“Before we get down to business, let me say something.” I narrowed my eyes to look at the representative in front of me and sombrely said, “Nier, go and find out which guard brought this cage in without my permission. After you find out, kill him.”
“Understood.”
Nier nodded and just a moment later, I heard a loud cry of pain from outside. Nier understood my intentions. It would be boring to kill the guard outside in one go. I want him to cry out in pain, loud enough that his cries could be heard by the entire outer court. I sat in the master-seat, listening to the cries of anguish and pain until silence was reached. I then placed my tea-cup in my hand down and looked at the representative next to me.
He looked at me with astonishment. Behind him was the cage that angered me. The cage was covered up with a red cloth. I didn’t know what was inside, but the door-guard deserved to die for allowing something to be brought into my outer court without my permission.
Nier came back to the conference chamber and tossed a few diamonds covered in blood on the table before coming to stand behind me. The diamonds were covered in blood that had just been spilt. A trail of blood was drawn on the table. Many beads of sweat slowly formed on the representative’s forehead as he looked at the blood-diamonds in front of him.
“Taking bribes when you’re my guard is asking for death.” I looked at him with a cold gaze and said, “Now as for the bribes, I hope there won’t be a second time. You’re currently my guest so I won’t pursue the matter. Now, it’s your turn to tell me what’s inside the cage.”
“It… it is a gift for you, your majesty. We heard you like elves, so……”
I walked over to the cage with a villainous smile on my face. I pulled the red cloth down with one hand. Inside were four naked female elves hugging each other, looking at me terrified. They didn’t have any wounds on them, but their trembling bodies told me loud and clear that they weren’t elves who came here voluntarily.
“Eek!”
I heard Luna take in a breath of cold air behind me.
“We heard you bought an elf at the market previously so we prepared a few especially for you. They are all virgins too. No one has touched them. I hope you will like them, your majesty.”
He stood to one side as if he was displaying the elves before me like an exhibition. I could feel my eyes almost pop out of my head from anger. My fingers were quaking. If I wasn’t unarmed right now, his head would be flying right now. I huffed and puffed. If I don’t tolerate this, I’ll mess up the bigger picture.
Though I was angry, I can’t kill him for this right now. I need more knowledge before I can kill him.
Yes, if possible, he must die.
“Leave them here. Luna, you look after them”
I sat into my chair and in an angry voice where I was shaking gave Luna an order. Luna nodded and walked over. She arranged to have people move the cage out of the conference chamber.
The representative smiled as if he was satisfied with the present they prepared for me. I looked at him and said: “Alright, now tell me what your goal is and you better finish before I lose my patience.”
To be honest, my patience had already run out by that point. I really wanted to order Nier to slash him to death.
“In that case, please take this.”
He took out two sheets of paper from his shirt and handed them up to me with two hands. I took them and took a look. The sheet on top was a thirty-thousand gold coins cheque. People use cheques for this sort of sum because thirty-thousand gold coins is far too many and too heavy. As long as you have this cheque, you can go to the bank or company to collect your gold coins.
The sheet underneath was a land deed, a property ownership rights sheet. The location was the orphanage.
“What’s this supposed to mean?”
I snuck a glance at Nier behind me and noticed that all her attention was on the land deed. The representative smiled and said: “Jeez, it is very simple. I am not here to discuss business directly with you. You could say that the higher-ups asked me to come and negotiate the conditions with you I guess. We shall gift you the block of land where the orphanage is as well as the orphanage. We will write off their debts. You can do as you please, your majesty. As for the thirty-thousand gold coins, those are to purchase all the stores you own.”
“So a deposit?”
“That is correct. We are not as rich and powerful as you so we can only make a deposit to start. Afterwards, we will pay you in instalments, as well as a reasonable amount of interest. And then you pass ownership rights of the stores to us. What do you think?”
I chuckled coldly, looked at him and asked: “So how are you going to convince me that you can continue paying future instalments? Excuse me for being blunt but your company has already shut down once. It’s far too difficult for me to trust you. How are you going to pay off your debts while paying interest?”
“We have our ways. You do not need to worry about that, your majesty. The statues of god we sell will definitely sell because it remains a necessity as long as there are believers. As such our income is stable. There will be no problem there. Your majesty, do not worry as we will not write your name as the receiver.”
He looked at me, took out a small book, handed it to me and said: “These are our current numbers. As you can see, we have always been in the green. Furthermore, if we run into issues, the block of land where the orphanage is can be considered your compensation, right? That block of land is in a good location. You would get a good price if you sold it.”
I glared at him and asked: “The block of land itself isn’t worth money, so I want to know why the orphanage owes thirty-thousand gold coins.”
“Those are all loans. Your majesty, the land itself isn’t worth money. However, the higher-ups all need money. The profits from the orphanage are too minimal. The debt has accumulated up until now. That said, we did not forcefully release goods. The deals were signed after negotiation, and every dollar was definitely paid.”
I looked at the debt record sheet he handed me. Indeed, every payment was signed and stamped. I can’t say anything about it. It’s just that the interest rate is a bit too high. However, they loaned it knowing so, so I can’t criticise the church for it. They didn’t forcefully sell it to them after all.
I placed the loan sheet down then looked at him and asked: “So what you’re saying is you want to trade the orphanage plus the thirty-thousand gold coin deposit for my stores, is that right?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
He looked at me with a smile and continued, “Your majesty, this is a stable business. We have shown you our utmost sincerity. Not only have we bought your stores at their full price, we have even gifted you a block of land. Of course, if you are interested, we could also send you a few elves each month. We are fine with that.”
“Can you tell me where you get the elves from?”
“We get them through deals with the elves over there. Your majesty, our deals are absolutely legal. We did not kidnap or illegally bring them here. We bought them with genuine gold and silver.”
He looked at me and calmly lied to my face making me really want to pull out a cleaver and butcher him. Does he not know I’m the elf prince? Buying and selling elves under my nose… I want to beat this guy to death.
“Forget it, I’ve made up my mind.”
I waved my hand and looked at him with a smile as I said, “The conditions you’ve given me are really good. I know what you mean, which is to take the money and turn a blind eye to this. But your superiors must’ve misunderstood something. I didn’t do this because you didn’t give me enough money, but because… I want to.”
“So you are refusing then, your majesty?”
“That’s right. I refuse.”
He stood up and shouted: “What about the orphanage then, your majesty? If you refuse, we will repossess the land in two days’ time. We’ll also take the kids to the church!”
I turned around, looked at him coldly and asked: “Oh really? But what’s that got to do with me?”
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