Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 451 It all depends on one thing (double chapter?)

"You say some... worrying stories," Banjay spoke, carefully measuring what words he was using.

'It's been a while since I had a conversation this important, huh?' he thought, his eyes twitching the tiniest bit. 'So why do I feel right back in my element?'

The first out of the three strangers to introduce himself during the greeting was a man from the empire. For all the possible reasons; a different empire from the one at war with the Patriarchate.

That man's... No, Sir Claudy's introduction was something Banjay was familiar with. And as elegant and courtly as it was, it held absolutely no weight or information.

On the other hand, the initial introduction of the other man within the group of strangers couldn't be any more different.

Sure, he used some words that Banjay had to actively work hard to interpret properly on the go. And sure, contrary to Claudy's introduction, Peter's greeting was full of vagueness and repeated uncertainty...

But despite its nature, it also came bearing quite a lot of information as long as one was listening keenly enough to catch the implications of Peter's words.

To no surprise, upon sitting down and moving on to the proper debate that had to precede the negotiations, it was this other guy who took the leading role, quickly attempting to explain the situation through some weird stories.

And once again, despite speaking in indirect ways, his words somehow carried the condensed, practical knowledge Banjay needed to start making some preliminary calls about the situation and those strange guests.

"What can I do," taking his sweet time to respond in any way to Banjay's small remark, Peter opened up his arms and put them to the sides before shaking his shoulders. "We live in worrying times, do we not?"

This smile...

Just like a lot of his words, Peter's smile was empty. Yet, strangely enough, it was empty in a way that made its nature obvious.

In a weird way, Peter was honest about his dishonesty. That's what his initial remarks during the greeting phase served to establish, after all. And it was this honest dishonesty of the man, Banjay found both familiar but also so damn easy to fall for.

"Does that mean things are not going great down south too?" Banjay mentioned with a smile, matching the spirit and rationale of his counterpart.

"I never said we come from the south," Peter quickly retorted, his fake smile frozen on his face.

"Where do you come from, then?"

"Didn't you claim to come from the empire?"

Banjay's mouth twitched when he sensed he managed to outmaneuver the other party.

'So they don't know we are fighting with the empire too!'

Isera never mentioned bringing up the name of their enemy up. And being a patriarch's ear, she was one of the very few whom Banjay would trust to be careful with the wording they used.

"And that's what you get for acting the way you do, Claudy," Peter muttered, his small smirk wiped by a hint of displeasure as he glanced over to his companion. "Either way, where we come from doesn't really matter. What does matter, though, is what we can do for each other."

Banjay raised his eyebrow.

'Yeah, that has to be a load of crap...' he thought.

For a city to produce so much, it had to have buyers. And if there were buyers, someone would have long since created a city at such an opportune location.

From what those strangers said, though, they made a city from scratch.

But again, what could that kind of city produce, if there were no buyers for their products? How could they overcome the very problems that currently starved the entire patriarchate and started when their one last ally and trading partner fell to the imperial push and became nothing more but their chai farming colony?

'Still, the way they talk about it...' Banjay gulped down his saliva, 'it's really easy to believe them.'

"You think we are lying," Peter spoke out, now bearing a casual kind of smile. "I'm not here to convince you otherwise, though," he then added, shrugging his shoulders for yet another time.

"And why is that?" Banjay inquired, baffled by such a statement.

'We are trying to negotiate. Shouldn't you be trying to build up trust with me?'

"Because the methods we used over in the empire, are not the methods my group shall potentially use if we decide to expand in this direction," Peter explained without even a hint of hesitation as if he was revealing a great soup's recipe over the motivations and patterns in which his group operated.

"You are not?" Claudy asked, equally as taken aback by Peter's revelations as Banjay himself.

"Of course not!" Peter exclaimed as if the need to explain this bit was the most shocking thing he heard today. "We are not at war with them, so how do you reckon we would get enough manpower to do our bidding?"

Peter shook his head, clearly trying to hold back laughter.

"In the empire, we used the captives because that's what the situation called for back then. But here?" Peter's smile only deepened as he leaned back in his chair and cast a sweeping glance at everyone gathered in this negotiating circle. "Here, it's much easier to just pay them to do what we want instead."

"So you think it's going to be that easy to buy us?" Banjay took his turn trying to hold back his laughter. "Don't you think our enemies haven't tried that already?"

Somehow, Peter's words struck a sensitive string of Banjay's soul.

Bribes and torture were how half of his family turned into the sixth imperial division lapdogs, after all.

"Oh, it all depends on one thing," Peter ignored the changes to Banjay's expression or even the changes to the tone of his voice and opted to further his smile even more.

"And what is that, if I may inquire?" Banjay, feeling the first tingles of anger starting to tempt him, asked in a voice overflowing with irony.

Yet, as if to mock him, Peter continued to give out his careless, unbothered smile.

"It all depends on what we are trying to buy you with."