Agatha The Legendary Guild Master

The eyes of Aria shone as she replied:

"Intelligent indeed, yes this is all the fault of that bastard who stole the leadership from me. He got the news of our little agreement, and knew I was going to agree to it. he then declared war solely from his side on your group."

Her words piqued my doubt, as I asked:

"Are you saying he isn't leading the whole Solaris group to attack me? but he sent one thousand player to ambush my team."

"Well, as an old famous adventure group as ours, having one thousand elite players as your personal army is something not difficult to achieve."

I understood what she wanted to say, so I smiled while saying:

"So, is your army available to help my group?"

"Well, I know you are very valuable, and your deal will help me a lot in future battles with this bastard, but I can't risk internal conflict like this without good reason, or else he will go to the elders and my situation would be worsened."

Her words made quite a lot of sense, but I knew she wouldn't try to reach me if she didn't have a way out of this, and all this was just an elaboration of how difficult it was to help me. I asked calmly:

"How much do you want to help me?"

Aria's smile widened as she said:

"You have a sharp mind in there, a beautiful intelligent woman isn't something good in this life, watch out for yourself girl."

I knew she was joking while giving me true advice, but I already suffered from my beauty and now I was suffering from my intelligence. I didn't reply except with a nod of appreciation for her concern, while she added:

"I know what you intended to do when you offered the deal to Drina, and so did that bastard. You aren't stupid to not understand the consequences of such act, so I believe you can understand my position."

She didn't speak directly about her demands, instead she was trying to get more advantages by pointing out these facts. I didn't stand still watching her trying to get more advantages, so I fought back simply by saying:

"You have been appointed here, but when I offered Drina this deal, I trusted the secrecy of your group. 

Such an old strong and famous group with two competitive smart people, you included, must know the simplest rules of fighting for survival. Your security grasp over your close men is flawed, or else we won't have this situation from the first place."

She just kept looking towards me while I looked back without any of us saying anything. After few moments of this tense situation, she laughed while looking towards her side as she said:

"You are right Drina, she is interesting. I like her, so we will help her."

"But sis, what about the elders?" Drina's voice came from the screen as she seemed very worried about this. Aria turned to look at me again while saying with her charming smile:

"I think our new friend here might help us in solving this little problem."

I didn��t delay as I asked:

"If there is anything I could do, don't hesitate to ask."

"Well, I can provide a team of players to help your group escape safely back to the town, but this team won't be big, or else I won't be able to hide their absence from that bastard's spies. 

I can provide cloaking caps to them, so no one would identify their game identities. The issue here relies on their equipment. 

As you can see, we all use a set of equipment which we bought from the town here. I can't let them move to aid your team with their weapons at least, as these would be eye catchy and won't be covered with the capes."

I understood her meaning, this girl's appetite was very big, but she had a point here. I went on thinking about this silently, while she asked:

"How many weapons can you provide?"

"the number isn't an issue, I was just wondering about the fate of these weapons after everything ends."

Aria seemed to be ready for such a question as she replied instantly:

"Well, I just need ten silver grade swords, plus rumination for any deaths."

I knew she was aiming for the swords, but her ambition wasn't as expensive as I thought. I feigned thinking with difficulty for a while before she added:

"You can provide any grade weapon, even trash grade works, as a payment for every death. What do you think?"

I shook my head faking helplessness before saying:

"I have no opinion on that."

"Good, here is a contract that's bound by the game. I already signed it with the conditions we agreed upon just now, you need to write the number of players you want me to send, and then sign with your game name and everything will be official."

A window popped up immediately in front of me, which carried the name 'contract' on its front. I read it slowly, as I knew this wasn't a play, and if I signed on anything that might bind me or harm me, I wouldn't blame anyone except my carelessness.

The contract was fine with nothing fishy in it, then I wrote down the number I had in my mind and then signed with my name here. 

After that, the window made a clicking sound before she turned green and then faded away. Aria's face was beaming as she felt she had won it big this time. poor Aria, she didn't know she was just short sighted.

Aria then retrieved the contract and went to the number I wrote down directly. I couldn't see her window, but I could watch her features, which began to change from extreme excitement to neutral, to shock. She glanced at me with widened eyes as she muttered:

"You want to take two hundred player from me?"

She was saying this with disbelief on her face and a trembling tone in her voice. Her reaction was really typical to what I had in mind, but I couldn't prevent myself from chuckle while I said:

"Yes, I want them now. Send Drina to the blacksmith hall right now and I will wait here inside."

The shock on Aria���s face didn't fade away; instead, it was deepened while she asked to make sure of what she just heard:

"Are you sure you want me to send Drina and my men now?"

"Yes, I already have enough swords to arm them. of course most of these are bronze grade swords, but I have enough."

Aria didn't know what to say as her body trembled faintly as her previous joy from her triumph in this deal evaporated, she didn't gain from me; she lost a big opportunity that she would regret a lot.