Chapter 274: Broken Negotiations
"So you had the princess all along. If you had brought her sooner, then we wouldn’t have had to destroy so much of your world."
Grinot spoke with an authoritative voice filled with smug pride. He knew that they were the more powerful race here, so he didn’t feel the need to show any sort of respect to people who were lesser than him. But unfortunately, Fredrica didn’t understand a single word Grinot said! Fredrica put her hand out towards the man behind her, and he handed her a small box. She opened the box and Grinot blinked in surprise when he saw what was inside. It was a small round stone with a rune inscription on the front, and he immediately knew it was an artefact.
Fredrica took the artefact and she spoke.
"This will help us understand each other. Please speak."
The stone pulsed with a red light, and Grinot’s brow furrowed since he didn’t understand anything that Fredrica was saying. He narrowed his eyes at her and spoke in a gruff voice.
"What is that artefact meant to do?"
The stone suddenly glowed with another red light and it finally glowed blue as it accepted the different languages. The stone in Fredrica’s hand was known as the [Whisperstone], and it worked by taking in two different languages from two people and translating anything one person says so that the other person could understand. The only downside to the Whisperstone was that it could only absorb two languages for its entire lifespan, so once the languages are put in, you can only use that stone to translate those two languages, and you can never reset the stone to use it on new languages. That was why the stone was put in a soundproof box to prevent any outside sounds from affecting it until they needed to use it.
Fredrica spoke up calmly while gesturing to Riyala.
"Is this who you came here to find?"
The dragonborn was surprised when the stone suddenly translated Fredrica’s voice into his language, and he hummed before nodding.
"That woman is a fugitive from our world and a criminal. We are here to take her back to serve punishment for her crimes. Return her to us immediately."
Fredrica turned to glance at Riyala, and she saw the meek and terrified look on her face. No matter how Fredrica looked at this, there was no way she could see Riyala as the criminal the man was painting her to be. But that was none of Fredrica’s business. She wasn’t here to involve herself in the politics of a foreign world. She was here to get these people out of here.
Fredrica spoke up.
"You’ve caused a lot of damage to our world unprovoked. I say we deserve compensation for your damages."
"This is not our fault. Your people refused to listen to us, so we needed to show that we were not to be taken lightly. That is the way things are done in our world."
Fredrica narrowed her eyes in anger when she saw the complete nonchalance on Grinot’s face. It was obvious that he didn’t care about the damage that had been done at all! In fact, he believed that what they did was nothing serious since they were stronger. The strong could do whatever they wanted, and the weak would have to accept it. Fredrica was sure that this was how their world worked.
"If you will not compensate us, then we need assurance that you will leave once you have her. You cannot cause any more destruction to the world."
Grinot frowned, and Fredrica took a step back when he suddenly drew his sword and pointed it at her! Grinot’s voice came out in a sneer.
"The only assurance you will get is my word, and it is all the assurance you deserve. This world is nothing before the might of Radagan, so you have no right to make demands of us. If you provoke us further, then we will raze your world to the ground and take it for ourselves. Now, hand over the prisoner."
Fredrica narrowed her eyes once she heard this. Her face remained perfectly calm on the outside, but she felt worry creeping into her heart when she felt the mana coming off Grinot! It was obvious that Grinot was at least a high S Rank, so there was no chance that she would be able to put up any fight against him at all. The large dragons looming over their heads and the four other soldiers around Grinot were all glaring down at the humans with intensity, and Fredrica realised that their only choice here was to hand over the woman and hope that the soldiers left immediately after.
Fredrica motioned to the man behind her, and the Gaia agent grabbed Riyala by the arm and began bringing her forward. Riyala was still in cuffs, and she bowed her head sadly as she followed after the agent. Riyala knew that this was what she deserved for bringing this much destruction to their world, but she couldn’t stop a part of her heart from begging for someone to help her! She couldn’t go back to that world! If they took her back now, then she knew her parents’ sacrifice would have been for nothing!
BOOM!
A figure suddenly slammed into the ground between the two groups and raised a dust cloud across the street. The dragonriders all gripped their swords tightly as they watched the dust clear, and Fredrica narrowed her eyes as a figure slowly stood up with two swords in his hands.
Luthor had a long cut across his chest that was bleeding, and there were burns across his body that showed just how much he struggled in his previous fight, but his injuries didn’t look like they were bothering him as he looked from left to right, and his eyes finally landed on Fredrica and Riyala. Luthor didn’t know why the dragon had suddenly left in the middle of their fight, but for some reason, he could smell that there was something shady going on here!
Grinot immediately raised his sword threateningly!
"Get out of our way this instant!"
Luthor was shocked when he heard Grinot’s voice echo back to him in English, and his eyes narrowed as he realised that they could finally talk to these bastards! Luthor raised his sword and pointed it at Grinot with a glare.
"You’re not going anywhere until you pay for the damage you’ve done. Do you think you can destroy our city and just get away with it?"
The dragons hanging off the buildings above them all began to shift agitatedly as they watched the confrontation occurring! There was an intense burst of mana from all the dragonborn soldiers, and Luthor released his own mana in response! He wasn’t letting a single bastard leave here today! Fredrica came up from behind Luthor and spoke up quickly!
"Commander, stand down! We’ve struck a deal with them and they will be leaving!"
"Like hell they will!"
DOON!
Another massive surge of mana appeared from the side and they all turned to see Agiel walking towards them with a mad grin on her face! Agiel’s injuries were still bleeding, and she hadn’t even bothered to get some clothes to cover up her underwear as she walked towards them with a threatening aura around her! The only thing she wanted at that moment was to punch something really hard!
"Those bastards destroyed our fucking city! The only way they’re leaving this place is in a fucking body bag!"