Chapter 76 - The Negotiator

Chapter 76

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Outskirts of Rebirth.

"I know these mercenaries weren't the sharpest tools in the shed, but Gods, I didn't think they'd be that incompetent!"

Aubriana nodded gloomily as she looked at the distant mercenary camp.

"Indeed lieutenant." She sighed. "Alright, let's get back to our camp. I'm afraid we're going to have to accelerate our time table."

The lieutenant nodded, and they quietly made their way back to their camouflaged camp.

"So. Can you do it quicker or not?" She bluntly asked the mage as she approached him.

The mage visibly hesitated.

"Rushing it would be a horrendous idea. But we can definitely hasten our efforts. Is there a problem?"

"Our mercenary distraction just got their asses kicked. They could have gotten wiped out in fact."

"Ah." The mage stopped. "We can cut a few corners, but in that case it is not going to be...pleasant."

"Will it affect our combat effectiveness?"

"No. Not for long at any rate."

"Then do it. We need to get that dungeon core, and at this point we needed it yesterday."

The mage nodded.

"Me and my companions will do our best." He bowed his head, clearly thinking, and shrugged. "It will take us most of a day, even if we, ah, cut some corners. Will that be acceptable?"

The captain's eyebrows rose. That was...considerably faster than she'd expected.

"It will be."

"Excellent. Then we will get everything ready." Said the mage as he bowed. "If you'll excuse me?"

The captain nodded, dismissing the mage, before turning back towards the rest of the camp, and heading towards her lieutenant. They were as prepared as they were going to be, now they just had to be ready when the ritual was.

There was, after all, no time to lose.

*****

"They what?" Asked Pyn in surprise.

"They sent someone over under the flag of truce. They wish to negotiate with us." Said Anders, before shrugging. "I don't know if they're genuine or not, but I told them to wait while I contacted you. For what it's worth she's supposedly their commander's aide. And if nothing else we can just take her prisoner."

"No, you will not." Firmly said Allya. "They haven't broken any of the rules of war yet, and I'll be damned if we do." Yet, at least. She was perfectly willing to turn the book of the rules of war into an origami if she absolutely needed to, but the guard captain didn't need to know that. "Here are my conditions: she can come to negotiate with me, and me alone, if she accepts to wear a blindfold on her way in and out."

"And if she does not?"

"Then tell her to leave."

Anders smiled.

"I will relay the message milady. Should I, ah, warn the council?"

Allya shook her head.

"This is a matter of direct negotiation. We're not going to decide anything in the first round, just...determine some acceptable parameters for the subsequent round to build off of."

"The council will want to have some input."

"They will advise me. This is a frontier principality of the realm, not a Gods damned democracy."

"Of course." Anders bowed. "Miladies."

Pyn and Allya nodded as the captain left the room. Allya waited for the sound proofing enchantment to turn back on, and looked at her girlfriend, currently perched on her desk.

"Well, this is interesting. Do you want to stay for those negotiations?"

"Of course! If nothing else, I'd like to at least see one of them up close that isn't trying to kill me. Besides, I'm not half bad at negotiations. Especially if we have to pay them off."

Allya nodded. Pyn had, after all, been the one to manage to negotiate with Elkaryos of all people.

"Yeah." She sighed. "Honestly I'd straight up offer to hire them, but that'd mean they would be ready to betray their current employers, which...isn't the best proof of reliability in the world."

"Indeed. Besides, they probably won't admit they have an employer anyway."

Allya chuckled.

"Yeah, that too." She looked at her desk, and sighed. "Can you give me a hand? We can give that 'aide' the honor and prestige of negotiating in my office and not a sterilized interrogation room, but I'd rather not have the entire administration of my principality let bare before her."

"Of course!"

In the end it only took them a handful of minutes to clean up, and they filled the rest of the time with small talk. Fifteen minutes after Anders left, a knock sounded at the door, and the sound proofing enchantment turned off as a small woman stepped in. Well, 'small', she was a solid 1m60, about Allya's own height, but she was so use to being around Pyn that she felt small. The fact that she was flanked by Éclair and Valker didn't help either.

"Ah, the negotiator, I assume?"

"Yes." The woman bowed. "I am Aline, commander Gothram's aide de camp. Do I have the pleasure of addressing baroness Allya Aubétoile of Rebirth, and knight Pyn Windwrath?"

Allya nodded. Clearly the aide had some experience doing this kind of things. That or she had nerves of steel. Regardless, Allya had both...and she'd already negotiated and hammered her way past far scarier people on her way here.

"Yes, you do. So, tell me miss Aline, what does your commander wish to discuss?"

"Well..." The aide coughed. "Your surrender of course."

Allya looked at her for a second, and shrugged.

"Take her back to her lines."

Alien sputtered as the bodyguards grabbed her shoulders, before exclaiming:

"Wait! Wait! I-I meant a negotiated surrender, one that would leave all parties with satisfaction!"

Allya held up her hand as her bodyguards prepared to quite literally drag the woman out of the room.

"Wait. You've piqued my interest. Do tell me, how do you plan on accomplishing that when we 'surrender'? Kill everyone so there's nobody to complain on our side?"

Aline swallowed as the bodyguards let go of her.

"N-No! Of course not!" She smiled. It was strained, but it was a smile. So much for nerves of steel. "If nothing else milady, such a massacre would be extremely bad for business...and our health. Even just executing you and your knight would be an extremely bad idea. The Asarian Crown...frowns upon such casual murder of their nobles, if nothing else."

Allya nodded, although that would be mainly because her murder in this case would mean the collapse of Rebirth and an incipient scramble for power and free for all by the other nobles.

"Yes, their majesties seem to dislike the casual and brutal murder of their loyal servants and vassals. I wonder why." Said the baroness, her voice dripping with irony.

Aline smiled again, a bit less hesitantly.

"Right. In any case, what my commander was proposing was a...pragmatic surrender. A pro forma one, really, with a joint occupation."

Allya's eyebrow rose.

"A joint occupation?"

"Of course! After all, it would not be the first time that an occupying army cut a deal with the local authorities. In this case we would be perfectly willing to let the local police forces, as well as royal units and private militaries, retain control of the city proper, in the interest of maintaining order, while our troops would take over defense for the dungeon and the outer defensive installations."

Allya repressed a surprised blink. It...wasn't such a bad offer, all things considered. At least if their forces were more or less evenly matched. As it was, inviting them in would be suicidal, they could just overrun the city. But the balance of them having control over the dungeon's entrance while they held the city would allow her to keep technical control of the area, while they took the real money making method.

But there was no way she was entrusting her main source of income to these people. Besides, they had to be expecting something to happen, because otherwise the royal reinforcements would level them upon arrival.

"And let your forces through the defenses that are preventing you from overwhelming us? Handing over said defenses without a fight too! Mighty practical. What guarantees would I have that you would uphold your end of the deal?"

Aline squirmed in front of her desk.

"I...my commander told me that he would be ready to sign a magical contract under the auspices of the World Mage Court to enforce this deal."

Allya sat back. The WMC....the WMC made some of the most unbreakable magic contracts and oaths out there. These contracts also usually came with some extremely penalizing clauses should it be broken regardless. And since the WMC basically ran the entire land title and secure identification system...you would suffer the penalty, sooner or later.

"Alright. Then, I assume he would turn over the whole town to the Republic."

Aline visibly twitched.

"Why would he do that? He could install himself as the new lord, with you as the mayor of the city, and-"

Allya held up her hand, interrupting the aide.

"Please do not insult my intelligence miss Aline. The Kingdom will rip his head off and put it on a spike if he does that. No, he is planning on selling Rebirth for a huge payday, not actually rule it. No one would accept him, not our local population, not the Kingdom, and not even the Republic. And since the Kingdom would find it cheaper to just counter attack...it means you are aiming to sell this town to the Republic."

She was careful not to say 'hand over'. That would indicate that they had been hired to do so from the get go, and she'd rather not derail the negotiations that way. Besides, they both knew the mercenaries had been hired to do exactly that, and not pushing the point would show the other woman she was willing to be pragmatic as well, if given the proper incentive. Which would lead the mercenaries to negotiate more...hopefully too much, and waste time they couldn't afford.

"I...." Aline sighed. "Alright, let's assume that, hypothetically, we were to indeed sell control of this area to the Republic. What assurances would you require?"

"A seat in the Republic's senate, a dynastic proclamation, as well as guarantees of our continued custodianship of this town."

Aline spluttered. That would basically amount of integrating Allya as a fully fledged member of the Republic's elite, with all the titles and prestige that came with it, as well as complete control of Rebirth.

"That is outrageous! We cannot negotiate for the Republic milady, and while we may exert some pressure and influence as we negotiate the sell, they certainly will not agree to such conditions."

"Perhaps not. But they might consider them. Regardless, those are my conditions, please take them to your commander so that he may study them and make a proposal. Now, allow me to make my own proposal to him."

Aline blinked, confused, and nodded.

"What proposal?"

Allya grinned, and gestured at Pyn, who leaned forward. That revealed a distracting amount of cleavage, although Aline didn't seem to care, it was a tiny bit distracting to Allya.

"Say, miss Aline. What if we were to meet the Republic's hypothetic price for the acquirement of this town? Would you then be ready to call this whole affair done, and leave in peace?" Calmly said Pyn.

Aline licked her lips, then shrugged.

"I doubt you have enough liquidities to meet their hypothetical price, milady."

Pyn smiled widely.

"Miss Aline, we are a dungeon town. You would be surprised at how much mana we have on hand...and how much more we could raise. Our ultimate solvency, after all, is quite literally beyond question. Besides, we are a corporate dominion, in association with Master Merchant Elkaryos, of the merchants' guild."

That seemed to make Aline stop and think. Dungeon towns were indeed rich, and for certain concessions, some companies, banks, or hell other nobles, would be willing to pour a lot of money into their hands. And the merchants guild...well the merchants guild wasn't the richest organization on the planet simply because the Eris Empire existed. Buying the entire Scarlet Swords company would disappear as a rounding error in the guild's daily transactions, and even without calling on his guild, Allya was quite sure Elkaryos could muster the funds to do that buyout, although the concessions he'd extract from the two nobles would be...painful, to say the least.

"Then...hypothetically, of course, my commander might be willing to consider this matter resolved for, say, 25 million mana?"

Allya had to suppress a laugh. 25 million mana? That was the cost of an Erisian seaborne capital ship. Granted, only its production cost, but still.

"1 million." Said Pyn.

"That wouldn't even cover the insurance of the men you've killed! 20 million!"

"And we will have our own insurance payments to make." Well, not truly, none of their own had actually died, but the compensation for their lost essence would hurt their treasury for sure. "5 million."

"Be that as it may, we have still expended enormous resources getting there. Besides, there will be...other expenses." Allya hid a wince. It was pretty clear the aide was referring to the Republic's wrath at the betrayal of the contract. "15 millions."

"And we will have other expenses to shoulder as well. 10 million." The aide hesitated, and Pyn gave Allya a glance.

Allya nodded, and leaned forward in turn.

"There is also the matter of your employment. See, we might be in need of services of companies such as yourselves, should an...opportunist attack like this happens again. If we were able to successfully negotiate with you, you would be, of course, on top of our list of who to call. Besides, with the current situation, I am sure a letter of recommendation with my seal would do wonder to find employment somewhere else within their Majesties' realm."

That seemed to give the aide pause.

"That...might interest my commander. Very well. I will not accept anything in his name, but I will take those proposal to him, if that is satisfactory?"

"Of course miss Aline. It is perfectly acceptable." Allya nodded at her bodyguards. "Please, make sure she is returned safely to her own line."

The bodyguards bowed, speaking in unison:

"Right away milady."

Then they left, with Aline obediently in tow, and Allya sat back in her seat.

"Do you think they'll take it?" Said Pyn as the soundproofing enchantment came back on.

"No." Said Allya. "Not yet anyway. They'll try at least another assault. But if we push them back again...they'll be pressed for time, and might not even manage to complete the hand over before our reinforcements crash in. They might look to get the best deal they can get and run." She sighed. "I think I need a drink."

"Same here. Firegecko's?"

"Firegecko's." Agreed the baroness.

If nothing else, being at the bar would allow them to gauge the morale of the people on the ground far better than they could otherwise, especially for the adventurers that made the backbone of the civilian side...and if it also allowed them to get completely drunk, well that was a welcome bonus, wasn't it?