Unanswered Questions

Things started to move fast in the Demon lands. For the first couple of days, I was wrapped up in discussions with various races of the Demon lands. I went to each representative that came to me. I was startled at the responses I was receiving. There was a consensus of how hated my predecessor was. Everyone seemed genuinely happy that he was going. The Succubi wanted his blood, though. They constantly contacted me for inditing him in fraud and mal business practices. His laundering of gold and various other things. This hate was worrying.

I started more and more to read through the library to look through records. Tina had set up a shop to make gold, selling mechanical parts and devices to the surrounding population. Mally told me she took a trip since she was back home to visit her school and family. I was surprised at that and kissed her as she left. She was coming back. Otherwise, I would have to go find her. She went to the Illusionist's Wizard tower of the succubi. So I knew where she went if I needed to find her. Rose started up more businesses starting to grow her empire.

Four days in and I met up with the Nephilim in a meeting with a male and female. They looked like humans with black wings. They were a race that was natural wind users. Most of their young excelled in that type of magic. This didn't mean that they couldn't use others. They just had a more natural inclination to it.

I sat across from the two of them in the meeting room. The woman Nephilim had a large set of beautiful black wings on her back. She and the man spread them behind the couch. I smiled at her sharp face with a large grin. She was attractive in a forceful way. Her breasts were small, and her body dainty. Her overall impression was more commanding. The man was almost the same. The sharp angles on his face made him seem fierce despite his more dainty body type.

I had been going over negotiations with them on some trade between the bunny-kin and a potion one of the wizard alchemists back home came up with. "Look, I can tell you that the new wind enhancement potion is priced fairly. The high cost comes from transportation. The land route we have to the capital and across most cities in the Demon lands is not direct. The water routes are becoming more and more unstable, making our merchants pick safer land options. I can't force the merchants of my tribes to trade that way. Does that mean one hundred gold is a bit expensive? Frankly, Yes, it is very expensive, but we still need to bring in money." I came back.

"You say the waters are getting worse, but that is not the Nephims fault." The woman spoke up, and I turned to her, looking at her with contempt.

"It doesn't matter whose fault it is. The waters are your responsibility when near your nation. If you cannot defend them to a certain range that trade cant comes in safely, it doesn't matter. I am also saying on our end as well. The number of pirates has been on the upwards trend. This is a lack of policing on both sides. We, the Beast-kin nation and the Demon lands, should quell that. Our nation, though, cannot direct our navies to do that since we are now getting into a war footing with the Empire. This decreases able body C rankers and B rankers to move on ships to quell Pirates. I am flatly telling the truth. Our waters are being protected to defend against attacks on us from foreign armies safely. We are too busy. Our merchants bug us about our lack of policing, but frankly, we cant. You want cheaper goods; you are going to need to do something about it or help us push back the Empire." I leaned back with a serious expression. "We cannot do both. I have learned that our economy is not doing well since our borders keep getting raided by the Empire's citizens for slaves. We cannot allow this to continue. Lowering the prices of goods are not our priority. I know you want more from me, but I can't do more."

"So you're saying that if we want potions from the bunny-kin at a lower rate, we need to do something about one of these two problems." The man said with a thoughtful expression.

"Look, I know we the Beast-kin nation want your nation to join us in the war. We will try for that. That does not mean you have to join the war effort with troops. Trade between our nation would help us immensely. We would absolutely love it if you quelled the strong Pirate presence off the coast. This would do wonders for both our countries' trade systems and economies. If I were personally running the country, I would seriously damage the Pirates before going to war with the Empire, but I am not. Therefore think about it. Merchants could easily wipe away twenty-five gold per bottle of wind enhancement potion with just being able to ship by sea." I reasoned out. "The Tribes of the Beast-kin Nation want to trade more. Jobs and our economy need your trade, and we are a large market for many goods of the Demon Lands. The fact of the matter is that we are a nation about to go into a large war. The Empire knows it, You know it. Our priorities are laid bare by our nation at the moment, as is our agenda. We want our people to stop being kidnapped from their homes to be enslaved. We are mobilizing for that. We need an economy behind that army to supply us. At this point, though, our priorities are not on sea shipping." I finished.

These priorities pissed me off. Saying this made me sound like a fucking idiot. I wanted to drop our prices more than the fucking merchants out there. This would allow more gold to flow into the coffers of all the Beast-kin Nation. It was a travesty that we couldn't suppress the growing pirate presence before this war. The biggest problem was the number of slaver raids our nation was competing with. They were almost constant at this rate. The gold cost for beast-kin slaves was skyrocketing for some reason in the Empire. Greed made fools of men, and they showed how foolish they were. Villages and small tribes were having a harder time forcing the larger tribes to come down to protect them. Subordinate tribes of the Bunny-kin were calling for help to the point we have garrisoned villages with wizards. This was spreading our defense thin all over the nation. Without conscription of D rankers up, we wouldn't be able to do more. Our nation's security was fraying, and the trust in the tribes was lessening in the eyes of the smaller tribes.

"Say what you want, Ambassador Chelsea. You are talking a lot without saying what you want." The Woman spoke harshly, and I stopped myself from rolling my eyes.

"Look, I want your nation to stop sitting on its hands. Send out a navy to clear the waters. Significantly reduce the pirate presence. This would boost both the economy of our nations. Join us in the war or don't. I want you to join, but I digress. I need our waters cleared. I would do it myself if I thought I could make a large enough impact. But I want you to vote in your next chambers meeting about clearing out the Pirate presence." I told them flatly. "With this, the costs will drop, and our nation's specialized potions will be cheaper on your store's shelves. That's is all I can do. Your people want cheaper potions from our excellent Alchemists. We really want to provide. This way, both sides are happy. No Pirates mean you can trade with more nations and have more jobs for the lower level citizens. This will indirectly increase military power as well, with more goods coming from other nations. Now to sweeten the deal." I smiled, bringing out a trump card that I wanted to play. "How about no tariffs both ways on goods between our nations," I told the Neplhim.

"What?!" They said in unison.

"Hold with me here. I want to start negotiating with your government for Free trade between our nations. That doesn't mean that we don't have to pay sales taxes and things like that, but I mean no tariffs or forcing prices of our goods to be higher." I finished. "This is something that I am preparing to send back to the leaders of my country, but I want to see how much interest the demonkind has in these types of talks. I want the Neplhim to bring it up in your next congress meeting." My smile was thick and charming as I talked about it grasping their attention.

"I can see that. I do not like how you are telling us what to do. You are insinuating that Pirates come from us and are our problem." The man said back peddling. These two were hard to get through.

"I am not stating that at all. What I am saying is that I do not have the resources to deal with them. The demons lands do. We are asking you to so that our merchants feel safe making merchant fleets to bring goods. If they don't feel safe, the costs go up with risk to make it worth enough if they lose the cargoes. At the moment, they don't feel safe at all out in the waters making the point moot. They simply won't leave the harbor. We don't have the resources to fix this problem. I come to you to help us with it. I can not say it any more clearly than that. As close friends of our nation, we come to the demonkind to ask for help. You want lower prices on our Alchemy goods then make transportation cheaper." I explained.

This back and forth happened for a while between these two Nephilim and me. I finally got them to agree to vote in favor of cleaning up the Pirates. I secured five votes in that and said they would talk to their superiors and house head about the trade deal. I couldn't ask for more since I was going out of my way on that one. I sent prepared a letter with the details of such a deal to my father, but I wasn't sure of the response. After an entire day of negotiation, I was fucking exhausted. I felt like I had made progress, though. The Demon-kin were a tough bunch and some hard-headed. The Succubi still wanted the blood of the previous ambassador. This was something very concerning. They hated him for a reason, and nothing in my records shows why they do. The paperwork they showed me didn't show me a reason for the deep hatred as well. Suppose he was financing Pirates, though. I would be pissed but not that pissed. What was it that did it for them?

I brought myself back to my room, and Emily started to massage my shoulders when I sat down, earning a moan of pleasure as I continued to think about it. The Nephilim wanted some of our new alchemical products I never noticed seemed to be a specialty product of our tribe. The more I looked into its logistics, the more I learned how much the economy in Silvermoon city was riding on alchemical potions. I never ventured around the city to learn. I loved the mysteries of alchemy, and I dove deep into the depths of it. This was an expensive luxury item, though. Its prices around nations meant a lot to the people. Health potions and cremes were essential to their well being. Some of the continent's best potions came from the Bunny-kin and our wizards.

This made it a hot commodity everywhere. Decreasing its prices even by a few gold coins would increase our trade output and increase the incentive for mass production. That gave me a thought of researching that myself. It was a thought I put aside as I wanted to open more trade between our nations.

For now, I had to cut through a metric fuck ton of diplomacy with all the races. The Succubi want blood before they vote in my favor. This was something I wasn't expecting, but the devils, their neutral factions, lined up behind getting rid of the Pirate organizations out at sea. This took a surprisingly little amount of time. Suppose they were to do it though it would take time to ready for war against the Empire no matter what. This was a time where Armies were the same as Navies. They didn't separate them yet.

There was so much need for reform, in my opinion, that it boggled my mind. Emily worked out the knots in my back as I thought about where I could get that last vote. The Incubi were with the Succubi on this regardless of whether they don't care about the former ambassador. He only had three more days here before the ship was ready to send him back. What did he do? Everything came back to this. This wasn't just about the gold to pirates. This was a contributing factor but not the main one, to say the least. I needed the Succubi's and Incubi's vote for a working majority for our economy. I needed to figure it out as soon as possible.

I stood up with Em' asking me what was up. "Sorry, Em' I need to go talk to someone about something." With that, I left the room. I was determined to get answers to my questions.

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