The empire’s officer was becoming crimson. Emmanuel was whispering him something, until he calmed down.

A few minutes later they were done discussing.

“We are ready to hear your offer~.” I put my palm on my cheek, and perked up my ears.

“We have a good idea. How about we postpone the question until we finish the war? It is better not to count our chickens before they hatch.” Now it was my turn to give a business smile, and Alba’s to smile wryly.

“Do you consider us idiots…?” The woman was slowly starting to boil.

“Unless we have an understanding of our sides’ contribution…” (E)

“I ask again. Do. You. Think. We. Are. Idiots?” I waved my arm in front of Alba, and took the baton.

“Come on, guys. You will then demand a huge sum which you ‘found’ out of nowhere, and ask for some ridiculous compensation after we are bled dry. I already voiced a great offer, which will suit everybody.”

“War is a tough effort…” (E)

“Yeah. Especially when you know who is going to be doing all of this effort.” Emmanuel was trying to retort but it was clear that now the West is just going to sweep the empty islands.

“I may consider a concession, if you have troops onboard. Because otherwise you would be using our soldiers, wouldn’t you?”

Emmanuel thought hard, until he raised his arms, as if he was surrendering, and sat down.

“Great.”

I was about to declare our uncontested victory, when Emmanuel finally said something.

“We will agree to your terms, if you add one more condition. We want to have full information on the production of cristal. The Benezian glass.” I immediately glanced at Alba and Patricia.

Both of them were hesitating to give an answer. I leaned to Alba, to ask.

‘Is it valuable?’

‘It is the largest share of local goods sold to the West. And the most valuable.’ (A)

I gave her a smile, and turned back to the other side of our negotiations.

Emmanuel and I exchanged smiles.

“Of course~ NO.” The man’s smile quickly turned into grimace.

The Western side continued ‘offering’ us ‘very beneficial’ terms, all of which were refused immediately.

With every rejected ‘offer’, the atmosphere was becoming tenser. I started to expect the officer to just bang the table, stand up, and walk away. Even our somewhat friendly Emmanuel looked like he would do the same, if the talks continue like this.

“Guys, just accept it. While we were talking, Fairy already resupplied my squadron. If you will try doing silly stuff, you will face a huge problem.” I bluffed. Fairy is yet to finish repairing the ships, and the strain I put on the ships’ steam engines was enough to require routine maintenance.

Of course, it is only me and Fairy who know that. The others have no idea.

Emmanuel and the officer finished another round of consultations, and the man announced.

“You won. However, unless the trade starts within 6 months, we will be talking about a huge compensation.” (E)

“Works for me.”

With the terms of our cooperation worked out, the war efforts rekindled. The Western ironclads loaded troops, and set sail to the nearby colonies.

While I was waiting for the squadron to finish repairing, I trained with Patricia.

The results were humble but my skills were improving.

Simultaneously with swinging the katana, I was discussing the future logistics with Fairy.

Since we are going to sail out soon, I thought about setting up Fairy somewhere closer to the frontlines.

Another thing I wanted to do was checking the stats.

‘Ding’

‘You received 282 upgrade points (firing), 950 upgrade points (hits), 210 upgrade points (torpedo hits, 0.7 modifier)’

IJN Kuronami – DDL. Upgrade points – 0.

Torpedoes – 1/30.

HP – 3700.

HI – 100%.

AU – 0% (0nm). Under maintenance: 7:34:20.

[I find it funny that I can be multitasking, while Patricia is trying to cut me with her sword.]

Maybe I can even try talking to Yuriko about training. While the ship is repaired, she has nowhere to sit, and nothing to do.

‘PING’

I just need to hold on until Patricia gets tired of me.