“Of course. The Guiness Company is prepared to offer you 700 gold crowns for your map and guide with ownership and distribution rights.”
Hooh. Have to take a deep breath there. Seven hundred gold crowns. That’s enough money to make my head spin. But…compared to the vast ocean of the Guiness family funds, it’s nothing. More importantly, they’re offering it for complete ownership of the map.
As much as I want that money, and I’m practically drooling at the thought of it, that map is worth more. Not now, while it’s unknown. All it takes is one successful adventurer party. Kierra’s enlightened me about the resources in the Enchanted Forest. Combined with what they can get from the beasts inhabiting it and securing a route to the elven nation…
“That map is worth 1,500 gold crowns at the least.”
Maxine’s smile doesn’t waver but there’s a new tension in the air. I don’t blame her. 1,500 crowns are enough buy, build, and operate a small village for a year. “That’s quite an extraordinary amount, Lou.”
“The forest is an extraordinary place.” I put my map and guide on the table. “Take a look at what’s in there. Some of those plants are organic gold to potion masters and those alchemists will sell their newborns for new beasts.”
“Ah. Perhaps. After all, they have to be researched. We won’t be able to make a solid profit unless we determine their uses which will require a significant investment. Not to mention the investment required to ‘encourage’ adventurers to explore the area.”
“It may take an investment but it’s guaranteed to pay off. Adventurers will naturally flock to the area, especially with profits guaranteed by the Guiness Company. They wouldn’t be adventurers if they didn’t. Not to mention that if they don’t, you have enough knights to send them in to gather the materials for you.”
She chuckles. “A fair point. However, plus one thousand is excessive no matter how you look at it. You may think we pour gold down our drains but that is quite a large amount of money and it will take years before it really shines.”
“It will. But by the time people finally become familiar with the forest, you’ll already have established routes, hunting areas, and market prices. More importantly, you’ll have first crack at establishing a base that’ll lead to the only road between the human and elven continents.”
Maxine’s smile widens. What, did you think I didn’t know why you wanted this map so badly? Relationships between humans and elves may be terrible now but Marquis Guiness seems intent on changing that. Should they ever improve, whoever has control of the Enchanted Forest and its surrounding area will make an incredible amount of profit. Thinking about that, 1,500 is a little light but it’s fine. My map doesn’t include everything. That’s where Guide to the Enchanted Forest Part 2 comes in. Hehe.
“1,500 is still a bit much. I’ll offer you 1,250.”
“Hey, now. I was being generous. I should have asked for 2,000.”
“Raising your price in a negotiation is bad form, Lou. 1,350.”
“Too bad I’m not an accomplished businesswoman like yourself. You should take my original offer before I say something really crazy like 2,500.”
Maxine’s lips twitch. I can’t tell if she’s amused or annoyed. “Very well. 1,500. You can leave the materials with me. A courier will be sent around to your place with the money or you can have it in bonds.”
I hand over the materials. No need to worry about the Guiness family cheating us. As a national entity, they can’t afford to mar their reputation. “Bonds? What’s that?”
“It’s a new system we’re trying out. Gold coins are cumbersome and merchants carrying them can be robbed on the road. Rather than that, we hand out bonds, signed by the recipient and stamped with their House’s crest. It can be handed in to any of our main branches and exchanged for either the money or the goods. It’s both safer and more convenient.”
I grasp the concept but something tells me I don’t quite understand how powerful it really is. “I’ll take it in gold.”
“Very well. I also want to discuss the Guiness Company hiring you, your wife, or both of you as guides for our teams.”
“Ah. Before that…” I reach into my knapsack and pull out another stack of papers, handing them over. “This is a list of materials I need. You can deduct the cost from the payment.”
Maxine takes the papers and looks them over. “Burning amber dust, petrified iron wood, half a dozen cores of pink passion fruit. These are quite random objects.”
“They’re components needed for a summoning.”
Her eyes shine. “I see. Perhaps that’s why you’ve been absent from the recent gatherings?”
“Yeah. The next time you see me, I’ll have a new companion at my side. It’s going to be…interesting.”
She chuckles. “Then I look forward to that. As you seem busy, we can revisit the talk about guides.” She stands up and I follow. This time when I stick out my hand, she doesn’t hesitate to grasp it firmly.
“Mm.” Kierra sets down her cup with a clink. “Max, add a bag of that tea to your list. No, two.”
Max? Since when were the two of them so close?
“Something as small as that can be tossed in for free.”
…should I be worried?
“Then we’ll take off. No need to escort us back.”
“I’ll get started on this. Please, take a look around our shop. You can tell the shopkeeper when you’re ready to leave and he’ll have a carriage pulled around for you. A dinner is scheduled for tomorrow where we’ll be discussing organizing a party together at the Guiness manor. Should I expect you?”
“How quickly can you gather these materials?”
“Since they’re not too rare, tomorrow morning.”
My eyes widen at the announcement. She smirks at me. “The Guiness company’s warehouse is not to be underestimated.”
“Good for both of us. Though I don’t think I’ll be at the dinner, if the party isn’t planned for too soon, I’ll be there. Suppose a week will be long enough.”
“I’ll make note of it.”
There’s a beat where I wait to see if there’s anything else forthcoming. When she doesn’t speak, I hastily leave the room, waving at Hank before jogging down the stairs. My first business negotiation. I don’t think it went too badly. More importantly, my summoning will be happening sooner than I thought.
Fuu~ How exciting.
Actually that was good haggling. Not because of technique, but because it worked. Against the Rockefeller's and Carnegie's of their time no less.
Yup. Anyone can be the Godzilla of the business world if they're holding all the cards
Especially because the human lands would have to pull out their Godzilla Threshold trumps to be able to deal with Lou once she's trained herself up, let alone Kia and her Dad going on a rampage. Lou has little reason to hesitate, the only thing that threatens her is being time-pressured in some way. The more time the world gives her to study and train, the more hopelessly outmatched they'll be from Lou the World Enemy.
Caught up after the map/discord one came out, so I waited till now to discuss things.
1. I was always thinking about how she kept insisting that she only had a minor fire affinity despite everything else changed including her mana capacity and wondering when she'd try out those things, how extreme are her affinities now? At they at that point where having to perform all the calculations isn't necessary anymore or are they not that powerful yet?
2. Considering both she and Kierra are degenerate perverts and she's eaten enough of Kierra to replicate her now I'm surprised she hasn't decided to have s*x with them both looking like Kierra yet.
3. Regarding that spoilered response a while back answering the question to her being able to control parts of her body away from the main body:
I hope she manages to eventually no longer require that core, though I don't mind her not being able to control body parts remotely, but she really needs to become the kind of slime that doesn't have that single point of failure.
Yes! Bring on the discussion!
1. Alright. Minor fire affinity refers to mana coefficient and skill. So, a newb like herself has a 'minor' affinity while a master caster has a 'major'. Just caster jargon. While her coefficient is larger, she's still bad at using it, so minor. As for trying out her other affinities, there's several reasons why she hasn't practiced with them. 1a: Lou is bad at casting. Kierra, with her pure affinity, is equally bad. She wouldn't know where to begin, as simply casting a fireball while replacing the fire variable for a water one isn't enough to throw a waterball. 1b: Kierra is a martial master and uses her magic to assist. As Lou's primary instructor, she's focusing on marital training. 1c: She is also delaying because she wants her rebirth to remain secret. As people don't gain affinities, she can't simply search for a random teacher and they don't have helpful manuals lying about. Though, she will learn to use her other affinities.
2.
3. What I can say is there are many mysteries to Lou's new body. She was, after all, reborn from the glorious Cosmo
Hope that answers everything clearly. If you haven't already, think about joining the RFTC discord, https://discord.gg/EwasfdQRBv. I would love to see more chats like these and am entirely open to story discussion (you readers keep me on my toes!).
Why take a lump sum? It would have been more intelligent to take a smaller amount up front and then take a percentage of the profits yearly.
Yeah...I know Lou makes annoying mistakes that seem super obvious to us but well, unfortunately, she's a bit of an idiot.
She gets better but it is not a fast or smooth process
On the plus side, I'm glad she's invoking the exact emotions I want her to
Maybe, as she said, she's no businesswoman. Don't you people tire of perfect protagonists that all act the same?
@YuriDoggo
@YuriDoggo No.
@YuriDoggo I don't tire of such protagonists because they barely exist. From eastern light novels to online webnovels and whatever else I can get my hands on, the going tropes all involve protagonists that have at least one very grating flaw. (Japanese LNs usually settle for the dense-like-a-black-hole thing, for example)
@Blanklines Perfect, as in never make the wrong (non-romance related) decision. Everything they do successfully furthers their goal in some way and they (at least in the author's pov) make the best possible outcome out of their situation.
@YuriDoggo Which doesn't really happen either, though often the author doesn't bother showing how and why that decision was less-than-perfect.
@Blanklines If it doesn't backfire and a better option doesn't show up or is hinted towards, it's naturally meant to be the optimal decision by authorial intent.
@YuriDoggo ...that's stretching it. You imply that any time the author doesn't go out of their way pointing out how something was less than ideal then their intent was for it to be ideal.
I sure as hell don't write that way, and generally neither do others. Sure, 'big stuff' is highlighted, though not always, but that's about it.
@Azazel_E
Yeah...I know Lou makes annoying mistakes that seem super obvious to us but well, unfortunately, she's a bit of an idiot. [Blob Awkward]
I don't see it as a mistake so much so as dodging a bait. Sure she could have had a contract that stipulates "any copies from here on forth, directly or indirectly, stemming from the original", but even then they could weasel out of the agreement because a conveniently unrelated cartographer sold them a similar but higher quality map, which they now base ALL maps on. They could also do "hollywood accounting" where they legit claim record breaking films had negative profit margins via factoring in film equipment, salaries, rental costs and such until the "profit" disappears and now there's no backend for anyone except executives. As much as you would really wish to earn royalties for something, the laws are far too undeveloped for such advanced economics. No copyright, patents, and such to refer to, and the contract will never be wordy enough to let you win a debate against THE wealthiest people in the world who very likely just bribed YOUR lawyer alongside the rest of the court and now you're going to prison for bogus charges like maliciously trying to weaponize a contract of good faith to sue them or something. Until you have a better lawyer to write out contracts for you, it's so much safer to accept immediate lump sums instead of trying to force them to bleed regularly for you. Hell even in this scenario you might still end up not getting paid because "The accountant secretly stole your money and when we went to confront them they were long gone, we regret to inform you that due to this we are still financially recovering and hope you understand any payments being delayed." the excuses will keep running until 10 years later if you're still hounding them you find out that a new law was passed that created time limits to contracts retroactively meaning your contract has timed out.