"So, you need cleaners." Veylin picked up the Starleaf Paper from the floor and studied its terms.
"Not merely cleaners."
Marquis Golden Ear lifted a glass of water from the table and took an elegant sip.
"I need expendables willing to jump into waist-deep, rotting swamps and dig out those stinking roots with their bare hands. Laborers willing to crawl into magical beasts' lairs and shovel out mountains of dung, one scoop at a time."
He looked at Veylin. "Goblins are too stupid and prone to slacking off. Dwarves are too stubborn, and too expensive. Only you humans..."
The marquis chuckled.
"You breed quickly, and you'll do anything to survive. Like earthworms in the soil, you're naturally suited to wallowing in the dirt."
"That is your only bargaining chip, human. I want your people to shovel shit for me. For every ton of waste they clear, I'll give you a sack of wheat. Quite fair, isn't it?"
Caroline trembled with anger, her nails even tearing through her lace gloves.
As someone who had steered a business through years of commercial upheaval, she knew rationally that this was merely a negotiating tactic-the other party deliberately displaying contempt to drive down the price.
Yet this racial humiliation still drained the color from her face. For a moment, Caroline found herself sympathizing with the Second Empire.
Faced with such unthinking arrogance, perhaps only the scourge of iron and fire could teach these long-eared creatures to regard humans as equals.
After two deep breaths, Caroline calmed down.
Angry though she was, Marquis Golden Ear had offered the only actual "business proposition" they had heard since entering Evergreen Council territory.
Compared with Duke Raging Wind's categorical refusal, or that effeminate man's absurd demand for a "Sea Demon's singing voice," the sharp-tongued, mean-spirited Marquis Golden Ear