90 The Offerings

"And now, I'd like to introduce the man himself, King Portro!"

The two huge backdoors opened slowly as the bird stepped off the platform. Then, the bird took out a massive cushion to cover the entire platform.

All the territorial rulers paid close attention to the silhouette that was entering the room.

Casually slithering in was a gigantic, emerald-green python. From the look of it, the python was at least fifteen krin long, possibly more. It licked it's massive lips and smiled to territorial rulers as it coiled up on the giant cushion.

"I'm so sorry for arriving so, so late. Please, forgive me," stated King Portro. "Now, let's get down to business. First, let's have you bring the offerings one by one. Those in front first and we'll make our way back."

Following orders, the person nearest King Portro hurried up and retrieved a large pile of gold and various weapons.

Seeing the offering, King Portro nodded. "This is acceptable. Since it was such a sudden offering, we can allow a lower bar of quality for the gifts. But remember, that's only for this time. Next…"

That territorial ruler bowed again before leaving as King Portro stored the offering, making room for the next person.

While some people were a little anxious and hopeful that their offerings would be accepted, most were happy to hear that King Portro was willing to be a little forgiving considering the circumstances.

The fourth person to go up kept a straight face as he bowed and placed his offering in front of King Portro.

The giant serpent looked at the small number of treasures and then at the territorial ruler. "Is this all you've brought for me?"

"Yes, my king."

"Hmm… Are you sure? Or did you just offer me less because I said I would be lenient to those who cannot come up with the usual amount?" questioned King Portro, putting a frown on that territorial ruler's face. "Your territory is one of the wealthiest, so something like this shouldn't be too difficult, yet some before you from weaker territories have offered more."

"I wonder, is it that you're too greedy to give the full offering or that your territory isn't worth the title as a major territory?"

"My apologies, my king. Please, accept the rest and more as my personal apology." Without hesitation, that territorial ruler doubled the amount of treasures in front of him, finally getting Knig Portro to smile.

"Very good, you're a smart man indeed. Next…"

They continued down the line, slowly reaching the middle of the crowd. Soon, it was the elephant's turn, who proudly marched to the front and bowed. "My king, please accept this generous offering from my Mammoth Territory."

King Portro chuckled, "This is quite the sum, the most of anyone thus far. Even for a normal offering, it's quite generous. I'll remember this for sure."

"Thank you, my king."

As the elephant walked back to his seat, he smirked toward the jaguar and Rathe in the back.

The jaguar laughed, unconcerned about the elephant. He knew that the elephant couldn't touch his military-based territory. Though the elephants had a lot of wealth, the jaguar's territory was quite strong in terms of military force, hence why the elephants sought their help to contain the gorillas.

The dozens of territorial rulers continued with their offerings. None were rejected, but none tried to short-change King Portro after he caught the one ruler giving less than expected. They understood that King Portro had investigated their territories and had based his expectations on that.

Soon, the back row was finally going up with their offerings.

The jaguar sent up and bowed as he laid out his offering. "My king, my territory isn't known as the wealthiest, but it does contain one of the region's greatest military assets. Our armies are some of the fastest and strongest there are, and they'll also be at your command when the need arises."

"Good, I'm glad to hear that. Thank you. Next…"

As the jaguar smiled and turned away, Rathe chuckled and strolled up to the front casually. While everyone else was dignified and approached the king as if they were parading their strength and status to the public, Rathe hummed and scratched his neck as he made his way to the front.

Many of the other rulers were startled by his nonchalant behavior, including the elephant, who hoped Rathe would get rejected and shown his place.

Once he stood in front of King Portro, Rathe gave him a quick but low nod. "King Portro, I'm sure you've heard that we've established the Iron Territory not even a year ago, so I ask that you take that into consideration when receiving our offering."

"I can do that."

"Great!" Rathe laughed and activated his void bracer.

The elephant and most of the rulers of major territories laughed to themselves when they saw Rathe. Not only was Rathe overly casual, but he begged the king to have mercy on him before he even took out his offering. Such behavior wasn't very fitting of a territorial ruler, not in their eyes.

But then they saw the pile of treasures in front of the king and they immediately shut up.

That pile was easily the largest and most noteworthy of them all. There were even a couple of perennial grade weapons hidden among the small mountain of coins.

"This…" King Portro's eyes went wide. "How did your small border territory afford this?"

"We've only just been established, but we've already started trading with traveling merchants, neighboring territories, and even accepted some humans into our town as permanent merchants," explained Rathe. "The humans will move in over the next year, but we've already started doing business."

"Also, we recently opened an academy to help our youth surpass the current leaders in the future. We're even accepting transfer students and we charged entry for every foreigner who came to witness the entry tournament that we held a few months back."

"It seems your territory's growth is incredible. I must commend you for it and will gladly accept this offering," stated King Portro with a proud smile.

"King Portro, I'd like to ask something of you."

"Oh, so soon?"

"Yes, but only because I know it's easy for you to fulfill," reasoned Rathe, still keeping all attention on him.

"My territory is clearly growing and has practically become a major territory overnight. I wanted to ask if we could be evaluated as a major territory in one year's time, instead of waiting ten years until the next offering."

King Portro's eyes twinkled. "Oh… That is quite easy for me to fulfill. Very well, I'll send my right-hand man to visit your territory in one year. At that time, based on this offering and what you've told me, I look forward to gaining yet another major territory. And it being a border territory, that's an even better deterrent for future war. I'll be excited to receive the report in one year."

"Thank you, my king."

With that done and out of the way, Rathe bowed and laughed as he returned to his seat.

The other territorial rulers were baffled, not only by the offer but by the granted exception to become a major territory. That meant the Iron Territory would become a major territory after only one year of coming into existence. It would be fastest any territory had become a major territory, and it upset everyone that had been looking down on Rathe moments ago.

What they didn't know was that half of the gold offered was from Oli and not from the territory itself. The offering would've been good, but it was only the best thanks to Oli being generous.

The jaguar smiled greedily as Rathe returned to sit beside him. "Rathe, how come you never mentioned how prosperous your territory actually is?"

"You never asked, Zakal," chuckled Rathe. "Remember, I'd love for you to come and visit. And I won't lie, I'd love to become allies with the Predator Territory with your kind of military strength. You could help us organize the army were currently setting up."

"You're readying an army as well? I'll gladly help," laughed the jaguar. "It seems that your territory is even more successful at trade and development than those greedy demons in the Mammoth Territory."

"That I'm sure of. Once you see it for yourself, how about we discuss a pact between territories?"

Baring his fangs in a proud smile, the Jaguar nodded. "But only if we're the exclusive military territory you ally with."

"Done!"

The two kept chatting. Neither liked discussing politics too deeply and were very blunt about what they wanted from each other.

From their mutual greed and frankness, a small friendship and alliance would soon form between Zakal and Rathe.

The elephant was fuming as he overheard their banter while the king was still accepting the final offerings. He had underestimated the growth of the Iron Territory. And if he planned to act against them, it would need to happen as soon as possible.