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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Negotiations could only proceed from an equal position.
In the end, negotiation was where the needier side had to bow their head.
In that sense, Yuyoung was confident.
She had a clear understanding of the Royal Knights’ situation.
According to her vision, the Royal Knights had been completely annihilated in a reckless expedition with no survivors.
So she had tried to extract personnel somehow before that, but…
Their own will was too strong, and she couldn’t do anything about it.
In the end, her friend had no choice but to go on the expedition and lost her life there.
However, she couldn’t believe that.
There were often cases where precognition was wrong.
So Yuyoung had mobilized all her resources to gather information, and thanks to that, she was able to ascertain that three members had survived.
And fortunately, her friend was among them.
Perhaps that was why she had rushed uncharacteristically, and this was the result.
Yuyoung rolled her eyes.
Cluna, who was at the apex of the notorious forest guardians, and Yuren, the former commander of the Royal Knights who needed no introduction.
Just their presence alone was enough to make her feel overwhelmed.
“Is any tea alright?”
But the most incomprehensible thing was the man in front of her.
He should be nothing more than a mere human.
How could he move so calmly between those two powerful presences?
Yuyoung soon changed her thinking.
The beastmen’s values were closer to those of beasts.
In other words, they tended to think of weaker races as prey and look down on them.
Humans were a prime example.
In fact, humans were the race the 12 tribes had warred with the most after their establishment, and they were also the race they had mostly been victorious against.
So she had unwittingly looked down on him.
But that was a very dangerous and complacent thought.
The position of Royal Knights commander wasn’t one just anyone could hold.
She had heard he was a nameless knight from a refugee village.
Yuyoung wasn’t one to fall for such laughable information operations, and indeed she hadn’t.
Look at him now, calmly offering her tea between those monsters, wasn’t he also one?
“Any tea is fine.”
“First, I apologize. It seems our members’ reception was too rough.”
“No, it wasn’t a problem at all.”
Seeing the commander speak without moving an eyebrow, Yuyoung barely swallowed her anger.
Despite having known everything and prepared for it, he apologized in such a roundabout way?
But getting angry here would only prove herself to be third-rate.
The important thing in negotiations was to hide one’s own emotions and draw out the other’s emotions.
Emotions were excellent friends of sincerity.
One could grasp the other’s true feelings by observing changes in their emotions, and that allowed one to gain an advantage in negotiations.
Yuyoung smiled and replied.
“Rather, I should thank you for such excellent hospitality.”
“Excellent hospitality?”
“Yes, thanks to it, my warriors were able to learn a thing or two.”
“If that’s how you see it, then I’m glad.”
With those words, he immediately moved on to the next topic.
There was no change in his expression at all.
How could this be?
No, there might not be any expression itself.
That happened often.
But having not even the slightest change was a different story.
Even that forest guardian had slight changes in her flow, but this man showed absolutely no change.
Could he really control his emotions to that degree?
Or was there something else?
Come to think of it, wasn’t it this man who had saved Commander Yuren?
Could it be…
No, no.
It was too early to jump to conclusions.
The unknown breeds fear, and fear leads to dread, and those emotions were very disadvantageous in negotiations.
Yuyoung opened her mouth.
“Shall we get to the main point then?”
“That’s what I was hoping for.”
“To maintain a smooth relationship between the 12 tribes and the Royal Knights…”
They talked about many things.
However, more than 70% of it was decorative talk with no substance.
The commander responded appropriately to match.
The atmosphere had heated up to some extent.
At that point, Yuyoung proposed one condition.
She would provide support on the condition that they accept requests from the 12 tribes again.
It seemed like a normal proposal at first glance, but the problem was the amount of support.
She proposed an amount so ridiculously small that it could hardly be called support from the 12 tribes.
As soon as they heard this, not only Cluna but even Yuren frowned.
“What do you think? Isn’t it a good condition?”
“Hmm, indeed. Then let’s go with that.”
“…Pardon?”
He accepted the proposal too easily.
This time, it was Yuyoung who was taken aback.
She hadn’t thought he would accept such an unreasonable proposal.
She had been anticipating what would come after.
Suddenly, the commander readily accepted the proposal.
As a result, she ended up at a loss instead.
The Royal Knights would be able to receive support, albeit small, almost for free.
Of course, there was the advantage of re-establishing the relationship between the 12 tribes and the Royal Knights, but Yuyoung wasn’t one to be satisfied with just that.
She continued speaking, slightly flustered.
“You’re accepting with just that much?”
“We’re not in a position to be picky right now.”
“But…!”
“Is there a problem?”
She needed to say something.
However, she couldn’t say anything, as if something was stuck in her throat.
She still couldn’t sense anything from him.
She couldn’t read his flow.
This wasn’t just feigning ignorance.
Not only his expression, but even his flow was unreadable.
At that point, Yuyoung felt an unknown emotion.
Not everything was correct, but her precognition itself was somewhat accurate, and she had been able to use that.
However, there had never been a time when her precognition was completely wrong like now.
When there was a conflict with the elves before, she had rushed and messed things up, and the future had changed due to a forest guardian who knew about her precognition catching her off guard.
But until then, it had never been wrong.
However, the man in front of her now was different.
The annihilation of the Royal Knights, the death of Commander Yuren.
All these precognitions had missed the mark.
All because of the man in front of her.
She couldn’t help but think that way.
Because in the future she had seen, this man’s existence itself wasn’t there.
The unknown experience turned into fear, and fear breeds dread.
It was like an ordinary person suddenly becoming blind.
If eyes that could see perfectly suddenly went blind.
Who wouldn’t be afraid?
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Ah~ Thank goodness.
It really was fortunate.
The negotiations with the 12 tribes ended better than expected.
What was her name, Yuyoung?
She suddenly seemed to feel unwell and hurriedly left.
Well, that was understandable.
There were two perpetrators next to me.
I would have reacted the same way.
Of course, I had tried to separate them.
But they were so forceful that I ended up giving in.
Was it just my imagination that I didn’t feel an ounce of dignity as a commander?
No, forget it.
If I start thinking about gaining dignity through my position, things will go wrong from there.
Let’s be satisfied with this for now.
“Commander, is this really alright?”
“The support was much less than expected.”
“It’s better than nothing.”
In a situation like this, could we afford to ignore even cold rice?
We were in a position where we’d gratefully eat even moldy rice if it was in front of us.
Of course, in return, we had to resolve the 12 tribes’ requests.
But that was what I had wanted.
Originally, the Royal Knights were a multi-race alliance of knights.
In other words, it meant they couldn’t be maintained without support from other races.
Of course, the support from the 12 tribes was far from enough.
But naturally, you can’t fill your stomach with the first spoonful.
Besides, wasn’t it something to be able to receive even that much in resources?
For now, we should be grateful.
“Good work, both of you. But from next time, respond politely without rough actions.”
“As expected, the Commander chose such a method.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Cluna said admiringly.
I nodded.
Since I had set the example first, Cluna and Yuren should be able to follow without much difficulty.
They soon returned to their rooms.
“She seemed quite flustered.”
“Yuren, your help was significant this time.”
“Well, even I know about the leader of the Rat Clan…”
“Phew, anyway, I’ve managed to pull this off.”
Watching their backs as they left the office, I let out a sigh of relief.
There was no need to speak strongly to them.
The important thing was that I had said something.
Anyway, I had given them a warning.
This fact was important.
That way, even if problems arose later, I could make excuses.
This was what I learned in the company.
The method of slipping away like a loach no matter what problem arose.
Sadly, I couldn’t do it properly and ended up quitting.
Anyway, I didn’t want to waste emotions getting angry.
I was planning to hand over the commander position soon anyway.
Let’s just try to prevent problems from occurring, moderately.
This negotiation was the same.
What if the negotiation fell apart because we tried to get more here?
Rather than that, it was right to just get what we could.
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