City of Desire-Chapter 637: Incentive

Carla Salt

'Five minutes more,' I thought as I looked at the clock.

I have been sitting in Ms. Sonya Salazar's waiting room for ten minutes. I have a meeting with her and hope it will be successful.

There are a lot of things riding on it.

I received a rejection from the merchant states, so I came here. I am not alone. Officials from the city hall have also come, but I am here personally for this meeting.

If I succeed, they will take over. If I return with them, there is another place we will go to, but we know we will be rejected there.

We are going there to show, we have options. If they don't take the offer, someone else will.

"Miss Salt, Mage Yatra is ready for you," said the secretary, bringing me out of my thoughts. I nodded and followed her out of the waiting room.

I am in the Storm Tower, one of the top floors.

I could feel the powerful crackling energy that raised all the hair on my body—walls of grey stone veined with glowing blue crystal and floors of polished obsidian.

It is not obsidian but an extremely expensive marble. That is capable of storing large amounts of mana.

It is why it's so damn hard to control my emotion here. Every moment, I felt like that roaring power would strike me. Turning me to ashes.

I have been to the tower several times, but not on this floor. Usually, I deal with officials; this time, I will deal with one of the most important people.

The daughter of Grand Mage Salazar.

When I reached the greyish-blue metal doors, they opened on their own. I stopped for a moment before walking inside.

There are two people there. One is Sonya Salazar, whom I have come to meet, but there is also her brother, Artur Salazar.

Remus and I didn't like the man, but that doesn't mean we will not deal with him. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"Lord Artur, Lady Sonya," I greeted the two.

The beautiful blond woman looked at me impassively with her pale blue eyes, while the man looked at me with disgust and equal measures of lust.

"Take a seat, Miss Salt," offered Sonya Salazar after a second of silence. "Thank you, my lady," I thanked and sat down before them.

"Silver had asked for a meeting from us. I hope it is not for some frivolous reason," said Artus, turning his expression contemptuous. "It is for a genuine reason, my lord," I replied with a small smile.

"What does he want? Silver had been vague in the letter," asked Sonya.

"The City of Greltheaven would like a loan for its expansion," I stated.

"Hell no! It is a wasteland pit that will be conquered by the undead soon!" declined Artur immediately with a rude and dismissive voice.

I didn't say anything to that and turned to his sister. It made him irritated and angry.

"You should understand, Miss Carla. It is very risky to give your city a loan."

"As my brother had stated, it could be attacked by the undead at any time. If that happens, we will lose the money we might give you," she replied, shaking her head.

"It is why we are willing to provide you with an incentive," I stated.

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"What incentive?" asked Artur immediately, with greed flashing in his eyes. "Emotion essence, of course," I replied with a smile.

"How much?" he asked excitedly. Further irritating his sister. "It will depend on the loan amount you are willing to provide us," I replied.

Earlier, we used emotion essence the wrong way. We shouldn't have sold it. We should have used it as an incentive instead of like a good.

If they give us a loan, we will sell them more emotion essence.

We will repay the loan with money, while emotional essence will be used as barter to obtain things that couldn't be obtained with money.

"How much of a loan do you want?" she asked. I didn't reply immediately to that.

Instead, I placed the file in front of her.

"It's too much!" said Artus. Yes, we want a massive amount as the expansion won't be small. Remus has ambition, and it is my job to get him the money required.

"We do not want it all at once," I replied with a smile.

"It is truly a massive amount. You will have to sell a lot of essence for it," Sonya said, putting the file down. I shook my head.

"We will be paying you with the money. Emotion essence will be an incentive," I corrected.

"Then it is not worth the risk," said Artur, and I smiled. "That is your decision," I replied, and I could see the surprise appeared on his face.

Showing desperation is terrible. I have to show it as if I have an option.

That is why I have created an itinerary of places I will visit after Namdar. If their spies are moderately good enough, I am sure they have already learned about it.

"How much incentive in emotion essence are you willing to provide?" asked Sonya again, and her expression changed ever so slightly.

They desperately want emotional essence despite having three legacies in their city.

When I went to merchant states before, they declined to give me a loan. They wanted far more and many other things that we cannot provide.

They could negotiate that way because they have the ability. Namdar does not.

The Empire is in shambles. If any threat came, they would have to fight it themselves; they could not count on empire. Namdar is strong, with Grand Mage leading it, but Vris'Alud has killed a Grand Mage.

It is a powerful country, and if they try to come to Namdar, it will need everything; it has to fight it, and it isn't the only enemy they have.

"For each tranche of the loan, we will provide eight times the current emotion essence we provide you as an incentive," I replied, and I felt them activate the skills to control their expression and guard their emotion.

I felt Artur project his skills toward me, but it was immediately repelled back to his shock.

A moment later, a spark of shock appeared in the woman's eyes, though it disappeared almost instantly.

I didn't have to use my aura; he may have a powerful class, but so do I. Castellan of Mist is a level class and a powerful one at that.

I had felt it was only slightly weaker than Remus's Lord Class, which is the most powerful Lv. 30 class.

"The amount is too low; its value is only a small part of what we will give you as the loan. If your city gets conquered, we will lose a massive amount of money," she stated.

"As I had said, it is an incentive, but you are also right my lady; it is a massive amount of money and a big risk for you," I agreed, repeating the essence as an incentive.

"It is why we propose that the contract will be signed with the city and the Velvet Garden, and it will be placed at its core."

"So, even if the city gets captured. Velvet Garden will pay back the loan," I replied.

It is a massive amount of money. Even Namdar wouldn't risk losing that much money and would want the guarantee.

"What would happen if the legacy itself is destroyed? I heard there will be a clash of Velvet Garden and Tranquill Bathhouse," she asked.

A small smile appeared on my face hearing that. It is not easy to hide such things.

"It is a risk that you will have to take, but let me assure you, the Velvet Garden is very well prepared to deal with any challenge, including Tranquill Bathhouse," I replied confidently.

Caena and Remus succeeded with better results than we had expected. However, it pushed Remus so hard that he needed a whole day to recover.

"The amount is still low. We cannot offer you that much money for such a small amount of emotional essence," she said, and I smiled internally.

They were willing, and it excited me, but soon, I controlled my emotions and sighed visibly.

"We cannot offer you more emotion essence, but we will add something more precious to sweeten the deal," I replied, and I could see their eyes turning curious.

"We will provide you with three drops of core essence with each tranche, that is, on condition that you provide us with things we need in exchange that you declined before," I added to their shock.

"Ten drops. We want ten drops," said Artur hurridly, to the irritation of his sister.

It is a good game they are playing. He acted greedy and agonistic while she remained calm and irritated. They will have to do better to fool me.

The emotions they have are real. He is greedy while she is irritated by him, but it is also a play and quite a good one at that.

"Three drops is the most we could offer," I replied, with a tone of finality.

We have the core essence, and Mok's Core gave our reserves a big boost, but it is precious, and we have our plans for it.

"I will take this to The Lady of Storms. If she accepts, we will start negotiations, and let me say it already: you will need to offer more if you need that amount," she stated.

I didn't say anything to that, and a minute later, I was out of the office, with hope burning in my heart.