My ass after Mark was twitching, but he was more than satisfied with my services. As I sent him home, he looked very reluctant to leave. It was exactly the reaction that I was hoping for with Mark. Suppose I could find someone to run a workshop. With my permanent wards, I could set up shop at our little base, and if we had Mark, we could start to make a profit selling things.
It was the start of a plan that I had yet to learn if it was going to work. Mark was a young man and easily convinced more than an older man to break out on his own. He was young and was allowed to make mistakes. As someone who was young and with the talent he had, he was clearly not an idiot. But that could work with me as he could realize owning or being a blacksmith that he controlled freely would be good for his progress. I didn't know much about blacksmithing, but I would ensure he was adequately equipped with as much gold as I could quickly if I got a blacksmith.
Despite my twitching asshole from Mark's usage, I got a little bit of intelligence and a possible lead to start a business. If I got a business started, that meant that I could start hiring people to gather information locally. It was a simple plan; the only other way I could go about it was with bribes moving slowly in this world.
I didn't want to move slowly, though, and there was only one other way I could do it in my unique build. Attach me to an organization that already was bringing in the information and I could bring in a lot of information, but I would need something else. Instead, I walked back to the base with a large bag of gold from Lady Yancy, who seemed very pleased with me until I told her I had something to do for the next two days.
When She asked what I had to do, I told her it had something to do with protecting my family and was one of the reasons I sought her out in the first place. I didn't tell her that I would be warding our base and needed to take the time to do that. I was still a novice permanent warder, and the regents I wanted and needed to learn were costly.
Making it back to the base, the party was still out, which was a bummer. Instead, I got to make a meal as I knew they would already be on the way back. I took my time, and not long later, I heard everyone coming in with chatter.
"I cannot believe the quest was that easy," Viccy said, her voice sounding incredulous. "That grove was not that deep into the forest. We found everything we needed for one of the quests and almost completed three other gathering quests we were out there for."
"Sometimes, people oversee the simplest things, or there was something in the area that people avoided before that no longer lives there or was gone temporarily." Gloom said, her voice serious.
They all came into the kitchen as I was in the middle of prepping the food, and I smiled at them as they came in. All turned to me and smiled, "You look much better today!" naughty said with a grin, "Yesterday you looked like someone destroyed you," She teased.
I chuckled, "I brought home a large amount of gold for that destruction," I noted with a blush, and everyone chuckled. "Still, I met a young man today that I heard is a pretty good Blacksmith. I am trying to recruit him as our personal blacksmith. Might have to give up my ass to keep him around, though,"
I got a couple of hot looks with that admittance and lusty stares from Viccy and Iona, especially. Fidel also looked at me, although she kept her cold look. I could tell that if not tonight, then tomorrow morning, I would experience some of their attention. I couldn't help but smile at the thought of that.
With all that being said, I finished cooking and started to point out to the group to put out plates, and we all started eating together. "Tomorrow, I will be sticking around and warding the base. I will be putting up some wards that will help keep people from robbing the place and hopefully keep us all safer," I said with a smile.
"Do you know many permanent wards?" Viccy asked curiously.
"I am still a novice, but I have a book from Mistress to look through and find some suitable wards. I will use some of the gold I earned to ward the base with some useful things. Do you all have plans for quests tomorrow?" I asked.
"I believe that the gathering quests are still a prudent choice to learn the area in the shallow forest before moving deeper. As we travel, it also gives us excuses to engage with the locals for more information and talking," Gloom said and received a couple of nods.
"That is about our plan. Information gathering has been slow," Viccy said.
"I got some information today that might be helpful," I said, silencing everyone else as they looked at me. "Today, I engaged with a local slums business owner. He owns a medicine store, and he told me about how things work in the business area of the slums, which is the area we are in, which the Hellfire Citadel. He seemed to understand something about the area, though. The churches in the area want to keep the people desperate and look towards them for salvation." Frowns were around the table, but people continued to eat, "Now, The area around the Hellfire Citadel is starting to restore itself, and it is losing its congregate. I think that there is a reason the church is falling on hard times because the people around it are getting less desperate." I let that fall on them, and I could see they were all thinking, "Still, it doesn't explain everything and why we saw nobody there. The place was desolate, and that wouldn't make sense if they were saving people in the past. There is more at work, but I think that is one of the subtle ways they are continuing to be suppressed."
Everyone looked thoughtful as they ate, and I saw a couple of nods. "It is some information, but I doubt it is the entire thing. Maybe even only part of it, in the end. But if it is the main way, we cannot be expected to suppress a local economy to help out the Hellfire Citadel," Naughty said, and we all nodded.
Silence took over as we continued to eat, "Well, With that out of the way, I am damn exhausted," I told them all, receiving some knowing smiles. "I am going to bed, and hopefully, we can have some fun in the morning before all heading out to our tasks," I said and headed up to bed. I could feel the eyes on my ass as I walked towards the stairs.
"I will be there soon; I am kind of tired. I will follow you up once I finish your dinner," Viccy said with a smile. "Have a good sleep, Elli," Viccy finished, but I could hear the smirk in her voice.
I shivered but continued walking, and soon I was upstairs, lying down and logging out and back to reality.
---
Thank you for enjoying my Stories. Sorry for the delay in releasing a chapter. I am currently experiencing Computer problems that should be finished with soon. If you would like to support me, I have recently released Week 5 of Life of a Dominant Futanari and a couple of short stories. You can check them out on Amazon or on my Patreon. Links below.
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