"What did you say? Daron became Rank 1!!!"
Lord Zack's thunderous voice boomed incredibly loudly, however, due to the barrier of Internal energy he himself had set up, it did not cause mass panic within the castle, and only echoed within the barrier. However, since Fals was Zack's youngest disciple who had only recently reached the rank of an Official Rank 6 Knight, he was not completely immune to this.
Realising this, Zack sent some of his Internal Energy into Fals' body, and since it was his disciple he did not resist. Within an instant, the injuries incurred by Fals in his ears were healed.
Suddenly, Lord Zack had a thought.
'Wait a minute! Doesn't that mean that my plan failed?'
Lord Zack never intended on bringing Daron over as a personal guard for his daughter Zoey. He had simple given an impossible task disguised as a chance of a lifetime for Daron s that he would join the castle's work force. Then, when he failed to complete the task, he could offer an olive branch to Daron in the form of working as a cook for the household so that he could have the food for free without having to spend tonnes of money to buy it from the high-class side of Blaze: Food 1.
And in fact, over the past month that Daron was not there, the people made all the dishes as expensive as the rich side of the restaurant, which stopped Zack from disguising his servants as commoners and getting poor from the poor side.
And the most important part was that Blaze: Food 1 was only open for business from morning till afternoon, and was never open during the night. Which was why he had to swallow down the disgusting food created by the household chefs he hired for dinner.
However, that plan was now heading straight to the dungeons. Not only would he not be able to recruit Daron as a cook, he might even have to allow the kid to become his daughter's personal guard.
And now, he could not go back on his words. Now that he thought about it, Rank 2 was still a normal human being, with no extra strengths or specialities other than just collecting Internal energy. Why would he allow a Rank 2 knight to become the personal guard of his daughter? What was he thinking?!
'Shit'
"My Lord. I believe Daron is a once in a thousand years genius, who might even be more of a genius than the peerless genius his highness Second prince." Fals brought Lord Zack out of his spiralling thoughts.
"Huh? Oh yes, that he is. Plus, I am obliged to take care of him. Hmm."
Zack began to plot once more and came up with a suitable idea.
'Although I cannot go back on my word as a noble and the lord of this city and a portion of its surroundings, I can still change some things here and there. Although I will allow Daron to be Zoey's personal guard, he is still too weak until he reaches an Official knight at the rank of 6. Until then, Fals will also be the personal guard of Zoey, while Daron will take on the role of secondary personal guard.' He mused to himself.
Neither he, nor Fals had any thoughts of Daron not being able to become a Rank 2 Novice knight within the time limit. Doing something that normally took even the best of the best 2 years to complete in only a month was something only a monster could do.
"Alright. Start giving him the herbs. But, he needs to pay for them using his own finances just like the others. He needs to show resourcefulness when it comes to collecting money."
"But Master, he is the owner of Blaze: Food 1. He had more than enough money to support his own training."
"Ack. Its fine. Let him do whatever he wants. If he truly can become Rank 2, he will become Zoey's personal guard. However, you will become her personal guard as well, to prevent that Daron from doing anything untoward."
"Naturally, Master Zack."
"Alright. Anyway, what of the other matter I told you?"
"I have sent scouts, and it has been determined that the number of monsters below the rank of Magical beasts has been increasing in the area surrounding the city. Now, it is becoming more and more expensive for people to enter and leave the city, since they need to hire at least a rank 7 Official Knight in order to guarantee the safety of their convoy."
"It won't be long until Magical beasts who are each equal to a Rank 6 Official Knight. At that point, one would need to hire at least a rank 8 or even 9, and for the really paranoid ones, even a rank 10 Official Knight."
"There is a possibility that a Rank 2 magical beast, who are equal to a Rank 11 Intermediate knight might appear."
"Right" Answered Zack as he made a decision. "We will send out an extermination force consisting of Knights in training, city guards as well as you official knights. The extermination force will leave in 20 days. Make the announcement throughout the city so that we can recruit anyone willing to help. Naturally, anyone new will not be in charge of doing anything other than guarding the city while the main force leaves the city, to maintain order."
"Right, Master Zack."
…
At this point, Daron received news from a servant that he was now allowed to buy the herbs he needed for money from the 'Alchemy Union' that is located across the street to purchase the medical herbs he needed for his training. He was also told that he needed to use his money to do so. However, to ensure he would not be duped or buy the wrong product, there is a person named Karlos within the Union building, who manages the purchases from knights in training of the castle.
Being told this, Daron merrily left the castle, still dressed in his knight in training outfit, and went to the Union Bank to collect 1000 copper and then went to the union, with the money in hand.
He had assumed, based on the fact that the herbs were not sold to normal people, and only within the Alchemy Union, and the thought that in most novels, such herbs are really expensive. Therefore, he directly took out 1000 copper and put it in a pocket within his breast-plate for safe keeping so no pick-pocket steals his money.
With this in hand, Daron moved swiftly towards the Alchemy Union.