Homers

"Mom, I want to come too," said a young woman of fourteen.

"You know, we can't take you, honey. You have to stay in the territory till we return," I said to my daughter.

She wanted to come, since we received the invitation; the last when I returned, she was shocked seeing me and wanted to go to the spa.

We can't take her, she is too young, also because she is the heir, and one will become a lady of territory. She needs to be here to take reigns of territory in case something happened to us, on the trip.

It is not Silver or Dane we fear, but the undead. They had turned such parties bloody, but we needed to go.

It will be the first exchange with Greltheaven, aside from various negotiations, that had been happening in the past six months.

A few tidbits have leaked over the week, and that made me extremely excited. I want to see it with my own eyes, while Elias does his business. Though, I hope, he will find some time for the spa.

The last time was memorable, especially the time after treatments; it had lighted up the fire in our sex life, that had been nearly dead.

It will not be just a trip for pleasure. Elias and other members of the council are going to have a negotiation with Silver.

It will be on many things, but one of the most important is emotion essence or rather potions with the emotion essence.

Those things are lifesavers. We want them and have been asking Silver about it, but till now, he has not budged even an inch on that.

We know his legacy is producing the emotion essence and selling them to merchant states for potions with emotion essence and other things. His army had used them in both of the battles; it is what saved many of his powerhouses from dying in the battle.

We need them; the monsters are attacking regularly and also Dane. He had suffered a humiliating defeat in the battle against us and that only increased his resolve to put the Baronies under his thumb.

Getting those things from silver will help our powerhouses against Dane.

"Are you ready?" asked Elias as he walked into the parlor. "Yes," I replied. "Let's go. We have to reach Lauryl in time," he said.

A few minutes later, the carriage moved out of the castle toward the Lauryl.

Silver had invited all the nobles, but the council had decided to send only six. They have also decided to not send the most powerful ones, seeing the state of baronies where we are keeping a tight eye on the monsters and mirador hold.

Of six three are council members. Including its leader, Baron Husk, Elias, and, of course, Baroness Laila.

She is becoming essential, one of the four pillars of baronies. She had become as powerful as the other three; unlike the three, she is a mage. She might be lower level than three, but equally powerful due to the spells.

Silvers may be merchants, but they have produced two talented people. I heard Remus Silver was quite good at fighting too; he had fought both of the battles when he could have easily stayed behind.

This is good news for us, the stronger these people are, the better our security of baronies will be. However, they shouldn't become too powerful; we want baronies ruled by a council, not by a sole leader.

Soon, we reached the Lauryl, and it was not the town it had been six months ago. It had turned into a city, with its population going past fifty thousand people and increasing faster.

"Silver is really good; the plans he made for it will turn Lauryl into a prosperous city," I said as I looked around.

The council had made only a slight change in the plans, that Silver had crafted for the city. They are so good, that they couldn't find anything better and just rebranded it in their names. "If we kept growing as such; it won't take us more than three years to catch up to the Greltheaven," said Elias. I couldn't help, but nod at that.

The Greltheaven has its advantages, because of the river, but it is a city without resources. Unlike it, Lauryl had the resources from mines to agriculture to trade links between Oksall and Navr, which is growing every month.

There is also the rising industry of tanning and monster part packaging.

Monster's attack and we have created an industry out of it. Earlier, we used to sell it. Semi-processed leather, meat, and other things came from the monsters, but now we process every part of it from leather, bones, blood, and others before selling.

It had brought a lot of people to the city and gave them the job. Not to mention the money.

Soon, the carriage entered the hold, and we exited. Elias went to his meeting while I went to the parlor, where ladies were already waiting, including Mrs. Silver.

She is coming. I heard she doesn't like the bastard of her husband much.

"Ladies," I greeted as I sat down.

"What are you all talking about?" I asked, the eyes turned to Mrs. Silver for a moment, before turning back to me.

"We are talking about the disrespect Lord Silver had caused us, sending his whore with the invitation. He should have sent, a foreign chief or a treasury chief or even the head of merchant guild," said Baroness Husk.

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Her husband, Baroness, is head of the council and also the least powerful member of it. Only he was in the council and became its leader because of neutrality; he didn't swing toward any faction.

"It is not a slight, since it is a legacy that invited us and not, the city. Miss Carla is head of legacy; I would say they have shown us appropriate respect," I replied.

Many were surprised, but it is the truth.

"Still, she is a whore, and he had sent her to our dominions," said Mrs. Silver and I could see the changes appearing in the eyes of many women.

The woman is intelligent. Knows, how to play with the words.

I remained quiet, while others nodded at her words. I don't want to be seen favoring silver. Nakar baronies had broken away from Greltheaven.

Like Greltheaven, we are an independent entity and will remain independent, till the chaos in the empire calms down and one emperor or empress emerges.

The subject of conversation moved toward the other topics.

An hour and a half later, Elias returned, and we got out of the parlor and back to our carriages, which were being surrounded by a force.

Only six barons are leaving for the Greltheaven, but many others are sending their representatives, mostly family members. More than half of those representatives are women, and they are excited.

I had never seen any woman this excited about the brothel, but I can't really blame them, seeing I am excited myself.

So, is Elias, though he isn't showing it.

It is all because of the spa; the invitation had a booklet, which had information on all the services the tower and legacy will be offering. Including a spa, which covers, the total four floors of the tower.

I have seen the number of treatments they are offering. More than two of last time.

Most importantly, this time, they have people trained in Nezhar at the legacy spa and even brought the people who worked there. They have also brought tools and products, that will be used in the treatments.

"I didn't believe, I would be able to see one of Rosen's plays again; I thought he was dead," said Elias suddenly.

Rosen was a rising star in the business of theater two decades ago. He was an actor, writer, and director. He seemed unstoppable, till he cursed the prince in public and it all went downhill for him.

Prince Mather is not a man to forgive a slight. No matter how, big a rising star, one is.

He was in jail within a week and stayed there for five years and when he came back, he became a drunkard.

There were rumors that he died, in some back alley, drunk.

"It is such a regret what happened to that man. He is the reason we have met," I said, remembering the first time, I had met Elias.

"Me too; you had kept staring at me, from your balcony," he said, and I rolled my eyes. "It's because of your hair. They are glowing," I replied, with his cheeks reddened in embarrassment at the memory. I wasn't the only one staring at him, nearly everyone was.

If he wasn't from the powerful merchant house. He would have thrown it out.

"It was a prank from my cousins," he said, and I smiled. His cousins, still play pranks, even after decades.

"Let's hope, he has the same magic," I said. His plays were amazing; the tragedies were such that it had made even the cruelest people cry.

I talked to Elias, before closing my eyes to sleep.

When I woke up. It was a morning. Elias had already woken up and reading the documents.

"We are just fifteen minutes away from the river," he informed.

I nodded and activated Baroness Is Always Ready. Immediately, all the creases on my dress vanished and my hair fixed itself. I also felt refreshed, with not even a hint of sleep remaining in my eyes.

I loved the Baroness Class. I got it, five months ago, and it upgraded nearly all my skills and gave me amazing new ones.

Finally, we reached the river, and carriages stopped.

Hun!

When I got out, I couldn't help, but become surprised. There is a pier in here; there was a pier before, but this one is much bigger, with boats carefully lined up.

There are also uniformed guards that keep keeping eye on everything.

I was looking when I saw the old man coming toward us, with four uniformed guards behind him. He looked familiar; I felt like, I had seen him somewhere.

"Hendriks, he was a personal assistant of Silver Senior," Informed Elias.

"My Lords, ladies, please," said the old man as he stopped in front of us, before leading us to the boats.

The boats are beautiful, and one by one, we sat on it, before it began to take us to the other side.

"It has been a while, Hendriks," said Mrs. Silver. "Exactly, two years, madam," he replied to the old man. A flash of guilt appeared in the eyes of Baroness Leila's eyes, while sparks of anger appeared in the eyes of Mrs. Silver.

"I heard you are working under a whore. Quiet a fall from the job, you had," she said, shocking everybody.

Immediately, all the conversation stopped, and the eyes turned to her. Even she seemed to realize, she had said something she shouldn't have.

It is fine if she calls Carla a whore in front of us, but she is calling her whore, in front of her colleague, in the dominion of silver. Carla isn't just the business head of Silver, but also his mistress.

I heard he is quite smitten with her.

This woman despite being intelligent wasn't able to control her emotions and said what she shouldn't have.

"Mother," said Baroness Leila, and she was angry. There is a fire burning in her eyes. "My apologies, Hendricks. I misspoke," Mrs. Silver apologized.

The old man didn't say anything other than smile. It is wise for him to not say anything because it is not his place to forgive. It is his place to repeat what he heard to his boss.

A good servant always reports to his masters.

The rest of the ride went in silence. It was awkward. Nobody knew what to say. It's all because that woman couldn't keep her enmity at bay.

Finally, the boat reached the other side of the river and what I saw couldn't help but surprise me.

The bustling port. I had heard it had reached its former peak, but still, I thought it was an exaggeration, but it didn't seem like it.

The port is far more bustling than its peak. I was here when it was at its peak and the port wasn't as bustling as it is right now.

"It's likely because of the opening," said Elias. Even he and the other nobles were surprised by the bustle.

We got out and saw three people waiting for us. The one on the left, I recognized immediately. Damon Hardt; the former head of the merchant guild and the new director of trade.

On the left is the woman I didn't recognize. She is young, in her early to mid-twenties, strikingly beautiful, with skin that seemed to glow in the morning sun. Every man, including Elias, had to struggle to move their eyes away from her.

I looked at them focusing on the boy in the middle of them. He looks to be eleven or twelve with bronze skin; he is also quite handsome. Might even be able to beat Silver, when he reaches the age.

Every eye had turned to him.

"Welcome to Greltheaven, dear Lords and Ladies," said the boy and bowed faintly with grace.

If I am right, then he is Heron Raak, Silver's brother, who came out of nowhere. I heard he is not Silver's blood brother; the other child that came with him is his blood sibling.

Nobody knows where they came from. Only Baroness Leila seemed to know the answer. The council had asked her, but she replied it was a family matter.

"Thank you, for greeting us personally, Master Raak," said Baron Husk, while Mrs. Silver, looked at him, like she wanted to bore a hole into him.

The hate is evident in her eyes.

Before them, if something had happened to Silver, everything he had would have been theirs. Likely Baroness Leila's, but now with them, the chances of it happening had disappeared.

Silver had hinted in the past few weeks that he was thinking of making his sister his heir, till he had his own children.

We talked to the four before they led us to the carriages waiting for us, which took us to the city.