Page 3804

‘I am amenable to your proposition,’ said Dozer.

Oh?

‘What the--?! Dozy! Bro, c’mon!’

‘I have no personal stake in this war. I’ve thought it was pointless from the beginning. But the fool also has a point. Ending it quickly would indeed be a headache. Can you offer us something to soothe such pain?’

So it was as she thought. This continental war had indeed not been launched with Dozer’s approval. It only made sense, given how disorganized the whole thing appeared to be, but this confirmation was still quite the relief, nonetheless.

If the Living Void had a strongly vested interest in continuing this conflict, then these negotiations would’ve had almost no chance of succeeding, she felt. That man was an entirely different level of obstinate.

Thankfully, despite the rather sudden and haphazard nature of her intervention here today, she’d been deliberating on the matter of peace negotiations for a while already. It was a long-held habit of hers, whenever some new war broke out in the world, regardless of how big or small it was. A mental exercise, of sorts. How might peace be achieved over there? Or there? Or between those two groups? What was motivating the opposing sides? Even if she never ended up getting involved, it always made for an engaging thought experiment.

Whenever Abolish was in play, it naturally complicated matters. They liked to puppeteer things and frequently disrupted negotiations, meaning her people then had to track the bastards down and deal with them directly. Sometimes, that meant further negotiation. Other times, it meant showing no mercy.

And here, things were no different. Higher stakes, perhaps, but no different. With how long she’d known these two, she had a fairly good idea of what might entice them to strike a deal with her. It was really just a matter of how much posturing they wanted to do. How much they allowed their egos to get involved.

Not that she was immune to that herself. She knew her own tendencies well enough by now, too.

It was best to play a bit coy to start things off. ‘How about I promise not to join up with the Vanguard and kill half your men?’

‘Hah! Scary!’

‘An interesting idea,’ said Dozer. ‘A true war involving all of us might actually be worth my time to invest in. But are you sure that is what you would like to gamble on?’

As expected. They could show no weakness, of course. Too often, people mistook her reputation as the Peacemaker for one of having no stomach for war. No spine. These two knew better, but it was still worth reminding them of the possibility--and that she didn’t consider it off the table, either.