Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 362 - 160 Initial Payment

Chapter 362: Chapter 160 Initial Payment

After a few minutes of negotiation, Medea came back with her face glowing with excitement.

"How much?" Aske asked.

"Including the reward for ’convincing’ others before," Medea said, "7800 Lorraine Gold Coins, to be paid in three installments, with 10% upfront."

"Oh," Aske uttered.

"Hold on, you’re way too nonchalant about this," Medea expressed her puzzlement, "Do you have any idea what 7800 Gold Coins represent? It’s the combined wealth that twenty middle-class families could save up in a lifetime, enough to hire a large Mercenary Group for a local campaign!"

"So what? Converted into Level II Magic Potions, it’s only about six or seven bottles," Aske said, showing how the outrageous prices in the Extraordinary Realm had completely desensitized him to normal economic judgment.

"No, no, no, a few thousand coins is still quite a lot," Nora surprisingly countered him, "When I left Solomon City, the allowance my mother transferred to my account in one go was about this much."

Medea: ...........

Why do I feel like I’ve embarrassed Seljuk? I mean, I am an Imperial Princess, aren’t I? How come the transactions I handle are at most a few hundred pounds? These two are simply not in the same league as me.

Despite her frustration, the team had secured a substantial income after all, so Medea was quite happy.

"Now we just have to wait for the Falcon Family’s clan meeting," she said cheerily.

"Yes," Aske nodded.

The mission chain "Choral" offered four faction quest entry points if one chose to side with the Emperor in assisting the Falcon Family, namely the Spiritual Body Sect, Life School, Falcon Family, and the Emperor’s Alliance.

Of course, following the principle of not letting any opportunity slip by, Aske planned to accept the remaining three missions, except for the Emperor’s Alliance, which was too far away to reach.

Like with the Spiritual Body Sect, accessing the Life School’s task required completing the corresponding prerequisite missions.

But of course, as a Prophet and with Nora’s connection, Aske decided to skip these preliminary missions.

He walked around Hexingen Town with the two girls and finally found a mobile phone rental.

In the mountainous Swabian Duchy, with inconvenient transportation and simple (and poor) customs, even the tradition of "licking the plate" after meals was common. This was reflected in their spiritual life as well, where even the Nobles seldom bought mobile phones, preferring to rent instead... Whenever there was a need for long-distance communication, one would simply rent a phone from a stand for ten minutes.

Aske looked over the mobile stand for a while, finding only old, beat-up models. The stall owner, a bearded Frank, saw him roaming around with two beautiful girls and bellowed out:

"There’s a discount on renting mobile phones today."

"How much of a discount?" Aske asked casually.

"Ninety-nine percent off," the stall owner replied.

Aske: ...........

You call a 1% discount worth mentioning?

But he didn’t really care, and casually picked up a phone to rent for ten minutes before handing it to Nora.

"Post a picture on social media, just say you’re in Hexingen right now," Aske instructed.

Nora: ????

Although slightly baffled, she did as told and took a 45-degree angle selfie, then logged into CM, uploaded the picture, deleted it from her phone’s local storage, and did everything in one go.

Medea leaned over and saw that there was a rapid response below:

"Has anyone seen the person in the photo around Stuttgart recently?"

It was a private message from the Life School group’s administrator, with a photo attached featuring a young man with curly, thick hair and deep-set eyes.

"Tell him no," Aske instructed.

Nora honestly replied no, and after a few seconds, a message came back from the other side:

"If you find this person nearby, immediately private message us the coordinates of the location. The School will reward you. This individual is extremely dangerous. Be careful not to contact them rashly."

"Yes, that will do," Aske said as he gave the phone back to the stall owner. So, a connection with the Life School was now established.

Back at Falcon Castle, the tribal meeting had just concluded. The Falcon Family had confirmed their strategy to swiftly defeat Earl Fishbone and expand their territories, so the nobles emerging from the great hall were charged with a fierce determination and hurried back to their estates to summon more troops.

Some of the nobles who saw the three returning figures quickly bowed and paid their respects. During the recent meeting, Earl Friedrich had disclosed everyone’s true identities, providing a reassurance to the gathered nobles.

After all, doing business with the Lixini Family simply meant acquiring a batch of military supplies.

Yet forming an alliance with the Weisbach Family of Bavaria meant that, in the conquest of the Swabian Duchy, one could not only expect material aid, manpower supplies, and diplomatic support from neighboring countries but also forge connections with the Emperor’s Alliance in the North, serenading them with a song of loyalty, thereby securing the legal right to rule over Swabia.

The two were, of course, incomparable.

The only contentious point was the hefty price tag of 7,800 Lorraine Gold Coins.

Some posed the question that for that amount of money, one could readily enlist the Iron Cross Mercenary Corps to take down Earl Fishbone, which would be far more cost-effective than hiring this ambassadorial mercenary group, right?

Earl Friedrich scoffed and reminded those present: Miss Nora’s identity was genuine; they should use their heads and think about why she might be with a mercenary group.

The nobles then had their moment of realization. While they didn’t understand the reasons, it seemed that this mercenary group was quite impressive—after all, even the mighty Iron Cross Mercenary Corps couldn’t lure the scions of the Thirteen Families of Italy to serve as mercenaries.

What more could they say? They could only praise the Family Head for his wisdom and express their staunch support.

Thus, the expenditure of 7,800 Lorraine Gold Coins, initially promised unilaterally in advance by Earl Friedrich, was acknowledged as valid employment compensation by the entire Falcon Family.

That very day, the first installment of 780 Lorraine Gold Coins was delivered to Nora’s room, a total of 20 hefty Money Bags... rendering Nora virtually speechless.

If it weren’t for Fire Island, who would even carry so much precious metal? Even though there are paper currencies, you still use gold coins, what madness!

She teleported the 20 Money Bags back to Fire Island, letting those girls whose identities needed to remain hidden get a glimpse of real wealth.

When the Money Bags arrived on Fire Island, they certainly gave the girls quite a shock.

"This is what real money looks like!" Mia piled the Money Bags on the table, then embraced them with open arms, her face brimming with joy, "Gold coins feel so much more real when you’re holding them, paper money just feels like paper after you count too much of it!"

"It just smells like copper," Miel said, pinching her nose.

"You don’t understand," Mia retorted with a glare, "A good sense of financial management should be cultivated from a young age, and feeling the weight of money is the first step towards developing that sense."

She carried the Money Bags to her bedroom, saying she wanted to pile the Gold Coins on her bed and sleep on them. Everyone else expressed their inability to comprehend such a dragon-like eccentric thought process, but given little Mia’s youthful age, they just let her be.

At any rate, Nora surely must have counted the number of Gold Coins in those bags... probably.