Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

"If so, what other options do you have to offer?"

Etaria's question was as desirable as it was inconvenient. For this was not yet the time for me to reveal my hand.

"Your majesty, allow me a quick tangent before I answer your inquiry," I spoke while bowing my head a little.

Now that I was within the princess' sight, I had to put an emphasis on my presence. This direct approach was my only or most likely shot at forcing my way into the discussion of two people who were far beyond being my equals.

'For the time being, that is,' I thought, allowing a small hint of a smirk to pull the corners of my mouth up.

"You see, princess, I'm more of a man of a business rather than a man of a sword. And it pains me to no end to see how this situation is on the bring from turning away from logic in favor to political fervor."

I locked eyes with Etaria, trying to ignore the immense pressure emanating from her golden irises.

"If we look at the situation we are in from an army general's point of view, then we will be both certain we can win. But while I mentioned that I would kill all of you, it should be pretty obvious it would come at a great cost to me too. A cost I would rather not bear."

I took a deep breath to calm my emotions down.

There was no use getting fired up over my own ideas. Even if I did my best to come up with scenarios that were both fair and plausible, plans had the tendency to grow obsolete upon the first contact with the other side.

"I'm a simple man of a coin. And killing you all simply brings me no benefit and comes at a great cost," my lips quivered as I imagined the sort of stuff I would have to dabble if a time came for me to put money where my mouth was. "And don't get me wrong, if I judge that the cost of killing you all will be lesser than the cost of other options, I will be sure to go through with it."

Over and over again, I put as much of an emphasis on "killing them all" as I could. Because whenever I mentioned it, I always brought my thoughts back to the image of nuclear discharge.

And more importantly, the endless confidence I had in its ability to overcome whatever the magic of this world could throw to try to counter it.

"And so, you would rather if… what happened?" the princess asked. Her eyes were squinted as she focused… But I could see the hints of her face relaxing.

It seemed that my attempts to reinforce my confidence in my ability to kill them all either didn't sit well with Etaria or… maybe repeating it over and over again made her disregard my threat?

"Best case scenario, you give me a list of the demands," I nonchalantly replied with a shake of my shoulders. "If I know the true reasons behind the invasion of the forest, I might be able to accommodate at least some of the requests."

I could imagine a scenario where two forces would clash because they were too prideful and too stuck on their archaic values to simply come to a mutually beneficial agreement. Earth's history was full of such instances.

But right now, I was in a relatively comfortable position of having the very strongest of the forest folk on my side! A former leader of one of the two conflicted clans who already showcased how meager the powers of the likes of Loraz were when compared to her own might.

And that gave enough leverage to enforce even the most strict of peace terms… As long as I judged them to be reasonable.

"Spoken like a true merchant," the princess jeered. "Do you expect me to name a price now?" she asked before turning sideways and pointing her hand at the human troops gathered atop the incline nearby. "Do you even have the slightest idea how much it costs to move golden legion?

And if you do, then multiply it by twenty to accommodate for all the other costs the empire had to bear to make this campaign happen!"

Etaria lectured me in an annoyed if not exasperated voice.

She then lowered her hand back to her hip and turned back to face me again.

In the course of our talk, we somehow left Claudy behind, putting him in the shadow of the relatively calm phase of the negotiations… Assuming that one could claim my exchange with the princess to be peace talks, to begin with.

"I'm aware," I spoke softly while nodding my head. "Which means, there are only three potential reasons that I can come up with that justify such an overbearing expenditure."

I took a step forward to the displeasure and burst of anxiety of the knights standing in silence behind their princess's back.

"This kind of cost means that there's something in the forest that the Emperor himself is set on getting his hands on. Alternatively, there's money to be made by conquering the forest, money much greater than what you had to spend to amass all those troops."

I took a short breath, happy to include this pause in the flow of the discussion.

After all, the third possibility was distinctively different from the other two.

The first option appealed to the Emperor's greed. The second one appealed to the Empire's greed. And the third one…

"Finally, there might be some reason that forces the empire to bear all those costs, all the effort necessary to raise all those armies…"

I took another pause before closing my eyes and keeping them shut for a few more moments. Then, as I opened them up, I looked Etaria straight in the eyes before allowing the corner of my mouth to twitch and then move up a little bit.

"A reason that's as existential for the empire's well-being as massive is the cost of pursuing it," I finally revealed the last of my thoughts… And then I allowed my smile to grow as I turned my head and threw a sideways glance at Claudy.

"Tell me, does this kind of scenario strike a cord in your soul?" I asked while prying that my deduction was, at least, more or less on the point. "Because I've heard an awful lot of some sort of a great battle at Lunagar fortress. A battle that was supposed to bring an end to the era of the imperial conflicts…"

I turned my eyes back to the princess and batted my eyelashes at her while putting on the cutest yet, at the same time, most shrewd smile my mouth was capable of producing.

"Only for the empire to double its military efforts and send the greatest army ever assembled out… To subjugate a meaningless place. To conquer those who still stood defiant…"

Once again and for the last time, I took a short pause. And from the slight movements of Etaria's muscles, I could guess I was somewhat nearing the point she was awfully familiar with.

"Or to simply keep up the ruse of still having some enemies left to conquer."