Chapter 315– Tier 3 Trial Part 11.

“My Lord.”

“Is it time?”

“Yes, they are waiting.”

“Good… let’s get this over with.”

Roland looked at the large room with various decorations in which he wasn’t alone in. Time continued to pass and everything moved towards the last confrontation with the Woodlanders. Everything would be over after the final battle was over, that is if this trial didn’t throw any more wrenches to stop his plans.

Even though this place wasn’t as big as the real world, for one person it was gigantic. More than a year had already passed since he started this little game. Considering that he was forced to take several time skips, more than a couple of years in trial time had gone by. His faction had become a small country with an actual force that reached into the multiple thousands. With this army, he was now planning to head towards one location where the tides would shift.

‘Things haven’t been going too well lately and convincing those Foresters took a while. If I knew I’d be forced to do those things I would have chosen violence instead…’

Roland wanted to save up on some resources by going into an alliance with one of the remaining nations, the Foresters. This was a resounding success as after aiding them with some of his resources they were able to drive away their enemies and were actually grateful. A pact was formed between him and this nation to clear up the Woodlanders that soon had control over half of the map.

There was one tiny thing that he didn’t realize when he was forming a pact. He did not think through what an alliance entailed when he made it. His original preconceived notion was that he could automate everything as this had been a trial. However, he had been mistaken and his presence was actually required at a few venues where he had no idea how to act.

“Hear ye, Hear ye! Today in our nation and throughout the lands, we are celebrating the union with our lifelong allies, the great Timberlings. Lord Commander of the Timberling nation has joined us on this grand and joyous occasion…”

‘Uh… how much longer is this guy going to announce my entrance…’

At this moment he was standing behind a closed door with two wooden soldiers on his side. His usual armor wasn’t on as he was forced to switch to more traditional attire. This day he had to attend something that resembled a royal ball. Something like this was somewhat above him as he had never taken any training in noble affairs.

His only reference was some conversations with his family members in the past he overheard or some of their own training. Most of his sisters were somewhat forced into attaining noble get-togethers where they were expected to look good and act as proper ladies. The men on the other hand usually had this mentioned somewhere during their knight training. Even dancing lessons were a requirement as the noble sons and daughters had to take part in what to him was a diplomatic charade.

“Without further ado, let me present you the Lord Commander of the Timberlings!”

‘Uhh… I guess this is my cue…’

The wooden people in this trial referred to him as Lord Commander just as the class of the leaders of each of the factions. It was the same for the Foresters, their leader was just the Lord Commander of the Foresters. The large door was opened for him and Roland took a few brazen steps outside into the large open ballroom where he was on top of the stairs.

“Greetings people of the Foresters, I am honored that you would accept my presence.”

‘Ugh, they are looking at me in a weird way…’

Roland was presenting his speech that he was forced to run through one of his Aids. Luckily they were competent enough to write it out for him. With his heightened intelligence it didn’t take much time to study it. The only hard part was presenting it in a competent way without stuttering or mispronouncing anything. He had even gained a new skill while he was practicing before it which made things easier.

The skill literally made him into a smooth talker. It even helped him come up with more posh-sounding words and replace the ones that he commonly used. He had previously heard of the regular articulation skill which a lot of public speakers leveled up. The Lordly variant was probably due to his Lord Runesmith class or perhaps the Overlord variant.

This was also part of the trial, becoming an Overlord seemed to take noble diplomacy into account. By allying himself with another faction he was given more work. Just like this time he was waving at the people down below and shaking the hand of the Forester Commander. Something like this was certainly out of his comfort zone but thanks to everyone appearing as a wooden person, it made things a lot more bearable. The speech didn’t have to be the best and after finishing it everyone began clapping.

“Lord Commander. I must thank you for accepting the betrothal proposal.”

“Make nothing of it, Lord Commander. It was required to tighten the bonds between our two nations.”

The leader of the Foresters spoke out and the conversation between the leaders finally started. There was only one reason that he made the journey here. The war was upon them and he needed all the help that he could get. A treaty was already signed between their two factions but this didn’t mean that everything was set in stone. Roland was aware of the possibility of betrayal and this is what he was hoping to avoid by coming here.

Not much had been explained to him besides all of the basics but he was somewhat confident in figuring out how this place worked. There were some hidden numbers considering his approval rating with this foreign nation. If he was able to keep this number high then the chance of betrayal was quite low.

He had invested time in cultivating a relationship with this faction in several ways. One was the more basic one by sending in resources or aid in the form of soldiers against their enemies. Then there was the whole side with the nobility, one tried and true method was by marriage. Some of his commander units had been placed on the wedding table and been instructed to form bonds.

Roland didn’t like this way of functioning between nations but at the moment he could not find a better alternative. The only way of keeping a healthy relationship with the foresters would be by offering even more resources instead. The marriage between wooden people didn’t really concern him as he could look past their fate of being forced into a political marriage.

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Perhaps this was how all the kings, emperors, and nobles saw their own people. Nothing more like wooden men and women that could be sold? This was beginning to be the reality of this world and this test that he was part of. While he didn’t like it, this was the best way of getting through this trial. The ties in marriage would keep everyone together and to make things even worse he was actually offering himself to a similar fate.