Everyone introduced themselves to each other after they walked into the city hall of White Mountain City. It was interesting to see how Anthony and Marino, two old friends, interacted. They took a long look at each other and suddenly laughed together. They shook hands, laughed at their previous confrontations, and just let whatever had been between them go.
After sitting for awhile in the conference room, Anthony and Marino excused themselves. Seeing Anfey and other young men, they felt their time had pa.s.sed. It was undeniable that these young people already had the power to change the situation in the Country of Mercenaries. In the future, they would become more experienced, powerful and mature. They could become a force to change the world. Anthony and Marino felt they were really getting old.
Blavi and others all knew how Alice acted on the job. They knew she would immediately go directly to the topic, so they followed Anthony and Marino and left the conference room. Besides Alice, only Anfey, Christian and Suzanna remained. Anfey was the leader of the League of Mercenaries, while the other three were the executives. They had to manage everything in the league.
"Look at your face. You must have collected a lot rewards." As everyone expected, Alice could not wait any longer to get to the topic. Alice, like everyone else, knew herself well. She knew she had to put herself 100% into work to make herself feel better.
"Yes, 120,000 gold coins in total, 20,000 gold coins more than you thought," Christian said. "So, Alice, you should be happy now, right?"
"Exactly 120,000 gold coins?" Alice asked.
"Yes," Suzanna answered.
"That is strange." Alice thought a little bit and laid her eyes on Anfey. "You did not take them from those merchants, did you?"
Suzanna was surprised that Alice guessed it right. "How did you know?" she said.
"Of course she knows. It is exactly 120,000 gold coins, no more and no less. If they were the rewards we collected from the war, how would it be exactly 120,000?" Anfey said, smiling.
"Alice, I do not think it is appropriate to say ‘take from them’." Christian tried to explain in a low voice. "We did not force them to fund us. They volunteered." Christian vividly described how eagerly those businessmen wanted to fund them. Suzanna had not been there with Christian, but she found him funny and laughed.
"Did you write them receipts for the loans?" Alice asked in surprise.
"Huh?" Anfey was shocked for a second. "It would robbery if I did not write them receipts. Alice, don’t worry. They were pretty good about it. The loans could be paid back in 20 years without interest. If we could take over Blackwater City, we would be able to have control of the Country of Mercenaries. 120,000 gold coins would be nothing; I could even get 1,200,000 gold coins."
Alice interrupted Anfey. "Do you understand how to maximize your interests? Anfey, don’t take it personally. It is ok if Christian and Suzanna do not understand, but you should understand."
Alice sounded a little harsh. Anfey and the other two were shocked. Suzanna was worried Anfey would get mad. She even nudged Anfey. In fact, Suzanna did not have to worry, because Anfey was very calm, reasonable and able to acknowledge his mistakes and correct them. If what Alice said was good for everyone in the league, no matter how harsh she sounded, Anfey would be ok with it. Anfey believed people made improvements by correcting themselves and learning from the mistakes.
"Alice, do you mean…" Anfey asked quietly. He was not mad at all. Instead, he reflected on what he had done to provoke Alice.
"I am sorry," Alice said bitterly. She lost her cool a bit out of jealousy, but she immediately realized what was wrong. She tried to sound nicer. "Let me explain. In fact, the palace and business arenas are just like battlefields. Anfey, take you for example: what do you want when you fight someone? You want to minimize your damage, but give your opponent a fatal strike, end the battle in the shortest time, and terrify your opponent, right?"
Anfey slowly nodded. What Alice said was all basically right.
"This is also about maximizing your interests. If those businessmen eagerly signed the magic contracts with you, it shows you could have asked more from them: that is, what you wanted was way less than what they planned to give. That is why they eagerly tried to fund you."
"Alice, are you saying we fell into their trap?" Christian looked confused. "But we did get gold coins from them."
Suzanna could not understand why signing magic contracts and received 120,000 gold coins would be losing. She did not think they lost anything.
"We could have gotten more from them. We lost what we should have received. That is losing!" Alice sounded somewhat serious. "Businessmen are good at calculations. No one could be better than them."
After pausing for a second, Alice continued, "Take this time, for example. They made you guys appreciate them with only 120,000 gold coins. Our league is worth more than that. Anfey, 120,000 gold coins can be a lot of money for any of us. Do you think 120,000 gold coins are a lot of money to our league? I bet you I could spend them in two days."
Anfey rubbed his nose and tilted his head. He and Christian exchanged glances. Anfey said, with a serious look, "Christian, you’d better learn from Alice. You will need it in the future."
Christian did not know whether he should cry or laugh. He turned around and ignored Anfey.
Alice rolled her eyes. "Can you guys be serious. I thought you would have good vision, but you are not even as good as those merchants."
Anfey cleared his throat and straighten his back. Christian and Suzanna put on serious faces too.
"If we could have control of the Country of Mercenaries, we would have control of the magic crystals and the lifeline of the whole Pan Continent," Alice said.
"Wait a second, Alice." Anfey planned to hear out Alice’s a.n.a.lysis, but had to interrupt her now. "We can’t have the lifeline of the Pan Continent. Do you understand?"
Alice looked at Christian, "Christian, since we are talking about it, can I add some of my personal comments?"
Christian chuckled. "Alice, you can say whatever you want to say."
Anfey stopped Alice again. "Alice, you don’t have to say it. We trust your judgements. What we need to talk about now is whether we would be able to make up what we lost." In fact, Anfey still did not get the point, but he knew he needed to stop Alice from making comments. They were all friends, and Alice was acknowledged as one of them. If she needed Christian’s permission to speak, her comments must be about Yolanthe and be shocking for everyone. She might offend Christian and Yolanthe.
Alice was smart, so she realized she lost her cool again. She did not seem to be able to calm down after she found out Anfey killed Archmage Michael. She knew she missed a man she could depend on for her whole life, a man who could be one of the most powerful men in the world. Regrets, envy and other negative feelings had been bothering her. She had not been able to look at Suzanna because she was afraid Anfey would notice something unusual about her. She was not able to take care of other things.
Christian shrugged. Actually, he secretly felt relieved. He was more nervous than Anfey had been. As a prince, he was responsible to protect the dignity of his royal family. If Alice’s comments offended his family, he had to step forward and condemn her, but that would hurt his relations.h.i.+p with Alice and Anfey. Not hearing Alice out did not seem appropriate either. He was in a dilemma.
Anfey held the highest leaders.h.i.+p position in the League of Mercenaries and was in charge of development of the league and appointments for the battles. Alice was in charge of administrative issues. Christian was in charge of coordinating mercenary units. Because of his special background, everyone would accept whatever he said. Three of them had developed very clear cut duties. This triad shaped and balanced relations.h.i.+ps. Christian realized maybe this was the most reasonable and stable way for the leaders.h.i.+p of the league. If their relations.h.i.+ps were destroyed, their future would be gone as well.
"Let me think…" Alice frowned.
"I have an idea. I just don’t know if it would work." Anfey did not know much about business, but he was very smart and flexible. He thought of someone, and that person gave him an idea. However, the idea sounded a little too pa.s.sive because it needed those merchants themselves to feel bad about it. Anfey did not know if it would work.
"Why don’t you tell us about it?" Alice looked up.
"I know a businessman. He is the boss of the Cloud Chamber of Commerce. His name is Arlango. He listens to me, but he went to buy food. Once he comes back, I can ask him to donate some gold coins to us, but," Anfey sounded a little hesitant, "would the donation look too fake? Businessmen only care about their interests. How could they donate money for no reason?"
"No, it is not fake. I can show Arlango how to do it." Alice’s eyes brightened. "When will he be back?"
"Soon. He should be back in few days", Anfey said.
"Where did he go to buy food? No matter whether he went to Maho Empire or Ellisen Empire, it would take him at least a month or two," Alice said.
"I knew we would face a lack of food, so I asked Arlango go to Death Roaring Legion and s.h.i.+eld of Light Legion to see General Baery with an object that he could recognize as mine," Anfey said.
"Buying and selling military supplies is a serious crime," Alice smiled, "but…I take back what I said. You do have good vision."
"Forget about it." Anfey was not too happy about Alice’s comment.
