Arc 1 (Conception): (21) Fraud and Trust
When we reached Gazina city, it was already afternoon. Qunia was quite excited to see the city for the second time. In villages, you can say it is ubiquitous to find people who have never left the village except for the time they needed to get an adventure card or A-card for their whole lives. Her wish to come here was propelled high for many reasons, mainly she wanted to show off Kola to others and the best person to show off, her love rival of years is living in this Gazina city. It did not matter to Qunia that Zuya was now a noble lady; her having Kola as her husband means everything. Now, she was looking to show off her triumph of life. The only person who can give her satisfaction was Zuya, and also, this city will be the new base for the love nest of her and Kola. Here Kola will create a company run by slaves and provide the income to enjoy her life in Kola's arms. The slave company they will name Merata company or Merata slave company. She could not stop the flickering of butterflies in her stomach due to all the excitement
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Moment Qunia and Kola entered the outer city gate, he was smiling.
"Why are you smiling?" (Qunia)
"It is funny to see your expression of surprise. I was just like you on my last trip here....hihihi.....how a single recent visit before you has given an edge over you...ahahaha."
I could not control my laughter after saying that.
"But that was just one trip..."
Seeing that I will not let this chance to laugh on her, she tried to change the topic,
"Anyway, what are our plans now...we cannot just go to the village without making some money to show villagers after what you did there yesterday. They all might still be dreaming themselves bathing in golds...." (Qunia)
I was also troubled on the way. It might have been easy to promise big in the heat of the moment to all villagers about the future, but know I needed to make sure that things work out.
"huh...you know it all along... I thought I was discreet enough to not let others know."
"Do not worry; I will be with you always no matter what you did, okay. Anyway, it was not like those people who were not interested in giving you money on loan. You are the first merchant from the village. The more business you have in the city, the more likely you will hire their children and give them more money to enjoy life. " (Qunia)
Moments like this make me realize that I am one hell of a lucky guy who has the supports of two beauties in life, one beautiful young lover in the past and a dedicated young wife now. This always assures me that I am not alone in this fight.
If you ask me, do I really have a plan on what to do in the city? The answer is yes, I do. The plan is like this first step is to meet Zuya, get a customer channel in the high and rich noble class of Gazina city, then the second step is to rent a shop-cum-office, and finally, the third step is to make sure that regular meat supply is available in our shop after the hunt in the forest.
But soon it was clear that things are not so simple. After coming here, I realized that I have no way to contact Zuya. The only places I know are two, one adventure guild and another inn I stayed last time. I could not help but also remember Bella after thinking of the inn. Is she still working there? How should I react after seeing her? But looking at my beautiful wife beside me, I know nothing matters.
After this long, nonstop journey, we needed a place to rest first. So, my next destination was decided to be the inn then. After taking her hands in mine, I said while looking in her eyes, "You are right. It was not like they are children to be deceived by a young man, like me. Anyway, first let's go to the inn, I know my dear wife is tired after this long journey and needs rest." and lightly kissed on her forehead. Qunia was blushing after this, and I moved the cart to the inn's direction.
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Last time, When Tuner, Pata, and I were here, Tuner took care of all the arrangements and paid for our stay in the inn. Therefore, it was kinda like the first time for me in this inn booking and making all payments myself. So, when I entered the inn, I looked for a person in charge of taking care of the inn. There were many people inside sitting and talking on tables, but there was only one man on the counter on one right side of the inn's entrance door. I also show him the last time when I stayed here.
"Hello, manager! Do you have a room for two people?"
"adventurer or visitor?" (inn manager)
"Visiter! does this matter in giving the room."
Seeing my get-up, he understood that I came from the village and was not aware of rules here, so he explained,
"Rooms are the same, but the policy in case the guest did not come for three days to check-out after the period of booking for the room is different. In case of an adventurer, we send their belongings to the adventurer guild to take care of, if any. But for visitors, we need to send their belongings to city guards to take care." (inn manager)
So, the rules were different about dealing with luggage in case of some accident. Well, fine, but I do not wish to use this service ever.
"Will you also eat here? We provide a regular meal at breakfast and dinner. The bathing water up to 30 litter per room is complimentary, but extra water needs to be paid 1 copper per bucket in cash to the lobby helper to get. So, a single room for two people without food is 1 silver coin per day and with food is 1 silver and 20 copper coins per day. " (inn manager)
As we were dead-tired after such a long, nonstop journey. So after I paid for the manager for three days, we moved to the room to sleep. I also told the lobby helper to wake us for dinner.
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But not long after we slept, there was knocking on the door. I could not believe that dinner time came so fast. But still moved to the door to answer the knocking as it was very hard and rapid. It looks as if the lobby helper was trying to wake us for a long time. Hurriedly I opened the door and show a seen I have considered impossible. The last thing I was expecting was to see Pata and Tuner were standing at the door.
"Are you crazy? Why did you leave the village without consulting or taking any of us with you?" (Tuner)
Soon, Qunia also woke up and greeted them after looking at the people at the door.
"Hello Pata...Tuner." (Qunia)
They first entered the room and shouted at Qunia.
"I have known for long that this boy is foolish, but Qunia, you should not just do any foolish thing in his company. Let's first go downstairs for dinner." (Pata)
The event that transpired in the village was like this. The first thing each villager did was bragging to each other about investing in Kola's new business, and soon everyone knew that they all were given an equal chance; at first thought like the special connection they initially believed to have with me was not there at all and were sad. Soon, they concluded, maybe as I am from the village, so I always wanted to help each of the villagers get rich with me. Therefore, I did what I did, and everyone was happy.
The further revelation that I have already left for the city made everyone worried about our safety given by the attack's recent memory on me. So, everyone requested to Tuner check on us, and Pata also joined after Manoj assured him that he would take care of his fields. Everyone repeatedly asks them to make sure everything is okay, so they are in front of us.
They also have to travel nonstop to meet us. Their first choice was to come to the inn, given that I have stayed here last time and has not seen much of the city. So, they expected me to come here first then move on to other places.
No one spoke much while eating dinner. I know that everyone was waiting to go to the room to talk to. Tuner and Pata have also booked a place for themselves.
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After dinner, we all were in my room, and our discussion continued,
"I would not ask or discuss what and why you did what you did. I thought we were close enough to be friends. After all the things we did to help each other and talked about various things together. But now, I am disappointed." (Tuner)
"Let alone friendship this fella is not even consulting to his father and mother. Do you even know how sad Rena is right now?" (Pata)
"I am terribly sorry for my reckless behavior and will not repeat this again."
"I also ask for forgiveness on our behalf. I should have also told him to do otherwise as his wife." (Qunia)
After all the talk and know how many people in the village care about each other, my trust level has increased a lot in the villagers and particularly Tuner. My problem with how to tell about one-leaf to Rena and Pata is also solved. As the cultivation not only works on people with skill but also on godforsaken. So, I could not help but talks a few things I have never shared with anyone but Qunia, like the one-leaf cultivation method. Both of them were shocked to know about the existence of cultivation. While Pata was totally clueless, Tuner has some previous exposure to the rumors and fact mixed talked in adventurers.
Their surprise was apparent, after all, this could change the way system work, While cultivation which Tuner know only works for a few particular class of people. But the One-leaf cultivation method is heaven-defying. Cultivation is used by a specific class of people to manipulate the role of divine mercy skills and levels within society. They create gaps or filled it with cultivation between people with different numbers of divine skills and levels to control society's system.
But when we told them about the impact of cultivation on the body and age limit, they finally know that there was another way to strengthen the body and lengthens the age limit other than level-up.
But the biggest blew to them was that the One-Leaf cultivation method is not limited by any criteria to learn and can be thought to everyone by just giving one new leaf that sprouts in our spiritual space each month. That is, we can make two new one-leaf cultivation warriors each month.
Seeing how I was now devolving such big secrets so quickly to them, Tuner refrained me from doing this in the future.
"Right now, everyone in the village is good, but many are doing this because of the money you have that bind their future interest to yours. So, before anyone knows this, we have to very carefully select him to let him join on this secret. This trust level needs to be slowly increased with discretion. "
I also decided in my mind that from now on, I needed to make sure that my actions were acceptable and do not hurt the people who trust me and care about me.
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