Gem people are not flesh and blood people. This makes them feel kinship with others who are not made of flesh and blood. This was why Quartzite mentioned Sword Flash's appearance.
After Quartzite finished his report, one of the gem emperors, a white one that had a body of polished white marble, said to him, "Well done. You have done a good job, and you will be compensated highly for it."
"Keep trying to reconnect with them and update us if there is any new development. As for the increases in our offer, we will discuss it and get back to you when we have made a decision."
Then the connection was severed. This gave the gem emperors privacy to discuss sensitive matters.
One of the gem emperors said to the Ivory Gem Emperor, "It seems your fears were inflated. The invaders don't appear to be bloodthirsty. They seemed reasonable and amicable to cooperating with us."
The white Ivory Gem Emperor said, "Maybe I was too harsh on them. I thought that they would behave just like us."
A second gem emperor laughed and said, "Look at you. You acted as if we were facing a terrible threat to our civilization. You even refused to let us contact them from our homeworld. So much caution for nothing."
A third gem emperor said, "I don't think being cautious was a bad thing. After all, they are a new and powerful race who have the potential to become our enemies."
Another gem emperor said, "I'm just glad that it ended on a positive note. If we can cooperate with these invaders, our civilization would be able to benefit from it."
The fifth gem emperor nodded in agreement and said, "I guess what we need to do now is discuss how much we are willing to pay for their stuff."
At this point, the Ivory Gem Emperor shook his head and said, "I didn't create the negotiation task force to cooperate with them. I asked us to try to negotiate with them in order to test their attitude."
"Like I said earlier, if they had been aggressive, had rejected our attempts at cooperating, and had threatened us with violence, we would have known that they intended to invade us. But since they are being so amicable, I believe that we have a chance to do something better than buying their things."
The fifth gem emperor frowned and asked, "What do you mean? What are you planning to do?"
The first gem emperor understood what the Ivory Gem Emperor was getting to, so he smiled and said, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
The Ivory Gem Emperor replied, "If what you're thinking is that the invaders are being so amicable because they are weak and that we should take advantage of that to invade their world, then we are thinking about the same thing."
The fourth gem emperor asked with a displeased tone, "Is this okay? I don't think a civilization that can produce a void ship can be weak. You yourself said that they also possessed a technology for subduing worlds. Do you think it is a good idea to risk so much war and violence when we can easily acquire what we want by simply buying it?"
The first gem emperor answered the question in place of the Ivory Gem Emperor, "Of course it is worth it. If we buy, we will have to give up some of our precious materials, and what we will get won't be the best that they can make. Instead of letting them cheat us, it is better for us to invade them and take everything they have."
The sixth gem emperor, who had been silent all along, asked, "Even if we want to invade them, how would we go about it? Don't forget that we don't know anything about their home world and where it is located."
The third gem emperor said, "Even if we did know where their world is, I doubt our usual means of entry will succeed. I don't think they will let us enter their world through a leystone without interfering with it."
The Ivory Gem Emperor said to them, "When I suggested that we invade them, I didn't mean that we do it immediately. We still need to collect some information about them and their world. We need to know more about them, so that we can prepare a good invasion plan."
"Right now, we don't know much about them, but that will change if we continue to interact with them and investigate them. We can start by going through the three requests that we made to establish a rapport with them."
"The ongoing negotiations with them are not a ruse. I truly intend to buy what we can from them. But once the relationship between our two civilizations becomes trustworthy, we can send diplomats to each other's worlds."
"This will take time to complete, and we need to be patient. But I just want us to decide now that the ultimate goal is to invade them and take everything they have for ourselves.
The second gem emperor nodded in understanding and said, "You have a good plan. I just wish we could invade them as soon as possible."
The third gem emperor sighed and said, "I still don't like your plan because I think it is too risky, but for now, I will go along with it. But I want us to get more information about them before we commit to anything."
The fourth gem emperor nodded in agreement and said, "Caution is imperative here. Especially in the exchange of diplomats. You want to use our diplomats to find their homeworld, but don't forget that their diplomats can also find our world."
"Whatever we can do, so can they. And they might be able to do it better than us, as evident in the proceedings of events in Aries. We must not underestimate them like the numerous civilizations that underestimated us and regretted it."