Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 374: Gifting scraps. Am I not a magnanimous fellow?

"I don’t know"

The atmosphere froze in a weird manner.

"You...don’t know?"

Ezra nodded. "Rather than haggling the remuneration amount, I would better, simply highlight my deeds and let your Excellency’s determine an appropriate amount"

"Firstly, I stood the astral beast’s charge and forced it to halt. Had I not, it would have reached Cretin before you could even properly set up the barrier and laid waste to the planet.

By the time your reinforcements arrive, Cretin would have long been destroyed"

"Secondly, not only did I-a mercenary-not run away, I started fighting the astral beast, even though it would have been much, much easier to simply escape, and leave unconcerned.

If I hadn’t done this, the head officer would not have survived and thousands would have perished, that if the planet itself had not ceased to exist"

"Finally, when the beast refused to flee, I risked my life to kill it and drove it to death. Ending an astral beast attack that could ended the lives of everyone on this planet with very little casualties"

"As such, your Excellency’s" said Ezra, meeting the eye of all council members. "Do you also believe five million can be called appropriate for such deeds?"

"You’re correct" replied the spokesman. "Five million cannot be considered appropriate for such deeds. We will review this amount and grant you an appropriate amount"

"I’m thankful"

"Now, beyond that. There is something I can’t quite grasp"

"What might that be?"

"You said it yourself that you could’ve simply left unconcerned when the astral beast struck. So why didn’t you? Why did you risk your life?"

"Ah? That’s quite simple" Ezra replied. "It was about to cause me a loss. After all, if I allowed it to destroy Cretin, how was I supposed to get paid?"

Silence!

The council members were stunned into silence.

Their expectations of heroism or the likes were brutally shattered and an atmosphere of awkwardness set in.

But the awkward atmosphere was soon dispersed by hysterical laughter.

"Is that all?" Asked the spokesman rhetorically, in between laughs.

He was unable to hide the incredulousness he felt.

"There is something else"

"What is it?"

"I would like your Excellency’s to tell the outside world that it was reinforcements from the red dragon clan that took down the astral beast, not me"

Ezra had decided to do this for two reasons.

One, the fact that he killed an astral by his lonesome would definitely be doubted by many, and based on past experiences, he could foresee all sorts of troublesome things such fame would incur.

Additionally, having killed the astral beast and acquired its corpse, along with a substantial amount of remuneration. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

In essence, he had secured all the tangible benefits of this event for himself. If knowledge of this were to spread, there would undoubtedly be many unruly fellows disturbing him, and while it would inevitably have to increase his fame, his current strength was insufficient to deter potential enemies-they’d likely flock to him instead.

Lastly, by doing this, the red dragon would be able to save face, and their enmity towards him would in turn reduce.

In truth, he was simply gifting them scraps after having taken all the tangible benefits.

To care for them this much, was he not a magnanimous fellow?

"The red dragon clan? Why so?"

"I made a deal with them" Ezra replied, amazed at his improvising talent.

"Oh, I see" The spokesman simply nodded. "Alright, such things take little effort"

Ezra nodded in affirmation. "Understood. When should I expect to receive the remuneration?"

*Cough*Cough* "Give us half an hour"

"Certainly" Ezra replied, standing and subsequently exiting.

Outside, Ezra dialed a number.

Received, a voice immediately came through.

"Have you finally decided-

"Shut up for a bit" Ezra cut him off, irritated. "I’m calling for another matter"

On the other side, Evanol’s eyes reddened.

’This bastard!’

Although angry, Evanol did not let it show.

Without minding Evanol, Ezra informed him that he had decided to pass the glory of killing the astral beast to them.

"So what? Am I supposed to be grateful?" Evanol sneered.

"Just take it as my consideration of your efforts and tell your patron you made a deal with me. This way, you get to avoid being scolded and your patron can save face in front of other patrons, so it’s not a bad deal"

’He knows about internal clan structures’ Evanol noted with his tone turning non-hostile. "Fine. So, what do you want?"

"Nothing really. I just feel more could be made from forming a proper relationship with you. Although you tried to kill me, I’ll let it slide just this once. So what do you say? Would you like to become a neutral acquaintance or should we become mortal enemies from this moment on...?"

"You don’t have to think carefully about it, anything’s fine" he adds.

Evanol found Ezra’s tone and way of speaking extremely irritating, but he suppressed his anger. "I have no need for more enemies, so how does this work?"

"Eh? How surprising, I thought I’d have to sell the astral elixirs to other buyers" Ezra remarked. "Now then, inform your patron that the astral elixirs will be ready for purchase within in the next three months"

"Alright. But won’t it be better for you to speak to my patron directly about this?"

"I don’t want to. It’ll probably be annoying. Report my words to her and message her requests to me"

"She previously told me she would like to meet you in person"

"That will likely never happen" Ezra replied. "One cultivation enhancing elixir costs eight million. Forward me the quantity she intends to purchase by the end of this month"

"I’ll do that"

"Good, then let’s talk again in three months" Ezra replies, unilaterally cutting the call.

With the call cut off, Evanol was disconcerted. ’Why was he talking to me like I’m his subordinate?’

Right after, Ezra set Evanol’s calls to blocked, leaving messages as the only way for Evanol to contact him.

After that, he had Zydrax give him an idea of what to do if the council still gave him remuneration short of his expectations and both of them had a discussion.

Meanwhile, the hall had heated up as council members argued.

"He’s already strong enough to make a deal with those prideful dragons and most likely has a terrifying hidden background. It would be best to form some rapport with him while he’s still a Transcendent. If we wait till he becomes a Nascent, it’ll be too late"

"But if he doesn’t become a Nascent, won’t all our investments go to waste?" another countered.

"Then we’ll start off with a small amount. Three to five million a month should do, and then we increase it as he grows stronger or simply cut it off if he fails to deliver"

"That’s sounds best" one concurred, nodding. "Besides, if we can obtain a connection of a Nascent that can obtain artifacts for us in the future, then this investment is a very small price"

The others nodded in agreement, each one of the council members was filthy rich, and their wealth increased every day.

"Then, how much remuneration should we give him?"

"Fifty million should do" one said.

"Since he most likely wants to process the corps into elixirs. I say we add a little more to make him indebted to us and ask for an elixir in return"

"Can’t we make him sell the astral beast to us?"

"If he intended to sell it, he would’ve sold it to the red dragon clan, and trying to force him will ruin all our efforts"

"So then, eighty million? That’s more than enough to cover the cost of the processing. It’s more than enough in exchange for one elixir"

"Hmm, I say we add a little more and call it advance payment to sway him to our side completely and make him indebted towards us. After all, such an amount would definitely move him"

The arguments went on a while longer before arriving at a consensus.

Not long after, Ezra was called into the hall. Ending his discussion with Zydrax to see that not thirty minutes but forty minutes had gone by.

Taking his seat, the council were all looking at him as one of them voiced out.

"After deliberation, we have come to a consensus regarding your remuneration"

His communicator-obviously the latest one-lit up, to which he tapped.

Eyes on the communicator, Ezra watched as the 0 in his account balance shot up faster than a stopwatch’s timer, continuously expanding in length until...

100,999,500.00

"We have decided to reward with you a seventy million for your deeds of protecting Cretin from the threat of an astral beast and an additional million as your commission for guarding the stargate"

With his head facing the communicator on his wrist, Ezra’s eyes widened as he blinked five times consecutively to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.

Surprise was an understatement as to how he was feeling, but the rest of his body remained still.

He forced it to remain still, gritting his teeth to muffle the smile that was about to erupt.

[In this kind of situation, no matter how the big amount of money they give you, don’t overreact. In fact, its’ best if you don’t show any change in expression, don’t even smile if you can or make it a small smile, but show genuine acknowledgement. This’ll help you]

Zydrax gave him this advice during their short discussion.

So, taking a deep breath to calm himself, Ezra raised his head, having lowered it to obscure his expression.

"I am surprised. This is beyond my expectations" Ezra spoke succinctly, no smile could be seen on his face as he said these words. Instead, he almost looked angry.

Meeting their gazes, he lowered his head in acknowledgement. "I thank your Excellency’s for your generosity"

Then, without any other words, he turned and walked to the door with quick steps.

With the scenario no way going as they expected, the spokesman panicked.

"W-Wait!"

Stopping, Ezra turned towards them, seemingly oblivious.

"Yes?"

"I wasn’t done talking"

"Oh? My apologies" he replied, and went back to his seat.

The spokesman cleared his throat. "I said seventy million was given to you as remuneration, and one million is commission. We would like to have exchange something for the remaining with the thirty million"

"Okay?"

"We want to exchange it for a single astral elixir"

Ezra’s expression instantly turned serious as his mouth creased into a contemplating frown.

The council members and all interpreted it into a variation of ’Is he angry that we want to buy astral elixirs at this price?’

Meanwhile, Ezra was having totally opposite thoughts.

’They want to exchange thirty million for one astral elixir?’

He was astounded. According to Sidal, astral elixirs were priced somewhere from two to ten million depending on type and rarity.

Yet the people in front of him were willing to exchange one for thirty million? It didn’t make sense.

’Was Mr. Sidal lying to me? Or is there something else going on here?’

At this moment, Zydrax appeared.

[Stop looking at everything with only monetary value]

’What?’

[Your thinking is too narrow] Zydrax continued. [Do you really think these people are in need of money?]

’That’s right’ Ezra realized. ’Each of them has tens of millions in wealth’

[Astral elixirs are rarely sold to the public, and when they are, dozens of people many times richer than those that sit before you will bid for it. With it, you easily gain the backing and connections of a reputed clan]

’People like them need backing?’ Ezra questioned.

[Even money stops being effective at some point, you need strength and powerful connections to scale beyond a certain point] Zydrax replied. [So, how high a price do you think people like them will be willing to pay to secure that backing?]

’I see’

[And seeing that they’re negotiating with you like this, they must think you have a very powerful background. Otherwise, these bastards would be out to rob you instead. Hahaha] Zydrax then burst into wicked laughter.

At his moment, the spokesman’s voice broke him from his reverie.

"Mr. Sylvester"

"Yes?"

"What if we add ten million?"

"Then it’s a deal" Ezra replied immediately.

"Ah!" The spokesman’s face lit up, as did that of the other council members.

"Ahem. So when will we receive elixir?"

"You will get your elixir in five months"

He quoted three months for Evanol, calculating it twice the needed one and half months Sidal quoted.

But looking at things now, he might’ve to contact Evanol to extend the delivery date.

With the money now in his hands, Ezra instantly changed his plans.

Now he would make not just any, but top-tier potions!

This likely meant it would take more time than the estimated one and a half months.

So, in hindsight, Ezra stretched the schedule to five months. As no matter how long creating top tier potions would take, Ezra believed it wouldn’t pass five months.

"Five months...?" the spokesman repeated.

In all honesty, they wished they could obtain it today. But they knew to be realistic and had also estimated that it would take a few months.

’But five months is a bit...much’ they thought.

"Yes. Five months" Ezra reaffirmed. "Or would you like me to hand you a subpar product?"

"Ah?! No, no, no. Not at all"

"Good" Ezra nodded. "Is there nothing else?"

"Actually, there’s one more thing"

With the first speaker fumbling, another council member took his place.

Raising his brow, Ezra spoke. "And what would that be?"

Against the odds, this meeting was taking far longer than he’d anticipated.