Chapter 238 – Contribution Rate
This was what I was waiting for and the reason I hadn’t resumed any business in Geola so far. There was no point in doing so before knowing exactly what I could get first.
“I understand.”
“We’ve been discussing your contribution and decided it amounts to twenty percent.”
I felt a bit cheated. It wasn’t much when I was one of the main contributors, if not the main one.
“Only twenty percent?”
She frowned.
“Still as greedy as always. Twenty is us being generous already. You need to understand that’s giving one-fifth of the contribution to a single person, who only made a minimum amount of effort during the outbreak. Did you think about the hundreds, no, thousands of people who fought every day to help the sick inside the city? I won’t deny your contribution was critical, but it’s not like you were out on the streets healing and comforting the population, right?”
She wasn’t completely wrong. In truth, I only spent the equivalent of a few days of work in total during the whole epidemic. Even though I provided critical information and the vaccines I brought helped protect critical personnel, that’s all I did.
“…You’re right. Forgive me.”
The proxy ruler of Geola seemed taken aback by my sudden modesty. After a short pause, she continued.
“Let’s move on. We agreed to make one of your wishes come true for every ten percent of contributions, as long as it’s not unreasonable. We can grant your two requests. Go ahead.”
I had long since pondered about what I wanted. I already had their full protection as my base reward, so I could demand more material benefits now.
“First, I’d like a mansion in the bunnies’ village south of here.”
Crali looked shocked.
“Impossible! Only bunnies and the ones guarding the village are allowed to live there!”
“It’s fine.”
She was interrupted by her mother.
“Mom! It’s your own rule!”
Still lying down, the high-ranked sorceress watched us calmly.
“That’s why I can create exceptions for it if I want to.”
“No! If you create exceptions whenever you feel like it, people won’t believe in your laws anymore. They won’t support you.”
“Wrong. They might stop supporting you, but not me. My strength is the base of my power, and such a small change won’t affect anything. You should hurry up and rank up, too.”
“That’s not the topic here!”
“Don’t worry. Tila’s been trading with the village for a long time. I heard you’re extremely popular there, aren’t you? The bunnies love you.”
I nodded while her daughter looked dumbfounded.
“How do you even know that?”
“Why don’t you know about it?”
“It’s not like I can know what every single person under me does with their lives!”
“That’s why you’re terrible at your job.”
“Argh! You’re so annoying! I’m trying my best here! I successfully resolved the Roklera outbreak!”
“You? Pffft!”
“Mom!”
Angin ignored her upset offspring and focused on me.
“You’ll have it. What’s your second wish?”
“I’d like to have a large shop in an attractive location in Geola.”
As if losing interest, she signaled Crali to take over with a small movement of the chin. The daughter grumbled but did so anyway.
“…A shop isn’t a problem. There are a lot of empty ones now since we lost so many citizens.”
“Give me the best one.”
She didn’t like my tone and scowled.
“Yeah, whatever. We’ll prepare it for you. That’s all you can get. I hope you’re happy. One last point. Your contributions aren’t officially counted and recognized. We have another true contribution list, which is the one people will know about. You also prefer it that way, right?”
She emphasized the word “true” as if my help didn’t account for much in her opinion. She wasn’t wrong about me wanting my contribution to stay mostly secret, since it was better if fewer people knew about me coming from the domes. Still, official recognition had its uses, especially for a merchant. Any kind of advertisement was welcome, even more so if it came from the power in the region.
“I don’t mind hiding the details of what I did, but I’d like it if I were still mentioned as having contributed. For example, citing me as a special contributor or something. Ah, no, please give my company name, Urtek, instead of my name. Or, even better, please give both. Tila Urtek, from the Urtek company.”
This irritated her even further.
“Stop making demands, by sel! Or what, do you want us to throw flowers when we announce your name or something?”
I gave her a large smile.
“If you could, that’d be great.”
“You’re as annoying as mom! Enough! Leave now, I don’t want to see you anymore. We’ll contact you whenever what you asked for is ready.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I left the meeting room in a good mood, while the jaguar kept complaining even after I was gone. I was sure her whining went into one of her mother’s ears and out of the other, anyway.
Truthfully, I was hoping to get three wishes for my contribution. Still, getting a mansion and a well-situated store for a few days’ worth of work was an excellent deal, and I had no reason to complain.
Back in 82, I announced the news to Suuru and Minsto, with Suuru not knowing how to react. We initially wanted to move out of 82 quickly, but Minsto's arrival changed everything. Suddenly, we had a reason to stay longer. Just like Minsto liked Suuru, Suuru also greatly appreciated the woman’s presence. The two had become very close, especially after the magic teaching began.
As such, it was now time to decide if we wanted to stay longer in 82 or if we wanted to move to the bunnies’ village. I was the one to open the discussion during dinner.
“For me, I don’t mind either way. The mansion in the bunnies’ village will give us an additional option, which is nice. We can move there at any time if we want to. It’s also defended by Geola’s army, so it should be one of the safest places in the outer world. What do you two think?”
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