Allen's party rode on the carriage that waited outside the magic ship, and entered the imperial palace.
A group of knights and servants waited for them there, who escorted the party inside.
They waited inside for a bit, Allen using the Mana Seeds that Merus made until it was time to enter the meeting room.
An imperial knight entered the waiting room where Allen was.
The knight noticed something after looking at his party.
He spoke to Dogora, who stood up with the Divine Artifact Kagutsuchi fastened to his back.
"I'm really sorry, we don't really allow weapons…"
There would be many leaders of big countries in the meeting, so they did not allow weapons in there.
"Hm? Hmm…alright, I'll pass on the meeting then. It's not like I'll understand anything even if I go with you anyway."
If Dogora would not be allowed to enter with Kagutsuchi, he would simply stay in the waiting room until the others finished..
"Huh? Wait, so…what…"
The knight was confused, hearing Dogora decide to stay out of the meeting simply because he was asked to leave his weapon behind.
Dogora did not know how much he would understand of the meeting, and he had nothing planned to say either.
He felt like it was best for Allen to handle everything.
And he preferred always being together with the Divine Artifact.
He also felt like he owed Freya that much, for saving him and his friends in the past.
'Listen, Dogora. This is an important role for humans, don't worry about me. Just go and let the world see you.'
"Really?"
Freya did not say anything to insist on being taken to the meeting, instead telling Dogora to go alone.
(Her mood has been quite nice lately.)
Allen noticed that Freya's attitude was rather lenient lately.
That was largely due because there were already three cities in Heavy User Island, where everyone would pray to her in the morning and evening.
On top of that, there was a statue of Freya and Dogora in the Holy Land as well.
Once Allen requested that, the priests there went to work quickly.
Now that there was a large statue of Freya in the center of Niel, and since everyone in the Holy Land was religious, they would pray to her as well.
Thanks to all that, work had already finished on Dogora's orichalcum's battleaxe.
Dogora always carried his battleaxe and Kagutsuchi on his back now.
Anyone who looked at him would just see him carrying two weapons now.
Now the Goddess of Fire Freya no longer cared about small details.
After telling the knight to take good care of the Divine Artifact, Allen and his friends left the waiting room.
(This palace looks really pretty. I guess it's because it was built recently.)
Allen admired the clean and new appearance of the building, which looked even better than Latash's royal palace, showing just how much the city was flourishing.
After the attack of the Demon King's Army, the capital had been relocated to this city.
Before Giamut's capital was located to the north, but after the attack a southern city became the new capital.
That included increasing the size of the magic ship landing ports, building large council buildings, and a general restructuration of the city.
The emperor at the time had passed away, and the new capital was named Vertias after the next emperor, Vertias 8th Von Giamut.
Vertias had organized the Five Continents' Alliance, creating a blueprint for what would become the biggest force fighting the Demon King's Army. That made everyone think of him as a wise ruler.
Allen's party was led to the meeting room.
"There's a lot of people here."
Cecile muttered.
"You're right."
Sophie, who had also suffered the fate of hunting Iron Golems every day, agreed with her.
Her bond with Cecile had gotten incredibly strong during those days.
Allen had also joined them for a while, but then he decided that it was not too efficient to have everyone in the party there.
Unlike when clearing the entire S Rank Dungeon, he felt like summons under Kingship, Merus, and Merle's Hihiirokane Golem offered more than enough support.
So Allen decided to split the party into two, having both halves hunting Iron Golems in different places at the same time.
A) Allen, Kurena, Cecile, Sophie, Formar, Kingship Wraith A, Kingship Dragon A
B) Dogora, Merus, Kiel, Merle, Kingship Beast A, Kingship Stone A, Kingship Fish A
After that Allen and Dogora's teams competed for which group could hunt the most Iron Golems in a day.
They were hunting for more than ten hours every day, without breaks, so attending this meeting was a well-earned time to rest for Cecile and Sophie.
While that was going on, a Kingship Insect A summon kept breeding more, building an impenetrable defense on the northern side of the Central Continent to defend from future Demon King's Army attacks.
There was a large circular table in the center of the meeting room, where the main members of the Five Continents' Alliance would sit, and further back there were many seats for the representatives of every country.
The seats for representatives were arranged in a circular pattern surrounding the central table, similar to the seats in an university's auditorium.
"Sir Allen, please sit here."
"Okay."
Allen was led to a tall podium next to the table.
The rest of his party were told to sit on the chairs near the podium.
Guild Master McCarran was already sitting there.
It seemed like that podium was for those members who would get asked questions during the meeting.
(It seems they pressed him for a lot of stuff already.)
The meeting attendees had already asked everything they wanted from McCarran.
The talks had already started the day before Allen arrived.
They had not sat idly waiting for them to arrive.
Allen's presence there was only a small part of the meeting as a whole.
The Demon King's Army's presence had caused multiple issues all over the world, and the meeting would attempt to address every single one of them.
There was no solution for everything at once.
So they would exchange ideas for everything in order, trying to find solutions for each issue.
No matter the world, it was hard to fix all problems.
Allen had snuck a Bird G summon into the pocket of Rosenheim's queen.
He wanted to know beforehand why he had been called to the meeting, what they would talk about, and what kind of questions they would ask him.
"That sounded like a tiring exchange."
"Hmph. It's always like this, I keep getting brought here just because I live nearby."
As they passed in front of Guild Master McCarran, they exchanged some words. He had been hounded with questions until just moments earlier, mostly by Giamut's emperor.
He had been blamed for many things too, and that had gone on for at least one hour.
Most of the blame came from his decision to open the Talent Change Dungeon to the entire world.
Giamut wanted to monopolize the Talent Change Dungeon for its own and the Five Continents' Alliance use.
But the Adventurers' Guild was in charge of managing the dungeons.
They had decided that it was best for all adventurers to have a chance at increasing the number of Talent Stars they had.
Allen had also given the guild all the information he gathered from the dungeon, trying to decrease the number of casualties in the Talent Change Dungeon.
The Five Continents' Alliance had been too busy dealing with the Demon King's Army to consider the Talent Change Dungeon.
So they were annoyed that it had been opened to the public for anyone meeting the right requirements so quickly.
The Adventurers' Guild was not managed by the Five Continents' Alliance, they were simply supporters.
Still, the Alliance wanted to profit from them as much as possible.
That was how the world seemed to work at all times, everyone tried to gain as much from others as possible, even during conflicts.
(From what I've seen, there's three things they want to know from me.)
-The strength of Allen's Army
-Allen's allegiances
-The objectives of Allen's Army
While the Demon King's Army was attacking, the first S Rank Adventurer in two decades, Allen, had started gathering skilled people into his own army.
They wanted to know why he was gathering such a force.
Not to mention they barely knew who Allen was in the first place.
Allen stood atop the podium and looked at the people sitting on the circular table.
There were five rulers there, one of which looked a head taller than the rest, reclining back on his chair and with his feet on the table, his arms crossed. He was the current Beast King.
The king of Clebeur, who Allen had shared a meal with before, was also there.
The Confederation would always choose one ruler from their continent to represent them all.
This year, that role fell on Clebeur's king.
On the seats away from the circular table were close to a hundred members of royalty or representatives of other countries.
The Five Continents' Alliance was led by the five biggest countries in each continent, and around a hundred other smaller countries.
(King Arbus is here, and I see Prince Zew too. I guess Giamut is giving them special treatment.)
The dark elves' king, Arbus, had also joined the Five Continents' Alliance during the meeting.
His request was approved unanimously by the entire Alliance the day before.
They had to gain as much power as possible to fight against the Demon King's Army, no matter who it came from.
If one more country joined, that meant everyone had a better chance at winning.
So unless for extreme cases, there was never any objection to accepting new members.
Allen also noticed Prince Zew sitting next to King Arbus.
Usually only one representative per country was allowed, but for some reason Prince Zew was also there, even though the Beast King sat at the central table.
Prince Zew had a kind personality, and Giamut was probably expecting him to be the next Beast King, so it was clear they were trying to gain his favor early.
That also meant the Ten Heroic Beasts had to be somewhere in the palace as well.
They would join the Beast King in his trip back to Albahar.
After clearing the S Rank Dungeon, the Ten Heroic Beasts had went to the Central Continent to join the war, and every single one of them had fulfilled their tasks perfectly.
"...Don't be so nervous, Allen. We're not your enemies."
Giamut's current emperor, Regalfares 5th Von Giamut, looked at the other rulers, then told Allen to not get nervous, even though he was just deep in thought.
He had blonde hair and eyes with a hint of red in them. He sat with a very proper posture, but had a rather serious countenance. He was the main leader of the Five Continents' Alliance.
(I wonder what kind of mic they're using?)
The emperor spoke from the round table in the center, but his voice could be heard clearly in the entire room.
"Oh, not at all, I'm used to standing in places like this. I'd only be nervous if I made a mistake."
There was a magic device resembling a microphone on top of the podium, so Allen spoke into it to answer.
His voice was amplified and everyone in the room heard it.
There were probably similar devices set all over the meeting room.
Allen grinned as he replied to Giamut's emperor.
He was just looking at everyone present, like Prince Zew, he had not been nervous at all.
"Oh, not nervous, huh. I guess you're taking after the hero Helmios as well."
Hearing that confident response, the emperor took a better look at Allen and his friends, realizing none of them looked nervous in the slightest.
The only ones who seemed a bit out of place were Luck and Peromus.
"Pfft, so there's yet another hero in the Central Continent? They're really popping up everywhere lately."
Hearing the emperor's words, the Beast King snorted in a mocking tone, looking with sharp eyes at Allen while remaining with his arms crossed.
(I'm pretty sure he knows about me since I fought the hero in the Academy. I guess the Beast King doesn't like Giamut's trend to constantly find people to call heroes.)
As far as Allen knew, his name had been brought up for the first time amongst the Five Continents' Alliance when he was in his second year at the Academy.
They had all noticed the boy Allen who had put up an extremely tough fight against the hero Helmios during a sparring match.
Many people from various countries had watched that match attentively.
After that, Allen's name had been brought up again when he joined the war in Rosenheim, then he cleared the S Rank Dungeon, and last he responded to the distress call from the Holy Land.
All the representatives in the room looked at him with curiosity.
"Hmm, it seems everyone is interested in you. Lately there's news about a certain Allen's Army, would you mind telling us what your objective is?"
"My only objective is to defeat the Demon King."
The emperor began asking what Allen hoped to accomplish.
The meeting's questioning of Allen, with representatives from all over the world present, finally started in earnest.
