May arrives at the table
1026 Words
The woman sitting across Louis dared not to ask any questions yet.
For her, he was the single strangest business partner she had ever met. People in Atlantis had one motivation for doing business, which was money.
This made them somewhat easier to predict. The man sitting in front of her was different. What Louis wanted was power, not wealth. This was inconceivable in Atlantis.
But he needed power to clear the dungeon.
The businesswoman he was meeting with here was one of the owners of a knight order. Louis had already met with several others and was finally ready to meet with the biggest security company in Atlantis.
They were sitting in a very long and elegant table. May and the businesswoman sat at opposing ends, facing each other.
Louis was standing to May’s side. He was staring intensely at the woman, almost as if by looking at her he could understand her personality.
“How many knights do you want?” the woman finally asked.
Louis liked how Atlantis operated. It was never about how many friends you have, or who you are. Here, business is all about making profits. No charity, and only the competent survive.
“I want a thousand knights” May responded.
The woman was having trouble processing what she just heard. People mostly asked for knights for hard labor. One thousand was a number that meant either a very big construction project, or a very very small battle.
“If you are planning to fight aboveground, I will not give you any men” she told them.
Louis then told her that they had no interest of fighting aboveground. He always answered quietly, looking to establish a power dynamic.
He learned that psychology here was very underdeveloped. They had no qualms with the mind, so psychology was something that they had barely begun to explore.
He got closer to the woman. She remained sitting down. This was the first time ever that she had felt such an overwhelming presence.
This was not because Louis had such a presence. He had a very scrawny built, and a high pitched voice. What created his heavy presence was decent clothing, confidence, and a little bit of knowledge on how the human mind works.
Normally, in his previous business deals, you had to either fight the power dynamic, or focus entirely on the results. Here, because people only focused on results, setting the power dynamic was easy.
He was now sitting down at the corner of the table, looking down at her. She could even smell his cologne, which was something that May’s fake father used to have in his dresser.
He then, almost as if it was a whisper, told her what he wanted.
“We have already negotiated with other knight squad owners around the city. We have not accepted any of their deals yet, but you can imagine that since we are going to give someone quite a lot of business, everybody is dying to cut their rates” he told her while leaning ever so close to her.
“Louis, what are you doing to my guest?” May asked him in the tone of a proper lady.
He did not expect May to say anything here. That was not according to their plan. But he did not let his mask fade with surprise. He simply went to her side.
Something, at the back of the woman’s mind started to tell her that she should listen. Negotiating with every knight owner around so that everyone would cut their prices fighting for each other was a move every shrewd businessman could apply. But knowing that the human mind reacts differently when someone is looking down at you was something that she did not know. She had just learned that, and was furthermore interested in what this man was capable of.
“My men will earn standard wage, and I want a portion of your profits. Twenty five percent, to be exact” she told them.
This was pretty standard for Atlantis. It was basically a more informal way of buying part of the corporation. She would then become one of their business partners, which in the grand scale was a great win for the company.
Except he had no intention of making profits. He had another reason as to why he would employ the knights.
“We are done here, Louis” said May.
Louis nodded and started to move towards the businesswoman to escort her out. It was not a bad deal, by Atlantean standards, but they were starting negotiations. It is common knowledge that you never accept the first deal.
It was not common that she would get kicked out because of it.
The woman then asked why.
“My lady has never been interested in bargaining. She does not care for doing business with ones who would try to cheat money out of a business partner” Louis told her.
The woman did not want to lose such a giant business partner, and even moreso a new source of information, so she asked to renegotiate a later date.
May accepted, and the lady was escorted out.
When they were alone, Louis came to May’s side and gave her a head pat.
“You got some good acting skills little witch” Louis told her.
When he stopped, she looked at him dangerously, and told him, “Who told you to stop?”
To this, he simply laughed and started giving her head pats again.
Louis had almost finished all of the negotiations to have an army of knights in the city.
If he bought every knight squad in the region, he would have lost too much of May’s money, which would have raised suspicion.
They had no interest in that money, but he wanted to prepare for the dungeon, and the only way to do so was fighting with power.
He looked out the window and wondered if all that the king had said was true. If the real enemy were the angels and the Gods.
He sighted, thinking how much it was turning into a drag.
- Writer
