Chapter 104 - Negotiations [1/2]

Kane leaned back in his chair, crossed one leg over the other, and propped his head up against his fist. 

Meanwhile, he frowned, "First of all, we need to earn aurum crystals, for various obvious reasons. Buying resources, training, and powering this place for starters. So, what does a bandit outfit usually do to earn a dishonest wage?" 

He could think of a few classics, but perhaps there were some more specific ways they operated in this world. 

This time, it was Aelia who took the word again. Although her words weren't exactly enlightening. She raised an eyebrow as if he was asking her something obvious, but she still answered. 

"Nothing particularly special, Boss," she shrugged casually. "Most of it comes from raiding caravans. They'll usually carry some aurum crystals, and of course we'll sell the goods, together with their previous owners. But we'll also do the same thing to simple travellers or adventurers." 

Kane nodded slowly, "So you don't operate in cities much? And no other avenues for making money?" 

Aelia immediately shook her head, "No, cities are far too dangerous. Even the smaller cities outside the triumvirate nations usually have at least a few Core Linking stage Mystics. The only time we'll go to a city is to sell goods and slaves." 

Before continuing, she grinned cruelly, "As for other avenues… we do sometimes get hired by people who don't want to spend inordinate amounts on mercenary companies. But we usually end up betraying them." 

"Mercenary companies, eh?" Kane muttered, while scratching the stubble on his chin as new plans filled his mind. But those would have to wait for now. 

Her shook his head to clear himself of other thoughts and focused back on Aelia. "Good," he nodded. "You can pick those activities up again when you think it's the right time." 

Before Aelia could respond, he continued, "Although I'm going to need you to put a stop to the enslavement of innocents. I'm not opposed to slavery per se, but it should either be a punishment, or something entered into willingly." 

On his shoulder, Ella breathed a quick sigh of relief, as she was just about to plead with him for that exact thing. Ella was still planning to act as his conscious, after all. Using her relationship with him to try and steer him towards being a fair leader was part of her reason for being in this situation. 

Meanwhile, the bandits appeared slightly surprised by his moral ambiguity. Yet, Aelia relented immediately. "Fine," she nodded resolutely. "I've never been a fan of that practice myself. But if we encounter anyone who is objectively bad?" 

"Then that's fine," Kane shrugged, before raising an eyebrow. "But no fudging the lines, understood? And I want you to personally check when your people capture someone." 

"Also," he continued a little incredulously. "I'm not sure whose genius idea it was to move your current prisoners inside this facility, but be sure to keep them well outside of it next time. Just establish a smaller camp a few hundred meters away from here. I've already got to figure out a way to deal with the current ones…" 

There weren't many prisoners, fortunately, but there were plenty of men among them. Men who had seen this base, and who he couldn't mark. Currently, his choices were to either kill them all, or leave them to rot, and he didn't much favour either choice. 

Aelia smirked wryly and nodded. The fact was, they didn't have much choice back then. If they didn't move all the prisoners inside this place, they would have had to leave some guards out with them. But then who's to say those guards wouldn't run off to sell the location of this bunker to the highest bidder? 

Meanwhile, Kane continued, "I'll also expect a cut of twenty percent from everything you make. After that, you can divide the rest however you like." 

Instantly, Kane could see the objections rising on not only Aelia's face, but Mira and Lyra's as well. Only Anna appeared indifferent. 

He quickly held up his hands and narrowed his eyes threateningly, "I don't want to hear it! If you expected me to just take the same cut as everyone else, then you made a serious miscalculation. But for what it's worth, I'll use my cut to power this place until we find a way to wake up the main generator." 

That caused them to quickly calm down a bit, as a combination of the fear they still felt towards him, and his somewhat reasonable words, caused their objections to melt away. "Fine…" a still somewhat unhappy yet pacified Aelia grumbled, before turning her gaze towards Luna. "But what about her?" 

Kane caressed the tail wrapped possessively around his waist while he shrugged, "For all intends and purposes, you can consider Luna and myself to be the same person. Her orders are mine, and my cut is hers." 

Luna, who had just started to purr slightly due to his caress, suddenly turned to him with wide eyes and an aggrieved expression. "Eh?!" she exclaimed indignantly. 

Familiar with her greed as he was, Kane chuckled before Luna could say any more. "Oops, looks like Luna wants her own percentage. I suppose we'll have to take an extra five percent then." 

Instantly, Luna's lips split into a grin, and her eyes sparkled. 

"What?!" Aelia jumped up, her eyes spitting fire. "You want 25%?! For doing what?! Sitting on your ass and kissing us?!" 

Silence reigned while Aelia looked at Kane furiously, but Kane simply stared back calmly. Meanwhile, Luna looked at Aelia smugly, even though she somewhat hated having to rely on her master to intimidate this woman. 

Slowly, the prideful bandit's gaze became uncertain when she remembered their situation, until finally, Kane's voice cut through her anger like a hot knife through synth-butter. 

"Sit down, Aelia," he told her with a voice like ice. 

Slowly, she took her seat again, her body trembling slightly. She opened her mouth to say something, but Kane was faster. 

"I do understand your anger, Aelia," he began, now sounding far warmer than before. "But do we really have to tally up my contributions here? Because I do believe even ten years' worth of your profits wouldn't make up for the more than fifty second stage techniques I handed out today. Do you really believe I would hand those out without expecting a return on my investment?" 

Of course, Kane had no idea about the actual market for this stuff here on Primaterra, but he took a stab in the dark, considering that no one had one before he came here. 

"I—" Aelia began, but Kane interrupted her. "Besides, you have to look towards the future, Aelia. Do you really believe those second stage techniques are all the resources I have access to?" 

He leaned in closer, and looked her in the eyes, "I'm looking to create something here, Aelia. Something lasting, something powerful, something beyond just going from day to day, while only thinking about the profits of tomorrow. I'm thinking about the profits of not just next year, but the years after that." 

Kane's lips split into a wide, ambitious grin, "I want you and your crew to be the foundation for something that will rock the continent. To stand on equal terms as the triumvirate! You've seen a mere glimpse of my resources and capabilities, and I'm sure you suspect there's plenty more where that came from. Now I'm asking you, do you really think a mere 25% is not worth that?"