Apocalypse Landlord: My Tenants Are All Beautiful Heroines.-Chapter 17: A Token Of Goodwill

"Karina, ahem, it’s a misunderstanding," Old Joe said, standing next to the tall woman.

Aiden was tall himself, nearly six and a half feet, but he was still two heads shorter than Karina. It wasn’t the first time he had seen such a large woman. There were plenty of female ogres in his demonic army who could topple Karina with ease.

But they were monsters, not humans.

Her height, coupled with her chiseled abs on display and the furry coat, made her look like a brown bear standing on its hind legs. He could see why she was the chief.

There’s her, and there’s James. Both are evolvers, but in completely different leagues.

Standing there, he couldn’t help but wonder how strong his forces would become if she became a tenant. For starters, he wouldn’t need James all that much.

However, Aiden knew it was nothing but a dream. Karina had become used to her authority. It was unlikely someone of her standing would accept to be under someone else’s umbrella.

Aiden shook his head. Instead of conquering her, he should think about cooperation first.

[Let the man go and drop your knife.]

"Eh? Wouldn’t they kill me then?" James urgently whispered back.

[Do you think you stand a chance if she wants to kill you?]

James had experienced the world of evolvers, albeit briefly. That experience told him to follow Aiden’s plans. If that woman truly wanted to kill him, then he would die even if everyone there jumped to his defense.

The sudden clang of the knife hitting the ground brought everyone’s attention back to James.

"That man was trying to rip me off," James said, pointing at Joe before pointing at his backpack. "The stuff there is more precious than my life. I couldn’t just let him snatch it away. I apologize for the way I reacted, but it was never my intention to harm anyone."

Karina looked at James from top to bottom. Although he used the words of the strong, his slightly trembling legs blew his facade away.

The guy was clearly working for someone. A person who had strange resources and wanted to trade with them.

"Who do you work for?" she asked.

"...For my boss."

Karina sighed, massaging her temples. She had just gotten up for her night patrol, and the stupid man’s answers were already making her headache.

"Does your boss have a name?"

"Aiden B-Black."

Karina nodded, turning towards Joe, who shook his head. The old man knew every trader in the surrounding area by name. Since he didn’t know this Aiden guy, it meant he was someone new in the business and probably weak.

"He sent one guy, only armed with a knife, with so much food..." Old Joe whispered. "Either he is confident in his man’s ability, or he has too much food to care about losing a few packs."

"Be as it may, you shouldn’t have tried to rip him off, Uncle," Karina scolded the old man before turning to James. "That food. What do you want to trade it for?"

"Weapons," James said, only to get startled and correct himself. "P-Proper weapons!"

It made sense why this Aiden guy wanted to trade. He had too much food, but only a few people or weapons to protect it. So he sent the man to procure some weapons.

"A smart fellow. Even if he lost a man and some food, in case the trade went south, he wouldn’t lose too much," Old Joe mumbled, stroking his overgrown beard.

Karina didn’t reply to Joe and kept questioning James.

"By proper weapons do you mean guns or Evo-Gear?"

"I was planning for guns, but what’s this Evo-Gear?" Aiden asked the system.

[Weapons or equipment that can only be used by Evolvers.]

[These weapons can only be found as monster drops. Even then, the drop rates are abysmally low.]

[Some Evo-Gear can turn unawakened individuals into Evolvers.]

Essentially, they are similar to the artefacts of the Otherworld. In that case, they’d be expensive as hell. I don’t think James has enough resources to exchange for anything good.

While Aiden was contemplating what to do, Karina pointed at James’s backpack.

"I would recommend you go for normal weapons. You won’t get a decent Evo-Gear even if you sold all that food to us," she advised.

[Tell her we have more food to offer. Hell, tell them we got electricity.]

"Are you sure...? What if they raid—oh, I get it!"

After realizing what Aiden was planning, or what he hoped his boss had planned, James’s confidence returned.

"What if we have more to offer?" James said, addressing the giantess. "Not just food, but electrical inverters and batteries too."

As soon as he said that, the entire marketplace turned silent. Karina narrowed her eyes, studying the subtle movements of James.

As a former investigator, she had developed her own methods to detect when someone is lying. However, it didn’t seem like James was lying.

He believes in his words. But that doesn’t mean he’s telling the truth.

Karina thought.

Having inverters and batteries wasn’t as far-fetched as Aiden believed. After all, it had only been a year, and there were still places where they could be found, such as factories and distribution plants.

If not for the batteries, there were also generators like the ones used in the rich people’s palace inside the camp.

It was a different matter that they could only power the building up for a few hours each day. Then again, they were already running out of fuel.

"You make a bold claim in front of a stranger," Karina whispered, her hands resting on her waist. "After all, people kill for far less in this world."

"Karina, don’t tell me you believe—!" Old Joe urged, only to get cut off by Karina’s gaze.

"So tell me," she continued, looking at James like a predator. "Are you a fool, or do you take me as one?"

Under her intense gaze, James could only try to swallow his nervousness along with his saliva. Just when Karina thought she had cornered him, James turned sideways, and the spark of fight returned to his eyes.

"My boss isn’t willing to discuss this matter here anymore," He said, casually picking up the knife as he did. "We told you what we have to offer."

He continued, "If you want a deal, we can arrange a meeting tomorrow. I’ll take a delegate from your side to my base, and you can negotiate with the boss himself. As for the food, you can have it for free. Consider it a token of my boss’s goodwill."