Chương 146: Negotiation?

The art of negotiation was a beautiful tango of balancing mutual interests and trust; at least that's what it was on the surface. In reality, tricks, trade, and influence played a part in negotiations. True mutual negotiation wasn't possible; advantages, subtle and overt, worked to devour the opposite party with silvery half-truths designed to make the counterparty satisfied with their meager winnings.

There were winners and losers in a negotiation, but a good negotiation would leave both sides sure of their success. That was all June understood about the art of negotiation, but it was easier said than done; knowing and understanding how to do something were different from one another. One case of previous negotiations appeared in June's mind, and that was him pestering his mother to buy him a video game when he was younger. Did pestering someone really count as a negotiation, though?

He wasn't particularly interested in milking the counterparty dry during this meeting, but he understood he had a persona to play, a motive to find, and a satisfactory resolution to hopefully reach. June was feeling a little nervous, skittish even, but one of the many boons of wearing a shell was that his actual body and the carapace stayed somewhat disconnected; the counterparty, however, seemed somewhat thrown off by his stubborn behavior, though their confidence remained mostly firm.

The two, human and elf, glanced at one another. The auburn-haired human leaned back against the backrest, and the elven man cleared his throat before inserting a hand within his vest and shuffling momentarily before producing a small sack.

"This is your payment for the sewer job. We threw in extra for the mistake of putting an expert-level licensed contract into the beginner stack; we also included a bonus for the survivors you saved as well." The elf dropped the small sack onto the coffee table, making a solid thud and clink.

The shell's helm shifted slightly down with a creak and short groan of bone scraping against bone; June waited for a moment, then reached for the bag, and the moment his ivory-tipped fingers graced the linen sack's cord, the auburn-haired man swiped the bag over, unwinding the loose cord and allowing coins to spill out unendingly.

"However! I would like to test your mettle myself! I saw the autopsy report on the Qi-deviated cannibal, and your work was… unique, to say the least." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. His elven partner's face paled, and his mouth fell agape. This was clearly not part of the plan. June let out an internal sigh, and gingerly and deliberately grabbed the fallen coins one by one and placed them back into the sack they fell out of, wordlessly.

One coin… Two coins… Three coins… Four… coins… Five… On the sixth coin, June lifted it up… and he squeezed it between his two fingers, warping the metallic coin like a marshmallow with his Will, tensing the two sides together until it violently burst. He tossed the destroyed coin's remains on the ground, lifted his mostly recollected coin sack, and dumped it back onto the table, making a bigger mess. The auburn-haired man seemed a bit put off by June's actions, accompanied by his menacing form.

June silently took a breath, infused his Will, and uttered three unshaken words.

"Why? Should? I?" The elf coughed, and clutched his face with one hand and groaned audibly; any sense of decorum had vanished. He clutched his fist to his forehead and grimaced while his human compatriot held a bemused look; he winced and shook his head with a final sigh.

"I'm so sorry, sir, our Branch-Castallen has a bit of a fiery personality!" He let out a forced laugh before slowly quieting from the absent reaction.

"He… I apologize once again; I will personally reprimand him for his… MISINTERPRETATION! … of what our purpose was for today's meeting." The elf cleared his throat once more, expecting, but not receiving, any response from June. He hesitantly extended a hand, but quickly retracted it after the counterparty, June, refused to budge. He cleared his throat again.

"Erm… We… would like to do… we did… I am the Branchmaster of this guild… branch?" June fought the temptation to leave; at least it would save the Branchmaster from further fumbling over themselves. He pressed his finger on a spilled coin and dragged it across the table as he sat back.

"Get to the point!" The Branch-Castallen and the Branchmaster shared a look before the Branch-Castallen spoke up.

"We need to know if you're a promising talent or just a killer, and if we like what we see, we've got a short gig that might interest you, mainly because you were personally requested by a client." June wondered who would personally request him; he parsed through the people who knew him, people who knew of the shell, and the few who knew both. To his knowledge, this persona of his didn't exactly have a cult following as the Lord of Light did.

He was a bit confused about what they meant by whether he was a killer or not, and he didn't even know if he was interested in further work as a contractor; the money on the table, though spilled, was double what the contract stated.

'I think I have enough money to get Lilia something nice! Getting the others a gift, on the other hand…' He scratched his beard from within the shell.

'It wouldn't hurt to at least hear them out!?'