Free Web NovelChapter 283: Chapter 283: Spending Money to Buy Divinity_1
The next day, Qiqimora visited Aiden’s office.
Just as they had agreed at the last gathering of the Great Witch, Aiden converted the witches’ share of the profits into cash and handed it over to Qiqimora to take away.
"I’ve counted the money, there’s no issue," said Qiqimora as she sat on the single-seat sofa, retying the money bag and raising her teacup to Aiden in a salute, "Pleasure doing business with you, Warden."
"Indeed, a pleasure," Aiden replied, also raising his teacup.
"Not bad, at this rate, the advance for next year should be enough to rebuild the Banquet Forest’s venue," Qiqimora said, looking at Aiden, "I guess sooner or later you’ll become one of the wealthy big shots of the autonomous region too? So, have you started looking for a mansion already?"
"Unfortunately, I can’t get rich overnight with this business, the prison isn’t really my private property," Aiden waved his hand, "Even if I were to take a little of the money that passes through here, it would be enough to land me in court."
"So incorruptible?" Qiqimora raised an eyebrow, "Why don’t you just set up your own factory and make money?"
"Being able to cooperate with you in production is all thanks to my authority within the prison. I can handle many of the procedures myself, which would be difficult if I were to run my own factory," Aiden spread his hands, "And even if I wanted to be a capitalist, I’d need capital to start with."
"True enough," Qiqimora said with a laugh, covering her mouth, "But it seems I’ve somewhat wronged you by saying that. It’s odd that in doing business together, only our side’s purse is getting fatter."
"That’s not entirely true; thanks to the projects you provide, this prison is able to completely escape from financial shortage, and I don’t have to worry constantly about fiscal expenditures and grant applications," Aiden said honestly.
"Don’t you want some of the money for yourself?" Qiqimora narrowed her eyes, "If I give you the money directly, wouldn’t you be able to pocket it quite justifiably?"
Upon hearing this, Aiden stopped his teacup midway to his mouth.
After a moment’s silence, he put down the teacup, "What are you planning now?"
The witch gathering as well as Qiqimora herself, it was impossible for them to return benefits out of thin air.
Even in normal transactions, the so-called profit return is a commercial strategy adopted to seek greater benefits.
In such a world, to get "concessions" from others, one usually has to pay a corresponding price.
"My thinking might be a bit strange, I hope you won’t take offense," Qiqimora said with an apologetic smile to Aiden, "I just wanted to ask whether you’d be interested in exchanging divinity for other valuable things? Money or things other than money."
"The witches are planning to buy Divine Power with money?" Aiden was a bit surprised.
"After all, your Divine Power should still be fairly abundant, right?" Qiqimora pointed out, questioning Aiden.
From the very beginning, the witch gathering had a considerable estimate of the Divine Power Aiden held—even if it wasn’t at the level of a saint, it should be quite close. After the confrontation with the Harvest Mother Cult, Aiden wound up taking the lion’s share of the "spoils."
In Qiqimora’s eyes, the amount of Divine Power this man held should be close to the human limit, but from his previous attempt to trade divine words with the witch gathering, it seemed his divine words were not enough to make full use of all the divinity he possessed.
"Is this the collective will of the witch gathering, or..." Aiden asked tentatively.
"It’s my personal idea, but I guess the others would probably have the same intention," Qiqimora smiled, "Do you perhaps prefer that we auction it at the gathering?"
"You all want Divine Power that much?" Aiden asked casually.
"Oh, the way you ask that question..." Qiqimora smiled bitterly, "The process by which you obtain Divine Power must be much easier for you."
Aiden recalled the process by which he obtained Divine Power, the first dose was given directly by Melifilia, it could be said to be part of his newbie starter pack when he was reincarnated in this strange world, and initially even he himself didn’t know.
Later, when cooperating with the witch gathering to suppress the "Black Goat," he accidentally claimed the majority share of Divine Power.
Compared with the Great Witches who have pursued Divine Power for years or even decades, his growing process was so smooth that it was comparable to the clichés in martial arts novels where a fallen cliff suddenly grants one a peerless secret manual.
Qiqimora couldn’t help but hear the subtext of "Is Divine Power that hard to come by?" in Aiden’s casual questioning.
Aiden also realized that his words might sound a bit insensible, and could only wave his hand, "Well... that’s not exactly what I meant."
"No worries, I just wanted to confirm it, after all, you indeed are a quite reliable trading partner," Qiqimora replied without concern, "It’s more realistic to trade with you than to kill others in the gathering."
"You considered killing your associates?" Aiden felt she wasn’t joking.
"Everybody now has Divine Power in their hands, and strictly speaking, we can’t exactly call each other companions. But... I definitely can’t beat Abigail, Lamia wouldn’t be easy to deal with either, Vila is key to rebuilding the witch gathering, and Habanis is so elusive that she’s nowhere to be found," Qiqimora said helplessly, "And a real fight would certainly get me excommunicated by Abigail, so I’d rather not."
Although Qiqimora stated she wouldn’t do it, the mere emergence of such a thought was enough to show how desperate she was to acquire Divine Power.
Aiden remembered she held at least two divine words of "Void" authority, and she also received some Divine Power after the Harvest Mother Cult incident... In other words, this "inconspicuous" witch might be the Great Witch closest to sainthood, after Abigail, in the entire witch gathering.
"To be honest, I haven’t considered exchanging Divine Power for money..." Aiden pondered, "However, let me ask you first, can you personally offer an equivalent price?" freёwebnovel.com
Divine Power in this world would be considered a priceless treasure, if one were to really convert Divine Power into money, it would naturally command a sky-high price, even if Qiqimora were to take out all the money in this moneybag right now it would be wholly insufficient, not to mention this money does not belong to Qiqimora personally.
"I don’t have that... yet, but if you have such an intention, I will prepare equivalent conditions as much as possible," Qiqimora said slowly, "Things other than money are also fine."
