Chapter 110: Politics Involved
"So for this, we’re asking for the eighty five percent of the Mana Crystals that will be mined inside that rift."
Flash.
"Minister Ba, let’s be reasonable here. We would be the ones footing all the monetary cost and manpower to make this operation happen. I think it should be fair to ask for a little bit more than that? I think giving us twenty five percent should be the minimum."
Flash. Flash.
"Minister Ma, it’s because our countries have such a good relationship and we are also treating your problems seriously that we have agreed to send our Mortal God himself to your aid. And because of that, we would also be sending in his Guardians as well so we would be committing quite a lot to deal with this. But of course, I understand your concerns so I would be happy to lower it down to eighty percent."
Flash. Flash. Flash.
Holy crap guys, I know that you guys are from the media but do you have to keep taking pictures? Aren’t you already recording this through a video?
I am so glad that I have this mask that hides my face right now or else people would see how annoyed I am on their TVs right now...
Since I was greeted by the two ministers personally at the doorway of the building, I thought this was going to be a private meeting between the three of us.
Apparently I was sorely mistaken as I was brought to a hall where it was filled with cameras and media crews already set up in front of a semicircular table where three chairs had been positioned with two facing each other and one directly in the centre.
The seat that was in the centre was also facing all the cameras head on and I already knew where I was expected to sit.
My Guardians were on security so Olivia stood imposingly behind me and off to the side while Leena and Kris were left to position themselves on both sides of the room to watch out for any threats.
I suppose I should have expected such an arrangement since this was technically the first time that I would be sent to another country to assist them as a Mortal God.
Obviously this is going to be a big deal especially because this would also be the first time this country is sending a Mortal God to assist another country.
It’s unavoidable but I was definitely being used as a political tool as well because there’s no way people are going to miss out on the fact that a foreign nation had specifically chosen to engage with us for assistance instead of the other Mortal Gods for this rift.
If what I heard through rumours were true, we weren’t even their first choice to deal with their rift.
I was not able to find out who specifically but they had been trying to get another nation’s Mortal God to get involved in this rift’s expedition but they had asked for ninety eight percent of the Mana Crystals that the expedition would yield and Thailand’s government was not willing to pay that much.
Fortunately for us, we had a huge haul from the rifts that we had just recently cleared out so the people in our government made the decision that they were willing to trade some potential profit for some goodwill in this case.
In layman’s terms... We were willing to trade money for some international clout.
I honestly hoped that I could stay out of politics but it was definitely not possible now that I’ve awakened as a Mortal God.
While it might seem like a good thing that the South Asian Conglomerate that we are a part of allowed the countries to remain independent instead of having to fall under one banner like several others around the world... It’s actually not really a good thing for the common people who had to deal with rifts.
Right now, including myself, there’s only three Mortal Gods within this conglomerate and each of us are basically part of an independent nation.
That means if there’s a rift somewhere within the territory of the conglomerate, none of us could just go over there and deal with it whenever we want.
Well... Technically we could but we would definitely not be seen in a favourable light if we did so and it might actually piss off the other Mortal Gods.
But instead, the independent nations in the conglomerate would have to request, bargain or beg the nations with the Mortal Gods to come deal with the rift for them, especially when it’s a high level rift.
For rifts with a lower Danger Class, they can still deal with it by sending in other worlders who are working as Vanguards.
Ironically, because of that, our country was still quite involved in foreign matters before I awakened as a Mortal God because of our large population of other worlders.
If the other countries needed more other worlder Vanguards to supplement their own to deal with a rift, we would send a group to help them out.
On rare occasions, they would also send Vanguards like me to help out as well when they also needed more Vanguards to supplement the local forces involving another foreign Mortal God.
Obviously, those incidents weren’t really publicised much since people didn’t really care that much about it. But this... This is different.
There’s now another country within this conglomerate that other countries are able to approach for a Mortal God’s help with a rift problem that they have, which effectively cuts the influence the other country with Mortal Gods might have.
As demonstrated in this event, because we were willing to give Thailand a better deal for my help, the first country they approached was basically snubbed out of the deal completely.
Now that other country might choose to just ignore it... Or they might actually try to threaten or interfere with this expedition to try and regain control again. Of course, neither Thailand’s nor my country’s government want anyone to have a fight or disagreement that might lead to conflict if they could help it.
And the ugly truth of that is the reason that no one wants to start a conflict here isn’t because everyone’s a good samaritan and wants the best for the people... But only because it’s bad for business.
With all that thought going through my head... I couldn’t help but sigh behind the mask as I continued to endure this farce of a meeting that was happening in front of me.
I say farce because this was exactly what it was.
Both sides have already agreed to the specifics of this cooperation before they even walked in here... They were only having this ’discussion’ right now only for the sake of pure performance.
It might look like both sides were still undecided on what the terms were and the two ministers were trying to decide on this right in front of me, but that’s all a ruse to make others think that this was a last minute decision and wasn’t something both sides had planned for a while now.
And publicly, they were only discussing the percentage of Mana Crystals that each side would get after clearing the rift but I already know there were specifics in this deal regarding trade deals and other political stuff they had already agreed to behind closed doors before we even sat down here.
Like I said... This was a complete farce.
Still, we had to do this to minimise the potential problems as much as possible while also to gain as many benefits as possible too.
No doubt, our government was also trying to use this to advertise us as a new partner to deal with rifts within other countries, though I guess how effective this ’advertisement’ is going to be will rely on how well I do in the expedition.
And, after this meeting between the two ministers gets aired to the public, there would definitely be considerable attention on our expedition to clear that rift in Thailand.
It won’t even just be limited to how I clear the expedition but also how I would treat the people there as well since I would effectively be an envoy sent by our country there to represent them.
Ugh... While I have done things like this as a Vanguard, I never needed to care so much about the attention since I didn’t hold that important of a position before this...
At least I wouldn’t be going there alone as my Guardians would also be accompanying me I suppose.
I couldn’t help but sigh again, wondering how long this ’discussion’ was going to take.
Hmm... Since I was already back in the mainland today... Maybe I’ll just go back home for today and stay with my family instead of returning to the island... The interior of the building was actually taking longer than expected to finish so I might as well give them some space...
Before that... Maybe I should give Dan a visit...