Ashton Harbor

"Those bastards!" cursed the man with the staff.

Though, he is relieved. It is a good thing. We had paused their secret mission, seeing the merchant state had started snooping.

They seemed to find out that we were looking for something and sent their agents.

"They are trying to catch the bastards. We might be able to do it," said the armored man, but the man with the staff just shook his head.

"No use, but let them try," he said with a sigh.

The agents of the merchant state aren't easy to catch, but it would be great if they were able to do it. The bastards were able to find out, the last location, the secret mission, was looking into before the higher-ups paused it.

The intelligence apparatus of the merchant state is powerful. Even on the island, we kept finding their spies.

The secret mission is the reason we have come here in this forsaken wasteland, and now we couldn't even do that as well because of the damn merchants.

I couldn't release the horde at the cities to elevate my frustration. We don't have enough undead. We have enough numbers to attack all the cities, but not enough to deal with unforeseen things, like interference from merchants or even empires.

So, unless the higher-ups sent more. There won't be any attack.

It is frustrating to just sit and do nothing, but it is also had advantage. The cities are fattening up, filling with people, and recruiting more into armies.

We need that; the resistance on the island has slowed down our progress. The quality of undead made by the soldiers helps a lot; I hope they will build large armies because the next attack won't be small.

…

Step!

I stepped out of the carriage and behind me came Heron. It was his first time coming here, he wanted to come here before but was not allowed.

I had brought him here today as a reward for doing good in school.

"There is a lot of security," he said, adjusting his clothes to protect himself from the snow. "It is necessary," I replied as I walked forward.

In front of us is a group of greenhouses. There are a total of seven of them, protected with tight security, including a Lv. 30 powerhouse.

I don't think nobody in their right mind would dare to do anything here. Not because of me or the tight security, but the person who has half-ownership over the plants in the greenhouse.

They belong to me as well as that person in a hidden city and nobody with little of a bit of intelligence would dare to do anything here.

We entered the compound with thick snow crunching under my boots.

There was a heavy snowfall since the morning. I thought it would subside by the afternoon, but it did not.

The winter was in its full swing, which usually slowed things down a little, but it didn't this time. The city is not stopping and will not stop, till it achieves its rightful place in the region and empire and the continent.

We stopped in front of the central greenhouse, which is also the biggest greenhouse of the seven.

There are guards at the entrance. One is the orc, and the other one is the elf. They aren't my people, they belong to that person.

The plants aren't the only things that came from the hidden city.

The guards bowed faintly and opened the door for us. I nodded and walked inside the greenhouse and instantly felt warm and humid, but I forgot all that when I looked at the plants and inhaled their mesmerizing smell.

Every time, I looked at them. They mesmerize me. They are beautiful and their smell is enchanting.

Gasp!

A gasp of shock came out of the Heron's mouth as he looked around with wide eyes. I couldn't help, but smile seeing that.

When I sent the request for the plants, my first point had not been they be plants, that would bring me money. No, I wanted them to be beautiful and release the smell that could mesmerize anyone.

It is by vision. I want everyone who entered the establishment to have a time of life. Have an experience they could never forget.

Every plant here is beautiful in its own way; even those that looked ugly at first sight are beautiful when one looks at them closely enough.

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There are also sorts of plants here, from flowers to fruits, and each and every plant will produce resources that will fetch a high price.

"These plants are beautiful," said Heron breathlessly. "They are and they are still growing; they will be even more beautiful when they mature fully," I said.

It is one of the reasons why I had delayed the opening. I want the plants to mature more.

I was admiring the plants when a graceful half-orc man wearing simple white clothes came toward me. He is a half-orc, but his other half isn't human but an elf.

It is rare, but it happens.

He is handsome with a slim physique of elves and looks to be in his mid-twenties. He inherited those enviable cheekbones that elves are famed for and had orcish brown hair, but they were soft and shiny like elves, not frizzled like most orcs.

His skin is grey as the orcs, but vibrant, and has canines. They looked like they were carved by the artist.

However, his eyes are his most prominent features. They are green with a faint crystalline sheen.

He is the most dangerous man in the city; even Stone said, he won't be able to defeat him. Like him, this is also elder blood and awakened it, but it is not the blood of the giant that he has.

"Lord Silver," he greeted as he stopped in front of me. "Mage Irgal,"

"How are the plants progressing?" I asked as I looked at the plants around me. "They are growing at a speed that stated to you, Lord Silver," replied the man, without change in his expression.

His expressions never really change. It had been two and a half months since he had come here, and I didn't see them change even once.

"It is a good speed, but I am wondering, whether they could grow faster? I want some of these plants to fully mature before the opening," I asked, and always there was no change in the man's face.

"These plants are extremely delicate, Lord Silver. Using growth magic isn't wise. They needed to grow at their own pace," he replied, clearly rejecting what I was implying.

I had postponed the opening by three weeks, but even by then. There are less than 5% of plants will reach maturity; I want at least 10% of them.

Which won't be possible. I have looked at the growth sheet; if I want the 10%, then I will have to wait for two weeks more, which I am unwilling to do. Even three are hard and if I had not felt it was wise, I wouldn't have done that.

"Mistress had asked me to give you this if you asked this question," he said suddenly as I was wallowing in disappointment.

I looked at him and saw him extending the white envelope.

Hun!

I took the envelope and turned. Immediately, a shock appeared in my eyes when I saw the emblem on it.

It was a struggle to not let my whole body shake.

It had been nearly four years ago at the headquarters of a house of silver. Former headquarters.

The new headquarters of the House of Silver had shifted to the Namdar, now.

In the headquarters, there is a place where only a core member of the house could work. Even they have to be invited by the grandfather.

That place had a secret library, which books, far less than even the personal library of my father, but every one of the books there was important, nearly a quarter of them were forbidden.

In it, there was one book. It was about Kairos, the hidden city, and the people that run it.

The high houses.

Tear.

I tore open the envelope with my nails using Sharpness and took out the letter. I unfolded it and saw there was only one line.

When I read it, my whole body shook.

'Fucking elders!' I cursed before taking a deep breath.

I knew it was a risk, and I took it fully, knowing it. It is clear they know it and I hope they will keep it to themselves.

They likely would. It is the reason why I chose to take the risk.

However, from now on, I will need to be far more careful in dealing with them. More than before.

I took out the firestone and burned the letter to the surprise of Heron. It burned to ashes, which I collected in my hand, before placing them into my bag, which finally brought a faint change in Irgal's face.

I can't take the risk; there are spells out there, that could read what's in their letter, with the ashes of it.

I turned to Irgal and sighed, before taking out the seven bottles of emotion essence. He recognized them, but there was no change on his face; he likely knew what was in the letter.

"I hope, these will fasten the process a little?" I asked as I handed him the six bottles of grade two emotions essence.

"It will," he replied.

I know it will. The growth sheet he had provided me had clearly started the effect on plants if Grade II or Grade III essences were used.

'For the fast growth. Use Grade II emotion essence,' is what is written in the letter.

Caena had said it would be extremely hard for others to find out it is a Grade II legacy from the slate, but those people of the hidden city are not common.

They are the elders and are known as the masters of magic. It is very hard to hide things from them and I truly hope, they haven't found out everything about my legacy or I could be truly fucked.

I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the man.

I talked to him for a few minutes more, before exploring the greenhouse with Heron. There are seven of them, all of growing different types of plants; the similarity, they share is that they consume the emotion essence.

Their appetite is ravenous, and since I want to plant them across the whole tower, it is going to consume a lot of emotion essence.

Though, I will gain far more in return. Even with the half of the harvest.

Finally, we reached the last greenhouse. The guards guarding it opened it for us and we walked inside.

Immediately, a surprise appeared on Heron's face.

This greenhouse is different from the six others. It only had one plan called network vine; it is a thin blue vine with crystalline leaves; it is beautiful.

"This wine must be special to occupy the whole greenhouse alone," said Heron, touching the leaves of the vine lightly. "It is the most important of all the plants," I replied, and he turned to me in question.

"The tower is huge, but the legacy only covers a third of it. We want to plan, these magical plants on each floor, but all these plants require emotion essence for sustenance,"

"This vine will absorb the emotion essence from the legacy and supply it to the plants outside the domain of legacy," I explained.

"Amazing!" he exclaimed and looked at the vine with the shining eyes.

It is amazing, this vine will act like a modern wire that supplies electricity to the appliances. It took a lot of emotion and essence to grow this vine, but it will be worth it.

It is also the best among all the network vines, with a loss percentage of only 12%.

It is very low, considering all the vendors we have talked about have network vines with the lowest 23% lows percentage.

Supplying emotion essence isn't the only it can do. Every part of it is valuable, especially the leaves, which are used in all kinds of potions and alchemical products.

We spend a few minutes in the greenhouse before stepping out of it and walking toward the carriage.

"When will I get to see the tower?" he said, looking at the tower. I didn't reply to that. It is a little complicated seeing the business I run.