‘Master Silver, Major Lawson is here,’ informed Jill.

Click!

“Send him in,” I said.

A second later, a fat man with a blond mustache with a bald head walked into the office. He is wearing a black army uniform, which doesn’t have a single wrinkle on it.

His eyes scanned the room, fixing on Lola for a second, before focusing back on me.

“Adviser Silver, it’s nice to see you again,” he said with a big smile. “You too, Major Lawson,” I replied.

He sat down in front of me and looked at me with a smile, without saying anything.

It has begun.

“I have called you here to discuss infrastructure plans. I would like to know, the thought of Mirador Hold on to it,” I said and a smile on his face became slightly bigger.

“There is nothing to discuss, adviser. You will give us 75% of the budget and we will handle everything on our end,” he said, surprising me greatly.

I was processing the words when suddenly he hit me with his skills. He didn’t hold back anything at all; hit me with everything he had.

He did it without changing the smile on his face.

His skills are powerful, which is not surprising, seeing he is Level 30+ and has great experience in using them.

He wants me to agree, and the moment I did, his verbal contract skill would click.

He would not get 75% of what he is asking, but he would take far more than what I would give to him.

That would be bad. Forget giving 75% of the budget, I couldn’t give him, even 25%. I had called him to discuss things, to take his view. I don’t want to do things arbitrarily.

But he wants to do it that way. He sees me as a young man and is willing to push me. Use force, without care.

He might even succeed because of my stupidity.

I had made a mistake calling him here without any backup. I should have had someone with me who could support me if he tried to do something like this.

I had not thought he would do something like this. I thought it would be a civil discussion and even negotiations.

He is using the force of his skills and the compulsion of his powerful skills is strong enough that I am going to agree with it.

If I did that, I would definitely lose my job, and it will be because of my damn overconfidence.

“We are not asking much. To be honest, we deserve that whole infrastructure fund, seeing what Count Darrow agreed with the merchant state,” he said, and he is telling the truth.

Mirador's hold does deserve it all; they have so much to do, and I should be giving them all the money.

Hun!

I opened my mouth to agree, when suddenly a cooling feeling washed over me, clearing my thoughts.

‘Fuck!’ I cursed and turned to Lola, whom Lawson had also looked at, before turning to me, focusing his skill sharper.

Lola had activated her skill. Its power is much weaker than Lawson's skills, but it cleared my mind.

Now, holding my thoughts as tightly as possible, I turned to Lawson.

I wanted to kill this bastard, but I controlled my emotions, focused on keeping my thoughts still under the colossal weight of his skills.

“You have misunderstood, Major Lawson. I have called you here because I want to hear your views and nothing more.”

“The infrastructure budget is under me, and I will decide what I need to do with it, what kind of infrastructure we need to build, where to build it, and who will build it,” I said directly.

This time, I didn’t even bother to smile or nor I could under such pressure of his skills.

The smile on his face stiffened upon hearing me, but a moment later, came back brighter.

“You are overestimating your responsibilities, Adviser. Everything that goes in a Mirador Hold and its domain needed its commander permissions.”

“You have to give us a budget. It is the law, charter 3 of the region's constitution,” he said, and my lips curved slightly.

Persuasive

I activated my skill and felt the pressure of his skill lessen a little.

He gave me the opening by mentioning the law; he shouldn’t have done that.

Persuasive is useless, it is a compulsion-type skill. With the difference in our level and condition which we are negotiating; it is nearly useless to use it, but now he has given me an opportunity.

My Persuasive skill is not standard Persuasive skill. It is made from a merger of three skills, one of which is Lawful Suggestion, which used belongs to my Lawyer Class, that made the Masterful Administrator.

So, with his words, he gave me the power to use the making; making it more powerful than it would have been if I used it before.

Now it is useful, giving me more breathable space.

“According to Charter 3, section 17, subsection B of the constitution. Prince Grelt has a supreme authority, over Mirador Hold, which he granted to Count Darrow Wilstein,”

“As his representative, I have permission to use his authority in the subject of trade. Thus, as long as it is related to trade, my authority supersedes even Commander Dane’s,”

“With it, I could build, destroy or do anything. I damn well please and Commander Dane will have to accept it,” I said, looking directly into those forest green eyes.

I had wanted to be polite, but he used force and not in a nudging way, but like a harsh hammer and I wouldn’t be Remus Silver if I didn’t answer that in kind.

I could see a shock appearing in his eyes and behind came anger.

He opened his mouth to say something but closed it a moment later and calmed his emotions.

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“You shouldn’t speak, so harshly, Adviser,” he said, with a hint of warning in his voice.

“I am not speaking harshly, Major Lawson. I am just making you aware of reality.” I replied.

I also calmed myself; making enemies with Mirador Hold won't help. I have to be calm and make compromises, which I really don’t want to do.

“I have the plans in the business section of mirador hold and I have a few questions for which I asked you here,”

“I hope you will answer them,” I said, hating for giving this ungrateful bastard another chance.

He is still looking at me angrily and using the full force of his skills on me, despite me offering a friendly hand.

“To satisfy a contract with the merchant guild. We will need twelve new warehouses and a new guest house, bigger than the one we actually have.

“Quarters for workers…”

I named all things before turning to him. Who is still looking at me with anger and pressuring me with the power of his skills.

“I like to see the blueprints of the plans to comment on it further,” he said after the seconds of silence.

“Lola,” I said to her, and she took out two large blue-print and handed them to the man. He looked at it and a surprise appeared on his face.

When I was making a plan, I had all the data. So, I asked the architect to draw out several plans. These two he is looking at fit into the requirements that Oksall had asked us for.

This does not only have warehouses and guesthouses, but also has guard stations for the guards, canteens, and other things.

Many of these things that Mirador Hold had been asking for Count for months.

He studied it for over fifteen minutes before turning to me, with the full power of his skills, which is still unbearable as it had been when he activated them for the first time.

“The plan is good. We will need half of the infrastructure fun to accomplish it,” he said.

‘Ungrateful bastard!’ I cursed in my heart and resisted the urge to bang my hand on the table.

“Major Lawson, the tender will be issued by my office and will pay the company directly. Mirador Hold will not have any hand in it,” I said directly, and it made him even more angry.

“Commander Dane had personally asked me to bring the fund. He will be very disappointed,” he said, with clear threat in his eyes.

“Please tell Commander Dane that it won’t be possible.”

“If he has any suggestions; I promise to take them under consideration,” I said, and he glared openly.

This time, he didn’t even try to hide his emotions.

He is also trying to press me hard with his skill, and it is hard to bear them, but I am doing it. There is no other choice. If I give up; there will be huge consequences.

“I will surely mention that to him,” he said through greeted teeth and got up before walking out of my office.

His skills disappeared, and I slumped back in my chair, drenched in my sweat. It was really too much harder than the real battle. It was also a battle, a different kind, which I fortunately survived.

Though it had taught me a lesson, that I didn’t plan to forget soon.

“Thank you. If not for you, I would have agreed to everything he wanted,” I said, to which she smiled mirthlessly.

“My skill was completely crushed by his,” she said, clearly disappointed.

“It is not; it had helped me when I felt all the hope was lost.”

“We have survived Level 30+, with a lot of experience. We should be proud of that,” I said, and she finally smiled.

I took a deep breath and walked to the window and saw Lawson talking with Major Jarvis.

I had called him for a discussion. I had wanted to take his view and even would have made some changes; I had even swallowed my pride and given him a second chance, but he threw that away right at my face.

Now, I will only do what is required for the trade, nothing more and nothing less. Mirador Hold will not get anything extra.

The money saved from it could be used for other things.

I watched him till he left the castle, before sitting back in my chair and starting to write a letter.

Within a few minutes, I finished and gave it to Lola.

“Sent it to the city hall and ask them to send it to all the construction companies; I want them delivered to their offices before evening,” she nodded and walked out.

This letter will make some people angry. I wonder if some of them will go to Count Darrow.

I didn’t inform him of this and won’t do it, till everything is finalized.

Lola returned a few minutes later, and we worked on some things. There are really many things to do, and I have little time to accomplish them.

There are many people who would like to see me fail and today, I had added a powerful mirador hold to that list. I wanted to avoid that and even swallowed my pride, but it was all useless.

I worked for two hours before I walked out and went to where Eli was and started training Fang to relax.

I have made good progress with him, but more is needed.

I want to put discipline into his every cell. So, he would be able to control instability that might arise from his genetics.

It is necessary, seeing how Carla keeps him close to her. Many girls play with him and, if some unstable factor triggers, during that time, it will be bad.

Training will help in dealing with it.

It would be great If I am able to get a skill, that will help me suppress those things.

Though, I am not counting on that. I would rather prefer to depend on my training.

Which is what I will do.