Chapter 21: Alora I

Chapter 21: Alora I

"Who am I negotiating with anyway?"

The king was about to tell me when he noticed someone walking towards us, "Ah, Toshi-dono, how have you been? Are your wives doing alright?"

The man he called Toshi was actually Master Makoto, but this was the first time I had heard his full name before. I was about to greet Master Makoto when I noticed the person standing behind him. I felt like my heart was about to jump out of my ribcage when I saw her. I immediately used Sleep on myself to slow it down before she heard. Although that clearly didn't go past the two masters in front and beside me.

I let out a yawn in exhaustion, unfortunately, I wasn't yet strong enough to repel my own skills.

"Jess, this is a serious matter. Please do not yawn when our guests arrive."

"Yes, Alora..."

The two old farts chuckled on the side, clearly enjoying watching me get reprimanded for my own actions. I just couldn't help it. I didn't know why I had a thing for this demoness, but I did, and there was no way of denying it. I just couldn't help but stare at her tiny horns on her head or her swaying tail or her beautiful red skin.

"Ugh, kill me now."

Alora looked at me upset and confused; it was clear she didn't enjoy being around me.

"Father, are we sure we want him negotiating? What if he screws things up? You know how impulsive he is."

Every time I'm around her, this always happens. Not only am I terrible at talking to girls, but I'm even worse when I'm around her. Her father looked back at my crestfallen face and realized he had to say something.

"Alora, you're being too harsh. I've personally seen him negotiate before; he's not that bad."

Alora looked back at Jessup, and after realizing what she said, felt regretful.

"Crap, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insult your skills. I'm sure you'll do fine." She slapped me on the back and didn't actually realize why I was upset.

My skills in negotiation? What? I'm totally gonna screw this up; I knew that from the get-go. You can't feel bad for something you knew you would screw up.

"Thanks."

Alora looked like she had some more to say, but her father stepped in before she could stab me in the heart more than she already has.

"So my wives are currently on the ship, and they are sending King Delamin himself to the island. Are you sure you didn't want to show them to the city? It would be far more cordial than… this."

I looked over to my grandfather to see what he would say, but instead, he just stared at me without saying anything. I had been around him long enough to know what this means. He wanted me to figure it out for myself and answer in his stead.

I looked around at my surroundings thinking 'why not the city?' Then I realized something: the city is beautiful but it doesn't 'scream' I'm beautiful. Or more specifically it doesn't scream at you. The city is a humble place filled with more nature than buildings. It doesn't scream 'WE HAVE MONEY'; it screams 'WE ARE POOR.'

So why go to a place that actually does scream 'BROKE?'

"It's because we want them to know how little we think of them." I looked at my grandfather in confirmation and only saw him look away with a sly smile on his face. I think I hit the nail on its head.

Master Makoto looked back at me a little proud as well. Wait, did he try to help me score some points with his daughter? I love this man! As I thought this, Alora looked confused. Uh oh.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Jessup, you're supposed to flaunt your wealth, not show royalty some ugly fort and a fishing village with a population of 30."

Crap, she's nothing like her father. She's an idiot.

I saw my grandfather stand there with his eyes closed and his eyebrows raised. I knew this look. It's the 'I love her, but she's an idiot' look.

Her father immediately smacked her in the back of her head, clearly fed up with his numbskull of a daughter, "Oww, what was that for?! You know your claws always pull at my hair when you do that!"

"Alora, my stupid daughter. I have a question for you. What wealth?"

We all stood there waiting for her to answer, but all she could say was, "I thought we were rich?"

At the same time, we all had the same look. We love you but you're an idiot.

"Doesn't matter, she won't get it even if we explain it to her. More words will only confuse her more." Harsh coming from her father but true…

"So where were we? Let's start with King Delamin. What's his story?"

The old man opened another portal, and when we walked through it, we were in the manor standing by the dining table.

I swear I think this guy has a bad back or something. It's like he's afraid of walking.

We all sat around the table ready to have this conversation, "So basically, the Gobo empire has been doing some trade deals with this guy's country, and as we all know. Gobo is under my thumb, King Del, as we'll call him, has been protected by the empire. The situation is a bit tricky for both sides; the empire can't strike back, and King Del lives on a peninsula. I'm sure you already know who borders them."

"The empire." I had seen the maps enough times to know that the empire looks like a balled-up fist with a thumb sticking out. That thumb is where King Del's country is located.

"The only way they can trade is by air and sea, but the U.D.A forbids air travel. Even we have to abide by that rule. Although thanks to Toshi-dono and I, that has never posed an issue. If anything it would cause more harm than good for us, but them? Without air travel it's basically a death sentence."

Alora raised her hand confused, "Yes Alora?"

"Why is it a death sentence?" I thought this was a 'Bless your heart' moment but shockingly the old man spoke up.

"That would be my fault, Gobo is desperate for cash and they are going on a war frenzy. King Del has repelled them quite well but the seas in our world are… complicated. Some parts are more dangerous than others. Theirs especially hold a beast of a colossus that only Toshi-dono can fight off. So trading with other continents is impossible for them, and thanks to Gobo, so are the shores."

This time I'm the one who was confused, "Wait, why don't they just kill it? Wouldn't that help them?"

The old fart looked at me like I was the idiot, "With what money? With what troops? They've wanted us to kill it for years now, but who has time for that? Not to mention, we would make way more money in the long run."

"Right, that makes sense. But there is one thing that I don't get. I thought they were filthy rich?"

"Hmm? I didn't tell you? I raided them last year."

Alora spat out her drink, "Alora, is that my mother's good wine?"

Now she was looking at me like an idiot, but I understood why, "So why did you raid them?"

"I wanted to speed up the process. Let's be honest here, they were going to lose this war either way, and if they did, I would only get 70% of what Gobo took. So I stole it all from corrupt officials who were working with the empire and King Del knows that, and he's thankful for it. That's one of the reasons why he's on his way here."

"To get his money back?"

"That and his country exports an ungodly amount of sugar, salt, and tobacco… at least it did… and I want to take that monopoly, and you will help me."

"He needs the funds, and we're the only ones who can help him."

These are some crazy demands. You speed up his war, you steal from him, then you want to buy his stuff in bulk for dirt cheap, and you want me to explain how all of this was helpful to him. This guy is going to be executed when he gets home.

"When is he going to get here?"

That's where Master Makoto steps in, "About an hour, I can sense my ship closeby."

Hmm, I've heard a lot about these ships he has, but I've never actually seen them before. Apparently, he owns a lot, and most of them are too big, and the whole island is surrounded by clean shallow water.

"For now I'll speak with my connections about picking up some contracts with us; after I bought the Eastern Sea Company a while back, we've basically been raking in the profits."

"I'll come with you, I'm sure I'll learn something." We all looked at her quietly. This was the perfect time to learn something.

Master Makoto put his hands on her shoulder and said, "I think you should just try to be a good wife."

"Huh? What the heck. What does that mean?"

I looked back at him in shock, slightly confused at what he meant, "Your mothers and I have made plans to concede my company to your eldest brother when I die. You should stay here with Jess."

What!? Master Makoto for the absolute WIN! No, calling him master would be too disgraceful, "I will take good care of her Mokoto-Sama!"

"Eh? What?"

Makoto-Sama looked back at me and winked before walking away.

"Grandfather, why can't you be more like him?"

The old fart just stood there with a deadpan expression, "Jess, you just married into nothing."

Huh? What does he mean by that?

"I was trying to wed you to someone before you left, someone with influence, money, power, and an army. Now you have an idiot demon with nothing to her name, not even a ship."

… Well, I'm not that shallow… How hard will it be to conquer an entire continent anyway...? Crap, thanks a lot Toshi.

"Um, what's happening?"

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Authors note: If anyone hasn't noticed yet, Jessup has a habit of raising the quality of people's names whenever he likes the thing that they do, vise versa. Obviously I won't do that for everyone because it would just get confusing, as for the king, at his lowest he's called old fart and at his highest he is 'Your Majesty.'

I don't know, I just thought I would mention this, also if anyone has guessed it, yes Mikoto is from a different version of japan as for his name… I don't speak japanese so I'm not sure if I wrote his name correctly, but basically it means 'Truthful advantage'. It was supposed to be 'Truth City' which makes more sense in his case (you'll find out why soon) but apparently toshi can mean city and advantage… I think?

But when you look up 'Truth City' as a person's name it shows up as Shinjitsu Toshi. Not gonna lie, it's things like this that make Japanese confusing.

Either way I like Toshi Makoto and I'm not changing it.