"The first reason being that I want the Ring of Apophis from you," the young lady stated, surprising even Lambard.
It wasn't what he expected. She was here for the ring of Apophis? Why was everyone coming here for that thing at the same time?
Lira was glad that they got the ring already. It seemed they were right on time. If they had arrived an hour later, the ring would've been with Lambard, and he might have given it to the young lady. Now that he had promised them, there was no way he could take the ring back before seven days of getting into the Royal City ran out.
"I'm willing to pay you as much money as you need for the Ring of Apophis." The young lady stated.
"Lady Elora, if you think that money can sway me, you're wrong. I'm the one who spends money to get Numens, not the one who spends Numens to get money. I'm sorry, but I can't help you with this. What else do you need?"
"What if I give you something that's not money?" Elora inquired.
"And what might that be?" Lambard asked, curious. " I doubt you can offer me anything that can make me change my mind."
Even though Lambard had already given the ring of Apophis to Gabriel, that was only for a little over a week. After that, he was going to have the ring back, so he certainly could offer the ring to the young lady, but to exchange a Numen, he didn't think it was worth it. He quite liked the Ring, after all.
Elora glanced at Gabriel and Lira. "You should send them out before we can discuss further. I don't want to mention things that commoners shouldn't know."
"Don't worry about them. They are the suppliers who work for me by location Numens. They know more about them than anyone. You can talk about anything," Lambard swiftly lied.
The worries of Elora were fair since most people weren't allowed to know about Numens and many such things, but he had already told Gabriel and Lira about such things. He didn't care if they heard more since they were also important players in the grand scheme of things.
"Fine. What if I offer you a Letter that was written by the Goddess of Thunder herself to the Goddess of Water?" Elora smiled. "I heard you're really interested in literature from the times of Gods? If you find me a ring, the letter will be yours."
"Hmm? A letter personally written by a god?" Lambard straightened up as soon as he heard about the offer. So far, he had only dealt with things regarding demigods. Even the things he knew about the gods were through things written by Demigods.
He never had direct interaction with anything written by the Gods themselves. If he was truly being offered something like that, then the offer was really worth it.
Moreover, a letter written by a God might contain their true essence as well. It wasn't an offer he could refuse.
Also, since the letter was written to the Goddess of Water, it might tell something about the relationship between the two gods at that time. If anyone could have a letter written to the Goddess of Water, it was going to be the Holy Church of Water, so he didn't doubt its authenticity either.
"Why do you want to offer that in exchange for the Ring of Apophis?"
"We do have a couple of letters that were written to the Goddess of Water by the Goddess of Lightning, so I can certainly offer you one for what I need. But you don't have any, so you will certainly need it. Do you accept the offer?"
Even though Elora asked this question, she was already sure that the answer was yes. She could see on his face that he truly wanted the letter.
Lambard subtly glanced at the end on Gabriel's hands as he seriously thought about it. A mission that was supposed to fail, or a confirmed letter written by a god? Those were his two choices in exchange for the ring.
Even though he had already promised Gabriel, he still thought about this offer seriously.
"Why do you want the ring of Apophis?" he asked Elora. "What do you want to use it for?"
"I want to use it for myself. Whenever I leave the church, almost everyone recognizes me. I don't appreciate such attention. I want to use the ring to disguise myself, so I can leave freely without attracting gazes. So I need it just for basic use."
"Fine. I'll offer you the Ring of Apophis for one month in exchange for the letter. You can use the ring however you want in that month. That's the deal. I can't hand over the ring permanently under any condition since I quite like it. But I'm sure one month should be enough for you to experience what you want to."
"One month is too little. I want the ring for a lifetime."
"I'm sorry, that's not happening. Even though I want the letter, I'm not going to give up my ring forever. I've spent a lot of effort to get the ring. Moreover, it's not like you're losing anything by offering me a letter. You have many such letters, and you're only offering one. If I had many such rings, I would've given one ring to you for a lifetime as well, but I don't."
"I'm afraid it's not an equal deal. You are giving something that you can afford to lose since you have more of it. I'm giving something which I can't afford to lose. I'm being really generous by offering you one month. I've offered a week for things much more precious." Lambard stood firmly on his offer, not taking a single step back.
The way Lambard was dealing, Lira couldn't believe it! He had promised the ring to them, and now he was negotiating to take the ring from them and give it to someone else?!
She couldn't accept this!
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