Speed Is King

All three pairs of eyes stared at Autumn and waited for her decision.

Autumn blinked a few times and tried to analyze the deal from several different angles. She knew that the deal was definitely not in its final form. Far from it.

Elliot still had many cards to play, and most glaringly so was the bound and gagged Third Senior Sister. Any deal that she struck with him that excludes her Third Senior Sister would probably cause her Eldest Senior Brother to be displeased with her!

Rebel or not, the Fortune Hermit Mountain will take care of its own internal issues by themselves. If their disciples were killed in battle, fine. Casualties of their own weakness and folly.

But if they were still alive, then the Fortune Hermit Mountain would definitely want them back!

And especially if it was Third Senior Sister. Master loved her deeply. Even Eldest Senior Brother cared for her. That said, she had no idea why that stupid woman decided to throw her lot with Second Senior Brother.

She sighed deeply.

Going by Elliot's logic, if the combined twenty years of the blue dragon's contracted service were to be the base for negotiations, then by giving Third Senior Sister up to her PERMANENTLY, he would have more value on the table than her!

In fact, if it were so, she would probably have to compensate him for her instead!

She didn't have a choice. It was her Third Senior Sister!

Autumn pointed at her. "I want her to be given back to me." She said softly. "Name your price."

As expected, Elliot Musk, the originally very poor earthling who had to strive his very best to put food on the table for his two sisters, was very, very, very good at negotiating and squeezing his target for every last drop of blood.

Especially if his target had tried to kill him earlier. It didn't matter if it was a terrible case of misunderstanding. She had to pay! Poor Autumn!

"Her? No. She's not part of the deal." Elliot flatly refused Autumn to jack up her value. "Absolutely not."

"Name your price." Autumn gritted her teeth and steeled her heart to pay an outrageous sum of ransom for her stupid Third Senior Sister!

"There no price. Unless you… want to trade yourself for her? You're an Emperor too." Elliot asked her with an innocent voice that contrasted wildly with his vicious demands.

By stating an impossible opening price, Elliot had firmly taken the upper hand in the negotiation! Plus, he had walk away power, and Autumn didn't.

She was screwed from the start.

Khalendros and Khellendra exchanged yet another look.

This must be the first and only time a King is extorting an Emperor! Khellendra's excited look seemed to say.

Oh this is fun! Although I hate to be the object being traded, it's still fun to watch a full blown extortion taking place! Khalendros' look seemed to say.

"Absolutely not!" Autumn glared at him fiercely.

"Fine. Take the two dragons. I'll just replace them with this Third Senior Sister. She's an Empress and much more powerful than them anyway." Elliot shrugged.

Although the two dragons knew that it was merely a negotiating technique which Elliot was executing, their lips still twitched lightly as they held back a bellyful of curses.

"I will give you the two dragons, and also access to the runes that they have received from me in exchange for her." Autumn finally gave in and made the first solid offer.

"No." Elliot refused her once more, and without even making a counter offer!

"I'll add a Dome Palace!"

"No."

"All the treasures of the dead Emperors!"

"What treasures? There are no treasures." Elliot merely glanced lazily at the dead Emperors and the complete lack of anything valuable around them.

"You… I'll give you three Dome Palaces!"

"I only need one."

"I'll… give you one additional Legendary Rune. It's my secret treasure which I found only recently. I haven't even studied it." Autumn said, finally willing herself to part with the first true treasure that she had.

Only to be greeted with…

"No."

Elliot was truly a master extor- ehm. Master negotiator!

"You!! Stop saying no and name your damn price!" Autumn shouted with exasperation.

Elliot smiled a truly happy smile.

Some jealous people would describe it as greedy. Some very jealous people would even describe it as downright despicable.

But for Elliot, it was merely a happy smile.

True, it was a strange sort of happiness, one derived from seeing a job well done, a victim well extorted or a rat perfectly cornered.

But nonetheless, it was happiness.

And it irritated Autumn to her core.

"You must understand the situation first, before you can understand why I will name my price later." Elliot said seriously.

"Here we go." Autumn braced herself for impact.

"You see, this woman here, tried to kill me. And in doing so, she caused a great deal of trauma to me!" Elliot announced.

"Tra-trauma?" Autumn choked and nearly spurted out blood from her mouth.

… … … ..

Trauma your damn head! Even the blind and deaf can tell that you're not in the least traumatized! In fact, you're probably even happy about being attacked! Just look at the seven Emperors' completely bare corpses, you took every single thing of value from them! Damn you! Damn you greedy, dramatic bastard!!!

Unbelievable…

Damn bastard!!

… … …

Autumn's mental state fluctuated wildly as she went from disbelief to shock to anger to disbelief and to anger again in a span of a few short seconds.

"The very worst of traumas!" Elliot continued to announce. "I predict that I will have recurring nightmares about this traumatic event for the next few years- no. Next few decades. And because of that, the only thing I could do to ease my trauma is to torture her by skinning her alive and then chopping off her limbs one by one."

Third Senior Sister's eyes went wide with fear at his words, and turned to look at Autumn pleadingly.

"Pay him! Pay him everything he asked for! I will give you back double- no, triple!!" Her desperate gaze seemed to say.