Although the deal was nearly settled, Bishop Garcia was not happy.
After all that effort, he had only managed to spend 25,000 Gold Narls... not even a fraction of what the Archbishop had assigned him.
Seeing the gloomy church members, a retired veteran grumbled to himself: "Boss, why do these bishops look so sour? He named the price, and we didn't even haggle..."
"What do you know? This is High-Level Negotiation. Those grave expressions keep us from reading the situation. Haven't you noticed they've controlled the conversation the whole time?"
Curator Rona looked solemn. These believers were damn good... Ah, no swearing. Be a gentleman.
"If there are no problems, let's sign the Contract."
Curator Rona had no objections, but as they were about to sign, something occurred to him. "Do you want to rent it from February through April, or for ninety full days?"
"February through April, of course."
Curator Rona explained that they could only rent it for about sixty days. "Why?" The cost had suddenly dropped by a third, leaving Bishop Garcia even less pleased.
"We hold football matches every Saturday and Sunday. We can't rent you the arena on those days," Curator Rona said helplessly.
"No. Unless the Holy Son holds an event, the Church must have it from February through April."
Wasn't that practically forcing him to sell?
Curator Rona had always stood by his principles, right up until Bishop Garcia said, "We can pay more."
"Pay more..."
Like lord, like subordinate. Curator Rona's resolve lasted all of five seconds. "If you're willing to pay double... no, triple."
"I'll pay ten times the rate. Thirty days comes to 72,000 Gold Narls, plus the previous 25,000..." Bishop Garcia paused. "Let's round it up to 100,000 Gold Narls."
"You're too damn generous!"
He would never have imagined