City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Chapter 248: Hard Negotiations II

Note: It is Ina, not Ida; I always seem to make this mistake.
 
 
Ina
 
“…Grade 4 and Grade 6 addictive substances. Would need to be marked specifically and should be transferred in a separate carriage, with four guards guarding them,” said Master Silver.
 
“You are already taxing us heavily on the addictive substances and now you are increasing expense by adding nonsense conditions,” said Statham loudly. 
 
I could feel them increase the power of their skills further on Master Silver, making his hands twitch a little.
 
I pressed my fingers to his hand tighter and increased the power of Madam’s Relief by a little. 
 
This is a skill; I had got at Lv. 10. At that time, it was known by something else and worked a little differently. It had advanced with a class at Lv. 20 and once more when my Strumpet Class turned to Madam.
 
It was a useful skill which has helped me a lot in the business. Unfortunately, it is the only one, I could use to help him majorly.
 
I have two in my Loyal Handler Class. Focused Mind and Less Distraction, but their powers aren’t as powerful.
 
The class is at Lv. 14 and with high attributes thanks to my Madam Class, its power is close to Lv. 18, but even that is not enough.
 
Still, I had used them. It is better than nothing.
 
It was evening on the second day of the negotiations and the only thing, I could say was that Rip was right. Yesterday, they tested our abilities and today; we are being attacked by them strategically.
 
Rip had suggested that we bring a few people from Greltheaven. Like his boss Oakley, but Master Silver rejected the idea.
 
He said, it wouldn’t look good in the city if we brought more people, but we are suffering here.
 
We haven’t suffered a loss, but are extremely tired. Master Silver had already gone one round lasting for three hours before Vice-Guildmaster Locke and Rip took over.
 
Now, he is going again for an hour and a half and those bastards attacking him mercilessly with their skills.
 
If one looked at him, he only looked slightly tired, but he was far more tired than he looked, nearly at the limit.
 
He is looking like it, because I used My Team Always Looks Good on him. I had got the skill when I reached Lv. 10 in Loyal Handler.
 
It is an excellent skill and helped me a lot. Seeing, we always traveling and sometimes we need to meet people or attend some meetings immediately, without any rest or time to freshen up.
 
I wish I could help more, but I couldn’t.
 
It is also making me marvel at how he is facing those six people and is getting a better deal. 
 
I have seen what the other two are able to get, and it is clear that Master Silver is better than them. Despite being a lower level.
 
Though he didn’t look less experienced. It feels like, he is as experience as those two or even more. Seeing how in the element he looked and even seemed to enjoy it.
 
If he had been as higher leveled as those six, he wouldn’t have been under such immense strain.
 
It pained me to see him like that, but I am already doing everything I can. Though, how much, I wish, I could do more to help him.
 
“No, different carriage, but we will mark the substance and there will be one guard watching it,” 
 
“This is as far as we could go,” said old man Rowels. 
 
“Fine, we agree,” agrees Master Silver.
 
“But we will not make any exception in punishment. If your merchants didn’t follow the directions of the agreement,” he cautioned, and outrage appeared on the old man’s face.
 
“Our merchants are honest, adviser. They wouldn’t do such a thing,” said the old man, and Master Silver just smiled.
 
“Grade 7 prohibitive substances; we are willing to accept the same condition on them,” said the old man, but Master Silver, just shook his head.
 
“Orders from Count; there will be no discussion of Grade 7 and above substances,” said Master Silver. 
 
“Adviser, please think about it. They are very lucrative substances. Our cities would earn a huge profit off them,” said old man Statham, using a skill that made his words extremely enticing.
 
“Even I want to do it, but it is Lord Count, who has forbidden it,” said Master Silver with a sigh of regret.
 
Liar.
 
It is him; he had himself told me, that he was successfully able to convince Count Darrow to forbid any kind of trading of Grade 7 and above addictive substances.
 
He had even asked me to keep an eye on merchants who might try to sneak it inside.
 
“Let's move on them. Category 1 liquor, everything is here straightforward, and we didn’t want much, we onl,”
 
“Excuse me, Mr. Statham, I want to pass the charge,” said Master Silver, interrupting the old man.
 
It is wise; he is tired. Rip and Vice-Guildmaster had enough rest that they could handle the negotiations till the dinner break.
 
“Of course,” said the old man with a smile and even looked smug about it as he looked at Rip and Vice-Guildmaster Locke.
 
“Ina will take charge,” said Master Silver, shocking everyone that nobody was able to keep their expressions calm, including me.
 
I know what I am and could hear the whispers like ‘silvers whore, filthy prostitute, dirty trollop,’. Countless men had tried and the only reason they hadn’t forced themselves on me was because of fear of repercussion from Master Silver.
 
The guards also help a lot.
 
It was my life's greatest pleasure that I have been able to become more than a whore. Master Silver gave me his trust and entrusted me with responsibilities that no sane person would do with a whore.
 
For that, I will be eternally grateful.
 
It was a surprise when he asked me to come here with him and gave me a great honor by sitting beside him.
 
Now he is asking me to take the lead in a negotiation.
 
It is extremely risky.
 
I may not know much, but I know enough to understand how risky it is. It would have a grave repercussion.
 
He could lose his job, the Count could banish him out of the city and if he is very angry, might even jail him. 
 
…
 
I looked at the shocked expressions around me and the fear in Ina’s eyes, not for her, but for me.
 
Of course, I understand the consequences of my actions and even I am not mad enough to do something like this, without thinking through it. 
 
There will be risk, but I think I could spin it, thanks to what the Count had said in the morning.
 
The risk is worth it.
 
Ina is extremely important to me, and she has been traveling the countries for business, doing my bidding, but she has never experienced high-stakes negotiations like this.
 
Here, she isn’t negotiating with individual merchants, but officials, deciding the trade of six cities. It will give her perspective that even a thousand negotiations with merchants wouldn’t.
 
Till yesterday, I was satisfied to let her watch from the front seat, but the opportunity had presented itself in the morning and I decided to strike it.
 
“Adviser, this?” said Statham, barely containing the anger in his eyes.
 
“I hope you do not have a problem with it, Director Statham. We have accommodated many of your demands here and were polite to your surprise. Hope you will provide the same courtesy to us,” I said with a smile.
 
Of course, I am angry at these bastards’ subterfuge.
 
I am not angry. They have called five cities, but angry, they have not allowed us to prepare, especially when they had called for a moment’s notice.
 
We were within our right to go back, and the Count had wanted us to, but I had decided to stay.
 
“Of course not, we were just a little surprised,” he said as the anger on his face disappeared. It had not vanished, but hidden in its eyes, and he will bring it out when the negotiations resume, when he will bring it out through his skills.
 
The rest wouldn’t hold for this supposed slight either.
 
…
 
 
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Give everything you can,” said Master Silver, has turned to me.
 
“And don’t worry too much. I am confident you will do fine,” he added, seeing the hesitation and nervousness on my face.
 
I still wanted to decline, seeing how risky it was for him, but seeing the trust in his eyes for me. I closed my opened mouth and took a deep breath, before turning to six men, who are looking like, they want to tear me apart.
 
They will come to me with fury like they have before, and I couldn’t help but feel nervous.
 
Though there is no fear in my heart for them.
 
I have been beaten every inch of my life, raped, and abused with every word and way a man knows. These people wouldn’t do any of that. They will use the full power of their skill, so much, I might bleed in strain and pass out.
 
Still, as Master Silver had said, it is a chance of a lifetime.
 
There will never be an opportunity like this, and I need to squeeze it with everything it has.
 
Only then, it will be worth, the great risk he is taking for me.
 
With that thought, I looked at six people and brought a smile to my face while activating the Madam’s Charm, along with Focused Mind and Less Distraction, which I had focused on myself.
 
“Category 1 liquor; the c..city would like 10.5% for it,” I said, stumbling as they focused their skill.
 
One skill made my tongue hard to move. If I hadn't activated Lucious Tongue, immediately; I would have stumbled a lot more.
 
“That is preposterous! Much higher than any city, the 4% is a sensible one,” said Statham with his voice like thunder. That is making my head hurt and my back drenched in freezing sweat.
 
If that wasn’t enough, I had started to feel an itch all over me and I felt like the words slipping out of my mind.
 
I held those words tightly and thanked, I Read, I Remember; a skill from my Learned Class.
 
It is my second class, the one I have got after coming to the establishment. Unlike most girls, I didn’t have one or two specific hobbies; I have dabbled in everything but focused on mathematics and reading at most.
 
It is because of this scattered approach. It had taken me a little longer to gain the secondary class compared to the other girls.
 
“That is far too low. 10% would be best for both parties,” I said with Mellifluent Voice from Madam Class and Here When I Talk from Loyal Handler.
 
“Far too much. 4.5%, is the fairest for our cities,” said the man, and the power of his skills and others increased tremendously.
 
I had felt a powerful itch all over my body like never before that if I scratched even a little, I would turn my body bloody with my nails. I had even felt so hot and cold that I wanted to remove my clothes and wear more at the same time. 
 
If that wasn’t enough, every word from him was like a thunder, that was making my head heart badly, so that I could listen to the words he was saying, and I was struggling to take each breath normally.
 
Every second is torturous.
 
Mercenaries said fighting is the hardest thing. If they sit here and experience what I am experiencing, they wouldn’t say those words to me.
 
The six want to humiliate me, with the end purpose of making me lose consciousness; it happens when the power of the opponent’s skills becomes too much for the mind to bear.
 
Such skills could even kill. People have died during the negotiations.
 
I am using every useful skill I have from all three classes and using them at full power, but I am one against six and I don’t think I would be able to last long.
 
I will have to last, not for me, but for Master Silver, who is taking an enormous risk in giving me this opportunity.
 
“9.5%, it is standard in many cities,” I said despite the immense strain of skill which increased with every word I spoke. 
 
I am using every fiber of my will to not twitch. I am not even curling my fist to manage the strain.
 
I don’t want to give even small victories to these six.
 
Which seemed to be making them angrier, and they increased the power of their skills further, making it extremely hard, for me to even breathe and see.
 
I don’t want to bend to these bastards, but their overwhelming power will break me, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything else.
 
“It is not; 5% is standard,” said Statham, spiking the power of his skill further, that I felt I was losing focus and falling unconscious.
 
I wanted to turn to Master Silver and apologize. He took a huge risk with me and I have failed him.
 
Hun!
 
I was seeping deeper into the unconscious abyss when I felt gentle winds, bringing me back to consciousness. 
 
The others began to focus their skills on me, and soon; I found myself back.
 
These skills are not as strong as the six, but they are strong enough to keep me tethered to consciousness. Provide me enough support that I won’t be falling into unconsciousness.
 
I didn’t think they would help me, but they did.
 
Now, with their help, I could continue with negotiation, and I will give my all to get the greatest deal for Master Silver.

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