Count Wellen's face darkened. After a moment's thought, he rode out through the crowd and looked down at Xu Yi from his horse. "What is it, President Xu? Frightened now that you've seen my army? Are you ready to accept my terms?"
Xu Yi smiled faintly and shook his head. "No, I only came to offer you some advice, Count. Our cooperation was going perfectly well before. There was no need for you to destroy our good relationship. If you withdraw your troops now, I can treat all of this as though it never happened, and we can continue working together amicably."
"Hmph!" Count Wellen snorted heavily. "Continue working together amicably? To obtain military magic machinery from your guild, I've practically handed over all the most important resources in my fief to the Xinfei Merchant Guild. If we keep cooperating, are you planning to swallow my entire fief whole?"
Xu Yi looked at Count Wellen in surprise, thinking that this lord certainly knew how to turn an accusation back on his victim.
It was clearly his own excessive greed that had driven him to try to swallow up the Xinfei Merchant Guild, yet now he was accusing the guild of planning to seize his fief.
Of course... strictly speaking, Xu Yi had not been entirely without that thought himself...
"My lord, I am a merchant. Our cooperation is an ordinary business arrangement. You provide our guild with enough gold coins, or the various resources we need, and naturally we provide you with the military magic machinery you require. Whatever else you might say, the Xinfei Merchant Guild was enormously helpful in your victories over Count Fran and the other lords, wasn't it?"
Count Wellen snorted coldly but did not deny it.
Everyone knew that was true. Flatly denying it would