Negotiation Objective
by Afuhfuihgs
Thanks to Kane inventing the magic stone bomb, I had something I needed to do right away. I paused the golem stuff for a bit and headed to the portal station alone, then moved to the city of Frax.
Kane said he’d leave the magic stone bomb negotiations entirely up to me and stayed in the club room, dedicating himself to studying alchemy.
The city of Frax, which I arrived at via portal, was the largest city in the north, but I’d visited it with Navier before, so finding the Frax family’s mansion wasn’t too difficult.
I knocked on the door, and the butler, whose face I recognized from before, opened it. The butler, after confirming the visitor, bowed and asked.
“Welcome to the Frax family’s mansion. You’ve come again, Ross-nim.”
“Hello. I’ve come to see Illeyd, the former head of the family.”
The butler nodded and led me to the drawing room, saying.
“It seems you’ll have to wait in the drawing room for a moment, as we have a guest who arrived earlier.”
“Since I came without an appointment, it’s fine for me to wait.”
With a gentle smile and a nod, I asked the butler, who offered to bring refreshments.
“By any chance, is that guest the head of the Perelcus family?”
I guessed that Raelan, who was planning to join hands with the Frax family, might be the guest. As expected of a duke’s butler, he only smiled at my question without any change in expression.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t answer that. I ask for your understanding.”
Well, it would be strange to tell an outsider who had come to visit. Illeyd was the former head of the family, so he wouldn’t be the one to discuss cooperation between Raelan and the family.
I apologized for the mistake, and the butler retreated with a smile. After a while, while I was waiting and eating the refreshments brought by the maid, Illeyd came to find me faster than expected.
“It’s been a while. Seeing you alone, it seems your detective girlfriend didn’t come today.”
Illeyd patted me on the shoulder as if he was glad to see me and sat next to me.
I wondered what he meant, then I remembered that Navier had explained to Illeyd that I was her assistant.
Could he still be misunderstanding?
Before I could open my mouth, Illeyd asked first.
“What’s the matter today? Did you cause some kind of accident again?”
His tone was worried, but his eyes were expectant.
I shook my head and said.
“It’s not an accident, I came because I want to get an investment from the Frax family.”
He made a ‘hoo’ sound and his eyes lit up, it seemed he was interested in what I said.
“If you want to get an investment from our family, ordinary things will get you turned away at the door. You, being the detective’s assistant, can’t possibly not know that….”
His face was full of smiles. Instead of answering, I took out the magic stone bomb that Kane had given me as a prototype from my dimensional storage in advance and handed it over with a warning.
“You mustn’t inject magic power into it, even by accident.”
I had gone to the snowy mountains with Kane to test it, and I had realized how powerful it was. The power of the magic stone bomb was so strong that it blew away even basic-level defense magic without a trace.
Illeyd, who had been staring intently at the magic stone bomb, smiled and said.
“Now that you mention magic power, I get it. You’ve designed the magic stone beautifully. Are you thinking of selling this to women?”
Perhaps it wasn’t what he had expected, Illeyd, with a face full of disappointment, tossed the magic stone into the air and caught it repeatedly, then said curtly.
“These kinds of luxury goods won’t be very popular with northerners.”
“It’s not a luxury item.”
“Well, a decoration or an accessory… the name isn’t important, is it?”
I didn’t care about Illeyd’s indifferent reply and said.
“That’s a bomb.”
Illeyd’s action of trying to catch the falling magic stone bomb stopped at my words. I quickly reached out and snatched the magic stone bomb that was about to fall to the floor, and I let out a sigh of relief.
I had confirmed that it was safe from impact if magic power wasn’t injected, but the perception that it was still a dangerous bomb didn’t change.
I spread out my palm and held the magic stone bomb in front of Illeyd’s eyes.
“This is a bomb…?”
Illeyd, who had been looking at the magic stone bomb with wide eyes, seemed to have discovered something, and he took the magic stone bomb from my hand and examined it closely.
“This is… alchemy.”
“Yes, it’s an invention called a magic stone bomb. Its power is slightly more than twice that of the explosion scrolls sold at the Red Magic Tower. The price is about five times cheaper than the scrolls, and the daily production volume is several times greater.”
The expression disappeared from Illeyd’s face. There was no way that Illeyd, who had risen to the position of family head, wouldn’t have noticed what value the magic stone bomb had.
Silence fell in the drawing room for a moment. Illeyd, who had been staring intently at the magic stone bomb, injected his magic power into the magic stone bomb without any warning.
At the sight of the magic stone bomb emitting light and preparing to explode, I hurriedly recognized the space coordinates at the farthest point outside the window and prepared to create a dimensional passage.
But before that, Illeyd wrapped the magic stone bomb with both hands covered in magic power.
Seeing that, I stopped creating the dimensional passage. Illeyd was a transcendent who could knock down a large lighthouse with just one sword. This much power wouldn’t even scratch him.
Kuuung-!
With a heavy vibration, the chandelier hanging from the ceiling of the drawing room shook violently and made noise.
The butler, who had hurriedly opened the door wondering what had happened, saw the black smoke flowing from Illeyd’s hands and thought that this wasn’t his place to interfere, so he bowed slightly to me and closed the door again.
When I turned my head to Illeyd, he brushed off the smoky hands as if nothing had happened and got up from his seat.
He put his arm around my shoulder with a joyful face, as if he wasn’t the old man who had been wearing an indifferent expression a moment ago.
“You never disappoint. Good, I’ll take you to the family head.”
*
I was almost dragged along as I followed Illeyd to the family head’s room. Illeyd, who opened the door to the family head’s room as if it were natural without knocking, led me inside.
The head of Frax, who gave a glimpse of Illeyd’s younger days, glared at me, an uninvited guest who had entered without knocking, with a flustered face, then sighed when he saw Illeyd following behind.
“Father… I’m in the middle of an important conversation with a guest right now.”
“This is a more important guest.”
Perhaps even the duke, who was called the strongest in the north, was speechless at Illeyd’s appearance of speaking confidently in front of a guest, as he opened and closed his mouth and apologized to the guest sitting across from him.
“I sincerely apologize. The former head of the family certainly didn’t mean it that way.”
The fact that he drew a line by calling him the former head of the family rather than his father made me think that he was indeed a duke. But the back of the person who was the guest who received the family head’s apology was very familiar.
Raelan, who turned his head over his shoulder to check who the uninvited guest was, gave me a look as if asking why I was here with cold eyes.
Illeyd, who intercepted that gaze, smiled and said.
“What’s wrong with it, she’s his girlfriend’s father.”
It seemed that Illeyd was firmly misunderstanding that Navier was my girlfriend because of what had happened before. Before I could clear up the misunderstanding, Illeyd arbitrarily took out the magic stone bomb that he had brought as a spare from my pocket and threw it at the duke.
The duke, who caught the magic stone bomb with transcendent-like skillful hands, asked with a bewildered face.
“What is this?”
“It’s a bomb made of magic stones. This guy wants our family’s investment.”
The moment I saw the murderous intent in Raelan’s eyes, I immediately turned my head towards the wall. The eyes of the deer stuffed and mounted on the wall looked somehow sad.
“Are you really saying it’s a bomb made of magic stones…?”
“Yes, it seems he’s made something amazing with alchemy. I’ve checked the power myself. It’s worth investing in.”
“The vibration from earlier… that was it.”
The duke, who nodded as if he understood, turned his head to Raelan.
“Perhaps we should postpone the conversation….”
Before Raelan could answer, I interjected.
“If it’s not impolite, would it be okay for the head of the Perelcus family to participate in the conversation as well?”
The duke was momentarily flustered at my words, but he noticed that I and Raelan knew each other and nodded, then asked Raelan.
“Would that be alright with you?”
At Raelan’s short answer that it was okay, the duke nodded and gestured for us to take a seat.
As I sat down with Illeyd, Raelan, who was sitting across from me, gave me a look that said he would get even with me later. I subtly averted my gaze and said to the family head.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Ross, the combat unit junior of Ilia-sunbae, and the younger brother of Roel, her boyfriend. I knocked on the door of the Frax family because of my connection with the former head of the family.”
When I introduced myself politely, the duke of Frax, the strongest in the north, nodded with a gentle smile.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Illerd, the head of the Frax family and the duke of the north. I heard about what happened last time from my father. Although it’s late, I’d like to express my gratitude.”
Illerd reached out his hand, and we shook hands lightly. His hand, which looked twice as big as mine, was full of calluses. As expected, it was the hand of a skilled person who had reached the realm of transcendence.
“So, you want to get an investment for the magic stone bomb?”
At the sight of him getting straight to the point, I cleared my throat and gave a detailed explanation about the magic stone bomb, just like I had done to Illeyd.
As the story continued, Raelan’s eyes, who was listening without moving, became even colder, but the most important thing right now was to make the duke of the north realize the value of the magic stone bomb.
When the explanation was over, Illerd exchanged glances with Illeyd without a word and turned his head to me. Illerd had also realized the value of the magic stone bomb.
“Do you have any other conditions you want?”
This was the important part. The reason why I didn’t bother to get an investment from Bella and Raelan, who would welcome me with open arms, but came to Frax, who I didn’t have much contact with.
I straightened my back and said with a nonchalant expression.
“I want Frax.”
I was planning to get the entire north in my hands with this opportunity.
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