Chapter 133: Actually, there is four.
"And that concludes the materials that we managed to gather. I wonder if those few short cuts are enough to pique your interest."
Pressing the s.p.a.ce on my laptop, I smiled at the fat mayor of the town. With a sizeable moustache hanging from both sides of his plentiful lips, it was pretty hard to tell what was going through this man"s head.
"Interest? More than that, it"s quite a scare."
Refuting my words, the mayor put his hands together before gracing me with an oily, ugly smile of his. Maybe it was my personal bias, but for me, this man was the perfect representation of the older generation of the local men. Not those who rebuilt the country after the great war or later the apocalypse. Those who used every mean possible to oppress others for their own benefit.
As such, conducting negotiations with him was a fairly easy thing for me, as I could let loose on how little I respected this kind of approach.
"I think there is a slight misunderstanding then. We came here to report that due to the mismanagement of your side, our business group suffered great losses. The question is, how are you going to compensate for it? After all, as far as I remember, the area where that dungeon is located originally belonged to the city borders, didn"t it?"
The fact that there was a convenient train station just a few minutes worth of walk away from the dungeon didn"t stem from some mad vision of an architect, but the real need for it. Back before the apocalypse, prior to the global rush to the cities, the area around the dungeon would be filled with housing investments, sheltering the cla.s.s of the nouveau riche that felt the tight areas in the city too stiff for their over-bloated ego.
"Compensate?!"
Hearing this diabolic world, the Mayor took on air, threatening to explode his fat right in my face. Thankfully, I managed to toughen this mental torment while keeping my ironic smile on my face. If I allowed that joke of a man to take advantage of me once, there would be no end to his schemes.
In order to achieve my missions in the city, I had to first ensure that the proper legislation would be pa.s.sed, and secondly, crush all the hopes that the mayor could have about profiting off the dungeon that appeared on strictly his lands.
"Yeah, compensate. The services of my men are not cheap. And since it"s your land that this event took place, it"s also your responsibility to make amends. But don"t worry, I won"t be unreasonable."
After a moment of metaphorically squeezing the man in my palm, I suddenly let go, allowing him a small breather.
"Considering how they were attacked during their leisure time, we obviously need to count their work as overtime. What"s more, given how it was Boruta"s celebration today, they should also get the holiday bonus. Adding battle compensation, injuries reimburs.e.m.e.nt, sudden combat availability bonus… All in all, this will be the price of our services."
Pulling out a small piece of paper on which I had prepared the number before even the meeting started, I placed it on the table and enjoy the physiological show that the mayor"s body gave upon letting his sight on the carefully drafter numbers.
"This…"
From how red the mayor"s face got, I couldn"t help but start to worry about him potentially having a seizure. His extreme obesity already brought him closer to this line, the line that I didn"t want to cross. After all, if he were to free the world out of the burden of his weight, dealing with this city would become slightly more troublesome.
In the end, threatening, bribing or just convincing a single person was an easier task than doing the same with the entire city"s council that would take power if the mayor were to become unable to continue his duties.
"Obviously, we are willing to negotiate. Please, take this number only as our initial position, while keeping in mind that that"s how much the service of my men would cost in the given circ.u.mstances. Now, then, let"s speak business."
With my fake smile now replaced by a genuine one, I showed my teeth to the mayor before pulling out a small file with several papers of great importance.
"Starting from the very basics, it is our wish as the representatives of the country that our cult is currently established to vie for implementation of a city-wide tax, aimed at reimbursing the cost of maintaining the dungeon. The task that my organisation oh so voluntary agrees to take. Will there be any problem with that?"
While I was stretching the facts by a huge bit by calling us the representatives of our town, it wasn"t something that this fat mayor in front of me could know. For him, I alone would be as good as the president of what remained of the united states after the apocalypse!
A single shake of Mayor"s head proved that he didn"t find the first condition to be too unreasonable to agree.
"Secondly, our organisation will have complete monopoly over all the goods procured from the dungeon. If we were to stabilise the situation, we will get the city"s approval to put another fee on all those entering the dungeon to prevent its excessive exploration. Is that okay?"
Even though I was asking, my tone was closer to a statement than to a question. Because in all honestly, all the mayor could do right now, was to continue shaking his fat, round head up and down, agreeing to any terms I would bother to come up with.
"Thirdly and lastly, the city guarantees complete autonomy of political, economical and militaristic matters of the adventurer"s guilds - as our organisation will be called - for the period of one hundred years with the priority of prolongation. Once you agree to this, we will be able to forget about the bill…"
Pointing my hand at the set of papers that my bodyguard displayed on the Mayor"s desk, I moved it between the doc.u.ments of the agreement and the bill that I placed on the desk before.
"I… I can"t…Oh!"
Seemingly coming up with an idea, the mayor nearly jumped when a sudden thought appeared in his head. Sadly for him, while I had no control over what idea would pop in his head, just a bit of manipulating his emotions later, he suddenly stood up, slammed his hands on his desk before furiously pointing at the doors.
"I won"t have anything of that! As a mayor I"m just a representative, I know that, but that means insulting me is akin to insulting every citizen of this place! Either you leave now, or don"t blame me for calling the guards to guide you away!"
Barely capable of holding my smile back, I stopped playing around with the fatty"s emotions. Devoid of the energy supporting them, his fury, courage and recklessness quickly disappeared.
But the scene that he caused while under the influence of those emotions didn"t vanish. Standing up, I looked coldly at the fat man before turning around on my feet and walking towards the doors.
"If that"s your wish, then so be it. If you think you can avoid paying up, then I will be the one asking you to not hold it against me once the day of your retribution will come. And with that…"
Clasping my hands together as if I suddenly became an eastern monk or something, I reached for the k.n.o.b of the doors.
"WAIT!"
Just as expected, I didn"t even need to enhance the cowardice of that man. Completely on his own, before I and my bodyguard would have a chance to leave his office, he was already shouting after us. His hand reaching in our direction as if in a desperate attempt to stop us from leaving.
"How can we be of service, sir?"
Stopping and turning my head around with a coldness behind my pupils, I cast an annoyed look at the mayor.
"I"m… I"m sorry, I allowed my emotions to take the better of me…"
Waiting for this exact moment, I smiled at the same moment as I induced a sudden rush of dopamine in the mayor"s system by making him just feel happiness. Just like a dog could be trained to salivate on the sound of a bell, a man could be trained to do whatever would bring him this simplistic pleasure.
"Now, there will be one more condition to make up for your blunder."
Rather than going easy on the middle-aged fatso, I pushed him even further. Returning to my previous spot, I sat in the comfortable chair for the guests before cupping my hands together. Looking at the mayor, I finally allowed for my true, apathetic smile to surface on my lips.
"The last condition is pretty simple. Once I will bring a certain person to the guild, the city and you personally will endorse him as the hero who saved the city from the flood of the monsters. Is that understood?"