The Man Needs Ambition (3): The One Thing You Need to Succeed at Negotiation
What does it take to pull off a successful negotiation?
Devious persuasion skills?
An incredibly attractive proposal?
A firm, intense attitude?
No, those are all secondary factors. There is only one truly important thing in any negotiation.
The other party.
The specific person you can convince.
In other words, the easiest person to convince is the best one to negotiate with.
What if someone is simply impossible to talk down?
Just pass on them without hesitation. Simple.
If there’s no fixed target, it’s far more efficient on a cost-benefit level to seek out someone you’re likely to close with than to pour every persuasion technique you have into a single difficult client. Opportunity cost is everything.
So I spent the morning moving quickly through every inn in the capital, watching, listening, and building a detailed analysis note on each one.
I walked into all twenty-two of them and, in several cases, sat down for extended conversations just to observe how the owners and staff actually behaved.
I asked questions about daily operations, about pricing, about seasonal fluctuations. I watched body language, tone of voice, and the way they reacted to outsiders. And in the end I had clear criteria for which places had the right mix.
Places that weren’t quite thriving but showed real potential. Owners who still had fire in their eyes even after the business had slowed. Exactly the kind of inn that could be turned around with the right approach.
And the very first one on my list turned out to be this one.
[Levina Inn]
‘…Here it is.’
As soon as I saw the sign, my instincts lit up like fireworks.
The location was a little awkward, but the owner’s mindset, the quality of the food, the raw potential—everything screamed opportunity. I was certain this was the place where I could lift revenue reliably, no matter what.
The next step was simple: perfect the pitch.
I waited, calm as ever. In negotiations the environment and atmosphere often matter more than the words themselves. I waited until the moment felt right.
While I waited I ran countless mental simulations, preparing for every variable. I wanted to be ready for anything.
And then the afternoon finally gave way to a quiet evening.
Through the window I could see the owner and his daughter standing behind the counter, chatting softly while they checked the day’s receipts.
‘Now…!’
No rush. And they were still worried about the future.
Perfect timing.
I pushed the door open without hesitation and stepped inside, launching into the prepared speech.
Once everything was explained, the owner scratched his head and asked, “So… you want to invest money with us?”
“No. It’s actually a different kind of partnership.”
I slid over the contract and the thick stack of papers I had prepared the night before—the business plan designed specifically to boost this inn’s revenue.
“Hmm…”
He stared at the documents for a long moment. I watched him with absolute confidence. My offer was going to work. This wasn’t just any plan; every calculation was locked inside these pages.
From his perspective there was literally no reason to refuse. The revenue-boosting strategies I had written were brilliant. He had no chance of failing.
But his expression was strange. His daughter’s too.
‘…Why do they look so odd?’
The two exchanged a long, silent glance. Then the owner nodded and spoke with obvious reluctance. “The words… I heard them all. I just…”
Wait, what?
Did I need to lower my cut?
At that first ominous sentence I quickly re-ran my mental checklist. Calm down. I’ve got backup plans ready. If the terms need tweaking, I’ll adjust them right now. Just stay relaxed and everything will sort itself out.
Yes. Stay calm. I can do this.
I hid the tension and listened to the rest of his sentence.
“The problem is… we don’t read very well…”
“Ah…”
He avoided my eyes. His ears were noticeably red.
Right. I’d completely forgotten about that.
“So! I’ll explain it the way you can understand.”
I sketched my entire proposal with pictures and gestures—every point laid out slowly so even someone who couldn’t read could follow. It took longer than expected, but it worked.
“Now, any questions?”
The atmosphere was good. After I finished, the owner nodded and summarized, “So, bed and board for one month at four silver coins?”
“Yes.”
“And if average monthly net profit doubles from what it is now, I pay an extra quarter of the increase?”
“Correct.”
“Hmm…”
He rubbed his chin with wrinkled fingers, then closed his eyes and thought. His daughter glanced at him and asked me directly, “What if the results don’t come out?”
“Then, as I said before, you pay the regular price.”
“Really?”
“Yes. If you don’t believe me, I can give you a deposit now and refund it later if needed.”
“Hmm…”
She tilted her head, eyes full of suspicion. After a moment she cleared her throat and spoke more steadily. “Even if we accept the proposal, there’s something in it I can’t quite accept.”
“Speak freely.”
She pointed at one of the pictures in my notes with a furrowed brow. “These revenue-boosting methods sound promising, but they’re not a guarantee. We’re investing money without absolute certainty—it’s hard.”
She sounded genuinely worried, but I answered calmly. “You won’t have to worry about much. All the costs are on my side. The only changes will be some labor adjustments.”
She still didn’t look convinced.
“What if revenue drops instead? How do you handle that?”
“If I’m the one causing the drop, I’ll work until we break even. Cleaning, cooking—whatever you tell me. If you don’t like that, I’ll pay compensation in cash.”
“Hmm…”
Frowning, she leaned in and whispered something to her father. He closed his eyes and nodded. She let out a long sigh, then said heavily, “This… is too strange.”
“Too strange? In what way?”
“Everything.”
She pressed her palms to her forehead.
“I’ve never seen a proposal like this, but it’s clearly too favorable. It’s almost unfair.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It would be perfect if we could keep it exactly like this. But I know the world doesn’t work that easily.”
She took her father’s hand firmly, took a deep breath, and looked me straight in the eye. “Honestly? We don’t trust you. We can’t even read, and we’re not used to contracts like this. No one to turn to if we’re scammed.”
“…”
“So I’m sorry to doubt you, but I have to reject the offer.”
The moment she finished, I looked at the owner. He gave a weak nod. He had agreed from the beginning.
I watched them for a second, then said calmly, “It’s understandable.”
Lucky.
They had asked the question before I did. That was all I had been waiting for.
In negotiations the strongest weapon is the decisive line you save for the exact right moment. And I had been saving it.
“Could you take a look at this?”
I pulled a small piece of paper from my pocket and handed it over. They examined it curiously.
The daughter’s eyes widened in surprise. “This… this is…”
It was a certificate of graduation, embossed with imperial gold and the royal crest of the Empire.
“A… academy graduate certificate…? It really is…?”
The owner looked confused. His daughter stared up at me with wide eyes. I snapped my fingers once.
Click—!
Every candle on the tables suddenly blazed bright. A thick, misty aura rose from the floor at the same moment.
“Eh, ehh…!”
The entire inn turned a deep, unnatural red, like it had been painted with blood. The surroundings had completely changed.
The owner and his daughter stared in shock, eyes wide, shoulders tense, unable to speak. They just kept staring at the magic.
I let them feel the afterglow for a moment, then spoke gently. “Let me introduce myself again. My name is Kyle, a graduate of the National Academy’s Class 17.”
“Academy graduate…”
“I majored in magic.”
“…”
They said nothing more.
I asked again, “Does that help you trust me a little?”
They simply nodded, stunned.
***
Three days later, same time, same place.
We had prepared for the first official business meeting. We hadn’t started the negotiation the same day the deal was closed because I wanted a little time to build rapport. That was the whole reason.
The inn’s owner, Robert.
His daughter, Chloe.
I had spent the last three days working alongside them, earning their trust. Especially Chloe—she had asked me hundreds of questions, curious about the academy and even begged me to show her magic tricks.
After those three days we were far closer. Now it was time for the real conversation.
“So… what do we start with?”
“Let’s go back to the basic strategy.”
“Basic strategy? What is that?”
“We need a differentiation point.”
“The most orthodox strategy a small business can use—catch a niche.”
“A differentiation point? What exactly?”
“The one thing our inn has that no other inn has.”
“…So we change the interior?”
They looked puzzled. I shook my head and cut straight to the answer. “No. We target a gap market instead.”
“Gap market…?”
I didn’t explain further. I simply placed two thick books on the table.
The textbooks for advanced academy electives:
[Deep Understanding of Sub-Human History and Culture Volume 1]
[Deep Understanding of Sub-Human History and Culture Volume 2]
Knowledge no one else in the capital possessed.
“Let’s change our target customers to sub-humans.”
That was the plan I had been turning over in my mind for years, the perfect way to differentiate this inn.