"Contact us? How did you know we're here?"

When I heard that, I frowned. We came to this Earth base by pure chance! Even if they wanted to find us, shouldn't they look outside the base? How did Reider know for sure we'd be here?

"He didn't say exactly... He told me to stay in the Earth humans' area as much as possible. There'd be a big chance of seeing you all. Looks like His Majesty was totally right!"

Egil looked super impressed. In his mind, Reider was like a genius god. But for us, this was even weirder. Could it be true that this System dog emperor really came back from the future?

"So why are you telling us all this now? You want us to help the Empire kick out the humans from other worlds?"

Adrian didn't want to think more or hear useless stuff. He looked Egil up and down and asked impatiently.

"Oh, I'm not sure! His Majesty Reider just told me to make sure you talk to him directly. He'll tell you the rest himself. But..."

Egil quickly explained. He put his hand in his pocket, but suddenly stopped like he remembered something. He looked troubled and asked me:

"Is Cyra here too? His Majesty wanted to talk to her first. But I've been watching you all since you came to this shelter, and I still can't tell who's Cyra. I only know you're Feliciana, and there's someone called Reed, who's also on the list. I guess that kinda fits what His Majesty wants? So..."

"What do you mean 'kinda fits'?"

I couldn't help rolling my eyes. Was my identity not good enough for that dog emperor? But I could tell some details from what Egil said. He found Adrian and me only because he heard about us from our talks before.

"Cyra's not with us. She's not in this base either. If she's your only target, you can leave now!"

Adrian told him to get out, annoyed. But I still couldn't figure out why the Empire's emperor cared so much about Cyra.

"Of course not! If that's the case, you talking to His Majesty should be okay too!"

Egil was shocked. Afraid we'd kick him out, he quickly took out something about the size of a jewelry box and put it on the table.

"What's this?"

He opened the box. Inside was a crystal ball thing, like a glass marble. I'd never seen anything like it. I knew it wasn't just a normal glass ball, so I asked Adrian for help.

"This is a magic communication pearl, right? It's like a smaller version of the old crystal balls. But the Empire's magic tech is pretty amazing. They might have added some extra functions!"

Adrian knew a lot. He recognized it right away.

But crystal balls are not easy to carry, so usually only armies and cities have them. When you use it, you can see the other side's scene inside the crystal ball through magic elements. The downside is the picture looks a bit twisted.

"If they can make it this small, isn't it like a magic version of a mobile phone?"

To be honest, I was getting annoyed with Egil saying "kinda" all the time. But the Empire's magic communication pearl really made me curious. No wonder he could sneak it past the Earth people's checks and bring it into the base. I reached out to take the "glass marble" and have a closer look.

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But when I touched it, I realized the glass marble was actually part of the whole box. I couldn't take it out! Egil quickly came over to help.

"That's not how you use it. Just turn the pearl once and put a little magic power in to start it!"

As soon as he said that, a face slowly appeared from the middle of the glass marble. It finally floated steadily in the air a few centimeters above.

"Has it started?"

Surprisingly, nothing happened for a long time. At first, this face didn't have any details, just some simple outline. But as I asked, it started to show more face features. Finally, it became the familiar face of Reider.

"Oh? Looks like you've made contact with them, Egil. So the person I'm seeing now is Cyra?"

I was standing right in front of the communication pearl, so I guess I was shown to Reider in the capital too. But he clearly didn't recognize how I look now. As soon as we connected, he got the wrong person.

"Sorry, I'm not Cyra. I'm Feliciana!"

I had to correct him. I guess it's normal he doesn't know. When Reider first saw us, I was still using disguise magic. But I don't really like this guy. Even though he let us go easily last time and did us a favor, I don't want to deal with him much. So I just got straight to the point:

"Your spy already told us why. Just say it! What do you want?"

My thinking was simple. Since we can't avoid it, let's just hear what he wants to say. At least it can make up for breaking his Midas ship.

"No Cyra? Well, that's okay too..."

As expected, when he learned who I was, he looked shocked for a moment. Then he cleared his throat and explained his troubles.

"I'm sure you've seen the Empire's tough situation now. And from how I acted before... I'm sure you know I don't want to be enemies with you. I've always wanted to be friendly and work together. So can you do me a small favor, for the sake of lending you the Midas before?"

Here it comes, finally! When I heard this, I thought, "I knew it!" I'd already guessed this kind of trick!

Reider suddenly sent someone to find us at this time, acting so nice and humble. I bet the next thing he'll say is asking us angels to help the Empire get out of trouble! You know, now the Earth army has invaded the Empire, and they've even got a foothold near the transfer portal. This must be the biggest headache for him as emperor! It makes sense he'd want outside help to win.

I could even guess some reasons he'd use to convince us, probably stuff like "for the big picture, let's fight the invaders from other worlds together." He had big plans, but too bad he found the wrong people!

Cyra, Reed, and I all came from Earth. We might not directly help Earth attack the Empire, but we definitely won't fight them. Reider's plan was dead from the start.

"I want to ask you to represent me and offer to negotiate with the humans from other worlds: If they agree to pull back their army, the Empire will give them any resources or tech they want. We can talk about anything! If that's not enough, I can even take a step back first. We can give them some border areas near the transfer portal that touch the Republic, for them to rest. The main thing is to not make the war bigger..."

No one expected what he actually said would be so shocking! Not just Adrian and me, even Egil, who set up this talk, looked super shocked. He almost rushed over to ask what was going on.

You know, asking for peace talks is one thing. But the Empire fought with the Republic for so many years in that border area because of land disputes! Now Reider's willing to give it up to avoid a bigger war. No matter how you look at it, it's too cowardly. This is shaming the empire!

"Did I hear wrong? Are you really sure you want to ask them for talks?"

I felt there were too many weird things, so I could only ask him to confirm again, surprised. Honestly, it's not like how he usually acts all proud and bossy. Is this Reider fake too?

"Of course I'm sure. And I hope you can act fast! Right now, the whole Empire is super angry and wants to fight back. Even as emperor, I can't stop them from starting a counter-attack war anymore..."

Sadly, there was no twist. Reider said it again, very sure. He probably saw I was confused, so he explained more:

"Yeah, it sounds a bit crazy! But things have gone way off track. I never thought opening the space portal would bring those Earth people here. Those useless drunk fools in the army have no idea how strong the enemy is! Now I can only try to fix things in secret. Once we have an agreement, those local lords who want war will back off. And only you can do this! Anyway, you started all this, so you should take some responsibility, right?"

More stuff I don't really get. But calling us the ones who started it all... that's not nice to hear...

Okay! The portal was indeed caused by Adrian and Nicola fighting. Thinking about it that way, he's not wrong! But as the Empire's emperor, he ran back to the capital first because he was scared to die. How can he say this kind of stuff to us? If he's so great, why doesn't he go to the front lines and talk to the Earth people himself!