“Argghh Lady Qiu Yue. You are really putting me on the spot here… You are simply asking too much from me!!!” King Sol sounded unusually annoyed while shaking his head vehemently towards her. While she had already acquired the Tri-force army according to Jin’s preferences, Qiu Yue wanted to impress her boss by getting more on top than what she had contracted before.
“But this is still reasonable, right? I know this hasn’t been written in the contracts, so how about you consider this as personal loaning?!” Qiu Yue replied while she sat at the very same meeting room she had used to recruit the craftsmen. The Three Goblin Generals, two of their sons and some of the advisors were also present for the additional negotiations, yet King Sol was in a pinch since it appeared as everyone else in the room was in cahoots with Qiu Yue.
“Hahahah Lady Qiu Yue, you are just too crafty. Thank goodness, you are dealing with our King, else I would have given in a long time ago!” Sword General Gladios laughed loudly, and even Dagger General Igni smirked at Qiu Yue’s proposal.
“Look here, Lady Qiu Yue. We are not trying to deny the truth of you had done us more than just favour, which will be remembered in future history books. I have already made preparations for that army you need, heck I’ve even added 5% more than what you have asked so that you are in possession almost all of our very few but competent elites to serve you. My three Generals here can vouch for that. This is proof that you deserved our gratitude of the highest form.” King Sol sighed and leaned his body forward and reminded Qiu Yue about them having made all kinds of concessions in their previous dealings.
“I understand that which is why I am not asking for an army – “
“- You are asking half of the goblin mage AND the entirety of our combat engineers battalion to be loaned for a year!” The King slammed his fist in a fit of anger for it was really an unreasonable no, absurd request even by the Humanoids.
It was one thing to loan out all their elites as the Humans should be too scared for a while to try and take any sort of action given the show of military might in the previous war.
However the same could not necessarily be said, if spies would to inform their human neighbours that nearly the entirety of the Goblin Kingdom’s military had mysteriously left. Qiu Yue then realised that she seemed to hit a raw nerve and kept silent for a while as the King simmered down.
“How about this? We will ask if any of the goblin mages and combat engineers want to join Master Jin, granted they are given perks that will be significantly better than the ones the craftsmen have received?” Dread Reaver who had been quiet up to this point of the conversation, had decided to back her up.
“Maybe it is time that you reveal to us a bit more about, why you would want that many mages and engineers? What exactly is Master Jin plotting?” Spear General Argent asked with curiosity ever since the day the Humanoids asked for craftsmen that were obviously inferior to the Humanoids’ technology
“He is building a brand new city and he needs as many experienced professionals as possible.” Wyrstriker decided to chime in but he was only telling them the partial truth since he had not yet been informed about the changes in their newly formed floating/undersea city.
The whole reason why Qiu Yue currently asked for combat engineers and mages was for the construction of more Sandroku Golems which could be used to accelerate the building process especially for the larger buildings as well as delving into the deep valley crater to construct Jin’s Pand-Atlantis.
This was because the deeper they had to venture into the valley, the hotter it would be. Even though the System can consistently revive dead monsters, it would be too impractical to do so just because they died from heat strokes. Considering Peppers had ‘dug’ much closer to the Dungeon World’s core, it would be better to be safe than sorry and protect the monster workers.
To counteract this, Jin could fill up the deep valley crater with water but that would lead them to handle the pressures of deep water construction. The System had already calculated the cost and find that constructing more Sandroku Golems were more cost effective.
Alternatively, they had considered fighting against the immense heat with a system of constant ventilation with cold icy winds while mining tunnels around the crater. Regardless any option they chose, the mages and engineers were still needed to make as many Sandroku Golems customised for construction as possible.
Ayse and the Elfish researchers had already improved the initial Sandroku design as assigned by Jin and they could have asked the System to build it. However, that would incur huge unnecessary costs compared to getting the Goblin Mages and Engineers to build them since all they had to do was to follow the blueprints.
The new Sandroku golems are now modular in nature, allowing it to fit parts for construction like drills, scoopers, clawers etc. It can also be refitted within a span of 15 minutes with battle modules so that they are all battle ready, making them extremely versatile. But because of the modular nature of the golem, it was not as tough as the first generation of battle golems. (But at least, the new one has cockpit air conditioning!)
Therefore, it was Qiu Yue’s job and responsibility to make sure that Jin had sufficient money to build his new empire and then some for the future too by saving money on operational costs. But in a rush to catch up with Jin, she unwisely showed less tact with her current negotiations. After dealing with King Sol, so much over the last few weeks, she had not taken into account, that even the most patient creature could reach their limits at some point.
“Still, that does not warrant using our civilian and military engineers or mages? What do you think we are? Some rental store?” King Sol said with a tone of controlled anger. He wasn’t too proud for having lost his temper for a moment. In fact he knew, that Qiu Yue had always been quite fair in their negotiations, not taking too much advantage of them having saved his country and waited for her to explain herself.
“…I shall elaborate more.” Qiu Yue understood she was in the wrong and knew that she needed to mend the relationship by giving them the full picture. When the Goblin King and his general heard the concept, they could barely believe it. After Qiu Yue, showed them the images of their blueprints, all of them applauded it. That mysterious Jin kept surprising them over and over. For him to have such an ambition to create a floating city as well as an underwater one, it clearly showed to the Goblin King how much power that young man was wielding.
From the previous war, he had hundreds if not thousands of humanoid followers willing to aid to his cause. He also possessed mighty firepower that held back the Orcs and their infamous Lost Tech artefacts. Lets not forget him having seemingly unlimited other sentient monsters that were completely foreign to the Goblins. Not to mention giving them hundred of thousands of gold as part of the contract immediately up front? All this served to remind them that the Goblins should not even think of fighting against a person like Jin.
Loaning all their elites as their ‘ultimate gratitude’? Suddenly King Sol thought it was laughable that he thought of it that way. Even if they gave away the entire kingdom to Master Jin, he would think that was nothing to him. Qiu Yue hadn’t realised that her simple explanation became an efficient way of threatening-erm persauding the King and his Generals.
“Thus, in return, those Sandroku Golems your mages and engineers are going to construct will be sold to you all at half the price we are selling at the end of our City Building.” Qiu Yue finished her pitch and King Sol furrowed his eyebrows.
“I understand your concept now. But why are we paying so much when we are loaning you the manpower?” King Sol asked his tone being more placid than earlier.
“Because we have already improved the designs of the initial Sandroku Golems and we are going to buy all the raw materials from your goblin suppliers. We will need to earn something back or else Jin might not have enough money to build his city.” Qiu Yue answered. King Sol considered her answer for a while before he suddenly smiled a little.
“You have convinced me. I permit you to loan 60% of our mages and engineers to build the Sandroku Golems. The Kingdom will even pay for all the raw materials you need. In return, we ask for the selling price of the Golems to be at 10%, if possible at 5%.” King Sol offered as he could not imagine how much those improved machines… Those work of wonders he saw briefly during the Celebratory Parade would cost at full price.
“6%. That is the cost needed to cover maintenance and the payment for my other workforce. As you should be aware, some of the materials needed can only be provided by us.” Qiu Yue was a bit surprised that King Sol became so friendly, but she was willing to take his offer up.
They had taken enough advantage of him already, so it should prove beneficial to make them this concession as a show of goodwill, for future negotiations. (As what Jin always emphasised to her.) The Sub System had already calculated to total amount they needed for magic fuel and other expenses, and hence the 6% of the original selling price would become 150,000 Goblin Gold.
King Sol agreed since the gold used to spend on the local goblin suppliers would give the Royalty some exclusive loyalty benefits in the future too. It could also be seen as an injection of funds to potentially aid these suppliers as a tactic to recover the sluggish economy after the war.
Qiu Yue instantly created the contract documents on the spot upon hearing the King’s agreement. The Sub System had provided her with a suitcase that had an inbuilt printer and laptop (as well as other things!) that allowed her to change and amend any prepared contracts on the fly. After which, she gave it to the King to sign. (The King was amazed that the Humanoids had such advanced printing technology. The goblins had to use mages to write that fast.)
However, this contract was unlike the previous ones when she made only King Sol sign it. Thanks to the introduction of the Empire Building Sub System, she was able to make anyone who signed a contract with her to be subjected to the Loyalty Enforcement Orders.
Therefore she decided to make sure that the Three Generals signed it as well. It was not too hard to convince them, as they were all in charge of the mage battalion. (King Sol did not want to give a general too much power by taking charge of the most offensive battalion in their arsenal.)
As all four of them signed the contract, they did not know that there was a small subtext which stated that the Sub System could enforce it into a permanent Loyalty Enforcement Orders.
It was an underhanded trick and Qiu Yue felt bad initially for making use of their trust this way, but she wanted the four goblins to eventually be exposed to the System so that this good hearted King and his three Generals would continue to rule the Goblin Kingdom with their citizens in mind for a very long time. (It also was a great way to keep tabs on them. because Qiu Yue unknowingly preferred to have them under her control, just like how she quietly controlled the Orc King Frost Echo.)
“Congratulations Sub System User Qiu Yue. You have completed the optional Mission by gaining control over 2 Kingdoms now.” The Sub System told her and granted her a crapload of gold for completing a side mission. Qiu Yue casually opened her phone to check her account to verify the amount given.
“I initially wanted to use this gold to finance the Sandroku Golems. I will have to thank King Sol’s change of heart, which provided us with some extra allowance to play around for Jin’s new city. Thanks, Emi!” Qiu Yue smiled as she thought to herself while King Sol assumed that she was doing so because of the signed contract.
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“As stated, I will return the mages and engineers back as soon as possible. Also as a sign of gratitude, I will send over one free Sandroku Golem Mk.2 for your other mages and combat engineers to study it. Who knows? Maybe they might find something that the assigned goblins could not?” Qiu Yue giggled and so did King Sol who imagined the prospect of having a mechanical army to deter his neighbours.
