「That went well, didn't it? 」

「What do you mean? 」

Those who disagreed left without saying a word, while those who agreed stayed behind and filled out a simple contract. Emily also helped those who were illiterate fill in their details.

「To be honest, I didn't think that they would agree to this so easily. What kind of magic did you use? 」

Kouta, who was skimming through the contracts and double checking the information on them, raised his head and looked at Emily.

「Magic? This is not magic. I simply used logic to convince them. In exchange for the land they are living on, we will provide them with new homes, new jobs and even training for those jobs. I will not try to sugarcoat this. This place is too rural. They may have fond memories of the land that their ancestors have pa.s.sed down to them, but will these 『memories』 fill their stomachs? 」

Emily shook her head in response. Emily came from the capital Rarkia herself. When she saw the poor condition of the coastal area, which would normally be the hive of activity, her thoughts of, 「how dare they let Lady Erica stay in a place like this? 」, far exceeded that of, 「what should we do now? 」

「However, memories and being hungry are two different things… … No, perhaps they are not… … 」

Emily could not wrap her head around it. She perfectly understood what Kouta meant. To be honest, compared to living in that rural place, there's no harm in moving into newly built houses next to the lord's mansion. However, humans are not organisms that are only controlled by logic.

「Although they can understand the pros and cons of this proposal, they are not able to accept this emotionally? 」

「Yes, that's what I meant. 」

「Of course, the decisions of humans are not only determined by 『logic』. As such, I also have some countermeasures for it. 」

「Countermeasures? 」

「Yes. Please remember what happened just now. When I mentioned 『new homes, new jobs, and schools』, what was their reaction? 」

Emily recalled the scene from earlier. Once they heard such an astronomically beneficial proposal, they seemed to be in high spirits.

「As far as I remember, almost all of them seem to be in favor of the proposal. If I did not add the condition of them evacuating their homes, perhaps the number of contracts in my hand right now would be 43 instead of 13. 」

Emily once again nodded her head at Kouta's words. The proposal would have been accepted in record time had there not been the condition to evacuate.

「In my world, there is a selling technique called 『lowballing』. I believe you also have the concept of it here… … Basically, it's a technique where you offer an attractive proposal, and after they accepted that proposal, you change the conditions of the original proposal. 」

The basis of the lowballing technique is to exploit the unwillingness of people to back out of an agreement.

For example, say you wish to buy a computer. After hearing a detailed explanation from the salesperson, you finally decide on a model you wish to purchase. However, right when you are brought to the counter and you begin to daydream about what you plan to use the new computer for, the salesperson comes forward with a distraught expression and tells you the bad news.

「We are very sorry. The model you wish to buy is currently out of stock. Of course, we can place an order for the computer, but if we take into consideration that there may be some delays from the vendor's side, we estimate that it will take, at the very least, a week for it to reach… … 」

Catastrophe. Your mind goes blank and you slowly fall into despair.

At this moment, the salesperson says, 「however, if you are willing to add on ten thousand yen, you can purchase a newer, better computer from the same vendor… … What do you think? 」 If the salesperson was competent, he would even add, 「the new computer has the latest high-end hardware that was originally sold at a price of twenty thousand yen more expensive than the old one. 」

「So? What would you do? You have already decided to buy a new computer. Since you'll still have to wait a week anyway, why not buy the better one instead? Furthermore, there's even a discount. Buying it wouldn't be too much of a loss, right? These things aren't cheap in the first place, so adding another ten thousand yen wouldn't be too much, right? Hmm… … No, I'll take it. 」

「Your flow of thought is somewhat similar to this, right? 」

「Despite that, not all salespeople will want to trick you into paying more.

Sometimes, things really are out of stock, and they are only giving a discount out of the goodness of their hearts. This isn't saying that you should be suspicious of others when buying something, but you should just take this into consideration when making a purchase.

In short, even though you are unable to purchase the model that you originally wished for and that you paid more than you previously thought, you will still leave the store with the happily because you have gotten something more expensive at a cheaper price. 」

「In other words, you just used that sales technique to trick the residents into agreeing with you? 」

「I did not trick them. I merely convinced them through logic and emotions. I did say I have countermeasures, didn't I? 」

Kouta arranged the thirteen contracts in his hand and pa.s.sed them to Emily. Emily took them and inadvertently glanced at the name written on the top of the first contract.

'There is also something called the 『Consistency Theory』. Convincing someone to turn back on a decision they made is a very hard thing to do. Once we are able to successfully convince them that this proposal is worthy of consideration, then we have already succeeded. Next, it's just to let them choose between 『the pain of going back on an earlier decision』 and 『the pain of accepting disadvantageous conditions』.

Kouta pointed towards the first contract on the stack of papers and smiled.

「As long as one of them agrees, then we have already succeeded. After that, the others will also follow them and agree one by one. Do not look down upon the power of group psychology, Miss Emily~ 」

Emily shrugged at Kouta's reply.

「Can I ask another question? 」

「Go ahead. 」

「About that thing you mentioned just now, the something technique… … 」

「『Lowballing』, you mean? 」

「… … Yes. I have pretty much understood how it works. The group psychology part I've also understood. However, if Mr. Thomas hadn't spoken out like that just now, what would you have done? 」

Stepping into the lord's mansion for the first time and then immediately being seated in the drawing room, in these stressful conditions, the chances of someone actually speaking when asked, 「Do you have any questions? 」, was astronomically low. If Thomas hadn't raised his hand and posed a question, there was a chance that the only person speaking the entire time would be Kouta himself.

「It is exactly as you say. In that situation, those who can speak up are very few and far between. 」 Kouta nodded in agreement at Emily's question and continued, 「However, the chances of no one daring to speak up was very low. As I have told you before, this is a very important event and we have no room for failure. I would never bet our success on the off-chance that 『somebody might speak up』.  We bankers really hate having to depend on probability to determine whether we succeed or fail. 」

Kouta shrugged again and a question mark appeared above Emily's head once more.

「Did you use another selling technique? A spell that can implant thoughts into others or something? 」

「I am not a magician… … How many times do I have to repeat that… … I'm sorry to say that I do not know of such spells. To be honest, the answer is simpler than that. Much simpler, in fact. 」

「Simpler? 」

「Yes. The answer is— 」

「— a mole. 」

Kouta said so with a smile on his face. Emily took a while to process his words and when she finished, exclaimed loudly.

「a mole? You don't mean— 」

「A mole. A spy. An undercover agent. 」

「I wasn't asking for the meaning of the word! I can't believe that you actually used this fiendish method! 」

Emily lunged forward at Kouta as if wanting to grab and lift him up by his collar. Kouta was originally shocked at the sudden advancement of the beautiful woman but was able to quickly maintain his composure and replied.

「Perhaps the word 『spy』 isn't suitable here. I only told the details of our proposal to Mr. Thomas beforehand, and then once he fully understood our intentions, requested his help when the time comes. The problem now only lies in whether Mr. Thomas can play his role effectively when the time comes. However… … Did you know? In the past, while he was staying in this country called Rhime, he was working hard to be a famous actor, you know? Judging from his performance today, I think he would have succeeded by now if he had continued his training. He is quite talented. 」

Emily was stunned by Kouta's nonchalant tone of speech. After a few moments of silence, Emily broke out of her stupor.

「Y-you… … Do you even have a conscience? 」

「A conscience? Why? 」

「Perhaps Mr. Thomas really did agree with our proposal, but what about the others? The land that they grew up on, that they loved, that holds so many of their happy and sad memories… … You lied to them, chased them out and took it from them! 」

「I did not lie nor did I chase them out and I did not take away their land. I only negotiated with them through legal means to convince them to sell their land to us. Plus, terms of the agreement are also heavily tipped to their side. Perhaps they might even give their grat.i.tude for it. 」

「Maybe they didn't think it through properly and agreed on a whim. Being in the lord's manor and being subjected to this environment, perhaps they were confused about the situation and accidentally signed the contract! 」

「If their perseverance is at the level where they could be influenced to sign a contract on a whim, then that's not my problem. I will not concern myself with people who will easily change their minds on a whim. 」

Emily looked at Kouta as if he were her sworn nemesis. The overbearingly large room fell into silence while the two of them stared into each other's eyes.

「… … Fine… … Forget about it. 」

Emily moved her gaze from Kouta onto the stack of papers once more. The thirteen signed contracts obtained from over forty people was no small number considering the contents of the contracts.

「Even so, we could only obtain thirteen contracts. Only thirteen contracts. This means that more than half of the population still does not want to move out despite the conditions of the agreement. So, what will you do now? 」

Erica looked at Kouta with a smug look on her face. Kouta scratched his head awkwardly.

「Umm… Miss Emily? Which side are you on right now? I do recall Miss Erica telling you to help me in these matters though? 」

「Please don't avert your gaze. 」

Upon hearing Kouta's question, Emily quickly turned away and averted her gaze. Unfortunately for Kouta, it seems that whistling was uncommon here.

「… … Nevermind. We'll ignore that for now. It is as you have said, we only have thirteen people who signed this contract. If we can't get the rest to agree to this, we will not be able to proceed. I cannot deny that that is the truth… … Um, can you please turn your head back this way? It's a little distracting. 」

After a while, Emily unwillingly turned her head and her gaze lands on Kouta's face once more.

「What Mr. Kouta said is correct, we still need more than half of the population to sign this contract. So? Will you use that 『technique』 again? 」

「Incorrect. I mentioned that I have used 『logic』. So— 」

— maybe it's about time we talk about the 『benefits』?

「Do you get what I mean, Miss Emily? 」

Sorry for the late uploads guys. Been busy on my end.

p.s. It seems that the discord didn't post the uploads for chapter 3 part 1 and 2. Go back and read those if you think you missed them.