The Rise of the Black Plain

After greeting each other and sitting around a 6-meters long rectangular table, each of the people in that location looked at each other momentarily, as if assessing the other side.

Of Minos' group, although 50 people had come for this occasion, most of them were outside this negotiation site. After all, most of them were here to ensure the safety of the administrative members of the army, those less capable individuals when it came to combat.

So, only five people from the Black Plain Army had accompanied Eda to this area, where they would negotiate with the group of eight people from the Brown family.

These eight people were none other than the five Spiritual Kings of the Brown family group and the three nobles who would handle the negotiations.

'That woman is definitely young...' So, the strongest Spiritual King of this royal entourage thought to himself as he observed Eda's perfect skin, those physical features which would make anyone think she was around 33.

Not only that, but the aura emitted by her also had a particular vigor, typical of young people, full of energy, those who would still have a long way to go.

And although this Level 53 Spiritual King had no means to guess her age for sure, he could assume that Eda would be no more than 200-years-old. Otherwise, she would hardly emanate such intense vitality!

With that, by observing this woman for a few moments, this man had already understood a little more about the Black Plain. 'Where does this woman come from? When did such a young Spiritual King like this ascend in our region?'

However, he could not remember anything. So, he concluded that Eda could not be from any noble or royal family in this region, or he would know her.

'The young sovereign of the Black Plain certainly has many means and can hire Spiritual Kings. But could it be that this woman came from one of the reclusive organizations in our region?'

'Or perhaps his mother helped him get in touch with someone from outside this region?' So, he wondered, observing the people in that place still settling in silence.

These people sent by Thomas obviously knew about Minos' origin and a lot more secret information about this region. Hence, this person and each of those people there could infer many things about Minos and his organization just by looking at Eda.

But even if one or more of them had thought of the same possibility as this level 53 Spiritual King, none of them believed that Maisie was somehow trying to influence this region.

That's because anyone with contacts outside this region could do something like ask for someone's help in getting in touch with the right organizations. As in the case of mercenary guilds, which provided services like the one they thought Minos was hiring.

As long as only referral occurred, i.e., there was no direct funding from outside the northern region in this place, the church would be okay with it. So, that in itself would not represent a severe infraction that could claim the lives of those involved.

With this, an individual could bring in people from outside the northern region of this continent to help complete tasks and things like that. As long as that person used his own resources to do so, it didn't matter if it had been facilitated through a messenger.

'If he's depending on that kind of arrangement, he's risking a lot here...' So, one of those Spiritual Kings thought while still watching Eda.

Making deals of the kind with mercenaries would never be good. That's because, unless such a service is the kind that could end in a short interval of time, the chances of something like that going wrong would be very high.

Although the mercenaries intend to complete any service, none of them would be loyal to the hiring organization. But, on the other hand, most would not agree to stay for long, since the opportunities in a place like the northern part of the Central Continent were small and they would be limited in this place.

For all that, hiring mercenary services from outside the region was expensive and often dangerous for the contractors.

So much so that this sort of thing was rarely used by the large regional organizations, even though many of them had descendants outside the region, in places like the Flaming Empire. 

For the exact cost of a contract with one mercenary from outside their region, a big family could nurture a Spiritual King for many years!

As such, it would be much more worthwhile to invest in subordinates loyal to the family than in external forces with no significant ties to their contractors.

Because of this, some of those Spiritual Kings there already felt that Minos' figure should not be simple. Either he was very audacious and willing to take risks, or he was crazy.

It would be difficult to negotiate with such a person in both cases.

'By the way, where is this Minos?' One of them wondered, observing that one of the royals in command of this negotiation had asked the same thing to those soldiers.

Upon hearing such a thing, Joey, who was in the group of five Sergeants, coughed twice and replied. "The young master is in training elsewhere at the moment, outside Dry City. But he is aware of this meeting, and we will send to him all the details discussed here."

"Oh? So, he is training?" One of those nobles said, understanding the situation. He then looked in Eda's direction and asked. "And who is in local command? Is it you?"

"No, a person other than me is ruling Dry City." Eda vaguely said as she watched those five Spiritual Kings who kept staring at her. "But you wouldn't recognize him. He has no fame. So, you wouldn't know him."

After hearing this, those three royals looked at each other and understood that there was no need for such a young man to be here to discuss this kind of matter with them.

On the other hand, they could already tell that the group coming from Dry City would not make it easy for them, and the three of them would probably have a hard time getting deeper information.

That is, they 'knew' the basics of Dry City, which any research group could get from studying a city like that. But as for the critical details of that town, of young Stuart's organization, that would not be so easy to figure out.

Hence, since they were also here to learn more about Minos' organization, these men couldn't help but realize that this would be more difficult than imagined.

'A 20-year-old youth has created an organization that is already harder to read than large regional noble houses...' One of the eldest of those three thought about it silently.

"Well, it makes no difference."

"A deal like the one we will negotiate is critical in the long run, and it won't make much difference if these circumstances delay this operation a bit." The youngest of the three royals of the Brown family commented after sighing deeply. 

"Hmm, good! I'm happy that you gentlemen understand our situation, hehe." Joey commented in satisfaction as he smiled quietly. 

"So? Anything else to talk about before we start our more serious business?" Another Sergeant from the Black Plain Army asked, just after noticing the silence on the part of the Brown family group.

"No, I think we can start..."

"Okay, let's talk about what matters..."

"First, we should start discussing the value of the Black Plain, then hopefully you guys will..." And then, quickly, those people stopped talking about Minos and the things they wanted to find out about this place, to talking about the numbers they so badly wanted to get out of this place...

No matter how mysterious Minos and his organization were, at the end of the day, in the eyes of these envoys from the Brown family, they were just resourceful bumpkins. So, therefore, finding a way to get a slice of these resources was much more important to these men over there, and they would prioritize this!