"It is my great pleasure to meet you, Sir Nevreal," Lucius said as he shook hands with the Dwarf whom the King of the Dwarves thought highly of.
"Likewise, Mr. Lucius," Nevreal replied. "I hope our meeting today will be a fruitful one."
"Of course. Please, have a seat."
"Thank you."
The two were in a VIP room located in the Black Horse Tavern. The Half-Elf had already informed Nevreal that this was one of the businesses that belonged to Twilight Rain. To his credit, the middle-aged Dwarf had been to more dangerous places in the past, so he was confident that he would be fine.
"It is very rare for me to get to talk to someone as influential as you, Sir Nevreal, so why don't we talk about why you came here to see me today." Lucius smiled. "But, before that, may I ask why you were introduced to me by a good friend, Sam? Did you meet with him first before meeting up with me?"
"Sam?" Nevreal frowned. "Sorry, I don't know who this Sam fellow is. I just asked one of my subordinates to look for a Merchant who had the ability to carry out the request that His Majesty asked of me."
"Oh?" Lucius arched an eyebrow. He already knew that Nevreal was on good terms with the King, but he didn't expect the middle-aged Dwarf to be currently doing some tasks from the King as well. "Well then, did Sam not fit the requirements for the King's request?"
Any merchant would jump at the opportunity to create a connection with the Dwarf King. In fact, some of them would be willing to go above and beyond their means to carry out whatever tasks the King would ask of them if need be.
"Well, if he did, I wouldn't be here in front of you right now," Nevreal replied as if this was the only natural thing to do. "Now, since both of our time is precious, let's talk about business. Currently, His Majesty is thinking about expanding the territory of the Kingdom.
"Because of this, he tasked some people to head to the Westernmost Region of our Kingdom, to a small village called Leaf Village. From there, they would head to the Savage Lands and create a stronghold, serving as a base for the expedition forces that would venture further West."
The corner of Lucius' lips rose because expansion and exploration was a great opportunity to call first dibs on some resources that could only be found in unclaimed, and unexplored, regions.
"This sounds like a grand undertaking," Lucius commented. "And, what kind of assistance can this humble merchant do for His Majesty?"
"We need funds," Nevreal replied. "And supplies. We need a lot of them."
"Funding, and Supplies?" A look of understanding dawned on Lucius' face after hearing Nevreal's explanation. However, he kept his face as calm as possible, so the middle-aged Dwarf didn't notice the greed that appeared briefly at the depths of his eyes.
Nevreal nodded. "Yes. We are looking for a Merchant who has the funds, as well as the resources to ensure that the newly built Stronghold can become operational as soon as possible. Aside from you, we are looking at other candidates as well to take the job. You're just the first that I visited, and I'll probably be visiting others as well.
Lucius smiled, but this smile was the smile of someone who didn't plan on letting others get a share on what he had set his eyes on. But, in order to close the deal, he needed to better understand why the King was looking for a merchant to share the profits of the expedition with.
"I understand that venturing into the unknown is filled with uncertainty," Lucius stated. "But, as a merchant, I don't see why His Majesty would want to let others take a percentage of future profits. If he funded this expedition, wouldn't that mean that all the resources that could be discovered in the exploration would belong to the Royal Palace's Treasury?"
"That is true," Nevreal admitted. "Unfortunately, His Majesty is preoccupied with a few things, so he needs an experienced Merchant to handle the Logistics of the Expedition."
"Just what could be more important than expanding the territory of our Glorious Kingdom?" Lucius inquired.
Nevreal didn't answer right away. As a merchant, Lucius was able to see the conflicted expression on the middle-aged Dwarf's face.
He was certain that Nevreal was fighting an internal battle or sorts, which meant that the reason why the King was delegating this task to others was due to something more important than territory expansion.
As a Merchant, he had seen this face countless times, and it was at this moment when he knew that he should stay silent, and allow the other party to take the initiative to disclose important information that was not known to the general public.
"I'm sure that you've already heard about what happened in Wolfpine Barony, right?" Nevreal asked.
"Yes." Lucius nodded. "It is truly a tragic incident. I even lost a few of my acquaintances when the city was destroyed."
Lucius sighed deeply because the task given to them by the Guildmaster of Twilight Rain was a very difficult one. He had used a lot of manpower to track the whereabouts of the monster that destroyed the Barony.
However, all the people that he had sent to look for answers, never returned. Some of those people were even promising subordinates that he had been training for years.
"Since you already know about this matter, I will disclose a few things to you," Nevreal stated. "His Majesty is currently focusing his attention into tracking the Monster that destroyed the town. Such threats cannot be ignored, so he had spent considerable resources hiring specialists to do the job for him.
"Because of this, I am now looking for Merchants to continue the proposed expansion of the Kingdom, while his Majesty focuses on other things."
Lucius nodded his head in understanding. The spies of Twilight Rain, who had been watching the King's every move had said something similar, which gave credibility to Nevreal's words.
Now that he understood the gist of the story, he just needed to close the negotiation with the middle-aged Dwarf in order to get a share of the resources that would be discovered once the exploration of the Savage Lands started in full.
However, just as he was about to do that, the door of his office abruptly opened, and a Dwarf with red hair entered as if he owned the place.
"I was looking for you, Lucius," Harrus stated. "You were not in your Merchant Guild, so I came here to meet you."
"Harrus…," Lucius said with a displeased look on his face. "Didn't Ferron tell you that I am talking with a very important guest right now? What's the meaning of this?"
"Important guest?" Harrus snorted as he gave Nevreal a side-long glance. "Which is more important? Your guest or me?"
Lucius glared hatefully at the arrogant Ranker, who was making things difficult for him. Just as he was about to shout and ask the red-haired dwarf to leave, his right-hand man, Ferron, entered the office and stood between Harrus and Lucius.
"Get out of this office," Ferron said coolly. "You purposely ordered your subordinates to rough up my men, forcing me to deal with them, while you come here uninvited. Leave while I'm still being nice."
"Hoh~" Harrus eyed Ferron who was a peak B-Ranker, making him a Pseudo-High Ranker.
After his failed attempt on kidnapping the Princess, Harrus trained, and spent all of his resources so he could raise his rank as much as possible. The reason why he did this was to ensure that those who were eyeing his position would back down.
Just like Ferron, Harrus was now a peak B-Ranker. If the two of them really fought for real, no one would know who would emerge victorious between the two.
"What if I refuse to leave?" Harrus asked as he moved his face closer to Ferron. "What are you going to do about it?"
A tense atmosphere descended inside the room, as Harrus and Ferron confronted each other.
Meanwhile, back at the Inn, Lux opened his eyes, and a look of surprise flashed inside its depths.
"It's him," Lux thought. "There's no doubt. That's the same Ranker that tried to kidnap Princess Anastasia."
Since Draven had hidden himself inside Nevreal's shadow, the Half-Elf was able to see and hear everything that was happening inside the room.
He had already confirmed that Lucius was being protected by several Rankers, and had already dealt with half of them.
However, after Harrus' appearance, the Half-Elf was forced to put Lucius' abduction on hold, and just watch to see what was going to happen next.
He didn't know why the red-haired dwarf had appeared in Whitebridge City. But, whatever the reason, he had to ensure that this wasn't related to Colette and Aina, who would be powerless to fight against a High-Ranker, who had tried to kidnap a member of the Royal Family in the past.
