Chapter 498 Visiting nobles (14)
Seeing him nod in agreement, I looked at Haley and she took out a piece of paper that she put on the table.
Viscount Henry looked down at this piece of paper before looking at me with one brow raised.
When he saw that I didn't react at all to him staring at me like this, he reached his hand out to take that piece of paper. He brought that piece of paper up in front of him and took a close look at it.
Behind him, his daughter and wife both leaned in to take a look at this piece of paper as well.
There wasn't much written on this piece of paper, but its contents made all three of them knit their brows slightly.
The more that they read this, the more that they knitted their brows.
When they finished reading this, they all looked at each other and used their eyes to communicate with each other. It was almost as if they were discussing what they had just read without saying a single word.
It could be seen how close this family was with how easily they communicated with just gazes alone.
Finally, Viscount Henry turned back to look at me.
He didn't say a word as he looked at me with those narrowed eyes.
With the way that he was looking at me, it was almost as if he was gauging me. It almost seemed like he was waiting for some kind of reaction from me so he would know what to say.
However, I just kept that straight look on my face.
After a while, Viscount Henry said in a slow and careful voice, "What's written on here, is it final?"
I couldn't help letting a bit of light appear in my eyes when I heard this.
This Viscount Henry really was different from Viscount Teomold.
Even the way that they talked was different.
One talked in a selfish manner while the other talked in a respectful manner.
Instead of asking if I was serious, he calmly asked if the prices were final.
This was his way of showing respect to me, but still trying to get what he wanted.
Just with this one move, I saw this Viscount Henry in a better light than that Viscount Teomold.
With a smile on my face, I said, "Everything is negotiable…" Then my eyes turned sharp as I said, "But that depends on what you have to offer."
Viscount Henry couldn't help feeling a chill run down his spine as he looked at this Count Zwein in front of him.
At first, he had thought that Count Zwein was one of those people that lets their wife do everything for them, but now he realized that wasn't the case. He wasn't someone that needed his wife to do everything, he was just waiting for the right opportunity to make his move.
They both had their roles and they had executed it perfectly.
The wife put him at ease and then Count Zwein came in for the kill.
But instead of scaring him, this excited him since that meant that both of them were capable.
Capable people were the kind of people that he loved the most since they were easier to negotiate with than unreasonable and incompetent people.
After a long silence, Viscount Henry said with a smile, "I'm sure that we can come to some kind of compromise."
Seeing him like this, I gave a nod before saying with a smile, "Of course."
The next half an hour was a slow discussion between our two sides.
At first, the first thing that Viscount Henry asked was, "What is your bottom line?"
I was surprised to see how forward he was, but it wasn't something that I was averse to.
People that were direct made things easier.
However, this was not one of those times where I could just be direct with him.
After all, even if I liked him, I had no idea just how far he was willing to cooperate with us. So before gauging that, I had to lead him on a bit and slowly find out how serious he was about this cooperation.
It was a back and forth where we brought out different things, but by the end, I had a good idea of what he needed.
At first, Viscount Henry didn't give me the information that I needed.
But then to my surprise, it was his wife that suddenly gave me this information.
She directly told me what they were planning to use the ores that they were buying from us for.
It seemed that they were planning to use most of it to improve the lives of their citizens. Of course, they wouldn't be directly giving the citizens the ores, but rather providing goods made from these ores at low cost to improve the standard of living.
She carefully explained how they would divide and use the ores without hiding anything.
Viscount Henry even looked uncomfortable when he heard this, but he was silenced with a single look from his wife.
When she finished explaining everything, she looked at me and said with a smile, "Count Zwein, I hope that this has made our stance clear."
Though she had a smile on her face, I could also see the sharp look in her eyes.
But with that, I knew that she misunderstood something.
She thought that I was worried about them using these ores to enhance their troops which would be dangerous for my territory. After all, their territory was close enough to invade my territory if they wanted to.
No one would want to arm those that could harm them in the future.
Since there was no alliance between us, it was normal for us to be vigilant of each other even if we were acting friendly now.
But in truth, I wanted to gauge their reaction on something else.
They had been direct with me, so the least I could do was be direct with them.
With a calm look on my face, I asked, "What do you think of Viscount Teomold?"
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