Negotiation

A call from the broker came in first thing in the morning.

“An exclusive order from the Japanese government?”

I was instantly wide awake.

I sprang out of bed and drank a glass of cold water.

“Seriously? Not a company, but the government?”

[Yes. We just received an official request. They want to buy the entire first batch.]

“Why would they want that?”

Of course, I trusted the performance of my products.

What kind of material was it made from?

And the makers were dwarves at that. Craftsmen more skilled than anyone on Earth.

But other people didn’t know that.

I was the only one who had fought that whale directly. It would be hard for anyone else to grasp just how monstrous it was.

In other words, from the buyer’s perspective, the item’s performance was still an unknown.

And they wanted to buy everything, even though its use was extremely limited and vague?

[They must be desperate too. By the way, are you familiar with the situation in Japan?]

“No? I’m not interested in politics.”

[Then I’ll explain from the basics.]

“Sure, start with the basics.”

The broker began his explanation in a calm voice.

[You know Japan is an island, right?]

... Are we starting from there?

“Actually, this is the first I’m hearing of it.”

[Good heavens. I had no idea it was that bad....]

“Of course I was joking! That’s harsh.”

[Just in case, but you do know Britain is an island, right....]

“Argh! I know that much too. Island countries! Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia and so on... what else was there? Anyway, that’s not the point!”

[Yes. We can save the geography lesson for later. In any case, Japan has a long, intricate coastline. There are plenty of monsters, and plenty of places that need protecting.]

That made sense.

On land, the situation was much better for holding monsters back. Gates opened in limited places.

Unless your luck was truly terrible, all you had to do was seal off the border on the gate side.

Korea was the same, and some inland European countries didn’t even need to prepare for monster waves at all.

[So far, they’ve been plugging the gaps by throwing the Self-Defense Forces and Hunters at the problem, but there’s a limit to that too. Many coastal cities have already lost their function.]

“What about other island nations? Britain, for example. Didn’t they contact you?”

Of course, Britain and Japan weren’t the only island nations.

But the only country on a similar scale to Japan was Britain.

In that case, wouldn’t they have made an offer too?

If things went well, I might be able to play them off each other and squeeze out maximum profit.

[Britain absolutely does not buy Hunter equipment.]

“Why not? Is their sea somehow different or something?”

[There aren’t any Hunters there to wear equipment in the first place.]

“Huh?”

The broker let out a chuckle and continued his explanation.

[When the Tower first appeared, Britain took the most conservative strategy. They forced every raid team to run on Easy difficulty.]

“I get what situation this is.”

Come to think of it, the Fridge had explained something similar before.

Easy difficulty meant lower rewards, so their growth plates closed early or something?

[In the end, Hunters inside Britain couldn’t keep up with the Tower’s internal difficulty inflation. They tried to revise their strategy too late, but it was already too late.]

“So what about them now?”

[They’ve basically given up and are getting by with mercenaries. They’re also handling Tower raids by temporarily naturalizing foreign raid teams. And because Brexit put them on the EU’s bad side, even that costs twice as much.]

“Oh dear.”

It was unfortunate, but in the end it was their own fault.

They tried to get away with it and got hit hard for it.

“So Japan is the only one that placed an order?”

[If we’re only counting orders, yes.... I think I’ll need some antacids.]

“Are you sick?”

[I’m about to be. Our company has to deal with a joint negotiating delegation from Japan’s Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Defense. We do have capable staff, of course.]

“You’ve done well so far, so I’m sure you can handle it. Fighting!”

I offered him some empty encouragement.

I was worried about the broker’s stomach, but it wasn’t like I could help him.

[The problem is that there’s an even more troublesome guest.]

“Troublesome guest?”

[It’s the CIA. They requested an audience with the chairman. Come to think of it, they’re not really a guest either. Since they aren’t buying anything.]

“An audience with me? Do they even know who I am?”

[I don’t think they know that much. But they said they wanted to speak directly to the person behind me.]

“Hmm...”

The reason the CIA contacted me even though they hadn’t figured out my identity.

There was only one thing I could think of.

During the showcase last time, we’d done business with the CIA.

They asked for first-purchase rights in the United States, and in return they promised to intervene and protect us if any international problems came up.

Could they be trying to use that first-purchase right now?

Did they mean I should sell to them instead of Japan?

But that contract should be limited to the shield production line.

Were they planning to insist on using the purchase right here too?

That would be a problem.

“Can you connect me now?”

[Yes. In fact, that’s the main reason I called.]

“Then get ready. Connect us when I say okay.”

I loosened up my throat while the broker connected the call.

A bonus feature of the Siren vocal cords: voice modulation.

“Ah-, ahh. Good. This should do.”

I changed it to a low male voice.

It would hide my identity, and negotiating would probably be easier than with a child’s voice.

“Should I even cast hypnosis? No, that’s a bit risky.”

If it worked, it’d be huge.

But what if they had an item that protected the mind?

The moment I was found out, I’d end up on the receiving end of rage I couldn’t handle.

I naturally controlled even the hypnotic effect that seeped into my voice by finely adjusting the mana in my throat.

Perfect preparation.

“Go ahead and connect me.”

[Good day, Chairman. We finally get to meet at last. It’s an honor to speak with you directly.]

With a crackle of static, the CIA came on the line.

“What is it?”

[I’m calling about the deal with the Japanese government.]

As expected of the CIA? Their intelligence network was on another level.

They’d picked up on the offer that had just come in and moved on it.

“Are you planning to claim first-purchase rights? But that was supposed to be limited to the shield.”

[Haha, thank you for remembering. But we don’t intend to buy that suit right away.]

I wanted to tell them to get lost if they weren’t buying, but they were the world’s most powerful customer. I had to hold back.

[We strongly encourage your company to sell the item to Japan.]

“…Then what did you contact me for?”

I asked, unable to hide my confusion.

What exactly did America want?

[The U.S. is secretly pushing a project to reopen the Panama Canal.]

“The Panama Canal?”

I quickly looked it up on the computer.

The Panama Canal. A passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Without this canal, ships would have to go all the way around South America. Just in distance alone, that’s a 20,000-kilometer difference.

It was such an important facility that ship sizes around the world were based on the width of this canal.

But Mexico had collapsed because of the Gates, and small countries like Panama were no different.

On top of that, marine monsters were running wild, so it had been closed for a long time.

Naturally, the significance of reopening it was enormous.

“The Panama Canal doesn’t belong to the United States, does it?”

[America is sacrificing itself for humanity. We just finished cleaning up Mexico, after all. It’s only a little farther south, isn’t it?]

An answer that was shameless beyond belief.

But if they were going to repair it themselves and take it over after its original owner was gone, there wasn’t much I could say.

“Don’t you need a suit to reopen the canal?”

[Of course, we trust Aiternus’s technical prowess. But it’s also true that we don’t have large-scale testing data.]

“Ah, so you want to use Japan as the tester?”

[If the suit’s performance is proven, then we’ll buy all of the next production batch.]

“And if you don’t like the performance?”

[Then we won’t spend the money. Japan will be a little disappointed, but that’s that.]

I couldn’t help admiring that shameless merchant mindset.

To say it so boldly—using an ally as a beta tester?

“Well, it’s not like we’d particularly lose anything.”

There was no reason to refuse.

Anyway, I was planning to sell the initial batch to Japan, and I still had a bit of hide left.

It’d be great if the U.S. could handle the remaining stock.

[A wise decision. And to celebrate our new partnership, I’d like to give you a gift.]

“A gift?”

[There’s something we’ll ask for instead of money at the negotiating table with Japan. Since you’re a company that sells Hunter equipment, you’d know this.... There are things in this world money can’t buy, wouldn’t you say?]

That was true. Even the first Dragonbone Shield we sold wasn’t something you could buy just by having money.

[We’ll provide you with a list of Legendary equipment possessed by the Japanese government.]

“Oh...”

[Knowing about it doesn’t mean you can get it, of course. If you suddenly ask them to hand over a Legendary item, they’ll refuse without question, won’t they? So we’ll also tell you which item is worth obtaining through negotiation. Even the method of persuading them.]

“What kind of item is it?”

[It’s a one-time-use Legendary item. Its use is awkward, but its rank is high, so it’s been rotting away in a warehouse as a burden.]

“What does it do?”

[It’s a mirror that reflects attacks.]

An attack-reflection item, huh.

One person’s name flashed through my mind.

Could it be an item dropped by the floor 40 boss?

“Attack reflection... It sounds like a good item at first glance, so why did it become a burden?”

[It requires too much mana to activate. Enough that an S-rank mage would have to go all out. The problem is, Japan doesn’t have an S-rank mage.]

“Then wouldn’t it be of little use if I took it?”

[Haha, Chairman, were you an Awakened, by any chance? Of course you won’t be using it yourself.]

The other side laughed as if they’d heard a funny joke.

[There is one in Korea, isn’t there? An S-rank mage. And there’s a high chance there’ll be one more soon.... From what I hear, that person seems deeply connected to your company as well.]

This guy, just how much did he know?

I raised my guard at the unexpected remark.