The next morning, we went back to et the king of the Midra Kingdom once more.
We were brought to the castle and brought to the throne room once more where the ministers and the king were all waiting for us.
It seed that they had already gathered beforehand and I could guess what they had been discussing.
What else could they have been discussing?
There was no doubt that they had been discussing us while we weren't there.
I'm sure that they were most likely talking about what we wanted from this eting.
I could see that the second prince wasn't here, so it seed that they had held this eting without the second prince.
Even if the second prince had his level of prestige in this Midra Kingdom, it didn't an that everyone was happy about this. The one that should be the least happy was the king...
Even though the second prince was his son, he was also a threat to his rule.
The second prince was so outstanding and the king...
Well, he wasn't exactly the best king there was. He wasn't even considered a good king.
It was already considered good that nothing really bad happened during his reign.
The people didn't have any expectations until the second prince suddenly showed his prowess.
Now, people were just waiting for the second prince to take over, but this wasn't sothing that the king wanted to do. After all, the king had only been on the throne for a decade since taking over for his father.
Compared to his father's long forty years of reigning, that was still very short.
So the king was wary of the second prince, even if he used the second prince to make himself look better.
Not long after we arrived, I saw the second prince also coming in.
Only then did I start getting to the main issue.
Without the second prince, none of this could happen.
"Your majesty, I must say that I am very impressed with what I've seen. There are many things here that I have never seen in our own kingdom that have caught my eyes." I said all of sudden, catching the king and the ministers off guard.
All of them looked at as if they were trying to figure out just what I was planning, but I looked back at them with a calm smile on my face that didn't reveal a single thing.
Finally, the king said, "Duke Zwein, it is our honour to catch your noble eyes. However, is there anything else that you want to say?"
With a nod, I said, "I wish to open up trade between our kingdom for a few of your resources."
The king slowly gave a nod before asking, "Which resources?"
It wasn't as if he was against this, but of course he had to think about his own safety.
That was right, his own safety.
His first thought wasn't the safety of his country, but rather his own safety since that was the most important thing to him.
That was the kind of king that this was.
I looked around at the ministers and saw that many of them had similar looks.
Even though the second prince had been doing what he could to make this country prosperous, there were these people who only cared about their own interests who were harming the country.
It was no wonder that he said that it was only a matter of ti before this Midra Kingdom collapsed.
It most likely wouldn't remain until he was able to take the throne.
After looking around, I just simply said, "The listone, I'm interested in that."
The king slightly knitted his brows when he heard this, but he didn't reject this as he said, "Oh, Duke Zwein, I never thought that you would be interested in sothing so mundane. I was certain that it would be sothing more extravagant."
With a smile, I calmly said, "We all have our own tastes, mine is just a bit different from yours."
The king narrowed his eyes for a few seconds as he looked at , but then he said, "Alright, it's not as if this can't be done. It's just that before doing this, we need to figure out what the price of the listone will be."
I was already expecting this, as well as what ca after.
There was a trace of greed that appeared in the king's eyes before he said, "I was thinking that since this is a precious resource, we should make sure that we get the right price. I was thinking…how about its weight in gold?"
I slightly knitted my brows hearing this since I never thought that he would be so shaless as to ask sothing like this.
He was basically saying that he wanted to trade the listone pound for pound for gold.
Was this worth that much?
Never.
Yet he had the audacity to say sothing like this.
I didn't let myself be bothered by this as I just said with a smile, "You jest, your majesty."
Then in a more serious voice, I said, "How about ten gold coins per tonne?"
This was already a very generous offer since it was already double the current market price, but…
It still wasn't enough for this greedy king and his greedy ministers.
"I'm sure that you can do better than that, Duke Zwein. This is a precious resource that is hard to find and hard for us to mine, so I'm sure that you can offer a bit more." The king said with a greedy smile.
I just gave a sigh deep down as I felt that there really was no helping this fool of a king.
But the real goal of this proposal wasn't actually to buy the listone.
The listone was nothing more than bait to make sure that they agreed to this.
Without answering him, I said, "Your majesty, I wish to present a gift to your Midra Kingdom."
The king and his ministers were all caught off guard when they heard this, but they waited to hear what we had to say.
"Wyverns, I wish to give you so wyverns."
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