“Everyone! To think we would run into each other here, I am quite delighted!”

As Angela came running toward the group, her bright smile and entire body emitted evident happiness. The luxurious and abundantly red silk dress she wore looked wonderful on her, and together with her attitude and gestures, she really looked like the type of person that was blessed at birth.

“It has been a while.” Kyle greeted Angela with a sight bow.

In fact, it had been almost half a year since they last met.

“I’ve heard of your great achievements! Especially about the heroic tale of you defeating the evil dragon who had attacked several adventurers in the Country of Eddos! It made my heart quiver in excitement!” Angela told of the exaggerated rumors that had reached her with a sparkle in her eyes.

“Seems like it’s been going around a lot, huh..”

“Ghrud would probably burn you to cinders if he heard of that.”

Lieze and Shildonia discussed this with each other. After Angela finished praising Kyle, she then moved on to Seran, still cowering behind Kyle. Her smile remained as bright as always, although of a different kind, as she approached him.

“Seran-sama~! I’m glad you haven’t changed much. I have heard of your achievements.” Angela seemed like a cat excited to play, as she closed in on Seran, with him stepping backward.

However, Angela didn’t let that get to her, ending up in a position where she was about to embrace him.

“No no no, I’m just a bonus, really. Kyle is much more..”

“Of course not! I personally believe in my eyes and intuition..I had assumed my job this time would be boring official work, but when I heard that all of you are here, I’m sure it will be a lot more entertaining.”

Kyle’s group always acted in ways that made them stand out, so following them around was most likely pretty easy. And inside Angela herself, she most likely decided that she would be acting together with the group during her stay here.

“Now, let us go. I heard your destination is the same, after all.” Angela clung to Seran’s arm, and started walking towards the main office of the Business Group.

Nobody was there to reproach the princess for her attitude, as all the servants and knights simply followed her. Watching the two walk off, Lieze commented with a dubious tone.

“Isn’t this weird? Being approached by such a cute girl, yet Seran’s not excited at all.”

“Even Seran knows that being liked by the princess of the Galgan Empire is nothing but trouble.” Kyle responded with a quiet voice, but Lieze still wasn’t too satisfied with that.

“Really? I don’t think he really cares about that..and I doubt that’s all of it.” Lieze seemingly was plagued by a feeling of discomfort, and as she couldn’t explain it, she decided to talk to Angela directly. “Um..” She was looking for her words, when Angela turned around with a smile.

“Ahh, don’t mind me. I’d like to get along with everyone, so speak as lightly as you’d like.”

Lieze understood that Angela was serious about that.

“Then..what did you come here for?”

“As a benevolent ambassador to deepen the positive relationship between the Empire and Bayone. At least officially.”

“I-Is that so..”

Hearing that the benevolent part was just a facade, Lieze showed a vague smile.

“Officially..So your aim of meeting President Klaus is..”

Kyle could imagine why the princess of the Galgan Empire, someone who aimed to become the supreme ruler of the entire humanfolk, would be sent here to an autonomous trading city, but he still asked nonetheless.

“Indeed, we as the Galgan Empire wish to receive reign over this Bayone.”

Even so, Angela answered without hesitation. Although he had already guessed as much, hearing it from the princess herself, Kyle couldn’t help but tense up.

“My brothers also regard Bayone as quite valuable. However, the Marnico Business Group is almost one-fifth of all of Galgan’s trade business. If they were to merge with Bayone, we would suffer from that, and we would lose valuable profit. Hence, we have to treat this quite carefully, and as Klaus should know of this, we are currently exchanging demands and requirements. What a troublesome city this is.” Angela shook her head. “As of right now, we are aiming to visit without any warning, hoping for them to mess up in some way that we can use this to threa—negotiate with them, basically proceeding with typical diplomatic efforts.”

“I-Is that so..” Kyle judged that commenting on that would be too honest even for Angela, so he simply flashed a vague smile.

“Anyway, we’re in the middle of trying to grasp any kind of weakness we can find. That means even this visit was with no particular goal in mind..although I am quite delighted to run into all of you, as that will surely make things more exciting.” Angela said with a lot of excitement in her voice.

Being in a friendly relationship with the princess of the Galgan Empire was something Kyle treasured, so he couldn’t spoil her mood. He didn’t know if moving together with Angela, in this case, would be good or bad luck, but it was too late to hesitate.

They entered the main branch of the Marnico Business Group, immediately greeted by employees forming a beautiful line. One person stood at the end of said line, deeply lowering his head.

“I humbly welcome you, Angela-sama.”

It was Klaus Marnico, the man who stood at the summit of all of humanfolk’s economics. As he was a sailor in his younger days, you could see a few wrinkles on his face, but he stood tall and solid on the ground. He should be around sixty, yet he looked much younger.

“My deepest apologies that I could not greet you directly. If I had known about your arrival, I would have prepared a more official welcome.” Klaus threw in a sarcastic comment.

He was still smiling as before, but he made it clear that she wasn’t welcome.

“Oh really? We’re so close, you needn’t worry about such trivial matters. And, if you would simply accept all of our conditions, I wouldn’t be forced to come here over and over again.”

Naturally, Angela didn’t sugarcoat her words either, openly facing Klaus’ sarcasm with a sharp comment of her own. And then, they both laughed. Watching this, Kyle quickly realized that having Angela come with them was bad luck after all, and sighed.

“I heard that you would be visiting today, but not that you would arrive together..Welcome, Kyle-sama.” Klaus glanced at Kyle’s group, showing a surprised reaction for a moment, but then politely greeted them.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Kyle.” Kyle showed a polite bow, naming himself.

“Yes, he is my precious friend.” Angela didn’t miss a beat to brag.

“I see, as expected of the [Dragon Slayer] hero. To think you were on good terms with Angela-sama..” Klaus said, nodding in admiration. “Then, if you could just wait a moment..”

“Please, let them join us.” Angela said.

“But..are you sure? I have not heard of them being affiliated with the Empire, no?” Klaus seemed a bit bewildered.

As this discussion practically involved future diplomatic relationships as equals, letting unrelated people join in clearly wasn’t a smart move.

“Indeed, my business is the same as always, see.” Angela smiled.

It was as beautiful of a smile as always, but to the people who knew, it looked like a predator licking its lips in excitement.

The room Kyle’s group was brought to was spacious and luxurious, once again showing off Klaus’ wealth. The carpet at their feet stood out, made out of the purple fur from the giant bear-monster called Violet Bear, which was used to give the carpet its everlasting beauty even as they stepped on it. Every other piece of furniture was equally well done, which left the commoner Lieze utterly baffled, as she simply sunk deeper into the sofa, restlessly looking around. However, she was about the only one who felt this nervous, because Shildonia immediately munched on the snacks previously prepared, and Seran quickly followed after. Urza was sipping on her tea without a single change in expression, acting the same as always. Kyle felt reassured and supported by his strong allies but still apologized to Klaus despite that.

“I’m sorry about them, they aren’t used to this.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, they seem like quite the reliable group you have.” Klaus showed a generous smile and reassured Kyle that he was accepting of this.

Angela also enjoyed the sight of that, but she immediately corrected her posture, and brought up the topic on hand.

“So, let’s get right to it..President Klaus, you will surely give us a beneficial answer this time, no?”

“I wonder, what might you be talking about? The goal of your visit, Angela-sama, is to deepen the amicable relationship between us and the Empire. We have been doing our utmost to work towards that.” Klaus played dumb, but Angela continued nonetheless.

“We guarantee land as a count for you, and you can even use Bayone as your territory, so will you finally accept our request?”

The request of Angela—or rather, the Galgan Empire is quite simple, asking Klaus to join the empire and hand over Bayone under the control of the Galgan Empire.

“..As the first fundamental problem, I am not the ruler of Bayone, we are living under a parliamentary system, as you should be aware of.”

Just as Klaus stated, he was part of a congress consisting of twenty traders, acting as the representative chairman.

“I may be the representative of said congress, but that’s about all the power I have. Even if I declared our independence from the Empire, I would be kicked out soon after.” Klaus shook his head, stating that he wasn’t all that powerful, but Angela didn’t buy that.

“No need to feign ignorance like that. You are the one leading Bayone from the shadows, and if you felt like it, you could easily silence or erase the masses who don’t agree with you without any difficulty, no? In fact, those who obstructed the direction you proposed had all disappeared?in all sorts of shapes.” Angela oddly emphasized that last part, covering her smiling mouth with her hand, but her eyes most certainly were not smiling. “Well, this tends to happen a lot in Galgan, so we don’t plan on faulting you for that.”

“You’re right, Even last year, several of these nobles disappeared?in all sorts of ways.” Klaus equally emphasized that last part, flashing a provocative smile.

“Fufufu..It really is hard to discern..We have too many people who can’t even do something so simple.”

“Hahaha, you can say that again.”

Dry laughter filled the room.

“Phew..they’re both smiling, and yet they’re giving off pressure like they were fighting on the battlefield.”

“So this is a conversation between humans..how terrifying..”

As the atmosphere between them felt so tense you could hear the air cracking, Seran and Urza were discussing back and forth.

“In that regard, I believe you are quite wise. We were not asking you to reveal everything to us, but rather that you use your right as the chairman, and forcefully silence any opposition. Of course, this will be of great use for the Empire, but you will also receive great authority, allowing you to move freely.” Angela narrowed her eyes, changed the tone of her voice, and continued. “To both you personally and as a business, I believe this is quite beneficial. If you swear allegiance to Galgan, your competition will be erased, and you gain absolute control over the delivery of goods..You will not only be the world’s greatest trader, but also the only one.” Angela uttered sweet words of temptation.

However, Klaus slowly shook his head.

“Angela-sama, when it comes to trading, it’s not good for one person to reign supreme over everybody else. Because there is competition, you yourself can grow. If a country controlled all money and goods, it would stagnate at one point, and lead to a crash. You have to create a natural flow for these sorts of things.”

Klaus truly sounded like he stood at the summit of all economics. However, Angela still cut right through that without any remorse.

“Yes, I am fully aware..However, that is not important for the direction the Empire wishes to go. Rather than making something flourish, we value control and regulation. Our ideal would be to reign over humanfolk as a whole, just as it happened in the Ancient Magic Kingdom Zaales.”

“No, we actually didn’t rule all of—Mgh.” Shildonia was about to add an unnecessary comment, so Kyle stuffed a snack into her mouth.

“However, that would completely half the development of the Empire. How do you feel about that?”

Even if you brought all of humanfolk under yourself, it won’t last long. Klaus’ words made it sound like it was the obvious result.

“Oh my, aren’t you misunderstanding something? The Galgan Empire’s policy is to unite all of humanfolk under them, but that isn’t all. The ultimate goal—is to control even the west of this continent.”

The west of this continent naturally was including the demon territory.

“Don’t tell me..do you plan on waging war against the demonfolk?” Klaus’ facial color changed awfully quickly.

Wage war against the demons—if it came from anybody else, you would probably regard them as insane and laugh it off, but things were different if it was from the Galgan Empire’s princess. Let alone wrapping up the entire world into that war, it’ll create an all-out slaughter that will remain in history for all eternity.

“However, there has been no interference from the demons for the last hundreds of years. Wouldn’t it be foolish to agitate them now..?”

Poke the bush and the snake will show its head, as they say.

“Oh my, so you think that leaving the demons, who possess the strength to annihilate all of us, is a better idea?”

It may have sounded foolish if you didn’t know any better, but Kyle was nodding.

“Well, this is merely our final goal, and we will deal with the demons after we’ve at least brought all of humanfolk together. For that, we will have to get the economy under control, which makes your strength necessary, President Klaus? I’m counting on you.” Angela smiled, and took a sip of her tea.

With this, Angela had completely taken the lead in the conversation, and she continued to close in on Klaus with these sorts of arguments. This must be the result of Angela being used to these discussions from a young age. However, Klaus was Klaus all the same, managing to somehow keep a parallel line in their discussion. Finally, Angela made it sound as if they ran out of time.

“..It cannot be helped, we shall end this meeting for today.”

Angela had plans after this, meeting the other influential people Bayone had to offer.

“Personally speaking, none of them hold nearly as much value as Klaus, but I also cannot ignore them..” Angela seemed quite bothered.

She apparently didn’t plan on having Kyle’s group follow her all that way, and since Kyle also made up a meeting with Klaus, she quickly got up and prepared to leave them. Naturally, she regretted this, so she made plans to eat dinner together in the evening.

“President Klaus, we’ll soon stop with the compromises. I personally don’t dislike you, but don’t forget that the Empire will eventually run out of time to give.” Angela gave Klaus a final warning, and left the room while waving her hand.

“For crying out loud, the Empire never fails to give me a headache.” Klaus flashed a wry smile, but he had already recovered his confident attitude.

Although this was not their final meeting, it will certainly be soon. That’s why Angela was a lot more aggressive than you would expect, showing that the Empire was serious and ready to do whatever. Considering the relationship of the Empire and Bayone, Kyle was thinking about what to do. However, the previous meeting ended, so Klaus showed a refreshed smile.

“Now, I’ve made you wait. Quite honestly, I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.” Klaus showed no signs of having gone through a harsh verbal bout with a princess, simply interacting with Kyle with a nonchalant tone.

“You’re a lot younger than I expected. Or, maybe that’s why..Either way, it’s wonderful to be young, so make sure to enjoy that for as long as you can.”

“Thank you very much. It’s an honor to hear these words from the renowned President Klaus.”

Clearly, it was just Klaus being polite, but Kyle even responded accordingly. This time around, his ultimate goal was to get acquainted with Klaus, soa bit of idle talk should end it perfectly—Kyle judged, but that quickly changed when Klaus dropped the following words.

“I definitely had to meet you at least once, after all.” Klaus said with an oddly profound meaning, leaving Kyle dubious.

“Um, why is that?”

To Kyle, it was more than convenient, but he didn’t understand the reason for that. Of course, Kyle had the desire of all sorts of people, but Klaus shouldn’t be as desperate.

“I am a businessman, and doing business means to have connections.” Klaus showed his teeth as he laughed.

This smile sent a shiver down Kyle’s spine. And judging from his experience so far, that mostly hit its mark.

“..That being said, that doesn’t mean I want to directly do business with you, it’s more like a request from a regular, acting as the mediator.”

“Mediator?”

“Yes, they would love to meet you, which is why I arranged the location. They have certain circumstances that prohibit them from meeting out in the open.”

“And who exactly..”

“I believe it would be faster for you to just meet them. In fact, they’ve already arrived.”

Before Kyle could even come up with a guess, Klaus ordered his servant to bring the person over. As expected of a trained businessman who fought a hundred battles, Klaus already had the conversation under control, working at his own pace.

“You’ve already met each other before, so I’m sure it’ll be a breeze.”

“Well..”

Kyle was even more puzzled, wondering why that person couldn’t reach out to Kyle directly if they had known each other. However, Klaus simply continued to laugh. After waiting for a moment, the door opened. When Kyle’s group saw the individual entering the room, they all gasped in unison. She had the looks of absolute beauty, but the single horn growing from her head was the proof of a demon.

“..Yeah, we definitely know each other.”

Seran showed a complicated expression, as he looked at the demon woman—Yuriga.