A Dragon's Curiosity

“Excuse me. I don’t think I heard you correctly right now. Do you mind repeating what you said?”

Slightly dazed at the elf’s declaration, Alestar shook his head in an unbelieving manner. He could not make heads or tails out of her wish to ‘take them all’.

“While we are currently speaking hypothetically, I do indeed plan to purchase all of this land. Instead of waiting for a noble group to appear and split up the area, why not let me take that role and get it all at once?

The land itself might not be worth much at present nor generate a lot of taxes, but I can think of it as an investment.”

If anyone else made such a statement, the new baron would laugh at them, doubting their sanity. Nisha, on the other hand, possessed an innate air of a ruler, giving birth to the thought that she might succeed in his mind.

“I don’t know what to say, so far no one attempted to control such a vast area. The costs for the wall alone, and then there’s the fee you need to pay to seize the land. This …”

Playing the scenario out in his mind, he felt overwhelmed. As a member of the [Thieves Guild], he frequently handled money and currently also dealt with some nobles, as part of his promotion.

The sheer immensity and cost involved with the project the elf was proposing far exceeded everything he handled so far.

“I mean, instead of wasting an opportunity and give others the chance to snatch a piece away when I already invested a lot of money, it’s better to buy it all now and see if I can turn it into a profit later.

Here, lend me the pen for a second.”

Taking over the writing utensil and attracting the old crook’s interest, the dragon split up the slum area in squares of roughly the same size - three on the south side, three on the north side and four on the west side - while the last few on the west stretched a bit further to connect with the north and south.

“How about this arrangement, how much gold do I need to spend to acquire them in this fashion?”

While the current map only represented a crude aerial view drawn by memory, it still more or less showed the situation around Thurgau.

Alestar tried to dissuade her and thought about counter arguments, yet to his astonishment, he could not think of any. In case Nisha wanted to obtain all of that land, there was no good reason why she could not do so.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know, just giving me a rough estimate will do.”

“No, you are right, I just didn’t understand the complexity of your plan at first, you opened my eyes right now. Let’s see, in total, we have ten different areas intended. Going by the size, there would be around fifty to ninety gold due as a turnly tax, and a registration fee about the same size when you want to register it as your land. I’ve chatted with some of my new customers, so while I’m not entirely sure, it should come pretty close.

However, you also need to know that the slums are deeply involved with our guild. I can’t say for certain, but you won’t get the gold back even if you run a business there.”

When she heard those words, Nisha’s eyes lit up. Compared to the current state, the slums might actually not warrant the amount Alestar stated. If the [Thieves Guild] kept a handle on things, everyone also needed to pay them a cut of their profit, which would lower the taxes further.

But at the same time, real estates that were only a candle’s worth of time away had been deemed as priceless treasures which would not be sold for any amount of money. Even if the slums failed to grow into such a state shortly, there was tremendous potential for growth. For Nisha who placed little value on money, the gamble seemed more and more enticing.

“Naturally I won’t go against the customs set by your guild. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here to discuss it with you, Alestar.

I don’t mind coexisting with another power if I can build my little area, especially for my friends. Later on, we can arrange a meeting to see if the guild management and I can come to some agreement.”

Instead of trying to dissuade her anymore, the old crook seriously considered the idea she presented him with. Although he had some reservations and didn’t see much hope for the plan to succeed, he still calculated seriously and even reminded her of the [Thieves Guild].

“The worst expense is still coming though. To be eligible to apply for being bestowed the land, it is necessary to have a stable city wall first. While the current one looks fine from the outside, you probably need to tear it all down and construct a new one to make up for the long negligence it has been put through. A very conservative estimate should be about fifteen thousand gold, material and workers included. And that’s the optimal case, if there are unforeseen accidents, the total might very well increase.”

Although he wasn’t an expert on the topic, Alestar did indeed have a background in construction and building. He felt somewhat confident about the prices he calculated.

“Not that I’m looking down on you, I appreciate your line of thought, even I hadn’t taken it into consideration before. Nonetheless, I don’t feel that such a project is feasible for a single person.”

“No, it’s just money. I will have to try at least.”

Waving down his other rebuffs, Nisha had already determined her next actions; now she just wondered whether or not everything would fall into place as she imagined.

“I will give you the money to purchase the land and pay the fees right now. You need to do two things for me. First, you can go and do the transaction in your name, you don’t have a Count you are loyal to, right? You might as well borrow my seal then; I count somewhere half a rank above a count. Do you have some sealing wax?”

Accepting the bar of wax, the elf saw many unanswered questions on her conversational partner’s face, but she went ahead and finished her instructions first.

Melting the tip and dripping a generous amount on another sheet of paper, the dragon stamped the seal with the ring hanging on the necklace around her neck. As for the coat of arms itself, Alestar would most likely recognise it belonging to the Dharnas family. What exactly her position in the house comprised, he could only guess.

“If there are any problems with the official, show him this. I can throw in the weight of my name, so there shouldn’t be any problems after that.

As for the second thing, and this only matters if you can buy all of the lands and ascertain we can rebuild the wall, I need you to arrange a meeting with the highest management of the [Thieves Guild] you can arrange. I want to be in the position of a negotiation partner on my conditions, not when you have already seized some of my goods and use it as a hostage.”

Handing over her stamped seal together with the paper, Nisha continued to open the bag she brought for this purpose and retrieved large golden coins from her [Inner Space]. Intentionally picking the bigger fifty and hundred pieces, exactly two thousand gold soon rested on the table between them.

Seeing the shock and apprehension on the old crook’s face, Nisha motioned with a nod of her chin for him to speak out.

“Where’s the merit in this for you? Why go so far? And aren’t you afraid I will simply steal the money you brought with you?”

Alestar would be lying if he said he was not tempted by the fortune right in front of his eyes. If there were a chance, he would have liked to seize it and disappear without a trace.

This sentiment also acted as a deterrent. Only throwing out over a thousand gold, who exactly was Nisha to act in such a manner?

“To tell you the truth, I could say many things. Threaten you with your guild, maybe offer part of the money as a reward to have others hunt you down or send my people to retrieve my money. But I dislike using threats to get what I want. Furthermore, you treated me quite nicely without having a reason to when I was in a bind, I want to have an honest business relationship.

With ten different areas, you have money left over after paying for everything. Even with the fee, there’s a remaining amount. To show you my sincerity and convey my regards to the ­[Thieves Guild] about the upcoming meeting, I naturally won’t be stingy and will act similarly in the future; you might just call it my style.

You see, you can treat the rest of the gold as your payment for settling all the legal stuff and finishing all the documents. The harder you bargain with the official, the more gold you can take with you. There’s a lot of leeway for a price of fifty gold or ninety gold per area.”

Pushing the shining coins towards the baron, Nisha observed his eyes. Other than greed and surprise, a new emotion appeared as well, and she knew she had him hooked now.

“This is why I am confident we can establish a flourishing relationship regarding the new districts and splitting the work that needs to be done. As for myself, I am not that interested in material gains. Instead of going for short-term benefits, I am looking at a larger picture now. If you and the others from the guild can work together with me, I believe both sides can profit much more than just this measly change.

Do you want to give it a try at least?”

Strictly speaking, the dragon overstated the facts when she talked about her people or mentioned how she was not interested in material gains. At least regarding the trading house the elf and the two sisters planned to establish, she naturally would not concede her ground.

In front of solid proof and benefits, even if Nisha claimed to be a heavenly emperor, Alestar still might agree.

“Very generous. I won’t speak any useless stuff and waste my time thanking you.

Although I still see some issues, there is merit in working together with you and your people. For the sake of giving it a try at least, I will go right now and see if I can take care of the first task before the office at the castle closes.

For the sake of sending you the original documents after I had made a copy and contacting you when I made some progress regarding the meeting, what would you like me to do?”

Instead of acting as a partner, Alestar already accepted the elf as his superior disregarding her young age and inexperience regarding business. While the money played a part in this decision, he also recognised part of her vision and had to agree, if she were able to realise her plans, her status would soar far higher than her already current mysterious situation of being on par with a count, maybe exceeding that.

“You can just send one of your ‘servants’ to the Dharnas estate to hand over the documents or send me a letter, as long as you address it to Nisha it will naturally reach me.”

Disregarding the pile of coins on the table, the elf stood up and amiably nodded her head, indicating her approval to the proposed course of action and excused herself as well.

Alestar already mentioned wanting to go to the palace and take care of the remaining procedures. In that case, she had no reason to stay anymore either.

Leaving the small estate, the dragon heard the old crook shouting for a lockable chest, most likely just realising what a fortune was now lying around in the reception room.