As Rex had discussed with his three business partners, the remaining time before the auction he spent in the city. Victor and Eredar had expressed their worries that Rex would just get too engrossed in his murder spree in the dungeon, had he gone during the week, that he might miss the auction all together. Rex had to aknowledge that they were most likely right since he indeed had the tendency to do that. But in Rex defence, it was only to be expected. He reasoned to himself that if any one of them could grow stronger each time they made such trips, they too would be in the same situation. Still. he knew when to hold back, and it was not like he could not improve while staying in the city. He had quite the sized garden where he could practice and refine his controll and precision of his current skills. And so Rex spent the remaining week engrosed in his training and spending time with his girls. He also made a few trips in the city with his non disguised persona.
Rex had been going to the dungeon without mage guise whenever he was not planning on aquire a new branded, so it was most of the time. He noticed that once again, whenever the archon went out he would be followed one he was in the market, and every time Rex would shake them loose in the bustle of the market streets. He noticed that almost all of the spies that tried to keep track of him were belonging to the Echlisiarchy. He could tell because of the symbol they all wore somewhere on their person. And while normal people would not be able to notice, with his ever developing finesse in mana controll, he could basicly scan anyone he considered worth checking out to the point where he had very high understanding of the possesions of his target.
Sometimes Rex wondered, just what kind of ungodly creatures blood coursed through the veins of his body, to have such an array of possible applications to his skill. Perception and manipulation of all manner of energy. Right now he was ever more sure that it not only sounds unreasonably broken, but it is in reality as well. of course he is not gonna complain, on the contrary, he apreciates the living hell out of it.
Meanwhile, a day before the auction, in the harbor of Blythe a rather impressive ship had just docked. it dwarfed any other ship currently present in the harbor by a few times. The ship was carrying a flag of white background with a red sun in the middle, that was enveloped by nine tails. From the ship disembarked a group of twenty people. in the middle there was a palaquin carried by for slave men, their slavery runes across their body clearly visible. The rest were foxkin men, wearing what looked like samurai armor, and with a katana by their side. They were met by a lower level official from Blythe and with just a few words exchanged, the man rushed to guid them to carriages, to bring them to the castle.
In less than an hour, the group was in Victors office, and the man was slightly nervous. From the palaquin, two kitsunes had exited and now they were sitting in front of the lord of the city. one was a woman with light brown hair and seven tails of the same color. her fox ears were sharply pointing up at the ceiling. her green eyes were looking at Victor through relatively small glasses, and her expression was quite frosty. She was wearing a dark red kimono with light obi tying it around the waist.
The man next to her was dressed in what one would classify as a buttler uniform, a katana and a wakizashi adorning his belt. The man had four tails and the color of his hair was dark grey. Both exuded quite the hostile air, making Victor somewhat akward. The man besides the woman was also quite powerfull, Victor could tell, and since they were here as envoys from the kitsune, he would preffer to avoid any large scale conflict.
"Welcome, dignitaries of the Land of the nine divines. To what do we owe the pleasure of your presence?" He asked in an amicable tone.
"Dont play coy with us, city lord. We are here for the mage." the kitsune lady responded, her tone ice cold, seething rage present in her voice.She then continiued
"Bring him to us immediaty."
Victors smile dissapeared from his face, replaced by a cold indifference as he replied
"First, I would kindly advise you to change your tone towards me, miss ambasador. We are not in your home, so it would do you well to show some respect towards the owner of the house you are visiting. Secondly, while I would prefer to avoid any conflict with your empire, we of the merchant cities have never been scared to protect our interests and profits, so dont think we can be intimidated. Third, i have no controll over the mage in question. At best, I can ask him to do me a favor and agree to recieve guests, and even that is not guaranteed. And last, but not least, IF you decide to take action against the mage, Blythe will not move a finger...."
he made a small moment of silence for greater effect to make his point across. The now less hostile and grinning with evil smile kitsune ambasador asumed that the city would not interfere with whatever they did as long as they showed them the proper respect, untill she hear Victor finish his sentence
"to help you and save your sorry asses." Finished, Victor regained his amicable smile as he spoke once again
"Now how could I help you? Or is that it?" His previous words did put the kitsune on guard, and she quickly reassesed their plan.
"If you would be so kind as to inform the mage that the kitsune would like to meet with him, as we believe there is something to discuss, regarding his interest in our kind, that has come to our attention." her tone now was respectfull, not a himn of her previous arrogance in sight.
"Normaly, I would outright refuse such a request, as he had wished, but since you are here for a topic of his interest, I am willing to make an exeption. If you dont mind waiting for a while i will contact him. We should recieve a response raher quickly."
"Please do, we dont mind waitign for a while, if it hastens the process." she replied with a light smile. Victor sighed inwardly. Those foxes were way too good with changing their stance in a second, it the situation called for it. The wasted no time, sending a message to Rex, and in less than twenty minutes, a response was already present, and the delegation of the kitsune was allowed an audience. The note also stated they should bring someone skilled in the art of cooking, since he wanted to have a meal and would be happy if someone from their side and customs could provide insight and assistance in ensuring something that the delegation could appreciate would be served.
The response confused the ambasador a little. How comes someone who had basicly asked around about aquiring a kitsune princess to brand, had the sheer balls to act as if they were here on a friendly visit. Well, she reasoned he might be asuming that the kitsune would be willing to sell of of their princeses for an advantageous deal with him, but that would never happen. While sometimes some lesser foxkin would be sold off in slavery, such cases were few and far between, and there were alwasy some very unique circumstances. Kitsunes however woudl never sell their children, they were too proud about it. It is important to point out that the diference between the foxkin adn kitsune was the number of tails they posessed. The purer the bloodline the more tails they had. And foxin had barely any divine fox blood withing them, that allowed individuals to manifest one to three tails. Any number starting with four were kitsunes.
Seven tailed foxes like her were the nobility of their nation. Eight tailed ones was already an insanely rare occurance, and would almost guarantee the role of their emperor, once the individual was taugh and old enough too take the throne. Nine tailed individuals were basicly just a legend, as that would require basicly pure divine bloodline, which was basicly impossible right now. Nevertheless, the ambasador fond it qiute the odd behaviour. Now she really had to figure out what was going on with this mage, so she sent for one of their cooks to be fetched from their ship and once he arrived they were lead by Victor to Rex mansion.
Since the tow places were quite literaly netx to one another they had arrived in just a few minutes of walking. The ambasador and her butler were in their palaquin once again. Glancing through a small slit between the curtains of the palaquin she saw an orc valkirie at the mansion gate recieving them. That placed her on a guard mode. Any blood mage capable of branding a valkirie was dangerous if not taken seriously.
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At the gate, Victor bid them farewell, and before leaving advised them to act carefully, for their own sake that is. The valkirie brought them all to a certain gazebo in the garden where the mage was sitting in his full disguise. The kitsune frowned, as the man was hiding his appearance, and it was in quite bad tastes to not reveal oneself in negotiations. What did suprise her besides the fact that the valkirie didnt care for their twenty guards and just guided them along to her masters location, was the beautifull white tiger that the mage was showering with affection as they aproached.
Rex, noticing the ambasador and her butler, in the middle of the guards who were following Val, pointed towards the seats on the opposite side of the table
"Please, sit down, get comfortable." his voice friendly enough, as if talking with an aquintance "The cook should follow Val here, she will bring him to the kitchen. He speaks common yes?"
The guards moved to the sides, revealing the ambasador to Rex and she spoke and afterwards dirrected the chosen cook to follow the valkirie
"Greetings, I am Izumi Yuu. Apointed ambasador of the Land of nine divines in Blythe." She sat down, her butler right behind her, on full guard and ready to take action should the need arise. With Val leading the cook away, followed by a couple of the guards, the atmosphere became a bit more chilly. izumi, with somewhat strained light smile, but her tone was indicating slight hostility asked Rex
"Would you be kind enough to explain to us why are you looking for a kitsune princess to brand as your slave? It is quite the audacious thing to annouce to the world."
Rex, who was stil petting Snow, stopped for a moment, confused, so he asked
"When did i start looking for a princess? All i need is a beautifull kitsune that is skilled in making tea. Never once have i mentioned a princess." His words created a silence in the garden as everyone here were processing his words, while he was back to petting the tiger. After a minute Izumi aske the mage
"Are you perhaps not aware that the tea ceremony is only taught to the noble daughters of our seven tailed clans?"
"Even if that is the case, which i find to be such a waste, I never said anything about tea ceremony. I just had an asumption, for whatever the reasons that kitsunes should be wery well versed in teas, and seeing as you even have tea ceremony I was correct. So all I want is a kitsune who can make me some exclusive tea." The nonechalance he was speaking with was somewhat frustrating and confusing to Izumi, and the guards were frowning and exuding some low levels of anger towards the mage, as he was speaking of enslaving a girl of their race.
"i am sorry sir, but you will be dissapointed, as we do not offer our people as wares to be branded or enslaved in any other way." She spoke, now much calmer as it seemed the man was simply ignorant regarding their culture. And while that lowered her innitial hatred towards the man, it still left a bad taste in her mouth, as he still loooekd like wanting his desires to come to fruition.
"I dont mind, I will have one sooner or later anyways." His words made her angry, soe she asked
"Would you be kind enough to elaborate?"
"Sure, we have time to kill while the meal is being prepared. You are in for a treat there, i asked my cheff to prepare some gold grade meat, i hope it will be to your liking. As for the kitsune that i would eventually aquire it is quite simpple really- I have heard that your nation in quite the war right now with their neibors. So there lies my supply route. A lost battle, an unforseen raid on a village, or anything alike. I will get my beautifull kitsune, so everyone will be happy. You get to mantain your morality and I get my own fox girl who can make me some god tier tea. Win-Win for everyone involved."
"And how would that be a win for the girls in question?" izumi asked, gritting her teeth. The man was indeed right. There would surely be countless foxkin and decent amount of kitsune that would appear on the slave markets during the war. Such happenings were unavoidable, and with a word out a blood mage is gonna pay premium for the most exquisite and unharmed girls, it was only a matter of time before he aquires what he desires.
"Besides the fact that they would not be raped by countless men and passed around like commom whores? I believe avoiding such a life is a blessing on its own. Besides the life as a slave of mine is much more comfortable than most could ever dream of. Also i would advise your guard dogs to reel in their blood lust. We are having a civil conversation here, and they are annoying me. We are both grown and reasonable people, so lets act as such." Rex spoke in a calm and relaxed manner, never even once indicating an ounce of worry of any amount of discomfort speaking about the matter. Then after a moment of another silence he asked
"By the way, miss Yuu, once you are finished with your business here, are you perhaps returning home?" Once again he spoke on a very relaxed and friendly manner, his threat to the guards nothing more than a sidenotein his day.
"No, I have been tasked with maintaining an embacy in these lands and serving the interests of my nation."
"Wonderfull. And what would it take for me to secure a stable supply of some exquisite tea from your lands? And since a slave girl is out of the question mayhaps a servant I could hire to make my tea. I am a sucker for a good tea after all." he smiled under the hood and magic, that hid his face.
"It is quite difficult to trust someone who is not willing to reveal their face." she responded with a neutral expression on her face.
"I could of course reaveal my face, but i would then be forced to kill all your guards and brand you as my slave, and I doubt anyone here would like it too much."
izumi was suprised and slightly taken aback by the cool with which he spoke those words. He impield that it would not even strain him to achieve such a result, and that her side could do absolutely nothing to prevent it. Such confidence, coupled with Victors warning, that obviously was done to avoid the escalation and the fallout he would have to deal with had they acted in a hastefull manner, indicated that the mage was unreasonably powerfull, since all her guards here were mid A class, and her butler was even S- class.
"So? regarding the tea and the servant i could employ? Or if that is not posible, I could send one of my girls for someone to teach her the proper way of preparign tea, for my personal households needs only of course. I would not share the details anywhere else."
"You woudnt mind if I contact my superiors to iron out the details of such a possible deal, would you?" she asked, keeping her neutral expression.
"That is not a problem whatsoever, take the time you need." Rex approved Izumis request, adn then an idea bloomed in his head, and he spoke
"I would like to discuss a few things that should not be known to any lower rank people here. I will use my mana to create a sound barier so we can converse in peace, if you dnt mind."
"Yes, you may do so" Izumi replied. And Rex did just that. Once the barrier was deployed and no sould could escape rex continiued
"What I am going to propose might sound quite offensive from what I have seen of your culture, but i still think it is necessary to offer." Seeing that Izumi griopped a corner of her kimono, to controll herself in preparation to whatever outrageous thing the mage would offer now, Rex continiued.
"What are the posiblilities any of your princeses would reach the front lines?"
"Why would you ask?" she responded coldly.
"Well, if the chances are high enough, I would have an offer to give you a fail safe of sorts in the worst case scenario, but for that negotiation to continiue, i believe you would have to be aware of the lives and condition of my slaves. So i believe that is something better left for after that condition is fulfilled. I just hope once you believe you know all you need, come see me again. And i will be waiting for that response regarding my previous request." With that said Rex removed the barrier.
During the next hour, some very light snack was served with a quite tasty juice like drink that complemented it, and Rex jokingly apologized, since he wasnt confident in serving them a quality tea, so he had to solve the conundrum in a different way. Once the dinner was prepared he invited Izumi and her bodyguard to join, and since their cheff was present during all the meal preparations they had nothing to worry about food being spiked or poisoned, and so they agreed.
While she was rather displeased with the mage, she couldnt just ignore the golden opportunity they had aquired, once the innitial grievance was proven to be just a misunderstanding stemming from faulty knowledge they had aquired. The food was heavenly, to say the least. And once their cheff informed her of the ingridient, her jaw almost dropped. She had not innitially understood what Rex meant with gold grade, because the kitsune called it heavenly grade. They used mortal- earth- heaven grading system for their ingridients. Mortal food would be your everyday livestock, basicly no mana infused produce, their equivalent here was bronze. earth grade was monster meat of the deep floors, the equivalent here was silver grade- the meat everyone at Rex mansion ate every day, and the stuff Rex was getting rich of, thanks to his trade utilising Eredars channels. And heaven grade, that was equivalent to gold grade here, was extremely rarely aquired from the deep floors. Even their emperor could aquire it on a very rare ocasions, so the fact that she had the oportunity to taste it was beyond surreal. With the divine meal finished, Rex himself led his quests outside his mansion, the guards had been provided a light meal seperately, and even they were elated. Their food was made of earth grade meat and when one of them asked how come, the answer from a maid stunned them all.
"We do not keep lower grade meat ingridients in this mansion." Was the girls answer, and when she had answered that it is what they eat every day too, some of the soldiers could invardly only envy the girls serving in this place. Once Izumi learned of this fact when returning to their freshly aquired residence, she slid deep in thought. There was much to be done.