The Alliance

"All right, all right. No need to come over. It was all a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding."

Now that he'd gotten his reward, Stark had no reason to give the Elves any more trouble. He waved at the Orcs gathering around them, sending the soldiers back to their posts.

"Stark! Our duty is to keep the harbor safe. You, a mere harbor official, used its security to toy with us. You'd better start picking out your own gravestone!"

"Hmph. So what if I toyed with you? If it gets me another bag of gold, I'll toy with you as many times as you like."

With gold in front of them, even a Goblin as timid as a mouse could be as brave as an Orc. With coins tucked against his chest, Stark had no reason to care about their threats.

"Lord Stark, when can you arrange for us to meet the ruler of Ratchet? There'll be plenty in it for you once our million-gold deal goes through."

Seeing how greedy the Goblin looked, Alleria continued. But this time, Stark hesitated.

"Heh heh. Well, a million is a lot, but our ruler is busy with official business. It might be a little difficult for you to meet him—"

"Stark Gold, you took my money, but you don't intend to do what I asked? You just offended those Orcs. If I killed you now, do you think they'd come to your aid?"

"Y-you can't! This is Ratchet! If you kill me, you'll never get out of here!"

"Even if we can't get out, you won't live to enjoy your gold."

"H-how can you do this? I'm the harbor official in Ratchet! If you kill me, you'll ruin your million-gold deal!"

"If we can't meet your ruler, the deal was never going to happen