Amberhold City

An old man wrapped in bandages was sitting in a huge dark stone hall when a red-haired man holding a green elaborate short bow strode into the hall.

“Did you catch them?” asked the old man as he turned to the younger man.

“Yes, two of them, but those bastards killed themselves before I could even ask a single question,” replied the younger man.

“It is the fourth time in half a year, we have been targeted by the assassins,” said the old man, before signing and, within a second, begin to look a lot older than he is.

“We have chosen the wrong candidate and now paying the price for it,” added the old man, full of regret.

“It is not your fault, Father. At that time, supporting the orc, felt a wise choice,” said the younger man, but even he is also feeling regret over their choice.

They have paid a great price for that.

“Send the message to the orc and tell him what happened. Warn him that if we suffered even one more of such assassination, we would take our vote back.”

“Damn, the consequences,” said the old man, with a look in his eyes, which clearly states he was ready to sacrifice it all.

….

I sat in the carriage, and it moved out of the establishment.

I looked through my carriage and looked at the changes in surprise. Every day, I feel this emotion as I looked at the city, which is growing very fast.

There are building everywhere; many growing bigger and taller.

The city is expanding and with new people coming every day. Most of them are from the empire, with some of the merchant cities. A tiny fraction of them are from Mayhurst Island, where the undead are rampaging.

Every month, they are conquering more and more of the island and getting stronger with the bodies they harvest.

It is common knowledge that you shouldn’t give war to the undead. If you fight them, then finish them quickly. The longer you fight, the stronger they will become.

The war makes one level up quickly, and the undead get access to these bodies and thus become stronger.

It is what is happening on Mayhurst Island.

It is due to that a large number of people are running from the island. Half of them never succeed because of the undead blockade. Those who cross it successfully come to Zenid as it is closest.

Harsoth Empire has restricted their entry. Only accepting those with higher levels and those with required classes.

Merchant cities are more lenient.

I had suggested Count Darrow let more people of Mayhurst in as we need people, and the flow of people from the empire is quite slow, but he isn’t willing.

If he had listened, the city would have grown even faster.

Well, at least Nakar baronies are accepting them. They had run away from the undead, but were still willing to live near them. They don’t have much of a choice, either that or starving to death.

Still, the Count had ordered that 75% of people should be from the empire, which restricted their flow to baronies as well.

As people from the empire are not fans of living so close to the undead kingdom. It could change. If my plan worked, there will be a lot more people in baronies and these fiefs will be rich.

Though, the city will be the biggest beneficiary of all.

“Mister Silver. Miss Ina had messaged that she reached the Brimbale,” said Zela suddenly.

She had returned from her fifth trip to Navr yesterday. Instead of coming to the city with the goods yesterday, she had gone to the Brimbale.

It is a southeastern city of Greltheaven between Mirador Hold and Dustorn Fortress. Brimbale is one of three cities on the eastern side of the Renwell Region. Most cities are on the western side, on the other side of the river.

The river act as a blockade, when undead of Navr pour into the region.

It is a small city, but old. Like Deerpond, it had been destroyed and built back many times. Ina had gone there to convince the merchants. There is a big chance they will join us in trading with Navr.

It has no other option. Like Norke, it is not situated on the river. It is in a worse place than Norke since it is so far from the merchant states.

Though, unlike Norke, it had been surrounded by three big green patches and situated on one. With this, it can grow the food it needs, but food alone is enough, people need other things too.

Navr offers that all to them.

The two cities, Norke and Riverbell, already started joining us in trading and I want Navr to be the third.

“Tell her, good luck,” I said. There is no need to say anything else, I have briefed her on what she has to do.

She will meet the party from Greltheaven and have a meeting with the high-ranking people of Brimbale’s merchant guild. She will spend tomorrow there and return to Greltheaven, a day after that.

Soon, the carriage passed through the gates of the mansion, before stopping at the registered spot.

I got out and walked toward the mansion with Rapid Legs.

The meeting will be about the trade with Navr, which is what half of our meetings are about. The Count was happy with my progress and had given me free rein over it; the only thing he is doing is signing on the orders.

I am happy with the progress I am making, but unhappy with the level-up.

With the things I have achieved, I should have gotten quite a few levels already, but I only leveled up twice in my Adviser Class in the past month. The same thing is happening to my main class.

It seemed like the effect of crowded classes had finally caught up to me.

I have five classes, more than what most people keep. One is my main class and four are secondary classes.

I was fine till four classes, but with the five have become too much.

Now, no matter what happens, I won’t take another class, no matter how powerful is or vital or my leveling up will slow down even further.

I reached Count Darrow’s office and pushed the door before entering inside.

“My lords,” I greeted and bowed.

“How are the things, Remus?” he asked. “Very good, my lord. The goods have come yesterday, and have been on the way to their cities, while our merchants also emptied the warehouse,”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Twelve of them had already sent the goods to the mainland and three of them to the Meldhorn,” I replied.

Of course, we are sending goods to Meldhorn; they are merchants. If they get things cheaply from us, they will buy them without hesitation.

“What about Brimbale?” he asked. “Our representatives will have a meeting with the merchant guilds tonight,” I replied.

Ina is not alone, a team from Greltheaven had reached the Brimbale in the afternoon. They will coordinate with Ina when they meet the merchants.

“I have sent my message to the governor of Brimbale; we will receive his answer before the next merchant group leaves for Navr,” he informed.

“It will happen, my lord. The Governor couldn’t resist for long,” I replied, and he nodded with a smile.

He is happy, and why wouldn’t he be? The trade with Navr is increasing every week. Which means the taxes he is earning are also increasing. If the trade continued to rise, it won’t take long before he started to get enough taxes through trade to pay for the expense of the mirador hold.

“I have the news too, Remus,” said Count Darrow, with his expression becoming serious.

“Council member Azog Grimgore of Oksall Council agreed to the meeting,” he informed, shocking me.

For the past two weeks, there were barely any words from Count Darrow about it and now he is telling me he had fixed the meeting with the council member.

“When is the meeting?” I asked, and his expression changed a little. “It is in five days,” he replied, and I sucked in a deep breath.

“We only have four days before we leave,” I said.

“Unfortunately, yes, and I want all the preparations done by then,” he ordered. “It will be done,” I said.

What else could I say?

Thankfully, I have done nearly everything I needed to. The one thing that had remained, is the old man making good progress on it, but it won’t be enough. If I had more time, we would have gone there with the complete preparations.

“Contact Baron Harrods and your sister. They will also be coming with us,” he said, and I nodded.

Baron Harrods has been making contacts with the tribe of orcs, and my sister had joined him. She was always good at finding opportunities in dangerous places.

Even though I don’t like it, Baron Harrods has made enormous progress with her help. She is a merchant, with experience in making connections, even when the other party is hostile.

“As you command,” I said.

For a few seconds, there was silence before Count Darrow looked at me, with more weight in his eyes than before.

“It is very important for this deal to success, Remus; I hope you will give your everything to it,” he said.

“I will not disappoint you, my lord,” I said. The time is short, but I will make do with it, “Though, I hope, I will have all the secret information I need for better preparation,” I added and looked at him.

This is a big ask, but I need to know about every little detail for better preparation.

“You will have it,” he said after a second of silence.

A few minutes later, I walked out of the Count's office into mine.

As I sat down, I begin to write and finished in a few minutes. I looked at it, before pushing it toward Zela, sitting in front of me.

“Send this message to Baron Harrods and My sister,” I said to her. She looked at it and closed her eyes.

“Done,” she replied as she opened her eyes, but a few seconds later, her staff lit up, as my sister replied. It turns out she is with Baron Harrods, and they are in a meeting with one of the orc tribes.

We exchange messages for half an hour. They updated me on their progress, while I updated on things here.

The next three days, going to be very busy for them. They will need to meet as many orc tribes as they can and it is not a simple thing, with more than half of them being hostile and bandit attacks.

We have reduced the number of bandits a lot, but there are more bandit groups. Especially on Oksall’s side.

It will be another problem if we succeed, but then we will have Oksall with us to help.

‘Master Silver. Mr. Merrick had come,’ said Jill through the magical intercom. ‘Send him in,’ I said.

Click!

A second later, Merrick came holding the box. “Adviser, Lord Count had sent this for you,” he said and placed the box on the table and turn to Zela. “He said it should be read in privacy,” he added.

“I will wait outside,” said Zela, while Merrick walked to the corner.

It is clear he will be here till I finished reading the information in the box and would leave with it, once I am done.

He is one of the guards that the Count had brought with him. There are several like him, and all of them give me dangerous feelings. They are at least strong as Mark or even stronger than him.

I didn’t waste any time and opened the box and took out the first stack with Azog Grimgore written on it.

I took the first file and begin to read it.

The information in it seemed nothing shocking. The secret information is rarely shocking. Not everybody is hiding shocking secrets, but they are hiding tiny little ones, which are most important.

I wish I could note it down, but there is already a note about the information being eyes only.

So, I read it and made mental notes, and the more I read, the more confident I would become.

It seemed like what I had deducted from the information got from the grey guild is true, and that makes our chance of success higher. It also tells me; the things might turn dangerous.

Though Oksall keeps such things contained. They did not, let such things spill on the business and I really hope it is true.

‘Why can’t things be simple?’ I asked myself, but soon laughed at the silly question. As things are never simple.

Soon, I finished with the first stack and started with the second. One by one, I read through the stacks before finishing it all.

“Please thank the Lord Count for the information, Merrick,” I said to him, as he picked up the box from the table.

“Will do, adviser,” he said and left, while I called Zela to send more messages. I don’t think I will be able to leave my office, before midnight today.