*Nudge* *Nudge*
When I went all out with my voice and unleashed a series of arrogant, confident statements, I was aware of the risk doing so brought with it.
What if the princess snapped? What if she decided she no longer wished to talk with me and was now more interested in taking me down?
What if Etaria judged that I was too dangerous to be left alive, and opted to remove the problematic me from the picture?
The one thing I didn't expect to happen after my haughty statement was Fay nudging at the edge of my sleeve, casually trying to pull my attention away from the princess and towards herself instead.
Her nudging lacked the strength and urgency to be a form of warning or a hint.
'Is she jealous of me talking with the princess for too long?' I attempted to figure it out, eager to see through Fay's actions even without relying on our bond.
For some reason, using this crutch in the presence of this golden princess...
It simply felt wrong and careless, irking my guts and thus stopping me from doing so.
I decided against using our bond to figure out what Fay wanted. And as I physically moved my eyes away from the princess and down to the girl glued to my arm... I failed to notice anything on her face that would hint at her intentions.
"Are you sure we can kill them all?" Fay asked after just one more moment of watching me helplessly struggle to figure out her intentions.
"Well, duh," I rolled my eyes in response. "It's not about whether we can kill them all or not," I replied in a soft voice as if trying to keep my words just for Fay to hear.
Yet, for some reason, I didn't have a shred of hope that Etaria would prove incompetent enough to miss my voice.
"The only question that I don't know the answer to is just how insanely expensive doing so will be," I admitted with a sigh. Then, I turned my eyes back to the golden princess's face before revealing the last piece of the puzzle of how I planned to deal with this entire conflict.
"You remember Makary, do you?" I asked, still keeping my voice as faint and restrained as possible in an attempt to keep the princess out of the loop... An attempt that was bound to completely fail.
Even though I didn't know why I felt like it, I was pretty damn sure no amount of effort to keep my voice faint would suffice to keep it outside of the perception range of this strange, dignified woman.
"Yeah," Fay nodded her head, "what about him?"
With her eyes raised and locked on my face, Fay appeared even more adorable than ever.
With a small smile on my face, I took a deep breath while stepping a single pace back.
"I suggest we start with three..." I hesitated for a second, "No, four days-long ceasefire. In this way, the mercenaries will have enough time to give all the fallen in this camp a proper burial. Oh, and once they are done..."
Once again, I hesitated. This time, however, it wasn't just an act.
Still, as dangerous as it could be for my political standing within the ranks of the forest dwellers, I really needed to buy some time. The time that I needed to go back to earth, figure out how this new permanent gate of mine worked, have Makary gather all the men and equipment he could, somehow convince him it's not only necessary but also find a way to make him square...
"Ahh..." I released a long sigh as if I wasn't just having important peace talks with one of the highest figures of power within the entirety of the empire. "I can already feel how much of a pain it will be... But if you will give me those four days I'm asking for, then I will be willing to release all of the mercenaries we took hostage without doing them any harm."
Seeing how Etaria's face twitched and how her eyes jumped over my shoulder to steal a glance at Claudy, I recalled that the leader of the mercenaries was right here with us.
Even after the huge hints he dropped in the few words he exchanged with the princess, I somehow found it hard to keep his presence in mind. There was nothing actively obstructing me from thinking about and noticing the man... It felt more as if the world found his presence to be simply insignificant, thus making it far harder to keep tabs on the man.
"Heck!" I moaned a little. "After those four days, I'm willing to offer you one or two more days if you fancied to take over this camp. If such were to be your desire, I can guarantee no one would even attempt to disturb you while you do so."
"And why are you willing to go that far with concessions?" the princess asked while locking her arms on her chest and giving me an intense stare with those golden and now slightly squinted eyes of hers.
For a moment, I felt like a porn performer stuck in front of a high-quality camera and inspected from every angle by thirsty viewers. There was simply no escape from the princess's intense glare.
And it felt that no matter how hard I tried, those eyes of hers could penetrate through every guise and disguise, always letting Etaria stare at the bare truth rather than all of the facade I, or anyone else for that matter, would put up.
"I'm a simple man," I repeated the words I brought up way back, sometime when our meeting only started. "I'm a simple man so I can only use simple methods to achieve my simple goals," I explained with a small, relaxed smile on my face.
"I'm a simple man," I repeated my own words from just before while my smile continued to grow wider. "So, being nice and easy-going now is my best bet at keeping you from freaking out when I put money where my mouth is and bring death upon your army."
I took a deep breath while trying to pretend not to notice how ugly Etaria's face was becoming in response to my insistence on the notion of 'killing them all'.
"My only hope is that with all those concessions I'm giving you right now, once the bloodshed starts, you will swallow your pride and order your men to retreat to where they are right now."
"And what good would such a shallow retreat do you?" Etaria attempted to counter, too baffled by the strange ways of conversing I employed to be able to follow the conversation's flow. "I'm not sure if you are aware, but for my men to move from this small incline all the way to where the forest begins..."
"I bet it would only take them a moment," I admitted with a shrug of my shoulders. "But after our talks today, I hope the notion of pulling your men back to this small hill will be our signal, something just between the two..." I pursed my lips before giving my surroundings a short scan. After counting all those present on the scene, I cleared my throat and picked up where I left off.
"Something just between the ten of us," I continued. "And I will take it for a sign that you've acknowledged the disparity of our ability to slaughter the other and are more than happy to resume the peace talks again, even if from a much worse position than you are in right now."