Chapter 541: The History of Smagdas and Altear (1/2)
It was an extremely uncomfortable tea session that King Brice had to ever attend. Unfortunately, he couldn't decline Zero. The young king was actually indebted to the leader of Half Moon Village.
”Mind letting me know why I'm suddenly asked to talk to Elf King Sharo on behalf of Smargdas now? My memory might be failing but I have absolutely no recollection agreeing to do such a thing. The deal was to retrieve Misana from U.N.U. and that was it.”
The smile on Zero's face felt terrifying despite the innocent appearance and King Brice shivered. Misana inched away from the table and gave her king an apologetic look. There was nobody around to help them. The Dragon Heroes were busy reorganising the adventurer guild after they were given the guild master's position. Truen was busy helping the Humanitarian Guild with the girls from Qin Yun's village.
Bob returned to Half Moon Village before the attack on Zero's orders to escort the Chieftess and Shcaf once the internal strife was over. They were making their way over with some of the Half Moon Trading goods. The position for the Merchant Guild leader was still vacant and Zero intended to ask the King to officially appoint Schaf. The little goat has been working very hard to secure all the deals they wanted. He might still be a little disagreeable in personability but Zero had to recognise his efforts. Other than Coux, who was busy managing Baal's territory, and Qin Yun, who was busy managing the demon visa application for Mammon, there was nobody more suited for the position.
Smargdas was going to be the trade centre and he needed someone capable of foresight to do planning on a country level. With Jynx placing bulk pre-orders and the village had a bottleneck when it came to mass production and delivery. Night Terror Penelope might be able to produce spider silk by the ton but there were not enough hands in Half Moon or New Moon village to process it for apparels or armour. They were falling behind the delivery schedule and thankfully, the Humanitarian Guild had many capable volunteers. The job of processing spider silk for manufacturing isn't difficult but it was labour intensive.
The king sighed. He should have checked with Zero before making such a bold claim. Sometimes he forgot that Zero wasn't his friend and was just a very powerful business partner who could easily level Smargdas in a day if he wanted to.
”Sorry, I overstepped my boundaries. If you do not wish to negotiate with Elf King Sharo on my country's behalf, I can rescind my statements.”
Zero thought about it. Negotiating with royalty was more often than not, a pain in the neck. Every single time he was involved with the royal family of whichever country, there was always a huge mess to clean up. Sometimes, he wondered why they couldn't do it themselves. What if he never passed by and offered his assistance? Was the country simply going to let the matter fester until it died?
Thinking back, Zero thought that it was highly possible. The giants had no way to resolve the strange illness taking over their country, the dwarves couldn't stop their foolish king apart from a riot and more bloodshed. Now that Zero thought about it, King Vivian's issue could only be settled by him. Moreover, Sylvia was too powerful to be stopped by anyone. Even if there was a dragon, the Great Sylph wasn't going to lose to it with all her inventions and the magician's school at her command.
With a heavy sigh, Zero decided to lend this young King a hand for one last time. He thought that King Brice would be satisfied if he completed his mission to bring Misana back and resolve the slave trafficking issue with U.N.U. as part of the bonus for his mission. Who knew that the young king would still be so helpless?
”One last time,” he told King Brice with an edge of warning in his voice. ”One last time, I will help you. You owe me.”
King Brice swallowed and nodded. ”I will do it if it is within my capabilities. My people will also be very grateful if war with Altear can be avoided. The country needs a lot of improvements before it can be called the country of trade. Half Moon Trading will get sixty percent of shares. The royal family won't impose business taxes for the first five years. Subsequently, the taxes will not exceed thirty percent. I had my new prime minister to help me draft them. I hope this compensation is good enough in return for helping me to rescue Misana and resolving the slavery situation.”
The doctor wasn't expecting any form of compensation. Honestly, having Smargdas as their base of operations was already good enough for Zero. He didn't think it was right to ask the king for more benefits despite the troublesome things he had to do. Then again, most of those troublesome things like creating a new World Tree and the very first World Flower were all things that Zero did on his own volition. King Brice didn't need to give Zero more benefits but as a good businessman, Zero wasn't going to turn down the generosity.
”I'm not in charge of these decisions. Please talk to Schaf about it. I might be the village head but I do not make these decisions on my own. Different people have different strengths and business is not really one of my own. You should talk to the village expert. However, I'm not going to refuse your request. It would be too embarrassing for the king to make a public apology after such a bold announcement.”
King Brice turned red when Zero said that and the doctor finally understood why teasing people was fun. Normally, Zero was the one getting teased. Now, it was finally time for him to tease someone else.