In a magnificently decorated hall, 2 men, one is in his 30s and another one is in his early 50s, sitting on the sofa .
The man in his 30s has a rather complicated expression on his face, the other man is sitting simply and enjoying his tea.
The man in his 50s put down his cup on the table and looked towards the man sitting in front of him .
" Count Ynder, why are you making such a complicated expression? If someone sees you, they will think that I have been bullying you.
The choice given to you by his highness 1st prince is simple and it is a win-win situation for either of the choices you choose." said with a sneered expression in his face.
The man sitting in front of Ynder is a supporter of the 1st prince, HERET BEUS, the duke of beus, who is also one of the 2 dukes of the kingdom, and controls most of the southern part of the kingdom. His territory had been bordered by the Inva empire, but the southern part of the kingdom has a large river called THE GREAT RIVER RETI that is 7 miles wide, which separates his territory with inva empire.
The duke spoke those words with an unshakeable arrogance, despite sitting in another lord's territory, as from Duke Beus' point of view, Ynder has no choice but to accept his offer, as technically, his whole territory is surrounded by his forces.
Ballad County shares their whole west border with the Beus territory border, the east side has LAGE FOREST from where Ballad County's trade route passes, also where the bandit king has made his base. In the southern part, there is a great river of reti and the northern part has Viscount Raryn territory, with whom they have generations of Freud.
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After listening to the duke Heret, Ynder only stares at him without answering and he has been continuously smirking towards him without any care.
On seeing the duke's nonchalant behaviour, Count Ynder sighed and averted his gaze towards another direction, as he knew that he could not do anything about the current situation.
Among the choices given to Ynder, the 1st choice given to him was to give merchants from the Inva empire, no question permit in his territory, in which merchants from the Empire would be given exclusive rights to do business in any sector, and can transport any goods without being questioned by any authorities or soldiers, and in exchange merchants would give 80 % more tax than normal tax to the lord.
Due to such complicated nature of this permit, in the history of Ballad family's 300 years of rule, this permit has given only twice.
The next choice was to marry the count's eldest daughter to the duke's beus's 2nd sons and officially join the 1st prince faction.
The reason Ynder is hesitating so much because he knows a very serious piece of information, that the Duke of beus and the 1st prince's faction is heavily supported by the empire and their funds.
So, if he chooses any of the choices, his territory will surely be nested by the Inva empire soldiers, as Ballad is a statically important location, either in respect of trade or military warfare.
Ynder also knows that the mysterious appearance of an S rank Powerhouse among bandits and the recent turbulence in his County, have all been cleverly set up by the duke heret and the Inva empire .
That's why Ynder put so much effort into killing the Bandits king, who was a ticking time bomb for Ynder's territory.
But despite the failure of many quests, among such different quests, he was luckily able to secure an important letter of the Bandit king's conversation with the empire's intelligence department and also with Duke Heret.
But at present, the situation is no longer the same as before for Ynder, as the bandit king is dead and also this news was not made public by Ynder. So Ynder has an element of surprise as his Trump Card, which he didn't want to waste but despite that he now desperately wants time to prepare.
So, Ynder cleverly made a nervous expression and said
"Duke, please give me some time as it is a decision which will affect the whole territory at present and also in future times.
Anyways duke, we are at your mercy. As you know, our military is not that strong to oppose the mighty duke of Beus's army."
Seeing Ynder's helpless face and listening to his explanation, Heret thinks that it is not wise to put any unnecessary pressure on Ynder, as he may turn to Viscount Raryn, whose territory is in the North of the ballad and he is a supporter of the 3rd prince's faction.
The possibility of this is slim but not nill.
So he decided to play it safe.
"OK, for the shake of our long-standing relationship, I will persuade his highness to give you a deadline of 2 months .
If you don't give us your reply among the choices given to you, something very unfortunate may occur to you and your land, like a whole swarm of bandits will flood Virro. " with that, he got up from his chair and left the room .
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After Duke Heret left the room, Ynder relaxed on his couch and heaved a sign of relief.
He knows that the thread mentioned by the duke is no longer applicable to him as the bandit king is dead, but the backer of the bandit king is more troublesome than him.
During the past one year, the border conflict between the Aigr duchy and the Inva empire was at its peak and war may occur at any moment between the two nations.
In those moments, Ballad County was helping Aigr Duchy in many ways .
So, to totally cut off any help being received by the Aigr Duchy, the empire made this whole mess of bandits situation in Ballad County.
And previously, the thing mentioned by Ynder to Heret about being weak military territory is true, as ballad county was always the heart of the south-eastern trade and the ancestors of Ynder always focused on developing their business rather than a territorial army, as they thought that money could solve any problem, but from the Ynder point of view, millatary might is absolutely necessary to maintain one's wealth, so he started to develop his own personal army consisting of 10,000 men, which is seems a large army but it's rather weak to counter the force that surrounding his territory.
Even if he increased his military number of personnel, then also his soldiers also would not be able to stand before the battle harder veterinarian soldiers of other territory, specially duke Heret's soldiers, who were constantly in war with surrounding territories.
But now in these difficult times, Ynder is able to see a glimpse of light at the end of a dark tunnel and the light is the mysterious person who sends him the anonymous black gift box.
According to his speculations, the person who was able to kill the S-rank Bandits king and exterminate 30 thousand bandits in a single day, which he is able to know after further research, must be higher in rank than S-rank.
In the whole leai kingdom, there were only 3 SS rank cultivators and those three had not a single reason to help him.
So Ynder reached the conclusion, that the person that helped him might be one of the few secluded cultivators.
But he has his own doubts, as these cultivators don't easily reveal themselves.
So that means that his mighty cultivator wants something from him, which Ynder is more than happy to give him, if it is within his limits or if not, he will rather stretch his limits if this cultivator joins him.
But he was also a little nervous, as 1 month had passed from the date he received his gift and since then, he was searching for the identity of this person and found no results, nor that the mysterious person once contacted him.
As Ynder was lost in his thoughts, Robert entered the hall and stood in front of Ynder.
"cough! cough!" Robert coughed lightly to announce his presence to Ynder .
Ynder, who was dwelling in his thoughts, came back to the present and looked towards Robert.
" Oo! Robert, when you came, I didn't notice you. Come sit and have tea for yourself, "he said.
" Lord, I came when you were almost drowning in your thoughts and thank you for offering tea lord, but as a head butler I should behave accordingly." Robert said with a prideful expression, that clearly shows how much he takes pride in being the head Buttler of the House of Ballad.
"Aaa !! Robert you and your equities.
Let's leave all that, now tell me why you came " asked Ynder while picking up the cup of freshly poured tea by Robert.
Robert, with a little stiff experience on his face, said
"Lord, we found 'that' person and he is waiting outside of the door, but lord, there is a problem."
Without listening to any further, Ynder jumped from his seat with an excited expression and asked
" Robert, you keep 'that' person waiting outside the door. Immediately bring him or her or( him/her both) here. Wait !! Is that the problem?
If so, fear not, I am a very open-minded person. So,.Robert led me there. "
Robert immediately wanted to correct his lord's misconceptions but noticed that Ynder had
already left the room and he missed his chance to correct him.