The silver-haired Valkyrie seemed very satisfied with Todd's oath, sheathed her weapon, and prepared to leave.
"Valkyrie, may I ask your name?"
The silver-haired woman turned her head, looked at the boy who asked the question, thought for a moment, and then answered, "They call me 'Brynhildr'."
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Todd sat in the council hall of Claw Longhouse, looking at the people sitting around the fire pit, and fell into deep thought.
After receiving a simple bandage from the monk, Morgan sat down to Todd's left. He glanced at his wounds, the scene of the battle flashing through his mind, and felt a wave of fear. He whispered to Todd, "Without your warning, I would probably be a corpse now. I owe you my life."
The latter waved his hand, indicating that Morgan didn't need to worry about it.
Huggins and Jerry stood behind Todd. The knight looked at the Claw tribe members sitting in the longhouse—two royal warriors and two tribal elders—and said with some concern, "Commander, the Claw tribe attacked Twilight Town before. Why should we negotiate with these people?"
Todd shook his head and said, "Using force to resolve the threat posed by North Island to Muxi Town is ultimately not a good approach. Perhaps starting with negotiations and breaking the chain of interests between the pirates and the barbarians would be more effective."
The negotiations between the Twilight Knights, the Black Skull Tribe, and the Claw Tribe officially began, with the elder of the Claw Tribe speaking first.
"I heard that a group of prisoners of the Claw Tribe are being held in Muxi Town..."
Upon hearing this, Todd said to the old man with claws, "Did Lev tell you? It seems he secretly gave you quite a bit of information last night."
Morgan slammed his hand on the ground and shouted, "That bastard named Lev! He's a prisoner and he's still not behaving himself!"
The old man with claws pretended not to hear Morgan's words and turned to Todd: "Chief of Muxi Town, please forgive our mistakes and release the prisoners."
Upon hearing this, Huggins angrily reached for the longsword at his waist.
Todd laughed. "Let me think. Imagine someone carrying a torch and a weapon runs into your house, burns it down, and kills your child. Now this person has been caught red-handed, and his parents have gone to the victim's family, hoping for forgiveness and begging for the murderer's release."
Todd tilted his head to look at the old man with claws, and asked with amusement, "If you were the victim, would you agree?"
The old man turned pale, sat back down, and remained silent.
A royal warrior with claws said, "Haven't we already had a duel of honor?! More than ten of our clansmen have died by your swords, isn't that enough to end this?"
Todd was utterly speechless at the strange logic of these North Islanders. He patiently said, "First, our duel of honor was never over; it was forcibly terminated by the Valkyries. Second, I promised the Valkyries that I would no longer harm the Claw Clan, but I never said I would not pursue the attack on Twilight Town, nor did I say I would release the prisoners."
The royal warrior stood up excitedly and roared, "Then what do you want?!"
Todd leaned back and said helplessly, "Calm down. We're negotiating. Shouting won't solve anything. I might release the prisoners if you can offer me satisfactory terms."
Another elder from Claws suddenly said to Todd, "What if we were willing to compensate you for your losses? Would you then release our people?"
Hearing this, Todd became somewhat interested and asked directly, "How do you plan to compensate me for my losses?"
The old man was taken aback, then consulted with the people around him for a moment before tentatively saying, "How about gold and silver jewelry? There's some in the tribal warehouse; we can negotiate a price to exchange for prisoners."
Todd shook his head after hearing this. The Knights of Twilight were currently attacking the noble fiefdoms of the Silver Ring Kingdom, and had plundered countless treasures.
"Then weapons and shields? Our people have sharp weapons and sturdy shields, which we can exchange for prisoners..."
Todd was even less interested in this. He tapped the knight's armor on his back, drew his sharp longsword and brandished it in the air, then gave the Claw tribe members a look that said, "Are you kidding me?"
The elder of Claws discussed the matter with his tribesmen for a long time before finally standing up and saying in a low voice through gritted teeth, "The Claws tribe has some young and beautiful virgins, and we are willing to exchange them for our tribe's warriors."
Todd's face darkened: "What do you take me for? I'm the Grand Master of the Knights, not the leader of bandits!"
Upon hearing this, the old man slumped back down, sighing repeatedly.
Seeing this, Todd decided not to beat around the bush any longer and asked in an inquiring tone, "What I'd like to know is, do you have any special products here that can be traded? Like rare mineral deposits or uncommon resources..."
The members of the Claw tribe looked at each other in bewilderment. After a long while, a royal warrior suddenly said, "There is someone who might know."
Ten minutes later, to Todd's surprise, a foreigner dressed in white robes and wearing a turban was led into the longhouse by several warriors.
The man from another race bowed slightly and smiled, saying, "My name is Abu ibn Sabah al-Kandi. May God's blessings be upon you!"
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