Teaser
However, there were some things that he needed to confirm before leaving.
“It’s not very comfortable.”
The necromancer Mary nodded her head and handed him a cushion. Cale put another cushion underneath himself as he looked forward.
“But the view is killer.”
As long as you didn’t worry about the bones breaking down that is.
“Human! Is it fun sitting on the bones?”
“Yes, it is fun.”
Raon snickered at Cale’s answer. Cale looked down at the skeleton he was sitting on. He could see the forest through the bones and thought about how he would die if he fell from this height.
Cale was currently flying on the bones of flying monster.
Mary had restored all 72 corpses of the flying monsters and grounded up the two highest-grade Magic Stones that Cale had gifted her in order to sprinkle the magic powder over the bones.
The Flying Skeletons Brigade was complete.
“You can control them all at once?”
“Yes sir. I am disappointed that I cannot have them all flying at once right now because people may see them though.”
Cale was being cautious just in case.
“Human, the deputy butler is here.”
Cale could see Hans waving at him. The large bone wings headed downward and the flying skeleton that Cale and Mary were flying on slowly headed down toward the ground.
Bang!
“Aigoo.”
Hans took a step back because of the vibrations caused by their landing. He then saw Cale’s indifferent expression and quickly started to speak.
“The Count-nim and Mr. Mueller have contacted you.”
Cale quickly got off the skeleton and opened up the messages. He could quickly see the core of the messages.
< We will finish soon. >
< Young master-nim, I am decorating the inside as I explained to you. I am giving it my very best, to the point that I may even grow taller! >
Both the castle walls and the ship that Mueller described with the, ‘best defense is a strong offense,’ mentality, were almost completed.
‘We will see Rosalyn soon, and Witira will arrive soon as well.’
Rosalyn was personally handling the formation of the alliance between the Breck Kingdom and Roan Kingdom. That would be finished soon. Currently, some of the Breck Kingdom’s mages had secretly gone over to see Alberu as a part of the deal.
The Whale Tribe said that they had something to deliver to Cale since Cale delayed his trip to the North. Witira was going to personally visit. Cale decided to move now, since there were quite a few days until Witira would arrive.
“Is everything packed?”
“Yes sir!”
Deputy butler Hans answered vigorously. Cale looked toward the black robe. Mary, whose face Cale had still never seen, started to peak.
“It is time for me to leave as well.”
“Yes. I am disappointed that we are not going in the same direction.”
Cale really was disappointed, since having Mary with him would add another strong pawn.
Mary was not going to travel through the continent. Instead, she was heading back to the Underground City earlier than she had said, before she would come back out.
The black robe moved a bit when Cale said that he was disappointed. The robotic voice started to speak again.
“I will definitely come back, so please take care of my babies until my return. I will want to see this place very often.”
Cale’s expression turned odd as he nodded with an indifferent expression.
“Mm, of course.”
The babies Mary was talking about were the skeletons. Mary and Raon had found many bones in the Forest of Darkness. This forest, that was filled with many different mutant monsters, was a forest of wonders for Mary.
Anyways, those bones, those babies of hers, were all being stored in a cave inside the Forest of Darkness.
Mary had returned the approximately 300 skeletons, her babies, to Cale. Cale turned away from the black robe whose body language seemed to be asking him to take good care of her babies, and gave an order to Hans. [1]
“Let’s go right away.”
Cale was finally leaving Harris Village after about 9 months.
“Long time no see.”
Cale leaned back on the couch and touched the leather on the armrest.
“The quality of this leather is really good.”
“I changed it to a cheaper one.”
“Stop saying such bullshit.”
Cale looked toward the man who was using a shiny chandelier to light up his office.
Odeus Flynn, the old merchant who was in charge of the Roan Kingdom’s Northwestern underworld, seemed healthier and younger.
“Life must be good for you.”
Odeus started to smile while looking at Cale, who was giving off the stereotypical villain vibe.
“Of course. Life is great since Venion Stan is spending his entire life in prison.”
Cale started to smile as well.
The Stan territory and the Northwest had gone through a significant amount of changes in the past nine months.
Venion Stan was in prison. At first, Cale was told that they did not have any plans to punish him that severely. However, he was once an unofficial heir to a noble family. They had to make an example out of him. Of course, the Stan family will probably kill him off in secret.
Odeus was smiling while thinking about Venion, but there was fear in his eyes as he looked toward Cale.
He had gone crazy.
Venion Stan had gone crazy.
He apparently vomited every time he tried to eat in the underground prison.
The person who made Venion that way was smiling in front of him right now. That person, Cale, asked Odeus a question.
“The Marquis is losing his subordinate households one by one?”
“Young master Taylor-nim is very talented.”
Taylor announced that he would not kill his siblings once he became the official heir. At the same time, he got rid of the potential for his siblings to follow the Stan family’s rule in order to try to take the position away from him.
He called some priests over from the Church of the God of Death and made a vow of death with his siblings.
“Yes, I’m sure young master Taylor is doing a great job.”
However, Odeus was warier of the person in front of him.
“May I ask what brings you here today?”
Cale did not respond to Odeus’s question right away, and instead tapped on the armrest with his finger. After tapping the armrest for a while, Cale asked Odeus a question instead of answering.
“You have normal routes too, right?”
Odeus had no problem answering such a question.
“If you are talking about clean trades, I have a couple different ones. I do make many deals in the light as well.”
“Mm, is that so?”
The finger that was tapping at the armrest started to move. Cale took out a plaque from his pocket and placed it on the table.
“… A golden plaque?”
It was a golden plaque with the Roan Kingdom’s Crossman family crest on it.
Odeus had a shocked expression on his face, but Cale had not even stated his needs yet.
“Silver.”
Silver coins were each worth 10,000 gallons. It wasn’t worth as much as a gold coin, which was worth 100,000 gallons.
“Bring me two hundred thousand silver coins.”
“Two hundred?”
Cale made it very clear for Odeus, who asked back.
“Two hundred THOUSAND.”
“T, two HUNDRED thousand?”
Odeus seemed to be oddly emphasizing the word, ‘hundred,’ but Cale just confidently nodded his head.
“Yes. Two hundred thousand. Prepare that for me.”
Two hundred thousand silver coins were worth two billion gallons. Odeus was not shocked at the value of these silver coins. Odeus asked the question on his mind.
“It cannot be in gold?”
“You want to bring me two hundred thousand gold coins? That’s fine too.”
Two hundred thousand gold coins would be worth 20 billion gallons. Odeus wondered if he had heard correctly. The fact that Cale seemed completely relaxed made Odeus think that he had heard correctly.
Odeus accepted the situation.
‘Ah, it just needs to be two hundred thousand of something.’
It would be difficult to prepare two hundred thousand gold coins as the merchant in charge of the Northwest’s underworld, but it was not impossible.
‘However.’
Odeus’s gaze moved toward the gold plaque.
He could see Cale opening the lid of the plaque in order to show the signature inside. It would be better to get caught by the crown prince with two billion than 200 billion.
“But two hundred thousand coins will be very heavy.”
“That is not a problem.”
“…Just what are you planning to do with it?”
In the end, Odeus could not hide his curiosity and asked.
He wanted to know what Cale was going to do with two hundred thousand silver coins.
The smile on Cale’s face became brighter. His skin was very good after eating and relaxing for nine months.
“You want to know?”
Odeus quickly waved his hand in front of him. It was better to not know what the man in front of him was thinking.
“Not at all. It was just a reaction. I do not need to know.”
“Okay. Prepare it in the next hour. You can do it, right?”
“Ho, one hour, just what- never mind. I will get it ready.”
Cale could see that Odeus was still curious, as his eyes seemed to be asking him a question.
‘What are you going to do with two hundred thousand silver coins?’
What was Cale planning to do?
He was going to create a path made of silver coins.
One hour later, Cale was at Odeus’s underground warehouse. Odeus was not here, and so it was just Cale. He pointed toward the two hundred thousand silver coins located inside.
“Raon, store it all.”
“Alright, human!”
Raon gathered all of the silver coins into his alternate dimension. Cale handed 5 silver coins to Raon, who instantly put the two hundred thousand silver coins away and was looking at him.
“Human, you are giving me some too?”
“Yes. We need to share good things.”
Raon started to smile. Raon took out a piggy bank from his alternate dimension.
“Human, put it in here!”
Clang, clang.
The 5 silver coins went into the piggy bank. Raon was collecting the money he received as his allowance. Raon seemed to be happy to receive money other than his usual allowance of 10 silver for the first time.
Cale verified that Raon turned invisible before opening the door to the basement.
“Ho.”
Odeus looked at the empty warehouse and expressed his shock. Cale patted Odeus on the shoulder to say goodbye.
“Where are you heading now… never mind. I will not ask anything.”
“A wise decision. Send Billos my regards.”
Cale seemed to be happy.
“Let him know I’m enjoying my life while throwing money around.”
“…Of course. Please have a safe journey, young master-nim.”
“I will.”
Cale smiled like a villain, and left the Stan territory. Odeus was happy to see Cale leave.
The carriage Cale was on was headed toward the tip of the Roan Kingdom’s western region. It stopped at a village that was close to the unique Ten Finger Mountains. This was the closest village, but they would not reach the Ten Finger Mountains for a few more days.
“Young master-nim, our lovelies seem to like this inn!”
Cale looked at On and Hong, who were in Hans’s arms.
Meeeow.
Meow.
The two were very good at controlling Hans now. Cale scoffed at them before getting off the carriage.
On and Hong were much bigger now.
Beast people grew at the same pace, whether they were in their human form or their animal form. Normal cats would have already finished growing by now, but, as members of the Cat tribe, On and Hong were still young kittens.
Choi Han, Lock, Beacrox, and Ron followed behind Cale.
“Cale-nim, will we wait for Rosalyn here?”
“Yes.”
Bloke Village.
As this was a village near the Western border of the Roan Kingdom, it was almost the size of a city. Many tourists and merchants traveled through this village.
Cale was relaxed.
He was relaxed even though they were near the Ten Finger Mountains and close to the Elf Village.
‘There’s no way that the Elves, who detest humans, would come down to Bloke Village.’
The Elves in the novel never went to any of the human villages such as Bloke Village. They said that it was the rule of their village.
‘They will only come down if their village is in serious trouble.’
That was how the Elves were. This was why Cale was able to walk into the inn in a relaxed manner.
“I will get a room right away.”
“Sure. Take your time.”
The inn that On and Hong selected was clean and nice. Cale looked around the first-floor restaurant hall. There were a lot of people at the counter he was standing at, as well as around the restaurant. Most of them were merchants.
Cale noticed five people sitting in the corner with their robes covering their faces as he slowly looked around. Cale, who was about to move his gaze away from them, noticed the food on their table.
It was all vegetables. Nothing else other than vegetables.
“…Huh?”
Cale felt a chill down his back.
Elves only ate vegetables and fruits.
That feeling became worse once he heard Raon’s voice.
‘…Did the Elf Village face some serious trouble?’
That was what was going through Cale’s mind.
Would there be an Elf or an Elemental that had seen a Dragon in the past like the Dark Elf mayor?
Clang.
One of the robed individuals dropped their fork. Their hands were shaking.
‘Shit, they must have seen one before!’
Cale quickly whispered in a quiet voice so that the five Elves in the corner could not hear.
“Raon, fly around the restaurant without stopping. And don’t appear. I do not know you.”
Cale closed his eyes. Raon will fly around in circles inside the restaurant while remaining invisible.
Bang!
He opened his eyes after hearing a loud noise. The robed individual, whom Cale expected was an Elf, jumped up and started to look around.
Cale accepted that he had let his guard down.
After resting for nine months, he had let his guard down.
Cale looked away from the five robed individuals. There were many people coming into the inn as well as already in the inn. This was beneficial for him.
‘I do not know anything.’
The first thing to do was to play dumb.