Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Chapter 244: Negotiation Between Lords [III / Bonus Chapter]

Vespera raised an eyebrow. ”One week? Why the delay?”

”It will give my engineers enough time to properly clear out a designated battle sector,” Sky explained, gesturing toward the surrounding wilderness. ”We can clear a massive, wide-open dirt field located right within your territory’s viewing distance... a neutral battleground where both of our full armies can line up and face each other directly, right in front of your Keep’s front gates.”

Vespera thought it over for two seconds, then smiled softly. ”A wide clearing in front of my gates? That sounds perfectly acceptable to me. One week it is.”

”Excellent,” Sky nodded, pleased with her quick agreement. ”Now... let’s set the official victory stakes.”

Sky leaned forward, looking into her violet eyes. ”If I win the Lord War... what do I claim as my reward?”

Vespera tilted her head. ”What do you want, Lord Sky?”

Sky chuckled softly, waving his hand in a relaxed gesture.

”Nothing crazy,” Sky answered casually. ”As you know, I don’t strip defeated Lords of their land or destroy their cores. If I win... all I ask for is a guided, personal tour of the Blessed Land itself, along with the full rights to stream the entire walkthrough live on my channel.”

Hearing his condition, Vespera blinked her purple eyes, a strange bewildered thought passing through Silas’s mind.

’Maybe this guy doesn’t actually like me that much after all...’ Silas thought drily behind his disguise. ’What kind of insane Lord proposes to another Lord that their victory reward is just looking around every inch of their private territory and broadcasting it to millions of people?! Is he an inspector or a Lord?!’

Still, setting aside the weirdness of the request, allowing a stream tour was an incredibly cheap harmless price to pay compared to losing land or resources.

”I agree to your condition,” Vespera accepted smoothly.

She then leaned forward, her deep purple eyes locking onto his mask with a sharp intensity. ”Now... as for my reward when I defeat you...”

Sky smiled behind his mask. ”Name your terms, Lord Vespera.”

Vespera rested her single palm against the table, delivering her terms in a calm, matter-of-fact tone that shattered the quiet clearing:

”When I win... I want every single one of your Female Heroes... as well as every single female troop member in your entire army.”

The second those words left Vespera’s mouth—

The entire mud clearing went completely dead silent!

Sky’s main blindfolded Hero stiffened and the surrounding two hundred soldiers gasped in collective shock.

Sky himself froze mid-motion, his hand pausing inches away from his teacup as he stared at her in total disbelief.

Even the live stream chat overlaying Sky’s HUD completely froze for two full seconds before violently exploding into a hysterical tsunami of comments:

[@GamerGod99: WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!]

[@SovereignWatcher: SHE WANTS ALL HIS FEMALE HEROES AND TROOPS?!]

[@NoobMaster69: BRO SHE IS TRYING TO ROB HIS ENTIRE FEMALE POPULATION!]

[@PVP_Legend: THAT IS THE CRAZIEST LORD WAR DEMAND IN HISTORY!]

[@ValoriaFan: IS SHE BUILDING A HAREM OR AN ARMY?!]

[@DarkKnight_00: She didn’t ask for gold or gear, she asked for WOMEN!]

[@TacticalNuke: ABSOLUTE CHAD MOVE!]

[@StreamLover: SKY DON’T DO IT LMAO!]

[@ProGamer_22: Why does she only want female troops?!]

Sky slowly lowered his hand, his masked face filled with genuine mind-boggling confusion as he looked at Vespera.

”Why...?” Sky asked with his voice completely bewildered. ”Why specifically female troops and Heroes?”

Vespera offered him a calm, elegant, and completely shameless explanation, smoothing down her black trousers with her single hand.

”Because my territory operates under a very strict, foundational rule,” Vespera explained smoothly. ”Men are strictly prohibited from entering or living within the Blessed Land. Therefore, if I am to expand my population and bolster my military ranks through this war... I can only accept female combatants. I hope you can consider my request.”

It was madness! Who in their right mind demands an entire gender category of an opponent’s army as war loot?!

Vespera obviously knew how utterly insane and outrageous her demand sounded.

Inside her mind, Silas was chuckling slyly.

’I know it sounds crazy,’ Silas reasoned behind his disguise. ’Which is why I’m setting the anchor outrageously high on purpose! That way, we have plenty of room to negotiate down to a realistic number.’

Silas didn’t actually expect Sky to hand over every single female Hero he owned.

He didn’t care that much about acquiring a massive stockpile of high-tier Heroes... maybe one or two interesting ones would suffice.

What Silas truly wanted... were the troops!

Behind legendary Heroes, it was the standing disciplined troop population that formed the true foundation and daily output of any great territory.

Acquiring decades-trained, experienced female soldiers, archers, and casters to populate his expanding Blessed Land was a goldmine that he couldn’t bear to lose.

Sky stared at Vespera for a long five seconds, then suddenly threw his head back and burst into a loud, hearty laugh.

”Hahaha! Well, I’ll be damned!” Sky chuckled merrily, shaking his head. ”It sounds to me like your territory just really hates men!”

Vespera let out a small, delicate sigh, offering a playful helpless smile.

”I can’t help it. Rules are rules.”

Up on the floating camera drones, the live-stream chat captured her response, and a specific demographic of viewers back on Earth went completely wild.

The comment section was suddenly flooded with posts from modern online movements.

[@FeministIcon_99: QUEEN BEHAVIOR! WE LOVE VESPERA!]

[@GirlPower_X: A TERRITORY WITH NO MEN?! SIGN ME UP RIGHT NOW!]

[@SovereignQueen: WE HATE MEN TOO! LORD VESPERA IS OUR NEW IDOL!]

[@AlphaGirl_00: BLESSED LAND IS A FEMALE UTOPIA!]

[@Empowerment_22: BAN ALL MEN! VESPERA FOR PRESIDENT!]

[@EqualityNow: Best Lord on the continent hands down!]

[@LadyVanguard: I’m transferring my application to Blessed Land!]

[@ShieldMaiden_99: MEN ARE CANCELLED! LONG LIVE QUEEN VESPERA!]

Sitting across the table, Vespera happened to catch a brief glimpse of those specific comments scrolling across Sky’s stream HUD.

Silas’s eyelid twitched violently beneath his female disguise.

’I wonder how these insane modern feminists would react if they found out that the Lord of Blessed Land is actually a six-foot-two guy with a giant dick...’ Silas thought dryly with a wave of dark amusement washing over his mind. ’They’d probably label me an international perverted criminal and try to nuke my Keep from orbit...’

Silas took a quiet sip of his tea, internally nodding to himself.

’Perhaps this female disguise... is far more practical and useful than I originally thought.’

Sky wiped an imaginary tear of laughter from his mask, leaning back over the table as he began the actual counter-negotiation.

”Look, Lord Vespera,” Sky spoke reasonably, holding up his hands. ”I obviously cannot hand over every single female in my army. That would completely cripple my mobile war-band’s operational balance.”

”I understand,” Vespera replied politely, nodding her black-haired head. ”What is your counter-offer?”

Sky thought it over carefully, calculating his roster numbers before speaking firmly:

”If you defeat me in the Lord War... I will hand over seventy female troops from my standing army, along with two of my female Heroes... including the silver-haired beast-kin girl Tasmin just knocked out earlier.”

Vespera’s purple eyes brightened.

Seventy highly trained, battle-hardened female soldiers, plus two high-tier female Heroes?

That was an astronomical haul! It would instantly double the population of Blessed Land, providing dozens of elite guards for perimeter patrols and field hunting!

Vespera placed her single hand over her chest, offering Sky a deep and breathtakingly gorgeous bow.

”Thank you, Lord Sky,” Vespera expressed warmly, her voice filled with genuine appreciation. ”Your generosity honors me.”

Sky smiled warmly behind his silver mask, waving his hand dismissively.

”Don’t mention it,” Sky replied kindly. ”To be completely honest with you... I acquired most of those female troops and those two Heroes from the last Lord I fought. That bastard was mistreating them terribly, using them as disposable meat-shields and denying them proper rations. I took them into my ranks to save them, but my mobile rig is primarily built for swift travel, not long-term population housing. I genuinely hope you treat them much better than their previous master did.”

Vespera looked into Sky’s eyes with her voice becoming remarkably sincere.

”I give you my word as a Lord,” Vespera promised softly. ”Every woman who enters the Blessed Land is treated with respect, dignity, and care. They will have a true home.”

”Good,” Sky nodded, visibly relieved. ”I trust your word.”

Sky reached out, picking up his teacup to take a slow sip.

He paused for a brief second, setting the cup back down as a slight embarrassed scratch of his neck betrayed his next thought.

He looked at Vespera, clearing his throat awkwardly as he transitioned the topic to his final pressing concern.

”So... about the food...?”

Sky gestured vaguely back toward his massive, three-story mobile fortress resting at the edge of the clearing.

”You see...” Sky admitted sheepishly, a slight awkward laugh escaping his mask. ”our onboard food rations are thinning down quite a bit, and we desperately need to restock our pantries... especially to feed two hundred hungry soldiers for the entire week leading up to our Lord War...”

Vespera smiled warmly across the white tablecloth, her deep purple eyes shining with a calm accommodating light as she looked at Lord Sky.

She raised her single right hand, offering a gracious gesture toward his mobile fortress.

”You really don’t have to worry about that at all, Lord Sky,” Vespera said smoothly, her voice projecting effortless hospitality. ”I would be more than happy to handle your army’s feeding arrangements... I can have my kitchen staff and my master chef cook up a massive feast using our own stored supplies, and I’ll personally assign a detachment of my soldiers to transport the rations directly out here to your camp every day leading up to the war.”

As Vespera spoke those polite words, inside her mind, Silas was ruthlessly dissecting the situation.

’I’m trying to see just how stupid this guy actually is,’ Silas thought with his internal voice stripped of all feminine softness, replaced by the sharp edge of a Lord. ’Will he actually agree blindly to that whole proposal?’

Silas didn’t necessarily consider Sky to be a complete idiot.

The man hadn’t survived for years as an undefeated Classic Lord by being a total fool but if Silas were in Sky’s position... standing on foreign soil, preparing to fight a high-stakes Lord War... he wouldn’t adhere to any kind of polite buttering up, no matter how beautiful or charming the opposing Lord appeared on stream.

More importantly, Silas would never put his own people on the line without their explicit permission just to seal a trade deal or look good for an online audience.

These soldiers weren’t just AI NPCs or disposable background meat-shields; they were living breathing human beings who had entrusted their lives to his banner.

’At the end of the day,’ Silas reflected silently behind his violet-eyed disguise, ’Sky is a good Lord. He cares about his troops, and he doesn’t slaughter the weak but he is not the kind of Lord I aspire to be. His priorities are split between his survival and his entertainment broadcast.’

Sky paused, sitting back in his padded leather chair.

He raised his gauntleted hand, offering a respectful, polite nod of his masked head as he firmly declined the offer.

”I appreciate the extraordinary generosity, Lord Vespera, but I must politely reject that request,” Sky explained with his voice broadcasting clearly through his alloy mask. ”In the past, during my early travels across the outer sectors, rival guilds and hostile Lords tried poisoning my war-band using disguised ’gift rations’ and laced hospitality feasts. Now... while I know with certainty that a Lord of your standing wouldn’t attempt something so dishonorable, as the leader of this mobile fortress, I still have to be completely sure. My troops’ safety comes first.”

Vespera’s smile softened, her posture exuding understanding as she nodded.

”It is completely right for you to worry about your people, Lord Sky,” Vespera reassured him smoothly. ”If prepared meals are a security risk then it isn’t an issue at all. Instead of cooked food, I can have my hunters go out into the basin, harvest fresh, untouched game, and bring the raw unbutchered carcasses right over to your camp so your own chefs can inspect and prepare the meat themselves.”

Sky shook his head again, waving his hand in a relaxed gesture.

”Even with raw game, I would prefer to keep our supply chain entirely internal,” Sky rejected politely once more. ”It would be much better for us if we got more of an authentic feel for this local territory by hunting the regional monsters ourselves. In fact... since you know the terrain, I would like to ask you to act as our personal guide for today’s hunt, Lord Vespera. Take us to a viable hunting ground where we can harvest enough meat to feed my two-hundred-man army.”

Inside her mind, Silas felt a sudden spike of irritation.

’Fucking hell...’ Silas thought bitterly.