Chapter 459: Laws
The scroll before Arthur was a dense thicket of legalese and diplomatic pleasantries, but he read it quite fast. The rate at which he processed information was terrifying.
In just a few minutes, he understood how mundane these stacked papers were. To anyone reading them, they looked like the boring administrative fluff of a feudal lord. Every signature could prevent a skirmish or ignite a conflict; every trade agreement was a potential vector for spies.
Arthur focused on the first document: a trade negotiation from the Land of Rain.
’A political trap,’ he knew.
The Akatsuki were trying to find his hidden villages again. They were persistent. The letter proposed a new route for importing steel and medicinal herbs, cutting through the northern mountain range of the Land of Birds.
No surprise that it was addressed to Toki. If Arthur rejected it outright, it would signal that they knew the Akatsuki’s intent. If he accepted it without modifications, it would give Pain a legitimate reason to send "escorts"—shinobi scouts—into his territory.
Arthur dipped his brush in ink. He approved the agreement but added a clause: All foreign trade caravans must offload at the border checkpoint of Green Hill. Domestic transport will handle the final leg.
That would keep them at arm’s length.
After signing Toki’s name with a perfect forgery of her seal, he moved onto his next sensitive matter: a request for extradition from the Land of Earth.
Apparently, a rogue ninja from the Stone Village had been spotted in Arthur’s territory—specifically, near a mining town in the mundane sector. Arthur checked the name against his mental database. It was a nobody, a C-rank deserter fleeing debt.
’Approved...’
He stamped the document. Handing over a petty criminal would bring goodwill with Ōnoki and reinforce the illusion that the Land of Birds was a cooperative, lawful neutral state.