They went to the tavern that evening and found Maris and Elira already there.
The place was warm, busy enough to keep things from turning awkward, and loud enough that no silence lasted too long unless someone wanted it to. Tankards clinked. Chairs scraped. A few merchants argued near the counter over prices that sounded very important to them and completely irrelevant to everyone else.
That helped. The atmosphere kept the meeting from becoming strange in the wrong way. Besides, only Arslan and Elira looked remotely prepared for a friendly conversation. Ludger and Maris were there for business. That much was obvious almost immediately.
Arslan sat down like a man trying to act normal in a situation fate had specifically designed to test him. Elira looked alert despite having supposedly slept most of the day, her curiosity still alive under the calmer surface she was trying to maintain. Across from them, Maris had the posture of someone who had already decided friendliness was a waste of time unless it improved the deal.
Ludger approved of that part, at least. Once food and drinks were placed on the table, Maris did not bother circling the subject. She went straight to the point.
“We want seventy percent of all gains from the partnership.”
Arslan nearly choked on the first sip he had just taken. Elira looked down for a moment, clearly deciding not to interfere yet. Ludger did not even blink.
“That won’t happen.”
Maris’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she did not look offended. If anything, she looked like she had expected immediate resistance and was checking whether it came from emotion or calculation.
Ludger’s came from calculation.
He leaned back just enough to make it clear he was not rejecting the number out of pride.
“We get half,” he said. “And of that fifty percent, I want our share returned to Lionfang as materials instead of money.”
That made Elira glance up again. Maris stayed still. Ludger went on.
“If this partnership happens, Lionsguard provides what your guild lacks most in the deeper parts of the labyrinth. Not just raw strength. Compatibility.”
He set a hand lightly on the table.
“Your monsters are stone-based revenants with structural durability, high weapon resistance, and enough mass that ordinary melee exchanges wear down gear too quickly. Water magic interferes with that. It slips into cracks, weakens cohesion, disrupts balance, and creates openings for follow-up destruction. Even moderate water mages become much more useful here than they would be in many other labyrinths.”
He did not say it loudly. He did not need to. His tone remained calm, clinical, almost irritatingly matter-of-fact.
“My guild has that. More importantly, we have people who can use it in organized formations instead of isolated support.”
He paused just long enough for the point to settle.
“And healing.”
That part mattered too.
“Your current profit threshold is crippled by attrition. Wounds accumulate, potions erase margins, and damaged teams are forced to rotate inefficiently or cut runs short. We reduce that. Directly. A team that can keep moving after injuries instead of withdrawing early changes the entire economics of the labyrinth.”
Maris said nothing yet. Good. That meant she was listening. Ludger continued.
“On top of that, Lionsguard can improve your output from the second section onward, help stabilize deeper farming, improve survivability in the third, and convert silver extraction into a proper operation instead of an occasional gain dragged out of an expensive hole.”
Arslan’s mouth twitched slightly at the phrasing. Maris ignored him. Ludger’s gaze stayed on her.
“So no,” he said. “You do not get seventy percent.”
He spoke the number as if it had never been realistic.
“You get fifty.”
Then he clarified the part that actually mattered more to him.
“And I want that our fifty returned as material shares to Lionfang instead of coin.”
He glanced down briefly at the food that had been set in front of them, then back up.
“Your guild benefits because you gain access to stronger and more sustainable teams, better support structures, more reliable clearing depth, and less pressure keeping the labyrinth under control. My guild benefits because we secure material flow for long-term production. That is the partnership.”
Maris folded her arms.
“And fifty percent is generous?”
“Yes.”
The answer came immediately.
“Because without us, you remain constrained by the same bottlenecks that have kept this place from reaching its actual value for years.”
That was blunt. It was also true. Ludger did not soften it.
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“You can manage the labyrinth. You cannot exploit it efficiently enough.”
Elira looked like she wanted to object, but did not. Probably because she knew he was right. Ludger continued before either of them could interrupt.
“Your teams are spending too much on weapon wear, too much on attrition, and too much effort managing a resource flow you still haven’t organized into its proper structure. We solve that. We make deeper runs safer, reduce recovery waste, and increase the amount of usable silver reaching the surface.”
He leaned back slightly again.
“That is why fifty percent is generous.”
Maris’s eyes stayed fixed on him. Across the table, Arslan wisely said nothing at all. Ludger finished plainly.
“If I wanted a deal based only on what each side currently deserves in output terms, your share would be lower.”
That made the table go still for a second. Elira looked at Ludger, then at her mother. Arslan looked like he was preparing for impact. Maris, however, did not explode. She only kept watching Ludger with that sharp, assessing stare of hers, the kind that suggested she was not deciding whether he had gone too far.
She was deciding whether he was right enough to be irritating. Maris stared at Ludger for a long second before shifting her gaze toward Arslan.
“How,” she asked flatly, “did you raise your son to be this arrogant?”
Arslan laughed. Not awkwardly. Honestly.
“He got it from me.”
Ludger looked at both of them and said, “It isn’t arrogance if it is a fact.”
That earned him a sharper look from Maris, but he did not stop there.
He set his cup down and continued in the same calm tone he had used from the start, which somehow made the whole thing even more oppressive.
“Let’s make the numbers simple.”
He gestured lightly with one hand, not dramatic, just precise.
“The second section of your labyrinth is large. Large enough that your current teams are not clearing or harvesting it efficiently. There are too many monsters spread across too much ground, and the pressure curve rises too fast for brute force alone to be the only issue. That means your main bottleneck there is not access. It is throughput.”
Maris said nothing.
Ludger continued.
“You can enter it. You can survive it. You can even profit from it. But you cannot process it fast enough with your current structure to extract what it is actually worth.”
He tapped once on the table.
“My guild changes that immediately.”
Elira leaned in a little without noticing. Ludger went on.
“ If we assign proper section roles, your second section stops being a difficult maintenance zone and becomes a stable production layer.”
His eyes stayed on Maris.
“The size of that section and the current monster count matter here. A larger section with high density means inefficiency compounds. Every time your teams lose pace, the section punishes you again with more time, more weapon damage, more risk, and more resources spent simply remaining functional.”
Then he made the real point.
“My guild will fix that.”
Not boastful. Just final.
“With Lionsguard support, your total gains from the labyrinth will triple.”
That made Arslan smile faintly into his drink. Ludger kept going.
“Even if we split the output in half, your guild will still walk away with more actual value than it currently gets managing the labyrinth alone.”
He let that settle.
“You are not losing half of your gains. You are gaining access to a structure that increases the total enough that your half becomes larger than your current full.”
Maris’s fingers tightened slightly around her cup. Ludger noticed and ignored it.
“This is not up for debate,” he said.
The tavern noise continued around them, but the table itself felt quieter after that. Maris looked annoyed now.
Not loud annoyance. Not the kind Arslan probably remembered from younger years. This was a cleaner, more dangerous irritation, the irritation of a guildmaster realizing that a fourteen-year-old boy had just backed her completely against the wall in a negotiation using facts she could not easily refute.
That was never pleasant. Especially because he was right. Elira noticed her mother’s mood turning and stepped in before it sharpened into something less useful.
“That sounds fine,” she said smoothly, glancing between them. “But if we’re discussing practical benefits, could we also get discounts on Lionsguard products?”
Ludger looked at her. Elira continued before Maris could decide whether she wanted to interrupt.
“We would be interested in the magic water,” she said, “and in some of your runic gear as well.”
That was sensible. Very sensible, actually. It also meant she had understood where the real value of the partnership lay beyond the silver itself. Ludger nodded once.
“Sure.”
Maris and Elira both looked at him more closely after how quickly he answered. He did not make them wait.
“We’ll offer your guild a twenty percent discount,” he said. “And whenever we have products to sell, we’ll notify you before putting them on the open market.”
That shifted the table again. Because that was a real concession. Not enough to weaken Lionsguard. Not enough to turn the deal soft. But enough to make the partnership materially useful even outside the labyrinth itself.
Runic gear would help Maris’ guild hold more pressure with less waste. Magic water would improve sustain and likely lower operational strain. Priority notice on products meant access before competitors even saw what was available.
Elira’s eyes brightened at once. Maris, meanwhile, studied Ludger more carefully now, as if reconsidering the shape of the deal in real time.
Arslan let out a quiet breath through his nose, probably because the conversation had somehow become more dangerous and more productive at the same time.
Ludger reached for his drink and added, “That part is negotiable in volume, depending on how much you actually commit to the joint operation. But the discount itself is fine.”
Elira nodded.
“That’s fair.”
Maris finally spoke again.
“You came prepared.”
Ludger took a sip before answering.
“Yes.”
That made Arslan laugh again, softer this time.
Because of course he had. Of course Ludger had walked into dinner with output projections, deployment logic, material priorities, and product leverage already arranged neatly in his head while everyone else was still trying to emotionally catch up to the fact that he had killed a guardian before breakfast.
After that, the rest of the discussion became much smoother. Not friendly, exactly. But productive.
They ironed out several other points of the partnership one by one—team rotation priority, communication methods between the guilds, rough limits on how many Lionsguard members would be stationed there at once, and how material shares would be counted before transport back to Lionfang. Maris pushed where she could. Ludger pushed back where it mattered. Elira occasionally stepped in when a practical point needed to be translated into something less sharp. Arslan, to his credit, mostly avoided ruining anything.
Eventually, once the main terms were settled, Arslan leaned back in his chair and let out a satisfied breath.
“Well,” he said, “then we should celebrate the alliance by drinking some good alcohol.”
Before anyone could object, he raised a hand toward the counter.
“Tavern keeper!” he called. “Bring out your best booze.”