Chapter 261
Chapter 261
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 261
Chapter Title: Born Negotiator (2)
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"Then there's no helping it... I'll just give it to you."
Oliver responded after hearing Edith's sincerity.
An unnatural silence filled the cabin.
The air grew icy cold.
Edith stared at Oliver with wide eyes, as if he'd been struck on the head with a hammer, saying nothing. Oliver remained silent in the same way.
He had no idea what to say.
"......"
"......"
"......"
"......"
"......Are you messing with me right now?"
A long silence later, Edith finally spoke.
His face shone with surprise, bewilderment, incomprehension, humiliation, anger, and more.
"Pardon?"
"I asked if you're messing with me."
"No... I have no intention or thought of messing with you, Mr. Edith."
"Then what were you thinking when you said you'd just give it to me?"
"Well... it's not entirely free."
"......?"
"You'll have to cover the material costs, the equipment needed for production, and so on. These days, even I'm saving up a bit—"
"—Oh, God...!!"
Edith exploded in anger and frustration, calling out to the heavens. His face flushed bright red, and he panted heavily.
"Is something wrong?"
"It's because of you. Just shut up! If you don't want to make me so mad I kill you, don't do anything...!"
Edith spoke with utter sincerity, and Oliver obediently shut his mouth and did nothing, as instructed.
In the meantime, Edith downed his liquor straight from the bottle to calm his mind and body.
A moment later, he opened his mouth.
"Haa, haa... There was a way you could've blackmailed me."
"Pardon?"
"I said there was a way to blackmail me. You could've just scrapped the deal and waited for me to die slowly. So why didn't you? I might've gotten scared in the middle and changed my mind."
"You don't seem like the type to change your mind. You made up your mind so firmly..."
"Minds always change."
"Hmm... That might be true, but I don't think you'd go that far. Like I said before, spontaneity is important."
"You're lecturing someone on the brink of death about spontaneity?! Ugh... Or you could've demanded something else. Half my fortune, or for me to back you up... At the very least, you shouldn't have just offered it for free."
"I don't mean to be cheeky, but isn't that for me to decide?"
"...Well, sure, but this goes against common sense."
"If you insist, it's because I don't particularly want anything else from you, Mr. Edith. Money's nice, of course, but asking for it outright would feel like we'd settled on something else. That'd put me at a disadvantage... So I'm just giving it to you."
"...A born negotiator."
Edith said.
Not in sarcasm, but in earnest.
Negotiation was a battle of words, not blades, to claim more for oneself.
It might seem gentler than violence at a glance, but it could also be fiercer and dirtier.
After all, it laid bare each side's true face without restraint.
The longer the negotiation dragged on, the more you saw the depths of your opponent's soul, diluting any psychological edge you held.
Yet this young fixer before him was the opposite.
He didn't bare his own depths even to squeeze out a little more gain. He simply proposed terms that led the other to offer what he wanted of their own accord.
And in that process, he never flaunted his power or goodwill.
He seemed like a pushover at first glance, but...
Edith, facing him directly, couldn't see it that way.
There was no weakness emanating from him. Instead, only an indescribable presence imprinted itself.
A presence from a being whose nature he couldn't grasp.
Even after half a lifetime in the underworld, he'd never felt anything like it...
Even more astonishing was that no ulterior motive seeped through any of his actions.
Was he getting sentimental in his old age?
Still, it was odd. To feel overwhelmed by a kid young enough to be his son.
Not some one-dimensional dominance from greater strength or wealth, but something beyond.
Without realizing it, Edith spoke up.
"...By any chance, did you help Fighter Crew the same way?"
"Fighter Crew?"
"Yeah. Word is you helped them out, and that's how you became their boss."
"I think there's a misunderstanding. I did help the Fighter Crew folks, but I'm not their boss."
Oliver explained the false rumor that had spread, just as he had to Jane. Edith listened carefully.
"...That's how it happened."
"Must be disappointing."
"Thank you for understanding."
"Wasn't talking about you."
"Pardon?"
"I meant Fighter Crew must be disappointed."
"Sorry, I don't quite follow."
"Didn't say it for you to understand. Anyway... You're really going to give me the Blood Elixir just like that? As long as I cover the costs."
"Not certain, but if production succeeds, that's the plan."
"What does that... Never mind. Don't say it. Talking to you any longer will just make my head explode. Just tell me if you can promise it or not. Can you give me the Blood Elixir without conditions?"
"Hmm... Unless there's an unavoidable situation, I promise to provide it. You'll have to keep covering production costs, though."
Unavoidable situation... To most, it might sound like an excuse to break the promise later, but Edith didn't mind and nodded right away.
It was Dave himself making the vow, after all.
"You won't answer my curiosity to the end, huh."
"Well... If that's how it is, nothing I can do about it, right?"
"Fine. Then take this."
Edith handed over a small piece of paper.
"What's this?"
"My personal comm number. You have a personal communicator, right?"
"Yes."
Oliver nodded.
Team Leader Jonathan from Pinkman had said it was a good idea, so he'd gotten one when setting up his new place in L District.
"Good. Contact me here if something comes up or you need money."
"Ah, thank you. I thought I wouldn't have a use for it, but lucky me."
"And one piece of advice."
"Advice?"
"Yeah. I don't want the guy keeping my lifeline going caught up in needless trouble."
"Ah... What is it?"
"Watch out for Shamus."
"Mr. Shamus?"
"Yeah. You seem close, but keep your distance."
"We're not close."
Oliver said calmly but firmly.
It was the truth.
Edith was briefly flustered but quickly regained his composure and continued.
"Well, then, all the better. Either way, keep your distance. That guy's got plans to use you written all over him."
Oliver agreed. Every time Shamus looked at him, there was calculation behind it. Not that he blamed him for it.
"In Landa, people use each other for mutual gain anyway, so it's not a big issue, is it?"
"Hmph! You talk a good game... Not wrong, though. Smart guys don't mind being used. They know how to share the profits. But Shamus isn't like that."
"Really? He seems clever and capable."
"Not denying his ability. A lowly fixer turned big-shot businessman. But even accounting for that, the guy's too greedy and too proactive. Types like that can't rein in their ambitions and end up causing massive incidents. I swear on my dog of a wife and rat of a kids—he's gonna stir up something huge soon. The kind that rocks society."
It was near-prophetic. But no exaggeration—just pure sincerity.
"Then I should tell Miss Jane to be careful too. She's in the same group as Shamus's girlfriends and on friendly terms."
"Oh, right. You went to this party because of Jane? Doesn't make sense. With your reputation, you could be with someone prettier and richer."
Edith's eyes gleamed with malice.
Oliver answered without a second thought.
"I like Miss Jane."
"...Yeah? Why?"
"Well... Oops, can't tell you that."
"Why not?"
"It'd be unfair. You didn't answer my questions, so if I answer yours, it's not fair."
"Thought you were an idiot, but guess not... Fine, let's trade."
"Oh, so you're up for a deal too, Mr. Edith?"
"No, fuck... I'll give you some good info in exchange."
"Good info?"
"Yeah... Remember that Devil's Book I gave you?"
"Yes, though most of it's blank."
"I'll explain why."
"...There's a reason it's blank?"
"Yeah. And how to fill it. I couldn't verify it myself, but I know how it's done."
"Just curious, but why tell me now?"
"I traded you the book, not its secrets. Plus, I can use this somehow... So, deal or no?"
Edith said, staring at Oliver who was gazing right back at him.
"Don't look at me like that. Gives me the chills."
After his conversation with Edith, Oliver left the cabin, said goodbye to Jane, and hurriedly exited the party venue.
Shamus and the Sister Hood members were disappointed, but Jane let him go without protest.
Believing there must be a reason.
Oliver thanked her for her understanding, took a taxi straight home to L District, and headed to the basement.
There, he pulled out Big Mouth and asked it to spit out a book.
The Devil's Book he'd acquired during the Crime Firm auction retrieval mission.
"Kueeeek!!"
Big Mouth chewed with its maw and spat out the book.
Oliver thanked it for its hard work, handed over a bill, and asked it to wait a moment.
"Kurruk."
Big Mouth replied and crouched in the corner of the basement lab. Oliver opened the book and checked its contents.
The Devil's Book he'd received as payment from Crime Firm was a sort of record chronicling damages caused by demons. Oliver had skimmed it in his spare time.
Some entries seemed credible, while others were ghost stories like villages vanishing overnight, or tales too ancient to relate to.
After flipping through the entire book, Oliver muttered.
"I was planning to keep it stored away... Big Mouth, if it's okay, could you spit out another book?"
Big Mouth, crouched in the corner, chewed with the head on its crown and spat out another book.
This one was from Edith, detailing the 72 lords and the Demon King.
Not that it mattered much—there was more blank space than text, barely qualifying as a book.
'But apparently that's not the case...'
Oliver gazed at the book from Edith for a moment, steeled himself, and placed it alongside the two he'd just pulled out.
Then he extracted hunger and starvation from a test tube and bestowed them directly onto the book from Edith.
'No dice, huh? Mr. Edith said he wasn't sure...'
As Oliver thought while watching the silent book, Edith's book twitched. Shockingly, something eye-like protruded from its cover.
But that wasn't the end.
The book from Edith went beyond sprouting an eye—it grew teeth, its front cover splitting open like a gaping maw, and it began devouring the Devil's Book beside it.
Kyararararara—!!!
To the eye, it just looked like a book opening and closing repeatedly, but the devoured book shrank bit by bit until it vanished completely.
All that remained were scraps of torn paper from the meal.
And even those were gobbled up by Edith's book.
Oliver had thought he knew a fair bit about black magic... but he realized anew how much more he had to learn.
Oliver reached out toward the book.
He worried it might bite, but luckily, it didn't.
Instead, as if considerate of him, it reverted to its normal book form the moment he touched it.
'...The text increased, if only by a tiny bit?'
Oliver thought as he flipped through the pages.
As Edith had said, feeding it another Devil's Book had added to its contents.
Oliver tried to read the new text. Right then—beep, beep, beep—a signal sounded.
Forest's personal communicator.
"Mr. Forest? Ah, yes... Something came up, so I left early... Yes, it went well... Yes, thank you for understanding. I met Mr. Edith. Yes, yes... Ah, you're looking for Mr. Ewan? Good timing. Yes, got it. Thank you."
After scheduling a meetup, Oliver ended the call and looked back at the book.
"Work piles up fast, as expected."