Chapter 77

Jake recovered in 2 days after resting up at Grey's Base . During these 2 days, he heard a lot of commotion in the base because of the continuous movement of people .

Martin, "It is good that you have recovered so fast because of the potions and your own body's capability . Many people would have taken up at least 10-15 days to recover from those injuries . Meanwhile, there is good news for you, it seems because of the information you provided us last time, we got some clues about the previous incident . Many people thought it was only done by Blackheart but it seems there were many people involved in it . you can leave any time as you have recovered already . Master Vlad might already be waiting for you at North-frontier town . "

Jake thought and replied, "I will leave for North-frontier town today as I have already recovered, as for the previous mission, as I have already completed it and reported all the things required, you guys can continue to do as you wish with that information so I won't be involved in it anymore . "

Martin saw that Jake was a bit down and thought, 'I guess he is down because of the injury and the mistake he did during his mission . Well compared to others on their first mission, he did quite well, which is well above industry standards as they wouldn't even be doing this sort of B rank Job from the start . '

Martin said to Jake . "You don't need to feel down after hearing about the previous mission, you did quite well compared to other people who start doing their missions . They wouldn't even be doing this level of mission from the start, I guess Lord Vlad trusted in your capability and was quite confident in you when he gave you this mission . I think only some people would even achieve this sort of performance, I think Grey could be one, I heard rumors that he was quite a proficient a.s.sa.s.sin when he started doing missions . You could wait for Grey to come as he is out doing some investigations of his own however I don't know when he will return . "

Jake smiled and said, "I guess it's okay, you guys can handle the previous incident, I would like to go North-frontier town and Join both Master and Lord as I was given orders to immediately return after completing the mission . "

Jake thought of Grey and his carefree rude att.i.tude and said, "Nah, tell him that I already left and it will be evening soon so I should probably leave early . If there is something, you guys can send me a letter to Lord John's Mansion or to Master . "

Meanwhile, Jake had his own thoughts on what Martin said, 'I guess I have set high expectations and goals for myself, the previous incident was a fatal mistake during last mission and I could have died if not for my instinctive reflexes and training with Master and Lord . I still have a long way to reach the Master's standard when it comes to combat . I need to train more . '

***

Meanwhile, Baron Mendez at Dolores,

Baron Mendez and Antonio were treating another n.o.ble, He was a count up in the North of Aelius Kingdom . His name was Casey White while his Domain bordered south of Baron Mendez's domain . recently he was traveling north because he heard a lot of rumors about the increase of volume in trade, this was also noted by his men and financial officers observing trade routes and tolls, as a lot of goods recently pa.s.sed to the north and he received a lot of taxes from the transit of goods from north and south which was usually dull as it was only one way street with maximum trade being carried out in south . This was one of the reasons he was curious .

Count Casey said after having a feast at Baron Mendez's mansion, "I guess this food was still a lot better than the ones I usually eat, however, it still pales in comparison with the new dish which I recently ate at North-frontier town's Hope restaurant . "

Count Casey said these words instinctively as he recently visited North-frontier and it was quite a different city from what he had expected .

Baron Mendez frowned as he heard this sentence again from another n.o.ble . However, he couldn't help but sigh .

Count Casey grinned a bit and said, "Well you too are earning a lot in restaurant business these days, how did you manage to get those recipes out of him, some of them are not yet public . "

Mendez grinned as he heard him, "Well I did make sure to squeeze him dry when he wanted to buy that s.h.i.+tty town . I heard he recently even tacitly rejected the Radiant church . huh, what a fool . I guess he still doesn't realize the power of the Radiant church, he will either regret his decision when we are at war in the west or he might have to pay a lot to hire Light magicians as there is always a shortage of those guys . "

Mendez continued irritatingly, "Well, it's good that he didn't align with those guys or it would be a lot of headache for everyone . I guess I also got rid of that hot potato, North-frontier town . It would have been a disaster for me later on . I guess it was a Blessing in disguise to have that rich fool wanting to protect his comrades . " Mendez laughed as he ended .

Count said his opinion seriously as he heard him, "I guess it may be because of the Radiant church's ego and them trying to exert their control and power as he has a close relations.h.i.+p with the Bluesea house that they got rejected . As for that town who knows, however, I can see a lot of changes being carried out over there . he has quite an ambitious plan, however, a risky one . "

Mendez understood and gave a neutral opinion, "I guess that's true, however he would still have to spend a lot in future for the healing services because, from the way his town is rapidly developing into a city he would at some point need the light magicians and I wonder how he would cope with the situation when he faces a war and Radiant church decides to play hard, I guess he will learn about their power the hard way when he faces a problem .

I think he would also have to expand his domain in the north and it would be very interesting at that point as he still doesn't know what unknowns lie whether it is in the kingdom or the wilds . Anyways do you have any news on Duke's position?"

Count Casey smiled at the question and said, "Well, as you know Duke Norman is aligned with Prince Hector so you can already guess his position . This also stems from the fact that Duke Norman's daughter is already engaged to Prince Hector . And the fact that a new Baron didn't pay any respects or give a message to him as a Northern Duke, this also angers him greatly . He guessed, that Baron did this because of his relations.h.i.+p with Prince Hector and the fact that Duke might have humiliated him greatly for his previous behavior at the auction . "

Baron Mendez said, "Well, we all already know that he most probably would have humiliated him for Prince Hector as he is his future son in law however I still wanted to confirm his position . "

Count thought as he said with a rebuke when he mentioned Sapphire rose, "I guess that is true as well . However, I think the bigger reason is the alignment of that upstart n.o.ble with Marquis Ray and the Half-elf, Duke of Southern Forest, Sapphire Rose via the use of his other businesses . Duke most probably harbors more anger because he had shrugged that off upstart earlier after he received some reports of their agreement .

And it was only later that he understood the significance of the high-end soap business . At first, he thought Sapphire rose and Marquis Ray only intended to p.i.s.s him off over an upstart n.o.ble as he laughed off at first .

I think he got more angrier after realizing he himself was one of the users of those soaps, it would be quite hilarious . However, I can still bet he still uses those soaps as they have better quality compared to other products in the market and that is one of the reasons it is a big hit in the high-end market . And the most probable reason is their hate over the years which has only compounded over the years . " Count chuckled as he added the last sentence . There was clear disdain when he mentioned the Half-elf Duke .

Baron also laughed as he heard this and said, "I guess both duke and I had the same thoughts as those soaps are really too good . However, that guy still has a flaw and that is Strength . He still hasn't gathered any knights or magicians from anywhere, he only has a ragtag bunch of slave warriors who lost on the battlefield from what my guys have observed . I guess it's natural that knights would not want to join an upstart n.o.ble as it is risky for their careers . "

Baron Mendez continued as he added seriously, "however, he still has some good people when it comes to protecting business secrets . I tried a lot of infiltration in his workshops with my men but most of them are either dead or crippled . I don't know how he hired those type of guys . " Baron said with a sigh

Count Casey smiled as he heard Mendez and spoke in an all-knowing manner, "I guess you still don't know about the backing of Bluesea house's miss Diana and one of Duke bluesea's most trust men, Vlad . I think that upstart most probably provided a lot of benefits to them in return for their help . I saw a lot of carriages going to North-west of Aelius towards Fire-abyss kingdom these days, the interesting fact was it was being protected by high-end mercenaries . So it was most probably the soaps which they intended to sell in the whole of Fire-abyss kingdom . "

Casey was annoyed as he continued his frustrating talk, "Well I didn't even try to infiltrate him as I knew I couldn't best the a.s.sa.s.sins from the bluesea house, I rather tried to buy them directly at Hope after I tasted their food . When I saw their chefs, I directly offered some of them positions of the chief chef at my Mansion but all of them rejected my offer, I guess most of them are either locals and are quite grateful to the guy or they have big wages aswell . What I didn't like was the fact that they were making those slaves work in such a high-end restaurant after I heard that from someone local . Even if slaves were working then that slave at least should have worked in a high-end place before as a commoner before working here . I guess upstarts will be upstarts who don't know anything about n.o.ble etiquette . "

Meanwhile at North-frontier town,

There were many changes taking place at the North-frontier town which were getting noticed by everyone, it was especially the visitors who noticed most of the changes .