Chapter 51
The Ivlares city is the home to a large numerous amount of different races under the rule of Viscountess Hilas Ugrihron's clan, known for her vast knowledge in business, elegance, cunning and systematic approach in her merchant dealings, known to be the only Viscountess to earn the title of a business magnate after changing the existing tax law and creating a modernistic policy to give merchants and anybody in her domain the opportunity to increase their profit and bring prosperity to the land that she governs,
even before getting married and becoming Viscountess, she was accepted and even befriended by the queen, in many occasions Viscountess witness first-hand what made her like the queen in the first place, but because of family influence she was swayed to fight the queen and her reign in any means possible,
and after seeing the development of her empire she wanted to serve her and be part of the queen's loyal subjects, but because her house was on the opposing side, she was regretfully forced to fulfil her role of always opposing the queen's rule as a symbol of her loyalty to their unyielding commitment to gain absolute control of the 12 Realm.
the Viscountess's diligence in turning her city into the most prosperous land was second only to the Queen, which was just one of the reasons on her mind,
the fact that when Hilas was still an ordinary knight in the opposing army fighting against the marauding princess's rouge warriors, Hilas witness all of Allatou Estrith's struggles and battle savagery in the sovereign title war, but after when Allatou Estrith Demiurgos was appointed by her eldest brother that became the Sovereign King of the entire 12 realms as one of who will rule the 12th kingdom, slowly Hilas Ugrihron changed her perspective about her because of the queens unconventional, eccentric, prosperous, and impartiality governance.
Queen Allatou's understanding and knowledge extended beyond radical thinking and were unbelievable. many respected her, and at the same time also envy her, she was the perfect embodiment of beauty, skill, power and ferocity,
Viscountess Hilas would secretly meet with the Queen and spar behind scrupulous and devious eyes, the two would exchange words, ideas, and knowledge while in a fierce match by also exchanging strong punches and kicks under the cover of the night,
these spars continued for many days, and the queen would always come out victorious, until her Viscountess Hilas's husband was manipulated by other clans to officially take the Viscountess quarrels with the queen, in the fighting the arena to diminish the queen's honourable reign in front of all her subjects,
the queen knew Hilas's burden but the queen never acknowledge Hilas's attitude when even they are seen in public as malicious and spiteful because in their private conversation, the queen knew who she really was and everything she did was just an act that needed to portray, and even the queen told Hilas to honour her pledge to her clan, for her own safety,
she lost twice to the Marauding Queen in a formal challenge, this drove the Viscountess to the edge and swore to overcome the Queen who she consider her best friend and her rival, sadly a piece of news about the death of the queen made her life more depressing because she won't be able to regain her honour, and felt was cheated on by the Queens regrettable passing.
she respected the queen so much and wanted to prove she can stand beside her and not be that weak girl that the queen once save, but after years of training, she was shocked to receive a letter that the Marauding Queen Took her own life after failing to save her only son, while in the secret stronghold of the Queen's husband.
the Viscountess Hilas Ugrihronwas was at her office when 5 merchant huge caravans came to deliver their harvested raw materials from the forsaken forest, inside her mansion gate dozen of onlookers were gathering and trying to see what were inside those huge merchant wagons, she look out of the window and saw that the hunters were able to kill and harvest something huge, and Earl Reeve Gallien was the one who facilitated the hunt and transportation with a group named the Garden Brawllers, seeing this achievement made her happy, their long trip from the forest clearing merchant outpost was worth the long 4-day travel.
she greeted Earl Reeve with a smile and wanted to see the material when she was greeted by Haella and introduced her group to the Viscountess, seeing her group was the reason for this massive amount of raw materials she invited them to her home and accept a generous acknowledgement and reward. Haella agreed but her tone was not filled with pride but with regret.
The viscountess orders her servants to prepare the hall to receive her guest. Haella, Krysha, and Dwarf Beor were accompanied by Viscountess's personal staff inside her home and waited.
meanwhile, she asked Earl Reeve Gallien about this and just told her to take a look at the remains of the mountain troll, the largest wagon that was being pulled by six Sleipnir houses was used to move the troll's mutilated head in her city,
" what! it's a mountain troll?"
Earl Reeve Gallien asked her guard commander Reinhold to open the huge cover exposing the troll's head, Viscountess was shocked to see those hunters can inflict this much damage.
"Viscountess! if you are thinking that those hunters, killed this, you are wrong!"
"What! they didn't kill this massive thing!"
"a few days ago this mountain troll suddenly woke up and wreak havoc on the forsaken forest, a loud thundering sound echoed throughout the night, after the trembling vibrations stop the mountain troll was nowhere to be seen, those hunters rushed toward the area not even confirming if the troll was gone, or it had left the area, their leader was saying that, somebody that they knew might be the one fighting this brute,
"Really! somebody they know might be fighting this thing, alone!"
"When we got there the troll was already dead and the entire place was turned upside down,"
"Whoever it was ! was powerful enough to fight a mountain troll!"
"was it a woman perhaps?"
"Sadly we can't confirm who killed it!"
"and the garden brawlers was also not sure,"
Viscountess knew that only a few groups of elite warriors can match the troll's power and massive advantage in size, but after seeing the troll's head it was struck with just one particular weapon, meaning it was killed by a single person and not by a group, only a battle Archmage can face off head to head against it and in the entire land seven known battle Archmage can do that but only one was can be linked to this kind of attack pattern and that she was supposed to be already dead,
"I want to know more about this discreetly and tell the people here that your group contributed but let the Garden Brawlers take all the credit, ok?"
"whoever the person might be will soon show its face,"
"a person of that fighting calibre has to be proud of the amount of fame this kill has gained."
"whoever it might be"
"of course Viscountess, your wish is my command,"
Earl Reeve Gallien, orders his men to safely transfer all the material crates inside the storage facility right next to the 10-room mansion she manages her business as well as sometimes resides there, as 100 elite knights were guarding her and ensuring the materials at her warehouses were safe,
as more crowd started to fill the Viscountess mansion gate a young man with tattered clothes was walking with his wolf a few meters from the crowded people,
"excuse me, sir? might I ask what is going on?
"oh! Earl Reeve Gallien just brought materials from a dead mountain troll."
"wow! another dead mountain Troll!"
"what do you mean another one?"
"oh! that! Don't mind me, sir. i was just saying."
"Are you new here ?"
"yes sir, i was hoping to get a job so I can provide myself some food and lodgings for my trip to meet my mother."
"Are you registered in a guild?"
"if not might as well get registered first so can pick what suits your skill, there are dozen of types of guilds to choose from, and the registration is free."
" Just follow this road, on the left side you will see a tall building with a huge flag on each side of the entrance door, and look for Loki,"
"wow cool! thank you, sir."
"ah! ok cool to you too,"
the wolf Al was at her juvenile stage and was steadily growing, while it followed Ramiel, the city was huge and most of the populace looked wealthy because of this he suddenly stops at a large store window display, laughed and look at Al saying
"We both look awful!."
"Al, do you think we can earn some money here?"
Al just looked at Ramiel and the sound from their tummy made the wolf bark, signalling him that they need to eat, the two continued to walk when they finally saw the guild building, Ramiel slowly opened the door and saw many people socializing with one another, when a female guild attendant introduces herself to him, saying if he came here to register.
he nodded but ask if he can exchange some materials for food because his wolf companion is hungry, the female attendant saw the wolf beside him and pointed toward a door and mention, that the particular room buys all kinds of materials even if you are not yet a registered member,
he orders Al to wait outside the Door, as he went in thru the door and politely asks, when an elderly cambion asked him " what are you selling, young man?"
the elderly cambion was smoking his pipe while sitting at his small office chair, that was in front of him, while across him was a coffee table with a single chair facing him, Ramiel greeted the elderly cambion and waved at him saying,
"ok! you came here to sell right?"
"you do not need to greet me like that, just show me the item so I can appraise it and give you my payment offer ."
Ramiel opened his leather pouch and took out a hand full of hellhound cores, this shocks the old cambion merchant and in an instant changed his attitude toward Ramiel, the old cambion merchant placed his pipe down and took one core,
"Amazing quality, there were no signs of trauma or blemishes from each core, just like the hell hound just accepted their death."
"ok ! young man I will buy all of these cores for 10 silver coins."
"Suddenly the Door burst open and a loud mouth person barge in saying
"are you going to fool this young man huh!"
"geez! grandpa how can you be so greedy!"
"pay him the right amount or I will tell elder brother about this!"
"ok ok! 15 silver coins."
the person was the old cambions merchants granddaughter, the younger sister of the guild leader Loki, her name was Taeriel, she grabs the 15 silver coins from the coffee table that was in front of her grandfather, and gave them to Ramiel and told him if he plans to register might as well go to her instead, she drags Ramiel out of the room and smiled,
"you look like you a destitute, or maybe a country bumpkin, better get some new clothes afterwards."
"but for now I will register you and get tested for what work you are perfect for,"
"If you are wondering, how do I know all about this? because every newbie has the same look on their face when they enter this place, the look of being naive and gullible, and you have that look,"
" so! just trust me on this, I won't steal from you, from the way you look, I think we are the same age, I am half human by the way,"
"wait!"
"Can you let go of my arm first, and let me ask you a question?"
"' can I get something to eat first, me and my pet wolf are really hungry."
" huh! why Didn't you say so, by the way, I am Taeriel, and you are?"
"hello Taeriel, I am Ramiel and that is my pet Al,"