"Did something happen while I was gone?" Aaron entered the bathtub and relaxed his exhausted body then asked while closing his eyes and resting his head back on the edge.
"The mice were delivered to the three Villages and the construction of their habitat was complete," Sherry answered while getting on her knees and using the Loofah to scrub his skin, "The money we collected from the transportation fee plus an advanced payment of the Mice meat was counted then safely stored within the basement, Pio have the list." The maid paused for a short moment then asked : "W-why... Why do you always put yourself in dangerous situations? Don't you know that I get so worried whenever you do something like that?"
The kid lazily opened his eyes a crack and looked at this teenager girl before answering : "To survive." Afterwards he got up and conjured a ball of water which fell on his head and washed his body clean, then left the bathroom and jumped on bed while thinking : 'Let's hope there's enough Gold Coins when I wake up because I do have 3 Neutral-Skills waiting for me to Evolve.'
Sherry dried Paws body and sat with her next to the bed, silently watching the boy sleep while thinking about what he said to answer her question : 'Survive from what?' She asked herself while frowning deeply until a hand fell on the teenager girl's shoulder and startled her awake from her daydreams.
"Just let it go sister, you can't carry his burden for him. It's... Too heavy of a burden for you to handle, the same goes even if it was me and all of our sisters combined." Nina said before looking at the boy sleeping peacefully while shaking her head then released a sigh which seemed like it was stifled deep within her chest for a while now!
Sherry felt like her heart fell into the soles of her legs and panickedly asked : "What do you mean Honorable Sister Nina? Is something wrong with young master Ron?" The maid was so aggressive while questioning this Whispering Sister that she grabbed her by the arms and squeezed tightly to the degree where Nina almost winced from the pain.
*Snort*
Lucy rolled her eyes after seeing the teenager girl's extreme reaction, "What can you do about it even if you got the answer? Sister Nina just told you that even us can't do anything about it didn't she? I know that you're feeling bad for the kid but so do we! Now let go of her hands before I lose my temper because I'm already in a bad mood."
"Ah!" Sherry finally noticed that she was hurting Nina and quickly let go of her while apologizing.
The woman nodded to show her understanding before holding the maid by the shoulders while calmly saying : "Just understand that we're going to do our best no matter what! We sisters owe him at least that much after all he did for us."
The teenager girl started crying but she toughened up while nodding helplessly and watched Lucy, Heena, and Nina go downstairs.
Feeling like she lost all power in her legs, Sherry slumbed back into her seat while feeling like the world suddenly lost all color.
Aaron on the other hand slept like a baby and woke up on his own since his maid was too busy sulking on her chair to even notice that she's supposed to wake up the kid.
Yawning and stretching his arms in the air he climbed down from bed and dragged his feet to the bathroom while scratching his butt!
'Will you look at this handsome bastard over there on the other side? I'm already as tall as I was at the age of 10 back on earth!' He thought while flexing the tiny bit of muscle on his young and healthy body in front of the mirror.
But the maddening sense of starving hunger coming from his belly interrupted this narcissistic moment and the kid patted his stomach while going out.
Down and down he went on the stairs and floor after floor he met smiling and happy soldiers enjoying their comfortable life under his roof.
The kid felt good after seeing these men and women sitting there in the halls to relax while talking about their day while eating better food and drinks than many Nobles in the Kingdom.
The other parts of his Army of soldiers were either resting in sleep, strolling the Village, or already on duty.
Aaron reached the basement and gestured for Baroq and Beryl to wait there before Teleporting inside on his own since Pio was nowhere to be seen and he doesn't have time or patience to look or wait for him.
Not to mention that his first follower must be all-over Betty's body by now!
'Thankfully Evolving Recovery, Nimble-Feet, and Identify is only a little bit costlier than Evolving Mystique-Door to Sublunar Portal.' The kid thought while walking towards the stack of boxes.
System : Conditions met to Upgrade Recovery into Hyper Body
'Honestly that's the one I'm most interested in seeing what it's going to become right now, but I only have a little bit over 30K of Gold Coins right now!
System : Would the Host allow Recovery to Evolve in exchange for 120,000 Gold Coins?
'I should also ask Aeona to send these boxes to the Bandit Leaders and have them sell these Precious Stones since the System isn't interested in converting them into cash for me to use in the Store or in Evolving my Neutral-Class Skills.
System : Conditions met to Upgrade Nimble-Feet into Haste
'Judging by its name this Skill sounds like it's going to be useful as well.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
System : Would the Host allow Nimble-Feet to Evolve in exchange for 140,000 Gold Coins?
'Unfortunately it seems like I'll be getting only one chance to Evolve a Neutral-Class Skill.
System : Conditions met to Upgrade Identify into Appraise
'Simply because the amount within these boxes so far is too little since the majority of them are full of Silver instead of Gold Coins!'
System : Would the Host allow Identify to Evolve in exchange for 180,000 Gold Coins?
*Sigh*
"There's barely 45K of Gold Coins all in all," Aaron muttered while frowning because even when he sells the boxes of Precious Stones he estimates that he's going to receive more or less the same amount of Coins in the exchange! "Looks like I'm going to have to do something to speed up my plans since time is running out.
"I really hate it when I'm being in a hurry but I don't have any choice on the matter, my ass is on the line here."
The kid emptied the basement and Teleported outside before ordering : "Beryl. Go bring Gilmore and have him meet me at the Portal."
"Yes young master Ron," The youngest of the twins nodded then turned to leave before stopping and turning back while asking : "But where is that "Portal" exactly? Forgive me for asking!" The man scratched his head while feeling embarrassed.
"Heh." Aaron smiled before answering with a smile on his face : "Bring him and come find us outside the house where the Mysterious Gates are located! It's called a Portal, now hurry because I don't waste any more time."
Beryl saluted and immediately turned around then ran towards the stairs.
Minutes later Beryl ran towards the Portal with Gilmore who was rubbing the sleep from his eyes after getting awakened roughly by this comrade who dragged him from bed while urgently saying : "Quickly now Gilmore, young master Ron is summoning you and we shouldn't waste time when he's in a hurry!"
But once they arrived they saw the kid sitting and eating seemingly leisurely while waiting for them.
Gilmore looked at Beryl doubtfully as if to say : "Are you sure he's in a hurry?"
Beryl shrugged as if to say : "I did what I was ordered to do alright! You can't hold anything against me in this situation."
"Good you're here. Sorry to interrupt your rest but it's about time my Military Advisor gets included in some important business! Now follow me to Reapers-Fort." Aaron wiped his mouth clean with a napkin and opened the 4 Portals since it's about time he activated them for the first time at night.
But despite it being at night and the majority of the citizens in Pine-Breeze Village are "asleep" which mean getting "busy" in bed.
The kid saw a few hundred people standing in 5 lines next to the walls of his house in silence and obediently awaiting this amazingly convenient transportation method to open and become available for them to use!
"Out of my way!"
"Watch your ox!"
"Wait until others exit first before stepping in."
"Don't crowd the entrance!"
"What's with the hold up?"
"Come on! I don't have time to waste in here!"
Aaron was about to step into the Portal with his Military Advisor and his Personal-Guard Twins but from the 3 other Portals all of them could see men and women in much finer clothes than average citizens squeezed practically shoulder to shoulder at the entrance.
"Silence." Aaron practically whispered this word but it felt like thunder was booming within the ears of all the newcomers!
Since he was targeting nearly more than a thousand with his Emphatic Resonance Skill while singling out the ones making noise right next to the walls of his house as enemies instead of allies, these hundreds of finely clothed men and women getting blocked by the soldiers at the other side were left out of breath and swallowing hard on their saliva while looking towards the kid which stood on the other side of the Portal.
The kid slowly looked left and right at the faces of the ones who were making a ruckus and acting arrogantly just earlier before opening his mouth to say : "I expect order, patience, and respect from those who wish to enter my territory and use my services in the future!
"Guards!" He shouted.
"Yes Young master Ron!" The teams of soldiers guarding the 4 Portals and the teams responsible of collecting the Transportation Fees all stood at attention and unanimously responded.
Aaron glared at the arrogant crowd before saying : "Next time kill any arrogant fellow that may dare show any sign of intentionally obstructing the order or being disrespectful, also make sure things stay quiet during the time of night because we can't have anyone disturbing the peace of people when they're asleep!"
"As you command."
The finely clothed people which were pushing and crowding the soldiers earlier shrank back from fear once they saw these soldiers acting with so much zeal while oozing so much bloodlust as they stared them down like ferocious monsters anxious to jump on their prey.
"Hahaha..." The sound of uproarious laughter put an end to the awkward yet heavy silence which felt like it might stretch infinitely, "I guess you guys were in so much of a hurry to confirm the news and got a bit distracted by the competition, but you should've paid more attention." The scholarly-man arrived with Scadur behind him then pointed towards Aaron while adding : "Allow me to introduce you to the person making such a transportation method happen, this is young master Ron.
Afterwards Sen turned to look at Aaron and bowed politely before straightening his waist while gesturing towards the finely clothed people on the 3 other sides of the Portal while saying : "These are just anxious merchants looking to make a quick and easy profit.
"I'm sure your magnanimous heart wouldn't take this bit of transgression as anything worth more than a light slap on the wrist.
"Of course everyone agrees that whoever cross the boundaries of rules from this moment forward is to be punished accordingly.
"Hopefully that was to your satisfaction young master Ron."
Aaron drank a bottle of Sunset Dew lazily while listening to Sen flaunt his talents for politics.
"Their Transportation Fees remains the same as anybody else whenever they're not transporting anything with them," Aaron looked towards the packages of merchandize on the carriages, "I don't mind it when people are carrying their items on themselves but whenever there's a carriage loaded with whatever that merchandize is... I expect 1 Gold Coin for each carriage in the convoy.
"Also there's these boxes of Precious Stones which I expect to receive the right amount of Gold Coins in the exchange.
"Remember to have these wonderful partons to make sure the prices of the local and foreign ingredients remain within a reasonable margin within the territories I open any of these Portals in the future, otherwise I'll make sure that whoever break the rules gets banned from my transportation services." Afterwards the kid retrieved the boxes from his Inventory Space and left them next to the Portal and entered it with Gilmore, Baroq, and Beryl while saying : "Find Pio once the Precious Stones are sold and he'd take care of the rest."
Sen looked at the boy's back and wondered if he's really the same person since it's almost impossible for somebody's physique to grow so much in so little time.
Simply because not even Giants could grow like that in their early age!