[I really don’t think this is appropriate, Anthony.]
[What do you mean? You used to be a merchant, didn’t you? You’ve negotiated for us a ton of times and been fantastic at it. What’s the problem now?]
[I was negotiating with towns and cities that you’d conquered! It’s not exactly hard to force a fair agreement down their throats when there’s a set of mandibles locked around them!]
[I’m fairly sure there weren’t ants standing around with their jaws poised to behead your negotiating partners….]
[Not literally, you oversized ant! I’m just saying I had the upper hand in those talks. And I was only talking to other merchants and petty city lords, not brathians!]
[What’s the difference?]
[Brathians are… different! They’re just different!]
[I mean, how have you even met brathians? I thought you’d never been this deep in the Dungeon?]
[I haven’t. There’s brathians at every level and also on the surface.]
The old woman sighed and pinched her brow. How could she explain this to this obstinate insect?
[The brathians are famous for being skilled negotiators, even in Liria. They cut hard deals and would sell the scales off their own back for the right price.]
[So they’re ruthless when it comes to money. So’s just about everyone who doesn’t have six or more legs. The bruan’chii excepted.]
[It’s pretty much a religion to them! They don’t even live in kingdoms or empires. They form trading blocs, caravans and conglomerates instead. Their leaders are usually the best and most successful traders. I got fleeced by the brathians I met on the surface, what do you think is going to happen to me down here?!]
enormous
[Too heavy,] she grumbled.
coexist with us, so that’s great, they just want to strike some sort of deal for our goods. If we can nab some cores in exchange for rugs and furniture, that’s great! If not, they can
[They want your
giant ant
artwork and besides that,
want to buy goods from you… and then onsell them to others at
you, Enid, the sum total of things I know about business and money mainly involve
lent people your legs?
has any idea what they’re doing with currency or trade. Alright? We depend on your wisdom and expertise once again. If
her people, and asked so little in return. It was extremely difficult for her to ever say no to their requests,
When are
here already. They’ve been waiting for us
[WHAT!?]
meeting hall, her back aching and
while I was coming?] she demanded of the big ant sitting idly on one side of
them we were waiting for our negotiator to
DID just
their own pace of doing things and that seemed to mollify them. That and
and it wasn’t slow…. Rather the opposite, the ants worked at breakneck pace at all
did the trick. How the ants managed to bake so well when they couldn’t
table and sat as gracefully as she could. She even managed to stifle
comfortably in the corner. Across the table sat
tell me they were dressed so well! I would have
are? I can’t really
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