Chapter 27 Coercion Tactics

"Pardon?" Leonardo's brows raised in confusion at the unorthodox method Azalea used to start the conversation. What did she mean by pointing out that he was a smart young man?

Shaking his head, Leonardo smiled flatly at the woman and made no further comments to entertain her rhythm, simply allowing her to go off.

Azalea expected more than that as a reaction from her male counterpart, but seeing him remain silent, she locked her small, fair hands into one another before resting her chin on her soft knuckles.

Her pink lips parted with a sigh as she articulated what ran through her mind, "I don't know what kind of a smart young man you are, but God be witness how I hope you're the type to prioritise your family's interests above your own."

Leonardo took a moment to process the underlying threats she was pointing towards Leona. However, just to be sure, he asked aloud with a confused facade on his face "Are you threatening to do harm to my Godchild in a way to force my hand or something?"

The young servant arranging the dishes and Leona not that far away looked in their direction with varying expressions of shock, disbelief, and confusion. Azalea was just as stupefied because Leonardo was basically throwing free information to the servants, which would undoubtedly be delivered up the chain of command as information for anyone else for the right price tag.

Just as Azalea was about to steer the conversation into a more cryptic direction, Leonardo shook his head with a helpless expression as he expressed his thoughts on the matter, "You honestly don't need to threaten with acts of violence against children if you're that desperate for my shares on the energy ore mines about a week's journey east from here. If you pay enough, I'm willing to sell."

"Let's see, I'm willing to offer 10% of the legal rights of ownership and mining for a piece of land where I could establish a fiefdom of my own. As for the location, any kingdom would do, as long as I retain my independence and rights of expansion through political intrigue and conquest."

Azalea's jaw practically hit the table at this point. This man not only revealed the location of the mines in a public setting, he basically announced his willingness to withdraw from the massive fortune brought along with the shares and future investments.

She couldn't help but doubt the rumours and tales spun about him within Jeffery's circle of political influence back in House Sylvia's kingdom. She expected a stubborn, smart, cunning young man who would milk them dry out of resources.

However, if all he wanted was something as cheap as fiefdom, any major power under the different noble houses could afford it, let alone the royal families themselves.

The woman was so shocked she didn't notice the servants excusing themselves to leave. Once they were all alone again, Leonardo's confused and innocent expression melted away into a gentle yet not so gentle smile, mainly out of how sinister it seemed in Azalea's eyes.

Suddenly realising something, the woman got to her feet with a fierce glare in her eyes, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Did what?" Leonardo responded with a faint smile on his face before hinting to the slowly closing door, "You might wanna report back to your boss, I doubt he or she would be happy that you coerced me into stating a price for my shares in such an open manner."

Azalea struggled inwardly as her gaze shifted from the door to Leonardo, annoyed yet amazed at the same time. No matter how she spun the story around, no one would believe her if she said no acts of coercion took place. Thus, she couldn't help but give the young man one last look before storming off.

Only then did Leona approach the table and take a seat on Leonardo's lap, her head resting squarely on the young man's chest as she reached for the assortment of food on the table starting with the bread and soup while voicing out her confusions.

"Godfather, why was she so angry?"

Leonardo caressed Leona's dark hair with a sigh before explaining, "You can say she got what she wanted, but also couldn't get it at the same time."

"What does that mean?" The little girl couldn't help but twist her neck back and stare up at her Godfather's faint smile with a piece of bread in her mouth. Since bread was the only thing she ate for most of her life, it was literally the only thing on the table of dishes where she knew how to start dining.

Leonardo didn't know how to explain the complicity of psychological warfare to a nine year old child. Thus, he decided to lay the matter as it is, and whether she understood or not will be up to her intellect.

"The human domain has three dominant kingdoms and vassal kingdoms to dominate it. While the vassal kingdoms can't compete with the ruling powers for resources in the land, they can indeed compete for foreign influence, and I happen to own such a desirable region with the blessings of the ruling powers."

"The ruling powers wouldn't want some of their vassals having too much influence or growing too fast. Hence, these vassal kingdoms can't simply approach the representatives of those powers to claim their properties, making me the beat go to option. However, because I am technically protected by the three ruling kingdoms, they can't simply harm or kill me, through they can harm me by proxy through you or Kieran."

"She wanted me to keep your safety in mind and not br too stubborn about claiming regional profits, but she didn't expect me to simply disregard the whole thing altogether for a cheap price. Of course, the issue isn't that the price is cheap, but that everyone else will soon be aware of the fact that I'm not particularly interested in keeping my shares of the profit long term, and I am willing to sell."

"What started as a fiefdom might as well turn into a barony or a county on the negotiations table by tomorrow's meeting. In any case, she's mad because now she doesn't have enough time to report back to her boss and make a private deal with me since everyone else will be aware of my intentions, completely ruining the purpose of trying to intimidate me by threatening your safety."

Leonardo thought for a moment before adding, "Oh, perhaps she's mad because now everyone will think she was stupid to threaten me in a public setting which resulted in the leak of my attitude. She might be demoted and reprimanded by her boss for this…"

Leona simply trained her deep brown eyes at Leonardo who was shooting his mouth in an unnatural manner unbefitting of his usual temperament, thinking that this was quite the experience. The little girl had no idea that after almost losing her, Leonardo began to subconsciously improvise on becoming closer to Leona for reasons he himself remained oblivious to.

Knowing that she understood nothing of what he just said, Leonardo knocked on her forehead in frustration before saying, "Well, just know that you can't make a business deal with someone when you have no idea what they value to behave with."

Leona nodded her head and committed the lesson to memory. The little girl may be unaware of her gifted talents in regards to intuition and psychic sensitivity, but Leonardo already noticed this peculiarity.

One can say that this little girl is destined for great things in the future when it came to the field of manipulation and psychological warfare, to the point where Leonardo was compelled to bring her along on every business meeting he might come across, simply to expose her to as much treachery as possible.