Typer’s room: Hello guys. Sorry for the delay. Got a bit occupied with college projects and ended up missing my update date, but here is the chapter!
First, whoever saw a scene like this coming, give yourself a cake. Second, I’m seriously running out of chapters I have in back up, having only up to twenty seven already written. If I get to the current chapter, I might have to drop the upload speed. On the other hand, I should be ending the IO marathon this Saturday, so all’s good.
As I said before, this is VASTLY a work in progress, and wasn’t made to be posted initially, so there might be some inconsistencies. If so, please do tell me, as I want to make it an enjoyable read ^^
May your reading be enjoyable.
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“I’m pretty sure I told you to enjoy yourself, young lady.” Master Bo said with a slight frown in his face.
“But I enjoy working, though?” I replied while putting on my best innocent face.
I felt as both Bo and Sui looked at me with conflicted gazes, but professionally ignoring their inquisitive looks, I simply smiled at them, so seeing that I wouldn’t budge no matter how much they tried to guilt-trip me, they sighed in unison and leaned back on their chairs once more. During this time, Tian simply kept on smiling proudly while hugging and petting me from behind.
Not having neither the right nor the will to get out from this spoiling position, I smiled in pleasure as I felt the small hand from my master gently stroking my hair.
“Tell us what you got, Lia.” Bo said wearily while waving his hand towards me. Nodding excitedly, I told them about my talks with the other household’s aides and what happened once the head aide from the Song took me to the kitchen.
Most of the time they simply kept hearing quietly what I had to say, and only briefly questioned me once I mentioned one or another household that they were more interested on. Even Tian kept listening attentively to what I said.
“So, the Sol household is preparing such a large movement, huh?” Bo said with an amused tone. “I didn’t think they would attack the Nichi so soon… Either that, or they are going against the Hon Household...” He said with a pensive tone.
“Nichi?” I asked confused. Although the name was fairly familiar, I couldn’t quite remember where I had heard about it before.
“Nichi is the country to the south of the Roaming dragon mountain range.” Bo said with an explanation tone. “Although we share some similarities, the Nichi have some very keen differences when it comes to culture and techniques. We haven’t had an all-out war for quite some time, but small skirmishes do tend to happen from time to time. Besides, recently a noble-man from Nichi managed to snatch some territory from the Hon, so they might be amassing a force to gather it back.”
Listening to his words, I nodded slightly while I archived that information on my head. It was good news to know that there were different countries out there. This kind of makes me want to go out and explore what is out there.
Still, this isn’t the time for me to bother with my fantasies.
“Then, what about the Hon’s? Why would they attack there?” I asked curious, and Bo gave a brief smile.
“The Hon are a rival household of sorts for the Sol family.” Tian said proudly. “They have always been very competitive, but recently it seems that their relationships became strained since two talented practitioners appeared on their houses.” Wait, it couldn’t be that these talented practitioners were…
“You think they might use the guise of recovering territory to assault the Hon?” Sui asked with a raised eyebrow. Bo nodded lightly, but his face didn’t seem all that confident.
“It could be either, to be honest.” He said with a wry smile before widening it. “However, whatever this means, the Hon and the Sol will ready themselves for war, so this might be a chance for us to get some profit...” The large man said with a confident smirk.
“Oh, are we going to increase the production of medicine then?” Tian asked curious, and I also looked expectant. Medicine is a fairly well sold product from our village, so it would make sense if we were to expand the production. But…
“No. We’ll keep the production as is.” Bo said after some thought, shocking the two of us. “Instead, we should start stocking on the medicine we produce and wait until later.”
“Huh… Why are we doing that?” I asked confused, and Tian nodded from behind.
“Look, Little Lia. Other households already know that the Hon will be buying medicine soon, so most of them will start trying to sell their medicine right away, correct?” Bo said with a patient tone. “So, if we went to sell our own product right away, we would face heavy competition and this would drive the price of the medicine down. However, even with buying so much medicine, the Sol will, sooner or later, end up using all of it and injuries will start piling up. That is when we sell.”
“Ah, I see!” Tian said with a cheerful tone. “The other household will have already spent most of their stock in the initial exchange, so we will be the only suppliers. And since they will need the medicine immediately, they won’t have much room for negotiations.”
Waah, that’s cold!
But if I think about it, it does make sense that they chose this route, because it would give almost guaranteed profit at low price and might even increase the honor of our household, since we will be the ones offering the medicine to the wounded soldiers.
While I was lost in thought for a moment, Bo called up on one of the aides and asked her to note down some things. Probably his plans for when he arrived back at the mansion. After finishing his brief talk, he turned to me once again.
“Lastly. You said that you made a deal with Hou, their head aide, right?” He asked while motioning to the Song family. I nodded slightly. “Then, what information did you ask him in exchange for the info you got on the Sol’s?”
“Well...” I smiled a bit awkward while trying to form my words. At the time, it was a bit of a spur of the moment inspiration, so I couldn’t say for sure if I had made a good decision, and now that I had to tell the Master what I choose, I felt a bit afraid of having made a bad decision. “Do you remember that small market we passed by on the way here?” I said shyly.
“Oh, that one?” Sui asked curious. “It was pretty new, so it caught my attention. But why would it matter?”
“Well, I asked if he knew who was the one behind the market...” I said while suddenly feeling regret. If I thought about it, had I brought this matter up with master Bo, wouldn’t he be able to look into it himself?
“Who’s… Behind it?” Sui asked confused while stopping to think.
Turning to Bo, I saw as he also took some time to think, a light frown forming in his face as the thoughts went by. I lowered my head suddenly feeling a bit silly for having asked that, but Bo still nodded nonetheless.
“I could have thought of better things to ask, to be honest...” He said seriously. “But it’s not like there isn’t a good side to this. This way, we can hide the fact that we will have information on that market...”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Why that market, though? What does it have in special?” Sui asked confused. “You know I’m not as good in this whole economic politics as you, dear.”
“Because that market is around the middle way of both our cities.” Bo said shortly. “From there, they could easily gather information from both of us or spread false information fairly efficiently. If they do a good job, they might even manage to control the market price of a few products.”
“I think I understand now...” Sui said with a nod. “Politics is a pain sometimes...” She complained.
“No problem mother! Just leave those problems to me!” Tian said proudly while stuffing her chest. This only served to make Sui even more depressed, though.
“To leave politic matters to my daughter… I feel so defeated...” Sui said in a sad tone, and I couldn’t help but smile awkwardly about her situation.
Bo laughed briefly at her reaction before stopping and looking around a bit, as if searching for something. I followed his gaze and saw as his eyes landed on a couple of newcomers to the party.
He gave a slightly wry smile before turning to me once again.
“Lia, Tian. Right now I will have to talk with a friend of mine. Why don’t the two of you go around the party?” He said with a tone that left it clear that we didn’t have much choice. Raising my eyebrows in doubt, I thought that it wasn’t worth doubting and quickly jumped off from Tian’s lap.
Lady Tian sighed shortly and nodded in accordance before dropping from the chair and walking away. Seeing that it was my job, I followed her closely as she wandered around the party aimlessly.
For a moment I wondered what we were going to do, but it seemed that lady Tian already had an idea in mind, because she turned towards a group of young kids and made her way there. All of them having around her age, being at most one year older or younger.
“Are you going to play, Lady Tian?” I asked with a slightly taunting tone, and she smirked slightly.
“For us, there is no such a thing as playing...” She said with a slightly sad tone. “I’m pretty sure all of them are there to make relationships and create contacts...”
Geez, that’s too sad! To not even be allowed to simply talk to other kids because of politics…
“I’m your friend, aren’t I?” I asked her, and saw as Tian blinked surprised for a moment.
“YES! YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND!” She said while suddenly hugging me tightly and putting on a cheerful voice.
Caught a bit unaware by her sudden outburst, I didn’t really have the chance to escape. Well, not that I really had the wish to do so, since I kind of liked being pampered.
But, we couldn’t quite keep that up, since she had her appearances to keep up. Quickly recovering, she cleared her throat and let go of me, but I didn’t lose sight of her making a displeased face. Smiling quietly to myself, we once again made way to the group of kids.
“Hello, I’m Tian from the Lon-Ying household.” She said introducing herself to the kids.
I noticed how almost all of them started looking at her from head to toes in an analytical manner. Tian simply ignored their gazes and after her short bow she turned to them. From her expression she seemed to recognize a few of the kids from somewhere.
One of them, in particular, caught my attention. It wasn’t the fact that he had an even fancier robe than the other present, nor the fact that he was the only one with three aides instead of a single one, and the fact that nearby was one of the few spiritualist in the room, although these did help me catch sight of him a bit more. It was, instead, that he was looking straight at me.
For a brief moment, our gazes crossed, but I didn’t linger too long before lowering mine. It is considered improper for an aide to lock gazes with a noble without proper permission.
Since it lasted only for a brief moment, he shouldn’t bother too much with it…
“Hey, Lon-ying.” I heard an annoyingly proud voice come from the boy. “Your servant just insulted me.”
…Wow…
It took him exactly five seconds since Tian’s introduction before he started a fight. I saw as Tian’s eyebrow twitched slightly, but she kept a perfectly polite expression as she also came to the conclusion that the boy was of a higher standing than us.
“Please, forgive her, as she’s very young and is still inexperienced in the ways of the world.” Tian said with a polite tone while smiling gently.
“Her age doesn’t matter.” The brat said annoyed while waving his hand away. I raised my head slightly and took a glance at the servants behind the boy. They either had a worried or a sad face. “She sullied my honor by looking me in the eyes.”
How does that even work again?
“I can assure you that was not her intention, Yulai Sol.” Tian defended me while taking a step in front of me.
“It matters not her intention.” He said proudly. “You do know what it means to sully a noble’s reputation, don’t you?” I noticed a strangely smug tone coming from his voice
“We also know that is an old and outdated law that hasn’t in use for hundreds of years.” Tian replied immediately and as I looked in wonder by what she said, the boy widened his eyes surprised for a moment before shaking his head.
“In usage or not, it does not matter. It’s in the law and it means that I can use it.” He said with a victorious smile.
“What does he mean?” I asked quietly to Tian, who had put on an angry face.
“There’s… A very old law, back from when the country had just been founded...” Tian replied to me in the same tone. “It says that any noble who had their honour wronged, have the right to demand a heavy monetary reimburse from the infractor... ”
“Why would he do that? If I’m an aide, it’s obvious I can’t pay!” I said confused.
“Oy, you two, stop talking and give me my payment for my damaged honor already!” He said with a smug look.
With a quick glance to the sides, I saw as the other nobles turned an eye away from the scene or simply watched amused, probably expecting some kind of amusing scene.
I grimaced to myself when I noticed that no help was going to come from them.
“Hmm… Sorry, but I’m unable to pay for my offense...” I said with a short bow.
“Is that so?” The boy said in an amused tone.
“Yes, lord Yulai.” I said with a worried tone,
“Then, you know what it means?” He asked with a smirk, and I took a step back in worry.
“...No?” I said worried.
“This means that I can either have you pay me over time, or get a direct payment with you becoming my slave!” He said with a smug look. “This means that I just got myself a really cute slave.”
What, so he’s only a kid trying to get a girl for himself? That’s downright depressive!