"That was…" Mahruss murmured in a daze as we left the guards behind.

"A good example of why you should be very careful outside, particularly near the nobles," I completed his words. "And, a good topic to avoid discussing if you don't want trouble." The fact that it happened in public was no reason to go around discussing the events.

For the rest of the way, none of the guards bothered us, spooked by the earlier display. I guessed it would take a few days for them to gather their courage, giving us a chance to spread our roots in the new town without their constant harassment.

An unexpected but welcome benefit, I thought as I moved toward the skeleton of the town where hundreds of people were already digging the ground to create the foundations of the building, while overseers walked around to make sure no one was taking the assigned spots of the others.

Though, even as I walked, I noticed several exchanges of silver or other valuable stuff. Bribes were already flowing, which didn't surprise me in the slightest.

In fact, it was the reason I subtly reached to one of my pouches when I arrived at the lot that was assigned to us, and found a man wearing the mark of an overseer. However, I didn't pass the pouch directly. There was an art to bribing as well, and ignoring it might come across as an insult even when giving away a small fortune.

"How can I help you, overseer?" I said. My respectful tone was a bit exaggerated considering my position, but not absurd enough to be mocking. The fact that he was a member of Night Blades wasn't a reason to be overbearing.

He must have expected the opposite, because I felt his tension drain. I wasn't surprised by it. He might be a member of Night Blades, but I doubted every single member was burning with a desire to teach our guild a lesson. For most, it was just a very good job.

"Sir Euon," he started, which further highlighted his amicable attitude. Technically, as a high-ranking guild member, referring to me like this was not disallowed, but with the size and power of our guild, there was no way I could go around demanding people do so without turning into a laughing stock.

"Go ahead," I said.

It took a second for him to speak, still hesitant. "I'm here for … the reassignment of the outer town area assigned to the guild of Dawn Hammers," he declared, doing his best to sound official, every single detail I could pick from his body language showed that he hated being the one delivering the news.

Meaning, it was not his idea, making intimidating him pointless. "Why don't you tell me our new location, and if there's a problem, I'll go annoy your bosses," I offered, and I watched the stress drain off him.

"I don't know the exact details myself," he said and pulled a scroll from his bag. One that carried the seal of House Yoentia, which meant it either came from the young duke or Knight Artmiss. My money was on the old knight.

Which meant, for good or ill, it would be hard to reverse it. Annoying, as I had several plans that relied on having a decent location.

"I appreciate the effort," I said as I got near him, and passed one of the smaller pouches. There wasn't a lot of money silver in it, just a few denicas, but it was enough to make overseer smile. A reputation for willingness to work together with the more reasonable members of Night Blades wouldn't hurt, especially since the leadership seemed to be very reckless about using their goons.

I opened the scroll, my eyes widening as I read the contents.

"Bad news?" Mahruss asked.

"On the contrary," I answered. "It seems that lord knight isn't happy with the show that our opponents put together, and decided to punish them a bit. We have to expand our plans quite a bit."

And when I said quite a bit, it was not an exaggeration. Our original permit was for just a two-story building with only one basement, barely enough to squeeze a smithy and gambling house together, forcing us to set up a stall to sell our products, forcing my employees to live outside or squeeze into a few rooms.

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The new permit was not only right at the gate that led to the inner city, but it was large enough to build a separate smith with a store and enough place for the blacksmiths to reside, a large, luxurious gambling den with some rooms upstairs to both allow the guards to stay and offer some private games for discerning customers … and even add a large restaurant to complete the services.

And, connect the basement of all three buildings to create a nice bunker that could be multi-purposed both as a training area and a panic room in case of an emergency.

Certainly, an unexpected reward. As I led my team to our new location, I called the two woodworkers to discuss our plans. They were not builders, but they were still the most capable people we had to understand the limits of the wood.

"I want you to work very hard on the basement," I warned them after going through my plans with them. "I have already given Mahruss fifteen derums of silver just to buy the enhanced logs."

"Do we need to, sir?" one of them asked. "We can imbue them ourselves. It'll just take a few days to finish, and it'll be just as strong as anything we can buy here."

"That's good, except I don't want to waste your time with useless tasks. Just go with Mahruss and make sure the logs are as strong as promised. Then, go and buy the most expensive logs you can buy, the kind that could be used to make expensive furniture. For the next few days, I want you three to focus on making gaming tables and matching chairs for the gambling house."

"If you think that's more important, sir," he said, still too awed with me to properly discuss.

"It is. Where do you think all the money I'm throwing around comes from?" I said. "Don't forget, the furniture is important, but it's also an excuse for you three old hands to get used to working together. I have an important project in mind, the kind that would grant you a lot of pride, maybe even earn the blessing of the duke himself, but you three need to prove yourself to me first. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," they nodded.

With their task assigned, I went to my other group of smiths, the disguised young women with something to prove. "For the young ones, I have a more interesting task," I said as I looked at them. "I will handle setting up the main forge myself, in a few days," I said, cutting them off before they could even argue against it.

Ideally, it would have been better to let them buy due to their expertise, but I had several plans about the main forge, one that I didn't want to inform them of yet, which meant I had to be the one to buy the main forge. And, I had no doubt that, even with the money I had managed to earn from the gambling operation, I wouldn't be able to afford that.

"And what will be doing in that time, sir?" one of them said.

"I want you to experiment with alloys," I said. "And, I don't want you to just decide which one is the best, but record the results for me to go through." Then, I paused. "Does any of you know how to read and write?"

Only two of them raised their hands. "I want you two to teach the rest," I ordered, wondering just how long it would take for them to realize they weren't the only girl that managed to slip under my notice, and how they would react once they did.

I also needed to check the reason for the discrimination against female blacksmiths … once I had time.

"You are going to be reading and writing a lot, so make sure to work hard," I warned them as I turned to Karak. "Make sure to buy a wide range of materials for them to experiment with," I ordered.

Admittedly, I felt a little bad assigning them that task. I didn't expect them to come up with anything useful … but then, I didn't need to. I just needed them to be experimenting openly to create an alibi … while I used some less-than-legal means to dig around for some alloy recipes.

I had no intention of something as pesky as legality to stop me.

"Now, with the money-spending aspects done," I murmured as I looked at the bodyguards. "Let's set up a tent here, half open," I said. "Maybe a few desks and enough chairs to keep our customers comfortable while they play cards, until our own production is complete."

"You want to start immediately, sir?" one of them asked.

"We need to be known as the best gambling den here. The faster we start operating, the easier our job would be," I said, acting like it was a simple thing. It wasn't as simple, of course, especially when we were in open conflict with Night Blades…

Luckily, I had some advantages. After distributing all the orders, I excused myself, claiming I needed to visit the Guild Master for something important. I had to visit and inform him about the welcome changes in our outer town operations. I had a feeling he would be especially grateful for the restaurant. Cooking was clearly something he enjoyed, and it would be a nice gift to him.

But, I didn't visit him immediately, and instead, disguised myself and started walking around, spreading some gossip about the new, excellent gambling house that caught all the cheaters and allowed ordinary people to leave rich…

Starting a gossip was tricky. Talk too little, or act too modest, and people would just forget. Promise too many things, and people would just get irritated. Luckily, it wasn't the first time I was pulling this trick. I had used the same tactic often when I was young, and knew exactly how to balance myself.

And, usage of Charisma made it even more successful than I expected, I realized as I swung by the tent once I finished walking around, and saw the temporary tent filled with gamblers desperate to compound their fortune…

I stayed and watched from a corner, to make sure Karak and Mahruss could handle the crowd. Only after I watched them catch a cheater — who ended up getting beaten and thrown out by the guards — I felt comfortable leaving.

It was good to see my money-making schemes working efficiently, but I couldn't stay there and waste time when I had a meeting to attend.