Volume 4 Chapter 16 (1/2)
The soldier before me was enraged. I remembered who he was; he was the same soldier that led the delegation before.
In the beginning, Avalon had received demands from the neighboring city to be under its control. When they had dispatched their first group of delegates, I pretended to be subservient and asked that they return while I thought about it, effectively buying us some time. Afterwards, they kept on sending demands for a definite answer but I only gave vague replies, further buying us more time.
However, I could only stall for so long; the other day, I had received their final notice. According to it, they would send out one last delegation. If I were to not comply, we were under the threat of being on the receiving end of a show of force.
”You, what's with that mouth of yours!?”
The soldier yelled so and placed a hand on his sword.
It would seem that by being obedient last time, he was under a misunderstanding. The misunderstanding being that he was the superior one between us.
The responsibility then falls to me to clear this misunderstanding of his.
”Right back at you. What are you, a mere soldier, trying to pull? Mind your tone!”
”Youuuuuuuuuu!”
He then finally drew his sword. As it was, he was going to swing his sword my way and yet, I only smiled.
I would say that this soldier was about as strong as a veteran adventurer or in monster terms, a C rank one. I, on the other hand, had 3 S ranked Covenant Monsters and thus had overwhelming power within me. Even if I didn't do anything, I knew I would still be unharmed. However, for the sake of this show, I opted for a different response.
And so, something as fast as the wind got in between me and the soldier.
The soldier tried to stop his swing but it was already too late. The sword was drawn into the shadow and then made a loud sound as it made impact. The soldier dropped the sword and then held his wrist as pain coursed through it. The soldier who was the one that attacked was the only one that got hurt.
If it was perhaps a sword not made by Rorono, the sword would most likely have shattered. However, that was his misfortune. Had it broke, the impact would certainly have been less.
”W-what,”
The soldier looked up and saw the orichalcum-bodied giant that stood a little over two meters. Compared to other golems, it had a smaller and more curvilinear form. Yes, it was an Avalon-Ritter.
The golems were programmed to automatically defend the citizens of Avalon if ever they are exposed to violence. Additionally, at the moment, the golems weren't forbidden from attacking the soldiers. And thus, as response to the soldier's act of violence toward me, the golems' top priority target to protect, the Avalon-Ritter that appeared launched its fist toward the soldier.
However, its fist, like its body, was made of orichalcum. Moreover, an Avalon-Ritter had the power of an above-average A rank monster. If it were to punch a human that was only as strong as a C rank monster, that human's corpse would scatter all over the place.
”Stop.”
On the moment I judged fit, I gave that command. In accordance to it, the Avalon-Ritter's fist stopped at about 10 cm from the soldier's face.
The soldier looked scared beyond help before he was blown away. The fist stopped the exact moment I gave the command but the force from it alone was enough to send the man away as though he was but a leaf.
The other soldiers behind him then began to tremble. Even if it was done half in jest, they were still good enough as soldiers to be picked as part of this delegation. Thus, they should have had enough ability within them to have at least an inkling of just how much of a beast the Avalon-Ritters were.
Unfortunately for the soldiers though, their terror had to go on a little bit longer for in the next moment, Avalon-Ritters began to appear one after the other until a total—including the first one—of 10 had gathered.
One Avalon-Ritter was enough to easily murder them all but now, there were ten before them. In their fear, their teeth rattled and their bodies trembled.
”Avalon-Ritters, show them your power.”
Upon my command, the Avalon-Ritters unleashed the magic power from their twin-drives at full-throttle and howled menacingly.
At that, some of the soldiers wetted and shat themselves.
This had to be done so that they would stop taking us lightly. I had to make them realize the precarious situation their lives were in so that we could finally have a proper negotiation.
”I want to negotiate but as we can all see, that man whom I dealt with last time is unavailable at the moment. Isn't there anybody who is going to replace him?”
I informed each member of the delegation so. I waited a while but there was no response. When I began to grow impatient, a man from the carriage at the back presented himself. He was a tall man that wore slim glasses.
”I will be the one in charge of the negotiations for today. Procell-sama, I am Telroma Roctinne. It is a pleasure to have met the leader of Avalon.”
His voice trembled as he spoke. He looked feeble as well.
Nonetheless, he had the courage to try to continue the negotiations under such circumstances. Not to mention, he mentioned Avalon's name. Those, to me, made him quite the interesting fellow.
”So, Telroma-dono will be the one I'll be dealing with? Alright. It seems we'll be able to do some proper diplomacy.”
”……I look forward to working with you.”
We shook hands and then moved to my residence.
I won't hold anything back anymore; I'll make them know of our demands.
◇
”Have some tea.”
”Thank you. Much appreciated.”
For our negotiations, we came to my residence's reception room. In there, a Mythological Fox served tea. Telroma was captivated by the Mythological Fox's beauty but then, in the very next moment, he was shocked by her fox ears and tail.
”I've heard the rumors but there truly are many demi-humans here in Avalon.”
”Yes. It's a city built for demi-humans that are oppressed everywhere else after all.”
”……So you have no intention of driving those girls out of the city, then?”
”None at all.”
The previous delegation that arrived presented to us their side's terms and among them, some were impossible for me to accept. One of those terms were the prohibition of granting the demi-humans the same rights granted to humans. It pretty much obligated us to either to exile the demi-humans or let them be treated as the humans' slaves. There was no way I would let either of those happen to my cute little monsters.
”Procell-dono, if the demi-humans were perhaps to be treated better, to an extent, will you then agree to our terms?”
I was a little surprised.
I initially thought they were going to force me accept all of their terms. I did threaten them with the Avalon-Ritters and all but even so, this timidity was surprising.
”We of Avalon could never condone any discrimination toward the demi-humans in our city. This city stands because of them. In fact, this city's main attractions—the fruits called apples, the high-performance swords and armors, and the golems protecting this whole place—all are because of them and their skills. One other feature of our city—and it might have already become part of gossips—is that the training of the monsters used for air transportation is taken care of by them. This city will not be here now or at any point of time without these demi-humans.”
Such was our official statement. It was already common knowledge that there were elves and dwarves here in Avalon but instead of saying they were monsters, we had declared that they were demi-humans.
”I see. Then, is there anything else we could discuss?”
”I'm a little surprised to have a more proper negotiation. Well then, here.”
I handed to him the documents I prepared just in case. It detailed my response to the terms initially given to me. If all my counterproposals were approved, even becoming a city of the empire was fine by me.
”We have closely examined the terms given to us by the previous delegation and concluded that those are realistic halfway points. In other words, Avalon can only concede that far.”
”I'll take a look then…… t-this is impossible! There's no way we can compromise this much!”
Telroma spoke so with a gruff voice. Those points might be beyond his authority, I thought.
”We can easily say the same. We have compromised a lot already with those points and anything more will be impossible.”
Telroma the civil official trembled.
”Let's start with the taxes to be paid. This amount is still within acceptable values.”
What I had written there was that we were to pay in gold coins the same kind of poll tax implemented by the neighboring city as well as 30% of the total harvested wheat. Originally, we were demanded to pay 50% of the total amount harvested and that was with the actual wheat.
Avalon's wheat was worth more than its market price. Moreover, paying with the gold which we could get as much as we want of from the [Mine] was more convenient. The materials mainly used for the golems were orichalcum, mithril, and silver. We didn't have much use for gold so we solely used it for money. Even at that moment, we had mountains of gold coins lying idle in storages.
”Then tell me, Telroma-san, which do you find unacceptable?”
”First of all, we cannot agree to you not complying to send out any personnel to provide us with your technology.”
What he was referring to was the demand for us to send out experts to the neighboring city so that those experts could then share their knowledge on our advanced technology regarding the waterways, the preparation of the soil, and the production of the weapons and equipment. Moreover, it was a long-term kind of deal. Don't screw with me, was the only response that I could initially think of.
”If you want to gain Avalon's technology, you can just send out you experts here and have them learn from observing. I have no intention whatsoever of refusing that. If it's the weapons and equipment, they can buy one and examine that. They're not children, are they?”
”However-”
”If you want to steal our technology, fine but steal it by yourselves. We cannot and will not compromise more than that.”
I strongly declared so. At that, Telroma was quite conflicted. It might have been the most important condition for them so that they themselves may have all of the things that made Avalon fascinating.
The natural response then was to not allow it to happen but since stealing it completely would be impossible for them, I allowed them to send out their experts.