I chuckled at Arnar’s reaction as I began, "Hindinberg’s Gargoyle Heavy Tiltrotor aircraft. You must have heard of it. It’s one of the most trusted heavy transport-gunship hybrids on the market. Our government’s insane Foreign Retail Tax makes buying one commercially practically impossible, turning it into a luxury that only the military could realistically afford. But I can have a fully loaded one delivered to your place of choice today."
I paused, Arnar’s expression remained guarded, but I could see a flicker of interest in her eyes. "All you have to do is help me safely acquire the Summoner class as soon as possible. In return, I’ll sell you the aircraft at its original price."
The moment I finished speaking, the room fell into a graveyard silence. Everyone’s eyes were on me.
Arnar didn’t answer immediately. She simply stared at me, her expression impossible to read.
The Hindinberg Gargoyle Heavy Tiltrotor was worth roughly a quarter of a billion denars at its original price. After the government’s Foreign Retail Tax was applied, the same aircraft cost nearly three-quarters of a billion denars on the domestic market.
In other words, I was effectively handing her roughly half a billion denars in savings.
Of course, there was a catch.
There were no civilian buyers willing or able to pay the government’s absurdly inflated retail price. The Gargoyle might carry a three-quarter-billion-denar price tag in UAA, but finding someone willing to actually pay that much for one was another matter entirely.
For Arnar, however, the situation was different. She was a guild leader. A heavy transport-gunship hybrid with the Gargoyle’s reputation could be immensely valuable to her guild, especially at its original price.
And for me? I had no use for the aircraft. My plan was to sell it anyway and turn it into liquid capital.
I intended to use that money to buy as much land surrounding the A-rank Torcano Monster Gate as possible before the government, Valorant Guild, and Chimera Chemicals publicly announced their plans to turn the area into a Monster Farm.
So why not sell it directly to Arnar instead? I would get what I needed. She would get an aircraft that was nearly impossible to acquire at its normal retail price.
And, most importantly, I’d have someone powerful enough to help me obtain the Summoner class before the Reinfields family had time to come knocking.
Arnar finally broke her silence. She glanced toward Mille and asked, "Can he afford it?"
Mille didn’t answer.
Her expression remained perfectly indifferent as she turned toward me instead, waiting for my permission. My assets were privileged information, and she couldn’t simply disclose them to someone else without my authorization.
I took out my phone and held it toward her. The screen displayed the documents confirming my consignment agreement with Hindinberg Ltd.
"Tell her whatever she needs to know," I said to Mille as she accepted the phone.
Her eyes widened the moment she began reading. She scrolled through the documents once, then again.
Her expression remained composed, but the subtle changes in her eyes betrayed her growing shock as she carefully went through the figures, signatures, and contractual details. She even went back to the beginning and reread several sections, making certain she hadn’t misunderstood anything.
Lucas noticed her unusually serious expression and tried to peek over her shoulder. Mille immediately angled the phone away from him.
Only after she was completely satisfied that the documents were genuine and the information was accurate did she return her attention to Arnar, answering her previous question, "Mr. Chase will have no trouble satisfying his end of the deal."
Arnar raised an eyebrow, her gaze shifting back toward me with a hint of surprise. Meanwhile, as Mille handed my phone back, Lucas cleared his throat and said, "Mr. Chase, as your retainer, I would also like to review those documents. For your safety, of course."
I looked at him for a moment. Everything was going to come out sooner or later anyway. More importantly, I wanted to increase my stock in his mind to make Smith & Holts more desperate to take me on as their client. So, I handed him my phone.
"Go ahead."
Lucas accepted it eagerly. The moment his eyes fell on the documents, his expression changed.
"Hot damn!" His shout echoed through the lounge.
He looked around at the rest of us, in sudden realization. Clearing his throat, he quickly handed my phone back, apologizing, "Sorry for the disturbance. I’ll stay quiet in my seat now."
He hurried back to his chair and sat down, his earlier enthusiasm replaced by an almost comical attempt to look professional.
Once seated, however, he immediately pulled out his own phone and began messaging the name partners of Smith & Holts.
Mille was doing much the same. She was already busy exchanging a chain of messages with her branch director, no doubt reporting everything that had happened since she’d arrived.
Watching the two of them bury themselves in their phones, I couldn’t help but smile. Arnar, meanwhile, seemed to find the whole thing rather amusing. She turned her attention back to me.
"It seems I underestimated you, Mr. Chase." A faint smile returned to her lips. "If you’re still willing. Then we have a deal."
"Deal." I raised my glass as Arnar raised hers.
"That means we have to leave now." She said, already glancing at her phone before standing and heading toward the exit. I followed without hesitation. There was no need to waste time with formalities.
If this had been a deal between me and the Valorant Guild, I would’ve insisted on having the legal procedures completed before taking a single step. But this wasn’t a deal with some faceless organization.
It was a deal with Arnar, the legendary hero of Skyonee Island. A verbal agreement with someone like her was enough for me.