"So what about your planned marriage?" My father asked me when he finally calmed down while massaging the bridge of his nose.
"That will be only with Taeko, not with any Aria or whatever is her name." I said with a small smile.
"Taeko...huh? Then do you already have any plan on how to get rid of this marriage? I must also inform you that if you will want to marry that Taeko girl then you won't be able to hold it publicly due to her identity which means that the other nobles will keep pressing you to marry someone since they will be unaware of it." He replied with a wry smile.
"I know about that, I already gathered some filth on her family and they are definitely disgusting so I won't have any bad feeling by burying them all, however, there is still a lot of time before the marriage date so I will keep gathering more intel and then release it into the public, people will take care of the problem for me. As for other families, I will bother myself with it only once I will take care of the first problem." I said with a confident smile.
"I see, that doesn't sound like a bad strategy to use a borrowed knife but you must be aware that common people can still get suppressed by that family even if they are smaller family. At most, they will face some difficulties." He nodded his head with a smile at my strategy but still tried to convince me to use a different plan.
"Father...I am not only planning on using common people." I said with a grin when I heard that he was a bit skeptical about my plan.
"What do you mean?" He raised his eyebrow in confusion.
"Do you really think that other noble families will let such a chance down? They will definitely try to bury them once they will get a good chance. Even though they are a small family, they still operate a few businesses and have some decent wealth. Who would refuse such a free meal?" I explained while shrugging my shoulders with a smile and closed eyes.
"?! I didn't think of that aspect but there would definitely be a few families who would like to eat such a free meal. Well, it's in your hands so do whatever you want, you can still ask me if you will need any help." He had a slightly surprised expression before smiling with a defeated look.
"Well, if that's all, I am pretty sure that there is still a lot of people who would like to talk to me..." I said and approached the door, when my hand was on the handle...
"Wait...here you go!" He stopped me from leaving and opened his drawer, after fishing something out for a few seconds, he threw a small book at me.
I caught it without letting go of the handle and instead of looking at the book, I looked at him.
"I have heard that you started operating a few businesses and apparently you are doing very well, so here is the book containing the rights and information of around half of businesses owned by our family. You are free to manage them, by the way, the whole month you were away, I made Aiko learn everything about those businesses so if you want to find a manager and secretary, I would recommend her. She has a small amount of experience in this field but she is knowledgeable at least about those businesses and she is still learning." He explained while looking at me with a big proud smile.
"I also asked Kurome and Ichika to teach her about your own businesses, although they were quite reluctant to do so without your permission, they still did it. I must say that you have really loyal people around you to even be wary around their "master's" father, haha. Especially Ichika, at first, she was meant to inform me about everything you were doing in the past but with the passage of time, she remained at your side. That makes me slightly sad, haha" He continued and started even laughing.
I smiled at him when I heard the part about Ichika.
"Thanks for everything, don't worry, I won't let you down." I waved with the book in my hand as a goodbye and exited his room.
"I know you won't" I heard his voice full of confidence right before I closed the door behind me.
When I returned to my room, my mother kept pestering me to reveal my "secret" and in the end, I decided not to tell her. If she really wants to know it so much, she can always ask my father.
I spent a few more days only resting and checking on the progress of all the projects I started and it was going pretty well. I also hired a few blacksmiths, one of them was also Zak who taught me basics but he is still unaware of that fact. I started some production of weapons on a small scale since I didn't want to alert anyone and also because I hired only trustable blacksmiths.
I also employed some retired soldiers who either lost a limb or something essential to continue serving the army and gave them work of gathering all kinds of herbs in the forest near the Capital. Since they used to be soldiers they would be able to protect themselves from such animals as wolves, as for Danger beasts...after my constant killing there, the density of them thinned so much that it's very rare to meet any weaker or even stronger Danger Beasts.
Usually, it depends on what unit they were serving but most of the units don't care for their retired soldiers and the Empire simply discards them without any financial support. Of course, everyone is already accustomed to such a treatment so when they heard my offer for quite nice payment, most of them instantly agreed.
With this matter resolved, I started also doing some small pharmacy-herbalist businesses.
Currently, I was sitting at my table in my room, inspecting documents about profits and additional problems each business is facing.
Aiko who was constantly around me since she is still learning about businesses and is also my maid.
"Young master, this document just recently came in and it looks like it's something important." Aiko informed me while organizing a stack of documents, she handed me a specified document she was talking about and then refilled my empty teacup with a hot tea.
"I see, thank you, Aiko" I took the document into my hands to look at it but first I thanked her with a genuine smile.
"It's nothing, there is no need to thank me, this is only expected of me." Aiko bowed her head with a calm smile and her hands joined together like a real professionalist.
I have never noticed it but she really became much more mature and more refined like a real lady. Anyway, let's look at the problem in front of me.
I looked at the paper in my hands and when I was done reading the through it, my eyes became colder.
"What the hell? Some random street gang wants protection money from my shop?" I muttered with a completely dumbfounded expression. I had no idea if I should laugh or cry for them.
One of the main reasons is because I didn't register all businesses under my name or more like my family name. I was slowly starting to expand my shops even to other parts of the city where our influence was much lower but to think that some random gang would do this...
I hired some guards but I didn't want to hire anyone too experienced since it would be slightly suspicious for a newly founded shop to hire expensive guards.
As for some kind of protection from the regular city guards...there is none because they really like to take bribes and such a gang must also be just to deceive others, they must be backed by some noble family or they wouldn't let some random group of thugs to just take their money in form of taxes.
"Should I call Kurome or Ichika, young master?" Aiko asked me with a small smile while sitting across me, doing her own work.
"Hm? No...no need to bother those two with such a small thing." I raised my head from the paper and then shook my head with a wry smile.
"Wrigglers" I muttered with a disinterested look while throwing the document aside and instantly swarm of insects flew out of my shadow, leaving my room through the window.
"?! Young master...was that-?" Aiko was shocked by this sight.
"Yes, don't worry. They are listening to my orders" I replied while taking another stack of documents that were completely different from business. Thanks to Aiko's help, at least everything was neatly organized and I knew what is a business stack or personal letters meant for me.
"Desire to meet, invitation to a ball, invitation for inspection...ugh." I kept scrolling through all documents at an inhuman speed but I found nothing interesting or something that would need to be resolved immediately.
*Knock* *Knock* I heard someone knocking on the door but I already knew who was it."
"Come in, Ichika" I said and Ichika came in while closing the door behind her.
"Hello, young lord!" She instantly greeted me with a warm smile.
"Hi, is there something you need or did you just came here to visit me?" I greeted her back with a little wave of my hand before asking her with a teasing smile.
"I indeed have something important for you, for your hands only." She said with a smile but from her tone, it was apparent that it was something serious so I focused my whole attention at her.
"From the higher-ups or more like it's a letter from someone who has connections to someone pretty high up there." Ichika explained and handed me a special envelope. This envelope was special in its seal, once opened, it could no longer be sealed again, therefore it is an only one-time envelope.
I opened it and read the document folded within.
Hm? This is from that guy nicknamed Uncle Bill I met during that test held in the Gifnora Forest. What does he want from me?
I thought when I saw who wrote the letter.
...
Putolu...huh? Arid land in the north-west regions of the Empire. Since it is an arid land, there is nothing attractive for the Empire there. Still, despite its unattractiveness, there is still a city where traders can resupply during their travels.
"Need reinforcements, trying to recover stolen goods from the tombs. The Gravekeepers who dare to even come deep inside the Empire to kill relatives of those who dared to enter the tombs...Haha" I started to laugh after quickly reading it.
"Young master?" Aiko looked at me with a confused expression and Ichika was the same.
"It's nothing, you can go back Ichika, thank you for bringing this to me!" I thanked her with a wide smile.
"Alright, good luck, young lord" Ichika performed a little bow before slowly leaving the room
Stolen goods, huh? Smells like a big fat lie but who cares, the Empire wants treasures and they have it and I also doubt that those Gravekeepers pay taxes so whatever. Not to mention...I doubt that he lied about the part with them killing the relatives since this is too specific and much easier to confirm. They are really courageous to venture deep inside the Empire to take revenge in this way. It almost makes me want to go there to teach them how to be lenient.
I need to think about the pros and cons. One of the pros is that I will be able to show my loyalty to the Empire by going and I will also be able to steal a few of those treasures for myself. On the other hand...It looks like if I want to go, I will need to join with one group going there since they are currently 1 member down. And I have a feeling that there is a big chance that the group is those kids with Gozuki. 1 member down...means that the guy I kicked still has yet to recover. There is also a small chance that Akame might be able to recognize me after so many interactions with her but...not if I will distract her.
After thinking about it for a few more minutes...
I believe that Kurome would like to meet up with her sister after 8 years of separation...I will ask her and depending on her answer, I will decide but I am already positive that we will be going there. It will be really awkward being around those kids after they tried to kill me but at least I wasn't trying to kill them or it would be even more awkward for me. And since that guy won't be there, I will be able to behave like usual without any occasional suspicious glares of hatred.
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[+0,5 XP for killing your enemy]x24
Class: Blade Master (Lv. 5; +9 Str, +9 Agi, +4 Const) 35/160 XP
[+ 5 NXP for using your beasts in the battle]
Beastmaster (Lv. 4) 56/80 NXP
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Hm? Looks like they are done, they should return to me very soon.
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GOLD: 4116
SILVER: 165
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