"Then let me present what I want. The Loki Familia's aid when I requested it."
Riveria's furrowed brows grew deeper and said, "That's too vague. You do know that's impossible without a proper guideline."
"We'll discuss that in later time as we both need time to properly gauge each other. However, the main thing I want to ask when I said Loki Familia's aid is information and partial treatment of my Familia."
"Information, I understand... But partial treatment? If this agreement pushes through, then we'll basically be in an alliance. You don't want to announce that?"
Kisuke shook his head, "An alliance with a big Familia like yours will only attract unnecessary attention to us. Knowing that you guys will decide things with us in mind is enough. And it'll be beneficial for you too not to announce our relationship in public."
"What do you mean?"
"Not to brag, but we're experts in information gathering. I know your Familia has smaller unknown groups that manage your intelligence gathering, but having us share the information we gather will prove to be useful. That way, it'll also easier for you to impart the information that you have."
"...I see. What else do you need?"
"Materials... I need materials."
"So instead of money, you want materials... Including the rare ones, I suppose?"
"Yes."
"Have you estimated how much those materials would cost?" Feeling thirsty again, Riveria picked up her cup of tea.
Waiting for Riveria to start drinking, Kisuke answered, "I'm not yet very familiar with the market prices especially those rare items... But I guess it's around a few hundred million to a billion Valis."
Thanks to that, Riveria almost spat out her tea and choked on it, "*Cough* *Cough*"
Kisuke 'generously' offered her a tissue paper and Riveria accepted it right away with her left hand while she uses her right hand to hide her face, "Pardon me..." After wiping her lips, she asked, "Can you repeat that?"
"Around a few hundred million to a billion Valis."
Riveria massaged her forehead as a massive ache is currently attacking it, "I'm the one shouldering that cost since I'll be the only one benefitting greatly from our trade, but that's too much even for me."
"I don't really need all the materials at one go and you can also ask Wallenstein-san to shoulder some of that for you."
"That's a good idea... But it still isn't enough."
"I think you'll be able to gather enough funds if you teach others what you'll learn from me."
"...What?"
"You heard me. You can teach others the things you'll learn from me."
"Why?..." However, she recalled Kisuke's position and the uniqueness of his Familia, "I see... You want to spread this knowledge so that you people wouldn't stand out as much."
"Yes. And I won't be able to do that myself. It's a lot better if this knowledge came from the greatest mage of Orario."
"But doing that would make me look like I'm the one who discovered these things."
"I don't care and I think that's better."
"..." Riveria then sighed, "Well, if I were to teach others, then I'll just announce the origin came from an ancient book that I've been researching..."
Kisuke smiled and refilled her cup, "That's fine."
"But we have a bit of a problem."
"What is it?"
"Although I'll be shouldering the cost, I still can't unilaterally decide on this. I need everyone's agreement with a deal this big. I don't know how valuable your magic in knowledge is, but do think that it's priceless just looking at this book. However, others might not think the same so I would need something else to 'balance' this trade."
Kisuke started tapping his finger as he considered her request. He then thought of something and stood up to leave for a moment, "Please wait for me. I'm gonna go get something that you might like."
Riveria nodded and waited for him for a few minutes. When Kisuke returned, he's carrying a pouch that can be used to carry potions in the Dungeon. He then placed it in front of Riveria, "Check its contents."
Riveria examined it closely before peeking through its opening to check its contents as Kisuke told her to. However, the inside is strangely dark as she can't make out a single thing from it, so without thinking much about it, she stuck her hand inside it. But once inside, her hand couldn't find anything, including the bottom part of the bag and she then pressed her hand more to find anything. It was then she realized that the space inside the bag is so much larger than the pouch itself.
That realization scared her and she immediately pulled out her arm before placing the pouch back to the table, "W-what's this!?"
"A pouch with expanded space inside using space magic," Kisuke explained.
"Expanded space? Space magic? What?"
"Those are something that I'll be teaching you in the future." Kisuke then grabbed the pouch, "Just imagine this thing as a pouch with a stretched out inside so that it could fit more things but without the disadvantage of weight. I think it'll be useful to you."
Riveria chooses not to dwell on space magic for now, but even then, a massive headache came, "Not just useful! It's a must magic item of expedition groups!"
"So? What do you think? It'll be enough to get you to discuss these terms with the rest of the Loki Familia? By the way, each one of this has a half of cubic meders of usable space and I can create a few of this a month."
Riveria felt tired discussing things with him but she's also happy with the outcome, "It's enough... More than enough! I don't think they can disagree with this trade." Riveria then drank the rest of her tea and stood up, "If that's everything, I would like to take my leave. I need to discuss this with others as soon as possible."
"Before you go, there's just one last thing."
"Please tell me."
"The confidentiality issue."
Riveria nodded in understanding and said, "I know. The one who'll be coming here will only be me and Ais. With that, I'll promise you that we'll keep your secrets from everyone... Including those from the Loki Familia and Loki herself. And if I want to bring someone else, I'll be sure to tell you beforehand."
"Oh? You can do that?"
"Yes. As long as I promise Loki that your secrets won't endanger the Familia or its members, it should be fine."
"Well, I don't really have any plan to do something harmful to my comrades so it should be fine."
"Thank you. And I also want to establish a good relationship with you... Frankly... You'll be one of the worst enemies we would have..."
"I feel the same~. I don't really wanna piss Loki-sama off~! Please take care of me in the future."
"Thank you for having me over. Once I've discussed this with others, I'll come back to present you the finalized deal."
Kisuke then led Riveria outside of the shop and before she left, Kisuke passed her the pouch.
"Ah... right... Before I forgot. Here." Riveria then passed her a piece of paper that contains her status information that she failed to give because the four girls from her Familia arrived.
Receiving the paper, Kisuke nodded, "Thank you. This will be useful."