"Alright, come on now Fenkar, you’re being far too greedy and you know it! These are for EVERYONE, not for your Pack!"
Renna leaned forwards and pointed a finger at the older Wolfkin, making her smirk as she just lounged in her chair was the greatest entertainment in the world; meanwhile Luna let out another sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head at her Dama’s stubbornness.
"A quarter off of everything we sell is highway robbery! Besides, I already explained the idea to you; every single major profession in the city will have a wine dedicated to them that they can buy for cheaper than everyone else. All they need to do is provide some kind of ID and voila, they have a discount! 15 is more than fair!"
We had at least successfully pulled her down five whole percent, but now she was being stubborn and demanding more for those that came from her family, something of a ’branch’ between her and Renna to show off their friendship.
She wanted to supply some more capital to the store and offer to run more promotions everywhere she had influence in exchange for that, but the problem was... well, Renna was a Duchess, so the publicity was already there and the money wasn’t even an issue.
Fenkar was just being stubborn, and she knew that considering that grin had never left her face... what we could do about it was rather limited, and at this moment in time - with everyone still sort of watching us - we couldn’t use anything ’else’ to negotiate with her.
Hence her smugness, though she was definitely going to end up paying for this in ways she wasn’t yet aware... that was something I was going to make sure of, if only because I wanted to be the one to tease Renna this much and not her.
"Magistrate Fenkar, please, fifteen is already a very noticeable and rewarding discount for everyone involved. Anything more causes us to lose money, anything less doesn’t draw any eyes. It’s the sweet spot that helps everyone win. So please..."
"Hmm... but I could always just open up my own, couldn’t I? Or go to one of the existing wineries and offer a large amount of money upfront for long term gain."
I just rolled my eyes at that and gestured to the wine on the table, drawing her attention to it and making her grin fade a little as I reminded her "And you would lose out on good wine that is affordable for all. It would damage your own image attempting to compete with us in this way, amongst the public and amongst your family. If they knew they were missing out on the best wine because their Dama was stubborn..."
Trailing off again and giving her a ’kind’ smile, I pushed the bottle closer to her and watched as she stared at it in silence, her grin now gone as she imagined that kind of world; sensing her ’indecision’ and knowing I could end this here and now was a rather pleasant feeling.
"How about this. We will provide two entire kegs of a specialty wine for you and your wives, free of charge. Personalized and made with the highest quality ingredients we have. An additional six kegs of wine - three for the guard and three for the civil servants - for your pack to try at their leisure. All we want is the agreed upon discount to be advertised and legitimized by the Fenkar Pack."
Silence fell at the table for a moment before Fenkar smirked, scooping that bottle off of the table and uncorking it so that she could drink from it directly; after a long swig she nodded and said "Very well, Miss Secretary~! Sounds like a deal to me. Everyone wins, right?"
The hunger in her eyes made me grin, though the immediate "You really are a good negotiator... if only because you know you have so much to offer that it makes things somewhat predictable for me~!" made me roll my eyes before I glanced at Renna.
My red haired lover was just smiling like normal, though the slight nod deflated me a little as she agreed with Fenkar; Luna was the one to provide some solace as she pat my back and whispered "It’s fine. We all know you could’ve given thirty kegs without issue... so what’s eight kegs between friends?"
It helped a little, but I definitely decided to leave everything to the two who were actually good at this to finish things out while I went and checked up on literally anything else, taking my time and giving them all the time they needed as they went and ’signed a contract’ in a private room...
Humming to myself as I watched the events unfold around Astra had become a bit of a habit now, one that Demetra pointed out instantly as she sprawled out on the bed beside me, a habit she had made recently too.
"Something fun must’ve just happened, right? You usually hum when fun things happen... Is she having sex again? That Horsekin maybe? Ooh, or did she go visit that Lionkin that Areseta likes to brag about?"
"No, no sex. She’s so cute though... Everyone has a different idea of ’normal’, but her’s is just so... outlandish it’s funny~! That System you gave her makes her so bold and careless at the same time. Thankfully she’s so good at surrounding herself with incredible people that it doesn’t bite her later on."
The Goddess of Fertility and Life giggled at that, rolling onto her side and staring at me for a few moments, causing me to raise a brow and ask "What?", setting her into another fit of giggles before she finally gave me an answer.
"So she’s like you then~? Completely unaware of what ’normal’ even is~? Not out of touch, just... too inside her own world~?"
That was said with the same amount of amusement as the last things were spoken with, and yet they also had that twinge that made it all too easy to push the screen away and lose myself to what was in front of me, something I had a feeling Demetra was after with all her pestering...