Lord of the Sky City-Chapter 820 - 802 Best Opportunity

Chapter 820 -802 Best Opportunity

Looking at the contents of the list, Farey felt the sweat forming on his forehead.

Though he and Athena had both repeatedly affirmed that Rocky was still a member of the Alliance, even a core member, Farey knew very well that those were just pleasantries. The cost to have Rocky release Great Elder Gandalf this time would undoubtedly be staggering.

But he hadn’t expected Athena to be so outrageously greedy!

The contents of the list Athena presented were terrifying—something that couldn’t even be measured in Gold Coins. If one were to assign a value to such demands, even exchanging for one or two Sky Cities wouldn’t come close to covering it!

It was simply impossible to realize!

Gandalf, as the Chief Elder of the Alliance’s Elder Council, was indeed a venerable figure and vitally important to the Alliance, but he was absolutely not worth this price! If Athena insisted on extracting such a painful cost from the Alliance to release Gandalf, then they might as well let Gandalf die right there.

At that thought, Farey raised his head to look at Athena and found her wearing her trademark smile while watching him. This caused Farey to secretly raise his evaluation of Athena even further.

He had already heard tales of this extraordinary woman. Back when she was under City Lord Alas of Glory City, she had orchestrated many remarkable feats. However, at that time, she had never laid a finger on the Three Great Alliances, leading many to believe she was too afraid of them and had thus drawn clear boundaries for herself. Yet now, it seemed that assumption was laughably wrong—it wasn’t that she didn’t dare to oppose the Three Great Alliances, but that she had been waiting for the right opportunity. Once the opportunity came, she struck decisively, with absolutely no mercy!

Farey also finally understood why she had left Alas to align with Rocky. Based on his understanding of Alas, while the man had ample ability, he lacked boldness. If Athena had remained under Alas’s command, no matter how many golden opportunities were presented to him, Alas would never have allowed Athena to pull off something like this.

But Rocky dared!

Not only did Rocky dare to let Athena challenge the Alliance, but he also trusted her completely!

A fearless and audacious Rocky, paired with an unrelenting and world-shaking Athena—together, these two could truly turn the entire Sky City upside down…

Staring at Athena, Farey let out an inward sigh, carefully folded the list in his hand, and, without revealing any emotion, nodded at Athena. “Please convey to City Lord Rocky that the Alliance will deliberate these terms carefully and provide a response as soon as possible.”

Although Farey found Athena’s demands utterly outrageous, as a seasoned negotiator, he understood this was her way of anchoring her price sky-high. What was negotiation, after all, if not a tug-of-war where both sides compromised? A deal with a fixed price wasn’t negotiation at all. For that reason, even though he would never agree to the terms on this list, he still kept it as a starting point, leaving room for bargaining—he trusted Athena would understand that as well.

As expected, Athena nodded and then left Farey’s room.

“Athena, don’t you think the terms we proposed are too steep?”

As she walked out with Athena, Aileen couldn’t hold back her question; after all, no one understood better than her how the terms on that list had been drafted.

Technically speaking, all the items on the list were authored by Aileen. Just as Rocky had said, Aileen was more familiar than anyone with what Thunderhawk City lacked and what was most valuable in this world, making her the most suitable person to draft such a list. However, the quantities had been determined by Athena.

To put it bluntly, Aileen had initially drafted the quantities, leaving room for negotiation based on her prior experience. But then Athena had taken one look at Aileen’s numbers and, with a single stroke of her pen, increased them tenfold!

Tenfold!

This was why Aileen had asked her question—because even she felt Athena’s demands were exorbitant, to the point that there was no way the other party would ever agree.

“Don’t worry. They’ll think about it carefully,” Athena replied, completely unperturbed by Aileen’s concern. “Right now, City Lord Rocky is riding high, and with the hostages in hand, the entire Sky situation is in chaos. This is the best—and also the only—chance to extort the Three Great Alliances. Even if the other side knows it’s extortion, they’ll have no choice but to consider it, so we mustn’t hold back. Besides, didn’t I leave them some wiggle room?”

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In just a few words, Athena explained her reasoning. With her intelligence, she fully understood what she was doing and how precious this opportunity was. Such chances were exceedingly rare, a perfect confluence of timing, geography, and human factors. If she allowed fear to hold her back now, wouldn’t it be a wasted opportunity?

With that, the two headed straight to the room of the Magic Energy Research Institute’s representative.

Like the Sky Alliance, the Magic Energy Research Institute had sent a representative to this meeting, also one of their Elders—Elder Ouli, who was about the same age as Elder Farey. In the hierarchy of the Institute’s Elders’ Council, this was considered quite young. Why? One only had to look at how ancient Orton and the others were to understand. Academic pursuits often required age and experience.

It was clear that the Magic Energy Research Institute had chosen to send Elder Ouli due to his youth. Youth often implied open-mindedness, which was critical at the negotiation table. Still, even so, Ouli could not compare to Farey.

As a member of the Sky Alliance Elder Council, Farey’s work centered entirely around wielding power. But for Ouli, being an Elder in the Magic Energy Research Institute meant a primary focus on research rather than administration. For this reason, he was the most stubborn negotiator among all the representatives—though that was still manageable. If it had been another Elder from the Institute, the obstinance might have been even worse.

But Athena had her own strategies for dealing with an Elder wholly engrossed in academic research.

“Elder Ouli, here are our terms. As long as these conditions are met, we will immediately release Great Elder Simonuo.”

Since their relationship with the Magic Energy Research Institute was relatively unfamiliar, Athena kept the initial pleasantries brief when meeting Ouli. Just as in her previous negotiation, she handed Aileen a list to pass over to the other party. This one outlined the terms for releasing Great Elder Simonuo.

Unlike the conditions presented to the Sky Alliance, the demands for the Magic Energy Research Institute did not involve material resources. Taking into account the Institute’s nature, they couldn’t be expected to provide many rare goods. The Institute derived its strength not from material wealth but from its technological prowess. As such, the list was filled entirely with technological projects.