Losses and Gains, a new Alliance is born

(Why the hell are they here?)

Well, the answer was obvious. Maybe the real question in his mind was why did nobody had warned him of their arrival, but even that didn't take much thinking to figure it out since the reason was minutes ago massaging his right foot...

Feeling frustrated, Apollo muttered to himself a couple incomprehensible words as they moved out of his bedroom, to the living room in the middle of the house.

Upon arriving there, the self entitled Negi sat on the armchair, with Hayate staying right behind her while Apollo sat on the couch with Rose and Daisy sitting on both of his sides. As for the other maid girls, they all returned to their original posts, disappearing from the bedroom in the blink of an eye.

Alice suddenly appeared coming from inside the kitchen, bringing some snacks, hot coffee and tea.

It bugged Apollo's mind seeing such a sight as it had not even been a minute since she left the room. How the hell did she had time to prepare all this!? Not only all snacks were fresh from the oven, even the coffee had no signs of being reheated and appeared to be brand new.

Negi, on the other hand, took the cup as if it was just as expected and tasted one cookie, taking her time to appreciate the taste.

"Hmm! You got good subordinates!"

"Y-yes, I'm truly proud of them."

Hearing Negi's sudden praise Apollo was caught off guard, making it difficult for him to formulate an answer on spot. He felt as if Negi had complete control over the conversation and if things continued like this, he would probably find himself in a difficult spot, but unfortunately it was not like he had a lot of experience negotiating like this, so, although he could feel this was bad, he didn't know any trick that could get him out.

(The more I delay this, the more I will be caught in her pace. I don't know if this is the best option, but let's go straight to the point!)

"G-good morning Master Negi. You can call me Apollo. Sorry for letting you see such an embarrassing scene. I'm sure both of us are pretty busy now so let's go straight to the point. Do you accept my proposal?"

"Oh! That's exactly why I'm here! I heard of your proposal from Hayate, but I would like to discuss with you first before we agree. While Hayate had come negotiate with you, we entered an alliance with Master Tatsuo, our neighbor form the other side, so our position is not as bad as it used to be."

"Hmm..."

"What I mean by saying this is that you are no longer just negotiating with just me, but with my alliance, so such heavy demands like 70% of the Crystal Cores is something we are unable to accept. Please lower your demands to 35% so we can all benefit from this agreement."

Hearing this news Apollo almost accepted the deal right away, but before doing so he took some time to analyze once again Negi's words and position.

By what she said, she had already made an alliance with somebody else, but, even with her new ally, their strength was still not enough to repel the invaders, which is why she was forced to seek an alliance with him.

On one side this meant he still held an advantage over her, as she was still in a weak position seeking help. On the other side, this meant the enemy was so strong that even two players together wouldn't be enough to deal with him, so it would be hard for him to bluff his way, saying he could take care of himself, as it would only end up stabbing him in the back later.

Should he risk and press her for more? Or should he stop now and show some good will? No, if he simply accept her terms, this would create a precedent that would make him step back in the future as well.

(I... can't let her think I'm some pushover. We can take a step back, but I still need to gain some advantage in this deal!)

"Don't joke around! 35% is too little! Since another party is involved, I can take a step back, but I want at least 60%!"

"Hmm. All right. We can give you 60%, but you will have to provide at least 40 combatants to our army. Can you do that?"

(40? No way! I can at most provide 20! Maybe 30, if I build another barrack instead of a lab. If I make the maids fight, it would go up to 35 but I don't think they fit this kind of battlefield and this would leave the my whole camp vulnerable, so I should leave at least some troops behind...)

Apollo had forgotten the boars could also be used to fight, which led him to make a counter proposal while lowering his gains.

"...How about this? I will provide you with 30 combatants, and you give me 50%. But I will require all other materials I had listed out."

"That's..."

Negi took a moment to answer, but decided to agree in the end.

"All right. But you will have to prepare them all by tomorrow and have them move to my camp. Can you do that?"

(Eh!? Tomorrow!? That will be pretty close! I wish I had more time!)

Time waits nobody. Luckily he had started preparing since the news arrived, or else he wouldn't make it in time.

While making sure no odd expression appeared on his face, Apollo got up and extended his hand for a handshake.

"All right! We have a deal!"

And Negi did the same, getting up from the armchair.

"Deal!"

...

After seeing them off, Apollo went back to the living room and made a couple orders through his bracer before calling Hime out.

"Rose, go to the factory and order a Medical Center SoW and a Barrack SoW. We will leave the new Lab pending for now and build these two as fast as possible."

"Understood!"

As Rose vanished, Hime appeared almost at the same time, but Apollo was already expecting her, so he didn't feel surprised at all.

"Hime, when did you come back?"

Only now that he had fully woken up, Apollo had noticed she had already come back from her last mission. which was to tail Hayate to their base. Unfortunately, because he noticed it too late, he had no time to hear her report about their base, or it would have given him a few more cards to play in the negotiation table that had happened just now.

"Master, I come back about an hour before dawn. Because you were sleeping, Rose told me to wait you wake up before reporting... And then we were called and..."

Seeing Hime's face starting to blush, Apollo extended his hand, signaling her to stop.

(Please! Don't make me remember this again...)

"I get it. Well, it can't be helped. But next time you are allowed to woke me up to make your report. This kind of urgent missions take priority over my sleep."

"Understood!"

"Then, let's hear what you found out."

"Yes, Master! Their base is close to ours in size, with two barracks but no ranger camp. They also have a lab, farm and a factory, as well as three other facilities which I could not identify. There is no walls around their base, but there is a river crossing it, which may help slowing the enemy down."

"Hmm... Any information about the enemy or their new ally?"

"Unfortunately no."

"All right. If my guess it right, the new ally combat power should be around 10 units. The problem is the enemy... I have no idea how strong they are..."

Apollo stopped for a moment before starting talking again.

"If they had a wall or something to stop the enemy or at least buy us some time, we could strike the enemy base while they were out and end this battle once and for all, but because there is no such a thing, I don't think such strategy will work... I guess we have no choice but to fight them directly..."

Actually, if Apollo was ruthless enough, he could do exactly this, using his new ally as a bait while cutting the enemy's neck. It would be even considered a bonus if his ally had also fallen, as he would swallow them all at once without even a proper fight.

But, for good or bad, Apollo's values would never permit him to abandon his allies to obtain an advantage for himself, even if it was a temporary alliance and they would be forced to fight again in the future. To him, it was a matter of trust, since the other party was trusting him, he felt obliged to pay it back.

"Hime, go back to the lab and call me out once the new girls are ready. We will need their help on this fight."

"Yes, Master!"

Of course "directly" didn't mean with no strategy at all, which is why now was the time to make some plans...