What greeted Aleshia was a dark and empty room. This scene didn't sit well with Aleshia so she stayed on the windowsill and looked around carefully.
There was only a single table in the center of the room with a candle lit on the top of it. There seems to be a bag of something on the table. Aleshia looked around the room and carefully approached it. What she saw was a piece of paper with a note written on it.
When Aleshia read its contents, she couldn't help but laugh sweetly. Even she herself didn't expect that Lawrend's cowardliness is up to this extent.
Here's the money! Please spare my life!
That was what was written on the note. It showed the extent of Lawrend's fear of death.
Aleshia opened the bag and saw gold in it. By its amount, she could guess that there was 200 gold in it. Aleshia turned towards the exit of this room and smiled. She felt guilty when she was about to kill Lawrend last time so she didn't kill him. It seems that her decision wasn't wrong.
Aleshia left the room through the window with the bag of gold silently. She already got what she came for. If she still insisted on killing Lawrend after he gave her so much gold then her conscience wouldn't be able to take it.
The night quickly passed and Lawrend entered his former room to change the candle. To his surprise, the bag of gold was gone. Lawrend was afraid that Aleshia would come back or some other assassin would come to finish the job so Lawrend left a bag of 200 gold to bribe them. He felt relieved after knowing that it worked.
Lawrend was now staying inside his father's room. The butlers in the mansion were still unaware that there was an assassination attempt towards their Young Master so they were quite confused when Lawrend decided to sleep in his father's room. The butlers didn't object but they still felt it was odd.
Two days later, a man from the adventurer's guild has arrived. He had a huge sword strapped onto his back. There was a bronze adventurer pin pinned on his clothes.
"Good morning, Young Master Lawrend. The adventurer guild has sent me to discuss your Alive Bounty."
Lawrend and the adventurer sat at a table in the mansion's garden.
"I'm glad. Were there any problems?"
Lawrend asked. It was impossible to put any bounties on any citizens of the Undrasil Kingdom unless they were criminals. If it was the case, Lawrend would be forced to report the incident to the City Guards and have them take on the case.
"None at all. The adventurer guild would like to inform you that they would start posting the notices across the kingdom as long as you set the bounty now."
The adventurer guild has magical artifacts capable of long-distance communication. In every city, there is guaranteed to be one adventurer guild. All bounties would be posted across all the adventurer guilds in the kingdom using that magical artifact. The guilds would contact each other to post new quests, confirm quests, lookup information about an adventurer, etc.
"Great. Alfred!"
Lawrend called for Alfred. He was the same butler that he came with into the adventurer guild. He was accompanied by three other butlers as they carried with them a big bag full of gold. It made a satisfying thud when it was placed onto the ground.
"How much is that, Young Master Lawrend?"
The adventurer asked. Even he has never seen that much gold in his life.
"There is 1000 gold inside. I heard that the guild takes 10% as a commission so just post a bounty of 900 gold. It would not change anything that much. Everyone would still want to do it. Right?"
Lawrend explained with a smile on his face.
"Yes, certainly. With this amount of gold, even if she were hiding in an obscure village, the adventurers would still find her."
The adventurer nodded in agreement. There are these so-called Bounty Hunters within the guild. They all complete bounties issued by the guild. It is a hard job as someone might already be submitting the bounty in another city when you just accepted it in your city. It all amounts to luck and good connections.
"Hahaha, you are right."
Lawrend laughed. It was true, the power of money is really all-encompassing. As long as you have money, you can do anything in the world.
The adventurer left the mansion while struggling to carry the bag of gold. Gold is inherently heavy so it made for a comical scene when the strong-looking adventurer was struggling to move it around.
Lawrend watched the adventurer left with a smile. With this settled, he could finally exact his revenge on his assassin. He still has less than 6 months before his father comes back. He would make sure to get that money back quickly.
With that, Lawrend waited for good news to arrive.
The next day, Aleshia came back to her home in the slums frantically. She sighed in relief when she saw that Ella was still inside. She thought that they already found her.
As Aleshia was walking in the merchant district earlier, she spotted a poster of her little sister. It was a bounty of 900 gold. She panicked and quickly came back home.
"Ella don't show your face outside, okay?"
Aleshia held Ella's shoulder and stared straight into her eyes. As her Big Sister, she wouldn't be able to bear losing Ella a second time. Even if it was an Alive Bounty, the bounty hunters are not gentle. They might hurt Ella just because she struggled or something.
"Why, Big Sister?"
Ella had her cute confused face up again. She felt weird seeing her Big Sister looking tense all of a sudden.
"Just listen to Big Sister. Take this. Throw it on the ground and swallow this pill immediately when some weird men approach you."
Aleshia gave Ella a round ball of glass filled with poison gas. It was enough to knock anyone out within a 5-meter radius. As long as the user drinks the pill on time then they would not be affected. It was very effective for escaping any pursuit.
