Ryan finished speaking and left the proposal hanging in the air. What he had just asked of Edwin was direct: he wanted him to help commercialize weapons immune to the deity's control.
Edwin did not respond immediately.
As the leader of the Kallistia Nation's Merchant Guild, he hadn't reached that position by blurting out the first thing that came to mind. He remained silent, his eyes cast down and his lips pressed together, processing the size of the problem in front of him.
Ryan watched him calculate without rushing him. You could almost see the man weighing every word before deciding whether it was worth speaking.
"Just a moment..." Edwin murmured quietly, without looking up yet. "Let me think about it for a second, Your Majesty."
He fell silent again, breathing slowly through his nose as he gathered his thoughts.
When he finally decided to speak, he carefully measured his tone to avoid sounding as though he were outright rejecting the person in front of him.
