Almost 2 hours have passed since the representatives of the 5 delegations and the coordinator Helena entered the small meeting room. Outside, only a few murmurs and a few conversations between representatives of the delegations could be heard.
Everyone's attention was on the door that led to the room next to the stage. She could open up at any time as the 1.5 hour meeting time had already been exceeded for some time.
But still there were no complaints from either party. As they were aware that they were cornered, they needed some effective idea to be created. But no one had high hopes, the chances of that happening and them being able to deny Pietro's request would be slim to none.
Pietro had long since returned to his original place. Aware that he had nothing to worry about, he was just calculating the possibilities of what alternative plans the spoiled princes and princesses were planning.
After asking the opinion of some colleagues, he decided that he couldn't leave them unmonitored. To prevent them from getting some kind of fake proof or taking more extreme measures like bribing someone from Babel. Which wouldn't work either, but he could somehow use those possibilities against them.
Security measures should be adopted not only for them. His master, Lady Daynis Ivanov, informed him that outside forces such as the Dragon Lords and the Five Powers' leaders themselves were moving behind the scenes to influence Babel's decisions.
He couldn't let the plan his master laid out be spoiled. His Master was taking care of external influences and he was in charge of taking care of internal influences. He couldn't fail his master, not again.
His master was someone who had deep affection and respect for Apollo Kairis. And only because of him did Babel manage to get her to cancel her license to research the Peace Mountains in Bordium. She had planned this research trip for 5 years, and she wouldn't get another such perfect chance again.
But once Lady Ivanov learned of Apollo's current situation, she didn't think twice about throwing her plans away. Pietro knew why and he was a little jealous of Apollo because of it.
But he knew his place and had even more affection and respect for Apollo because of his great deeds in his master's life. And as much as Pietro tried, he would never achieve similar feats or close to what Apollo did.
While he had his daydreams, the other groups of people also had their conversations about possible schemes to be devised. Some more dangerous than others, but no one was so sure how to proceed.
As time went by, schemes were established and plots unfolded in the environment. But tension began to build when the allotted time for the meeting was exceeded. And the clock continued to tick:
*Tick* *Tac* *Tick* *Tac*
Everyone was getting restless, but when the atmosphere started to get more tense, the door to the meeting room opened and all the representatives left.
Each headed to their respective previous seats. Helena, in turn, returned to her place on stage and waved Pìetro back to the stage too. The mood began to become less tense, while the air of curiosity and expectation increased.
Pietro decided to return to the stage and soon took his previous place. At the same time everyothers returned to their positions and began to discuss something with their delegation colleagues. After a few minutes of parallel conversations, Helena then spoke with a strong voice to get everyone's attention:
"Silence. Now I will communicate the decision that was taken at the meeting between the representatives of the 5 delegations."
She managed to silence the side conversations and attract the attention of everyone in the room. Expectation and curiosity once again took hold of everyone. Seeing that she had everyone's focus, Helena continued to talk about what was decided at the meeting:
"It was decided that the evidence and detailed information that was presented by Babel was really strong. Being truthful, we had no choice but to reconsider how to present the allegations made by Princess Celeste."
Helena stopped talking for a moment, giving everyone in the room time to understand and reflect on the decision. And the weather was by no means friendly. Everyone understood that Babel would be in charge of this audience and they didn't like what the outcome would be in the end if it continued in the same way.
As she did so, she also took the opportunity to take a look at the expressions of the people around him. Especially in Apollo's expression. But to her disappointment, Apollo was unconscious, just as he had been before she entered the stage.
Meanwhile, Pietro started to outline a weak smile after hearing the decision. But since that was within his plans, he wasn't surprised. But he was curious about what else Helena had to say.
Helena, after a slight disappointment, began to speak again. Now in a cooler voice:
"But this does not mean that we will unconditionally accept the suggestion that Babel's Senior Investigations Manager, Pietro Durvas, has put forward. Princess Celeste of the Kingdom of Svalbard has agreed to reformulate her report in exchange for 3 conditions. The conditions were established based on the current situation in the Kingdom and were endorsed by all other representatives."
As she continued to speak, everyone in the room had some expectations again. If they couldn't ensure that crimes in full were brought to justice , at least they wouldn't go away empty-handed.
Helena resumed her speech:
"I will now be presenting the summary of the demands that were decided in the meeting between the following representatives of the delegations: the 9th Princess of the Thanax Empire, Fianna Akello; the 15th Prince of the Bordium Empire, Daehyun Vacchiano; the 7th Princess of the Astanium Empire, Annabel Orléans; the 14th Prince of the Wallbur Empire, Emmanuel Seifer; and the First Princess and Heir to the Throne of the Kingdom of Svalbard, Celeste Amadi."
Helena continued to speak… Listing the following conditions for the suggestion made by the Babel representative to be accepted:
"Condition 1: Babel should considerably intensify its presence in areas where there is a greater concentration of activities by criminal organizations.
Condition 2: Babel must help with monetary and variable utility resources in areas of high vulnerability and/or affected by natural disasters in the territory of the Kingdom of Svalbard.
Condition 3: Babel must cooperate with the Kingdom of Svalbard to combat and exterminate the new growth points of activities of the 3 main world criminal organizations: Trinity, Graviton and G-Force."
After finishing speaking, Helena returned to wait a little in silence so that everyone in the audience hall could absorb the information. She paid special attention to see how the Svalbard delegation was behaving.
Not least, all representatives in the delegation were happily surprised. Because they were convinced that they would achieve nothing, demanding conditions like these would be a great victory.
Some sensitive points should still be detailed, but the summary already gave an idea of how much they could take advantage of these requirements.
But Helena knew that wasn't yet set in stone. The proposal was made, but was not accepted by the other party. Therefore, she diverted her attention to the person responsible for the successful negotiation: Pietro Durvas. He would be the one to decide whether to accept the conditions or not.
And Pietro didn't take long to return to his seat after excusing himself from the stage. He turned to his teammates for their opinions on the possibilities. He wanted to know if they could accept such conditions or if they should refuse the proposal, in addition to trying to clarify what the consequences of each choice would be.
After a few minutes of arguing, it became clear that they could not accept the terms fully, it would be too much of a burden for such a small benefit. But at the same time they could not completely refuse the deal.
If they refused the conditions, Princess Celeste would hardly reformulate her denunciation. If she refused to reformulate, Babel would have to ask for an audit of the allegations with new representatives of each power. What would last months of time already so scarce and precious.
However, if they accept the deal, it would set dangerous precedents. They would have to suffer through a barrage of similar requests in the coming trial days. And Babel was already suffering from the colossal efforts it had made to alleviate the situation of those involved in the incidents and financial support in the form of compensation and reconstruction funding.
Pietro should make a decision now so as not to jeopardize the progress of the plan. This kind of unforeseen event was in the plans and his master, Lady Ivanov, gave him full authority to make this kind of decision.
But she warned him that he must not compromise Babel's integrity either morally or financially. With that in mind, Pietro did a lot of research to find out how much Babel would commit to this plan.
To his surprise, financial resources were not the big issue. The real problem was to make Babel assume the role of "Father answering for his son's crimes" while passing on the image of "Extremely severe father who would not hesitate to let his son answer for his crimes".
Pietro did not fully understand why the plan should have this condition. Even after he tried to seek the answer from his master, he only received the woman's vague reply:
"Because it looks exactly the way it does, boy."
He didn't question her further. Indeed, his master has some eccentricities. Be it in your appearance, in your way of dressing, fighting and even when explaining things.
He had no idea what she meant, but he knew that image must be maintained. But accepting or refusing the conditions that were imposed on him would tarnish the image that Babel wanted so much to maintain.