aziz replied. “She might even promise to abdicate if you insist on actually resigning.”

“Abdicating to me?” Marie rolled her eyes. “Let’s be honest. She just wants to retire too. Exiting the political stage with a flourish and throwing off the burden of governance with style…if I try to resign, she’ll resign first, and then toss everything onto Minister Eventide, who would then promote me out of the military and into the administration.”

“…Why do you sound like you’ve actually given this ample consideration?”

“Guess.”

“Forget it.”

“Whatever. Let’s stop talking.” She jumped off the rooftop and pulled Aziz with her. “Before the minister throws a hissy fit.”