'It's only been a few days since I returned from the Elves…'

Rey's thoughts trailed as he sat before the crowd that now looked at him with both surprised and curious eyes.

'I've had some time to think about this, and I've even consulted with Ater on it.' Smiling within himself, he decided to bring the matter to the notice of everyone else in the room.

This would be the first time any of them were going to be hearing it, so he had to go into deep detail with them. Thankfully, due to his individual accomplishments, as well as his status as the leader of the Otherworlders, his words had a lot of weight.

In fact, it had all of the weight.

"What do you mean… regarding the Southern Continent?" Conrad was the first to speak up, his brows raised in sheer curiosity.

"Surely, you don't mean—"

"Indeed, I do. The Dwarves and Giants dwell there, as well as a host of Monsters—exotic kinds more dangerous than the ones we have here in the West." Rey began, causing the Natives of H'trae to gasp.

Most of the Otherworlders didn't fully understand the severity of his proposal, so most of them maintained a neutral stance.

The only one among them who appeared stunned by Rey's idea was Alicia, and this was most likely due to the knowledge she gained from reading tons of books in the Library.

"The Giants are considered to be the strongest race after the Dragons, and the Dwarves are the most technologically advanced. Looking at things closely, no matter how skilled the people at the Reaper Group are, they will mostly be dealing with much more potent ores and materials than they are used to. It would be beneficial to have the craftsmanship of the Dwarves on our side, and as for the manpower necessary for the war… being allies with the Giants would help out a lot."

All the glaring problems that the Alliance currently faced would be dealt with if they allied themselves with those of the South.

"B-but… it's not that simple." Vida spoke up, her tone a little shaky. No one could blame her for stuttering in her usually flawless speech. They all understood how dangerous the South was.

"There's a reason we never considered heading to the South and pitching the idea to them. At least, with the Elves, despite their ideology… they spared any human that dared cross their territory. But, those people in the South are different."

"Yeah. They're savages… especially the Giants."

"You fought one before, didn't you?" Lucielle turned to Brutus, who just finished speaking, and he nodded.

"I was much younger back then, and it was back when we ran an expedition to the South after getting our first Dragon attack. I… lost miserably to that single Giant."

It was a completely random Giant, yet Brutus—who was still regarded as one of the strongest humans back then—could not hold his own against it.

If not for the mere fact that they were close to shore, he was sure they would have all been slaughtered there and then.

"The Giants despise water, so that's why—despite their violent tendencies—they've never invaded other lands and run their own conquest. If not for that mere fact… it would have been game over for everyone before the Dragons showed up." Brutus sighed. "An alliance with them is a bad idea."

Rey narrowed his eyes as he heard this.

"What about the Dwarves? Does that mean they're not allied with the Giants, despite the two sides being attacked by the Dragons?"

"No. The Dwarves and Giants despise each other. One prides itself on being a technologically advanced and civilized group, while the other are primitive and violent in nature." Lucielle responded, shrugging as she did so.

"We've only encountered Dwarves a few times, when they reached out to us and we traded a little. We got the Truthseeker technology, as well as the Oculus from them. In exchange, we gave them Minerals and Ores." Conrad sighed, nodding his head as he spoke up. "The trade stopped very long ago, though. Our guess is that the war on their end grew so intense that they could not reach out to us any longer. That, or maybe they found another source for their resource shortage."

Rey nodded as he silently assimilated all of this information.

"So, would you say the Dwarves are easier to deal with?"

"No. Not at all…" Conrad frowned slightly as he looked at Rey. "They are a prideful bunch, and they are also greedy. They looked down on us throughout the trade and often determined the value of what they would exchange with us for our minerals."

"Yeah. We couldn't even refuse due to their Anti-Magic Technology and the other incredible machinations that they had. Honestly… we were a bit thankful when they suddenly stopped showing up after a while."

"Ahh…" Rey mumbled, taking in all of this information.

He had thought about the possibility of his idea being rejected on serious grounds, but he never imagined the situation would be as dire as this.

The books in the library had limited information on the Dwarves and Giants, so he didn't know most of the details that were being poured out to him.

Even at that, Rey didn't have any intentions on giving up.

"Wouldn't you have also discredited an Alliance with the Elves if I brought it up a week ago? In the end, we don't know enough about these people and their culture to outright deny the possibility of an Alliance." He spoke up, determination burning in his eyes.

"For the Giants, they probably saw your expedition as strangers infringing on their native land. And for the Dwarves, their treatment of you was terrible, but it would be no different from how you would also treat entities that you deem less intelligent and savage—like Monsters."

Of course, it wasn't Rey's intentions to equate humanity in H'Trae to monsters.

All of this was merely to serve a much larger point.

"We don't have to like each other. There's no reason to fully understand them, just as there's no reason for them to fully understand us. We just require a mutually beneficial relationship that will ensure we all get what we want."

In the end, that was what mattered.