"Oh?"
Hearing Mr. Grandet's words, Iver raised his head with interest. "What makes you think that?"
Although Iver himself did indeed think so... he couldn't afford to show that attitude too readily.
I still have to bargain.
"Let's get straight to the point." Iver leaned forward and asked with interest, "What are your demands?"
Grandet did not answer Iver's question directly.
Instead, he shook his head and said, "I'll give you a piece of information for free, Minister."
The low, elegant standard Avalon Language flowed leisurely and methodically from the goblin merchant's mouth. "The Stibnite people have been researching anti-Griffin technology for decades, and recently they've made a considerable breakthrough..."
The green-skinned goblin casually lifted the pocket watch hanging from the chain in his hand and slipped it back into the pocket over his chest, leaving only a little of the golden chain dangling outside.
"There aren't many top-tier Transcendents in this generation of Avalon. In fact, you could even say they're... exceedingly rare. The army has also been shrinking year by year. It hasn't fought a war in decades—how much combat strength can an army accustomed to comfort really have?"
The goblin's voice was quite magnetic. "And you and I both know that Avalon's true deterrent lies in the Griffin Legion. The Griffin Legion's combat strength certainly doesn't lie in direct confrontation on the battlefield.
"As long as the Griffin Legion can enter enemy territory, it can use its tremendous mobility to harass the rear at will. It can also use that mobility to cut off supplies, divide and surround forces, and carry out bombing raids and harassment. When Avalon is invaded, the Griffin Legion can do practically nothing... but the griffins can strike at the enemy's homeland in turn, launching a bloody 'war of attrition in the rear.'