C148 Secret Meeting
C148 Secret Meeting
"Right now, we can only get an invitation through three people, His Majesty, Dame Violet and Count Selene. I doubt any one of them would be willing to give us one, especially with Natalia's foresight. The way it's going, we might have no other choice but to wait for her to come back," Marvis said.
"There's nobody else we can ask?" Fredrich asks, frustrated.
"How many people do we know can get through an anti-magic zone unperturbed?" Alana asks, hopelessness in her voice. Sebastian snaps his head up and looks at her.
"There is one person."
"Who?"
"Princess Temara."
"I don't think…"
"The people of Polivia have little to no magic so they have lived their lives without magic. Technically, their whole kingdom is an anti-magic zone."
"Even if she can go, how is she going to get an invite?"
"For that, I'll just have to speak to her. Alana, could you stay behind to look after Adelie? Marvis and I would travel back to Polivia."
"What about me?" Fredrich asked.
"You have to return home, Lord Kristen. We appreciate your help but you're the future Grand Duke. We can't keep you away for long."
"Hey! I did not wait outside that Hollow for hours only to be left out of this because of my birthright. I am coming with whether you like it or not."
"If you want to help, why don't you communicate with him? You already formed a contract, right? Ask him if he can take us if our methods prove to be a failure."
At first, everyone else was confused. Fredrich soon realised what he was talking about and frowned. Without saying anything, he walked out of the church, all of them watching him go.
"I don't know if it was a good idea to just send him off like that. Now, I feel bad," Alana said, sighing.
"All of us constantly traveling together is bound to spark some controversies, especially now that I am directly refusing the king's suggestion to marry the first princess. If Fredrich is moving with us, they can see it as all of us planning a coup. We are the biggest political alliance of the young generation. Natalia poses a significant threat to the monarchy of this kingdom. Without her here, they might try to divide us. Before they do, we need some kind of intervention. If he's with the dragon king, he'll be safe from most of it."
"But that means you can be vulnerable on your way to Polivia!"
"Don't worry, your highness. We will return unharmed and safe," Marvis said, bending to kiss the back of her hand. They also left almost immediately, leaving for Polivia without resting.
"You're doing…what?"
"We're throwing a ball, in honor of the Ambassador."
"We haven't concluded the deal yet but you want to throw a ball?"
"Aren't we on the concluding table? We have come with an answer today and a decree from his majesty."
"...fine. We conclude first and see if this ball will hold or not."
They all sat down and brought out relevant documents. They passed them around the table until it reached Natalia and she read through their demands. Finished reading, she put it back on the table and smiled.
"I really like when people know what they want. We'll do as you suggest for the first three months and see how it goes," she said.
"Wait, you're not going to change anything?"
"No, I agree with all the terms here. If you're relegating a 10% profit to the Merchant Association then we don't have to handle labor, transportation and production. We just take our cut as a part of the deal and place your product up for sale as they are delivered to us. Since you are setting the price and will advertise for yourself, then it's fine."
"I thought as the Ambassador, you will vouch for the price?"
"It should already be enough that the product is in stores worldwide and there is news that I personally accepted this product. Except…you didn't spread this news. That would be a shame, wouldn't it?"
"This is not what you talked about. What if people don't buy it after we make this deal?!"
"Minister Hwori, if you want the Merchant Association to be actively involved in this, then you have to give as much as 40%. I know 10% to you is already generous and that's why I'm doing this on your own terms. I talked about value, didn't I? You have priced your product as much as you valued it. Now, you have to make sure you sell out this value to people. Since elves are fond of looking down on humans, they might not accept this value you have placed, especially if it is this high. If you don't want to make this deal, that is also fine. You can set up shops around the continent and if you wish to receive the benefits of the association, you can simply sign up like a regular member and pay 10%. You can tell there's no difference."
Over the years, Natalia learnt a simple tactic. Relenting for victory. Their terms were ridiculous but she chose to accept because it would bring no loss to her. With their products, she didn't see much of a gain there and was more focused on finding what she came there for.
"If there are no more questions, I can simply authorize this deal and gift the king a membership card for the Merchant Association. However, we won't set up a main branch here until we can conclude a deal that is beneficial for us."
Even if the king had the card, he wouldn't be able to enjoy the benefits until he traveled out of the kingdom. Travelling out of the kingdom meant accepting the insults of the other kings and hearing them speak ill of his kingdom. The more she spoke, the more they realized that if they wanted to continue being selfish and prideful, they could get nothing out of her.
"Wait! We…will speak to his majesty. 40% is a bit much but I'm sure we can agree on…"
"I recently concluded a deal with the Polivian royal family that earned me 50% profit. I have also concluded several mana stone trades with several other kingdoms that I might as well be dealing in mana stones. 40% is the lowest I can go. If his majesty really didn't see value in my services, he wouldn't have invited me. Please remind him that his golden time is precious and my ordinary time is precious to me as well."
"...yes, your excellency."
They shuffled out of the room and she walked back to her room with her own servants. On getting there, she immediately jumped on the bed, sighing. The servants stood by the door with their heads lowered.
"Have you found it?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Good. I was starting to think you were all useless. Making your master go through so much suffering for you to fulfill a simple task doesn't make you look loyal, does it?"
"We apologize, my lady."
"I want to hear what was taking you all so long."
"We realized that they attached tracking devices on all of us so we had to throw them off. We apologize again."
"Those damn…we will be leaving tonight to check it. Being the staff along in case anything goes wrong."
"My lady, forgive me for speaking out of place but the staff can put your life in grave danger. We advise…"
"If I needed your advice, I would ask. Just do what your told and we can make it out of this stupid death trap alive. If I have to stay in one more meeting with those stuffy old men, I would jump off this mountain. Ohh, I miss Marvis so much. He always comforted me with that lovely, soft body," she sighed, screaming into her pillow. She soon fell asleep.
"My Lady! My Lady! It's time!" The servant gently shook Natalia. Her eyes opened at the same time and she sat up, looking outside. She smiled and went to change her clothes. She wore a hood like the rest of her servants and left the room together.
Sneaking out of the royal palace wasn't exactly easy but it was made simpler because of a certain man, Captain Morgan. Every evening, she would 'sneak' out to meet Captain Morgan on the streets of the capital. They would have dinner together, with secret knights watching her. That was her cover. In reality, she had been flying above them the entire time with one servant while the other two went to distract them with the illusion that she was with Captain Morgan.
The servant led her to a series of caves just on the outskirts of the capital. They began walking from them and saw the signs that pointed to a dungeon. They were all in Fae language, which outsiders couldn't understand. The Fae language they spoke was basically vernacular as the original couldn't be easily copied or learnt. Even the vernacular was hard.
"It's in the dungeon, my lady."
The servant removed a torch from her sack and lit it with a flint. She lit another torch with the fire and they both went in.