The Peace Treaty of Hope

End of the Demon War

The Peace Treaty of Hope ended the five-year Demon War. It followed negotiations made possible by the three heroes, Shun Sato, Reiko Hayami, and Kimiko Torafuku, whose cooperation showed that humans and demons could choose settlement over mutual destruction.

The treaty did not declare either people the victor. It created a political boundary around the place where the two realms remained physically connected and established rules intended to stop local ambition from reopening a continental war.

Territorial settlement

The Eterna Mountains, formerly within Lindsey's borders, became demon territory on the human side of the Gate. Control of the crossing therefore did not belong to any human crown. A fortified Tower was to be established in the range with a guardian responsible for preventing unauthorized movement between realms.

That territorial provision later drove Lindsey to reject the treaty and march on the mountains, producing the First Transgression and the destruction of the Lindsey kingdom.

The guardian's duties

The treaty appointed Shun, the demon member of the heroic alliance, as Lord of the Tower. He was required to protect the Gate, admit no one without permission, and remain completely neutral in human politics.

Neutrality was essential because Shun possessed enough personal power to decide conflicts between human states. A guardian who openly supported one crown could transform the border institution into a weapon and give the other kingdoms reason to fear demon interference.

Enforcement and ambiguity

The First Transgression tested the distinction between defending the treaty and entering human politics. Shun's destruction of the army invading the Tower was accepted as enforcement of the settlement, and Lindsey carried the blame.

The Second Transgression crossed the line more clearly. Shun left the Tower, intervened in the Hikari Civil War, and personally determined its outcome. The justice of protecting Yumi Raijin and ending Arata Hikari's tyranny did not remove the fact that the guardian had chosen a side.

Personal cost

For Shun, the treaty ended the war but transformed him into a supervised guardian confined to an isolated post. Human rulers feared him, demon nobles continued to regard him as subject to their king, and every movement outside Eterna risked being interpreted as a hostile political act.

The punishment for violating neutrality was imposed by Magnus through the Unbreakable Oath. The treaty itself did not specify that hereditary debt; it created the duty whose breach Magnus used to justify it.