"Heh." Liam chuckled and continued following the village chief. He knew that his plan was working and he was not done yet.
In no time at all, the festivities began and the grand feast was well underway, with everybody celebrating in full swing.
The fine aroma of the meat filled the air, boisterous laughs of the villagers rang loudly and a group of beautiful women gathered around to dance and put on a show.
Liam silently chewed the food in his mouth watching everything with a faint amusement in his eyes.
He waited a while, giving the village chief enough time to settle down and just as he was about to take the first bite, Liam hit the nail on the head.
"Is the village struggling to support itself?" He smiled.
The village chief looked startled at first but then his expression turned solemn. "Yes, my Lord. we are indeed struggling for the past few years."
"Our village and a few neighboring villages were attacked by the elves a few years ago and we lost too many men at that time."
"Ever since then our village is suffering. We want to request aid to the kingdom but…" The middle-aged man sighed softly.
He was prudent enough to know that it was not wise to complain about the King or rather the nobles who are being oblivious to their suffering.
They had tried sending messengers and some of their people over to the Kingdom in the past but that also did not result in any success as the path in between was too perilous.
Liam could see that the chief was still being guarded so he served a few more drinks to the guy and after downing the fifth drink he was much more talkative.
Liam chuckled and continued to patiently listen to the man and his ramblings and after a few minutes, he finally made his move.
"Hmmm… Your conditions are indeed extremely unfavorable. As a Duke of our Kingdom, it pains me to see our people suffering like this. I wish I could do something to aid you." He sighed.
His words struck like a hammer and the village chief instantly felt sober. Was he rambling on all this time to a Duke?
"My Lord, please forgive me." He dropped the juicy leg piece in his hand and quickly stood up, his entire body shaking from head to toe.
"Hmmm… that's alright." Liam looked as if he was genuinely aggrieved. "It is not a crime to ask for resources for your people."
He was not sure if this was going to work but in his previous lifetime, some guilds had managed to do this so he also wanted to give it a try.
The game worked that way. Every event needed to be looked at as an opportunity to grow stronger. Every small bit counted to this. Even this desolate village couldn't be overlooked.
"I might have a solution to your problem, chief." Liam waved his hand, signaling the guy to sit back down.
"Our guild residence is not too far away from this village. We could potentially establish a trade route from the village to the guild."
"A sort of secure route that could be used by the villagers and merchants for trading services and goods."
"You can also work in the guild residence, setting up more acres of herb farms and teach more of your people other trade skills so that we can have a smooth cooperation."
"Hmmm? What do you think about this?" Liam cautiously put forward his proposal.
If he could somehow secure this deal, then it was almost as good as acquiring this village as their personal working force.
Liam looked at the chief's face and the guy as well seemed to be pleasantly surprised. He was shocked but in a good way.
"My Lord, I… we would all be extremely grateful." Happy tears started streaming out of the man's eyes. It looked like his plan was successful.
However, before Liam could relax, suddenly the chief's expression started changing again. His eyes widened as if he remembered something and then he started appearing hesitant.
"I… I… my Lord. Please forgive me. That… I am afraid there is something that I haven't told you yet."
Right on cue! Liam smiled and spoke slowly, "Is this about that beggar?"
"Ah. Yes. Yes." The chief nodded in a daze.
"Tell me everything. No matter what, I will help you deal with it."
The village chief once again nodded and then started explaining, "My Lord, that beggar is… Lord Raizen from the Jeheriya village."
"Ever since that village was destroyed by demon beasts, the Lord has been resting in our village. However, his condition is not good."
"It was terrible tragedy, my Lord. Sir Raizen lost all of his family in that fight. The entire village was massacred and he was the only survivor."
"I haven't seen them personally, but I heard that he doted a lot on his two daughters and his wife but he lost all of them in a single day."
"So ever since then, he had been in the same miserable state."
After hearing the village chief's story, Liam now understood what had happened.
This was why they hadn't been able to find any of the nearby villages. It turns out that they had been destroyed.
But unfortunately, knowing this was not really that helpful. In fact, he had a grave expression on his face because this was now going to be that much more difficult.
He chewed on his food and sipped his drink, silently contemplating all of his options. Sucking up to the guy was indeed going to be very challenging but it shouldn't be impossible.
After all, the quest was completed in his previous timeline. So he should also technically be able to figure it out.
Liam took a couple more minutes to seem like he was really putting a lot of thought into this and then turned to the village chief.
"Don't worry about Lord Raizen. I am sure the man just needs some time to grieve. We won't bother him."
"Let's give him some time, space and enough food to heal. We can work around him to establish the trade routes and secure more resources for the village."
"Ah, yes my Lord. I can definitely take care of that. Thank you, my Lord. Thank you."
Liam nodded and then stood up to walk out of the building. Now that his task was accomplished he no longer planned to waste his time on the celebrations.
Instead, he started tapping on the system interface to set up new guild quests.
These quests all pertained to the village and were simple quests such as clearing the path, helping the local village residents and so on.
Liam leisurely strolled around the village while setting everything up. Of course, he was also searching for that beggar whom he was not really planning on leaving alone.
After doing a couple of rounds, he finally found the man sitting near the pond this time. He once again paid no attention to Liam but Liam observed everything about him.
Though the guy still seemed indifferent on the surface, his attitude had definitely changed.
Liam wandered around the village for some more time and then spent the rest of the night clearing the beasts on the outskirts of the village.
Since this was not taxing, he could both relax and earn more brownie points at the same time.
But unfortunately, things did not go as peacefully as he wanted.
Several times through the night, Liam felt the searing headache. Pain clouded his brain and his senses as the soul clinging to him kept acting up again and again.
That too the damned ghost chose the worst time to act.
At first, Liam chalked it to coincidence but soon there was a pattern. Every time he was in the middle of fighting or tackling more than he could handle, the ghost would start acting up.
"Gorak, do you now want to live anymore?" He even tried calming it down again, but the ghost did not listen to him always.
Only the words 'DIE DIE DIE' kept constantly looping in his mind.
The night passed by just like this and when dawn arrived, the villagers once again looked extremely relieved as they now had a lot more food for consumption.
When he first arrived here, the villagers were all tired, gloomy, and worn out with a murky aura hanging over their heads. But now, the entire place was full of laughter and joy.
Liam nodded and once again strolled the streets to find the beggar. "Is that guy invisible or what, why is it always so hard to find him?" He mused in slight annoyance.
Nevertheless, he kept going. He needed to persuade the damned beggar and he needed to do it soon.
With that recipe in hand, he would be able to strengthen all of his attributes significantly and he might even be able to exorcise Gorak's ghost fully out of him.
With that guy constantly screaming in his head, Liam was on the verge of going crazy.
He walked around a couple more streets and finally, he found the man. The beggar was sitting near a playground of sorts and watching the young children play in a daze.
"Hmmm?" Liam waited for a while but it was of no use. Seeing that he was once again being ignored, he could only leave.
But suddenly, just as he was about to walk away, the sky above him darkened.
The sun had risen just now and it was broad daylight outside so what could possibly cause this darkness?
Gudang! Liam instantly knew what this was! This was his second group of stalkers! The black albatross around his neck!
"Level 55? Damned ravens."
Liam cursed and quickly looked around for the best way to deal with them.
"Should I just run away?" He was just now helping everyone rebuild the village so he didn't want things to get destroyed because of the fight.
Moreover, all the birds were Level 55 this time. Things were definitely going to get tricky.
Just as he was thinking about how to deal with the ravens, suddenly another thought popped into his brain.
He looked at the group of children sitting near the beggar and then started running towards them.
