“Oh, wow, they built a building already,” Kamil remarked as he took a peak at the site while the airship he was on was approaching fast. A makeshift single-story tavern had already been constructed by using imported logs and bamboo. It wasn’t looking great but it was bound to be heaps better than living out of tents. Aside from the tavern, there were several holes nearby which were attempts to find an underground water source. Given the fact that there were several holes with no actual well, they failed to find a water source.

“The water crystals…”

Water crystals holding water defied physics because no matter how much water it held, the weight of the quartz did not change. A fist-sized quartz was able to absorb a bathtub amount of water and yet still weigh almost nothing. They could theoretically transport a lot of water on a single airship. This could bring in some decent profit potentially.

It does require people with water affinity to make water crystals, and Lara is the only one we have at the moment. I might need to find a few more to make the process easier…

Making a mental note, he waited for the airship to land.

 

“I’ve been informed about your arrival, Duke.”

Duman and Kamil had a handshake with others watching closely around them. The others being Mezei, Amanda, and Roseline. A new member was present, Ayaan, who was a shield fighter. He was the reinforcement Duman had talked about previously.

“I entrust my safety to you, Duman.”

While swiping his nose with his thumb, he replied confidently, “You can count on us. All of us here are veterans.”

Kamil looked around to see the members who’d be going down with him into the labyrinth. They all looked capable and looked clear to him that they were experienced. His attention was briefly locked on Mezei who had her midriff exposed. He had never seen a warrior exposing such a vital area of their body before.

Well, I suppose she knows what she is doing.

His attention moved on to the tavern in a short distance where it was seeing a decent amount of foot traffic already.

“It looks like this place is busy already,” he remarked.

“Yes,” Duman replied, “Adventurers from all over the world are currently flocking to this place at the moment. We’ve cleared down to the 5th floor, but monsters seem to spawn daily, so we need bodies present in the dungeon all the time to keep the whole place clean.”

There was money to be made from hunting monsters because monster parts were used in arms, armors, and whatnot. Weak monsters, such as goblins, were virtually worthless, but orcs frequently had iron weapons and werewolves were known for their fur if they could extract it. Since there was a settlement right by the dungeon, it was possible to bring monster corpses out and skin them if needed. Their meat could be consumed as well although goblin and orc flesh was avoided since they were a bit too similar to humans. Werewolf flesh was accepted by some, especially those from the former Siwen territory since food was always hard to come by in the North. Meanwhile, the flesh of great bears was considered delicacy and was under high demand although it was extremely rare to find it available at all.

“What kind of monsters have you encountered so far?”

“The first two floors have goblins. The 3rd and 4th floor have orcs. We found a mix of orcs and werewolves on the 5th floor.”

In his whole life, Kamil had encountered goblins, werewolves, and great bears when it came to monster-like beings. There were also boars and wolves, and general bears, but they were considered wild animals rather than monsters. Ordinary magic arrows were found to be effective up to general bears in his knowledge. Anything stronger than that, an exploding arrow was probably required. Then, there was the hurricane arrow that had yet to show its limit.

“I was told that there is a gate on the 5th that wouldn’t budge?”

“Yes, that’s where you come in according to Brian, right?”

He nodded.

“Alright, we are all ready to go unless you wish to take a short break, Duke?”

He glanced at Anita who came along as his personal bodyguard. Cezary wouldn’t have sent him alone for certain.

“I am fine,” she replied curtly. She was in a maid dress with her usual whip and a dagger on her belt. She turned to Duman and others. “My duty is to protect the duke. I will not partake in any combat.”

“Loud and clear,” Duman replied.

“Let’s go right now then. Let us see if we can get the gate down there to open so that you can explore further.”

“We have no issue with that. Mezei, get the fuckers ready!”

“Got it!”

The members were already there, thus it was just a matter of organizing a party and setting off. Kamil was to stay behind all the way back along with Anita. Ayaan and Mezei were to be the frontline fighters with Amanda, Duman in the middle. Roseline was in the back, in front of Kamil. A fire crystal lamp was given to Kamil and Anita in addition.

“I don’t see a weapon on you, Duke,” Mezei commented while performing a final check before diving in.

He pulled out his snake blade at once which made a series of clicks as it formed into a sword. She whistled, looking impressed. “You are an assassin type? That’s rare for a noble. They almost always choose the knighty path.”

“I also have a magical bow and arrows as well. They are summoned, so you won’t see them until I use them.”

“You are an archer?” Duman overheard and chimed in. “You may actually be useful then. How good are you?”

With a series of proficient movements, Kamil summoned a green translucent bow and shot an arrow right above a man’s head who was just passing by. He looked around as if he sensed something but couldn’t figure out what exactly happened. It was a magical arrow as well, thus there was no physical evidence of what had just transpired. One had to be confident enough to shoot an arrow right above someone’s head, especially with the speed he drew his bow.

“Good,” Duman remarked. “Done that in combat often?”

“You could say that.”

“Then why don’t you join us in combat then? My arbalest is powerful but it’s slow to load and fire. We could actually use a nimble archer.”

Mages took a moment to cite their spell incarnations, meaning in time of absolute need that required a fast response, an archer was referred.

“Very well, I will provide support then.”

Duman gave a thumb up with a wink. “Good, with an archer, this group is geared to perfection. Let’s do this, folks!”

 

Reaching down to the fifth floor was a breeze, primarily because there were already random adventurers present who were hunting down newly spawned monsters for either loot or training or both. Most of them were either solo or duo.

“Are they from the Ceres guild?”

“No, Duke, they are from somewhere else,” Roseline replied who was the closest to him in the current group formation. The dungeon was mostly clear until they reached the fourth floor at which point it was becoming a bit too dangerous for even a duo party to traverse. 

“Orcs!” Mezei shouted to warn the others behind her.

“Six of them in front of us,” Ayaan added. He was a guy of an average height. He was donning a chainmail coif and it was almost impossible to see his hair.

Duman glanced back at Kamil. “Duke, care to thin down the number?”

Such was traditionally an archer’s job, reducing the number of incoming monsters before frontline fighters would take them on. Since six orcs were charging toward two fighters, each of them would need to take on three of them at once under ideal circumstances. Even reducing one would guarantee breathing room for either fighter.

“I shall oblige.” Having said so, Kamil summoned his magical bow and drew shots in quick succession, shooting three orcs right between their eyes. Each shot was extremely precise. Everyone, bar Anita,’s eyes went wide. He was quick because he didn’t need actual arrows to draw his bow, and each arrow, being magical, was pretty powerful on its own. These magical arrows were found to be effective against werewolves which were stronger than orcs, thus they stood no chance. The orcs themselves were dumbfounded and stood still, utterly confused that half of them simply dropped dead. That was the cue for Mezei and Ayaan to make their move and swiftly took care of the rest.

“Well, that was easy,” Ayaan remarked while cleaning his sword.

“I missed having a good archer,” Mezei added. “They make things far smoother.”

“I am impressed. You are better than I ever expected,” Duman said.

“Thanks,” Kamil replied indifferently. He couldn’t care less to be honest.

“Can I still ask for the support?”

The initial deal was that he would just “tag along”. But Duman was asking him to play an active role.

“I don’t see why not. I am to thin out the incoming and take out randoms then?”

“Yep, you’ve got it. As long as you do that, it will make our job much easier.”

Taking out randoms, meaning taking out monsters that appeared out of nowhere, was either Duman’s or Amanda’s job. Neither was quite effective at it, but they’ve managed. The missing piece of their party coincidently happened to be Kamil himself. As they proceeded further, they ran into more orcs which were dispatched with relative ease. Nobody really broke a sweat. The 5th floor had some werewolves mixed with orcs, but they still proved to be no match for the group.

“So, this is the stone gate,” Duman declared.

A large stone gate stood firm in front of them. The pair of giant doors were dull-looking. There was no pattern whatsoever. There was also no handle, either. In fact, there was no hinge, either. It looked like just a pair of giant stone slabs blocking the path. It was hardly a conventional gate if it was a gate at all.

“I’ve done what I can to open or at least create an opening,” he added. As a siege weapon engineer, he had the know-how in breaking down gates. “These didn’t budge at all. It’s either wedged in too tightly or maybe not a gate at all.”

“Please secure the perimeter,” Kamil commanded, to which Ayaan and Mezei along with Amanda spread out to form a line of defense. Just as they did that, he summoned wind elementals to his eyes, making them glow in faint green.

“Your eyes are glowing?” Duman remarked curiously.

“I am borrowing powers of wind elementals,” he replied curtly while approaching the pair of giant stone slabs.

I see.

He was starting to see inscriptions on the stone slabs. They were ancient texts, some of which he was able to understand since he had been assisting Flora in translating the ancient tablets from time to time.

It… sounds like a diary to me…?

The inscriptions basically described what they were hiding underground. It was due to dragon attacks. It said that their food supply was getting low. Thankfully, water supply was secure for the time being due to underground water sources. The last line was different from the rest. It read as if whoever wrote it was lamenting.

“We’ve entrusted our lives to Vass, but is this really alright…?” He whispered.

So, this man, Vass the lightning, was likely the ruler of this ancient city at the time, which reminds me…

That this ancient city had the same idea as the current Ceres where they were digging into the mountain and the ground to build a settlement.

Did they have the foresight of the dragon attack? Was that why they constructed an underground city? Or was there another reason?

Having done reading the inscription, it was time to find a way to open the slabs. There was no clue from the inscription as far as he could tell. Having no clear clue, he did what he could; He simply touched the stone slab. Of course, nothing occurred. 

Yeah, I thought so.

“What do you see?” Duman asked, looking awfully curious.

“Are you sure this is a gate even? All I see is some ancient inscription. I don’t feel this is a gate.”

“True, these do not look like a gate, but this place is the only spot I can see a path forward.”

Duman inspected the whole floor thoroughly and concluded that this was the spot where a path could be beyond the stone slabs. He had been hammering the walls until he heard a hollow sound, and this was the spot, meaning this may not have been a gate but a path was likely beyond it. When he explained to Kamil, he nodded along in understanding.

Lord Ludwig, are you there?

A second later, a green translucent butterfly appeared around him and replied in his head.

‘Yes.’

I would like you to tell me if you know anything about this place or this “gate”.

‘I am too young to know. I shall ask around.’

It took mayhaps two or three seconds before he replied back.

‘There are several who claimed to have been there when this gate was shut down. This was an emergency gate, and it was shut down to keep monsters out.’

It was quite amusing to hear that some elementals were thousands of years old. He wondered whether elementals had lifespan if at all. They did not have a physical body, thus their lifespan depended on their spiritual integrity. Essentially, when they became sick of their own lives, it was over for them.

To keep monsters out?

The dragon or dragons were attacking the city from above, and it looked like it was also being invaded from below as well. It must have been a treacherous situation.

Hang on… If this is the case…

It meant that an underground settlement was not entirely safe from monsters, either, in contrast to popular belief.

Is it possible to open this “gate”?

‘Yes. But there is something powerful behind it. Be prepared.’

Several more wind elementals appeared, and they simply passed through the stone.

“Interesting…, whatever is happening is beyond my imagination,” Duman remarked. Kamil wasn’t hearing him, though. He was focused on communicating with elementals. At one point, one of the stone slabs rocked slightly, releasing some dust from atop.

“Ohhh!” Duman exclaimed, and others’ attention was on him.

“Prepare for combat!” Kamil barked as he took a backward step. The stone slab didn’t open; It simply banished at which point a shadowy figure dashed out at once and clawed at him, missing.

“Woah!” Duman, too, took several steps backwards in haste.

It was a werewolf but it felt different; It felt strong. It was no larger than an ordinary werewolf however. The differences were that its eyes glowed in yellow and that the tips of its fur were glimmering in dark orange.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” Ayaan charged forward toward the werewolf with his kite shield ready. Mezei assisted him, basically trying to corner the werewolf into defense. Duman, meanwhile, pulled out his large arbalest off his back and loaded a bolt onto it.

“Elementals of fire, heed my call. Open the lid of their potentials and bring out the better of them: Energize!” Amanda began casting energize on Ayaan, Mezei, and Duman.

“Elementals of earth, heed my call! Protect my ally from harm: Stoneskin!” And Mezei cast stoneskin on Ayaan. Kamil being a ranged combatant didn’t need either buffs. 

“Contain the werewolf! It does not look ordinary!” Ayaan barked.

“Take this!” Duman fired his shot and hit its shoulder. To everyone’s surprise, it caught the bolt in midair. “The fuck? That’s humanly impossible!” He uttered. 

“This ain’t a human, Duman,” Mezei retorted while swinging her warpick which the werewolf dodged with ease. It counter-attacked with its claw, but her tower shield blocked its claw. Ayaan pushed forward and attempted to shield-bash it. While he was successful, it didn’t seem to have much effect. He pushed forward to topple it but it wasn’t budging. Then it howled furiously, ringing everyone’s ears. Anita swiftly drew out her whip as soon as the howling ended.

“Incoming from all directions!” She shouted urgently while dashing toward Kamil. “Duke!”

“Cover my back, I will take care of randoms!”

“Understood!”

“Duman, I trust that you take care of the werewolf! Focus on it! I will take care of randoms!”

“Got it! Ayaan! Corner it elsewhere!”

“Roger! Mezei, help me push it!”

“Yeah!”

Kamil was a new addition to the party, but they were working like a well-oiled machine as if he had been here for a while. He shot down anything that tried to approach Duman’s team. A small horde of goblins came only to be shot at their heads and go down without a fight. A group of orcs came running only to meet the same fate. Finally, a wave of werewolves came. Unlike goblins and orcs, they generally did not go down in one shot which could pose an issue for Duman’s group.

Now is a good time to do this…

He drew a magical arrow with a touch of fire: It was the exploding arrow. The arrow bit was glimmering with a dark orange hue while the rest of the arrow was translucent green.

Fire elementals, an extra order for you. Spread out and catch as many as you can. Bring. Them. Down.

And he let go of the arrow which flew toward the wave of werewolves and exploded at once once it was above them. The moment it exploded, it was as if a wave of lava was pouring down on them. What was more: The lava had a mind of its own and began to move toward every single werewolf, grabbing at its ankles and immediately setting them on fire. The werewolves immediately began rolling around to kill the fire. They would have been successful if it wasn’t ordinary fire. However, in this case, the more they rolled on the floor, the more fire they let themselves envelope with, making the whole situation worse. It was as if they somehow dosed themselves in gasoline.

Amanda was observing Kamil’s magic from a short distance, looking dumbfounded. His magic was completely on a different level. Mages followed a strict list of spells. Whatever he was casting was well beyond what mages were known to be capable of. It was as if …

“As if he can communicate directly with elementals…,” She whispered to herself. She, then, recalled the moment he fired the hurricane arrow a while ago. During the chaotic moment, she felt she did hear voices of elementals, whispering gibberish into her ears. The funny thing was that she was a fire mage, and she was somehow hearing voices of wind elementals.

Roseline, too, was looking at Kamil, longing in her eyes. For a very high level mage, she had always dreamt of manipulating magic at will. She could personalize her spell incarnations to an extreme degree, but that wasn’t enough in her mind. What Kamil was doing was the very definition of what she had always dreamt to be able to do: Commanding magic at will. Of course, there was also the aspect of being able to command two elementals at once also which wasn’t something that was understood well. Kamil being able to command two elementals was known throughout the city, so nobody was really surprised. 

“Gotcha!” Mezei shouted gleefully because her warpick just hit the werewolf’s head and penetrated its skull. In other words, it was as good as dead. “Ayaan!”

“You don’t need to remind me!” Making a forward stance, he slashed his sword powerfully toward its neck which it couldn’t move due to the fact that Mezei’s warpick was holding it firmly. Soon enough, its decapitated head rolled on the floor with its headless body slowly falling backward while spewing blood everywhere.

“We got it!” She shouted joyfully while covered with blood. She didn’t mind the mess at all.

“Be thankful for the duke! He made sure that you guys were isolated!’ Duman shouted proudly from a distance. “Randoms”, how weak they were, were always a menace when dealing with boss-type monsters. “Strength in numbers” was a part of the play where weaker monsters would surround adventurers and wear them down.

“We should skin it. Its fur is very unusual,” Ayaan remarked, looking down on the headless body of the beast. The tip of its fur hadn’t lost its color. It meant going back. They looked at Kamil. It would be down to him.

“That’s fine. The path is now open. My job is done here.”

There was indeed no need for him to accompany them all the time. He just needed to reach the bottom. He’d likely be called up again once Duman’s team hit another roadblock. 

“Alright, let’s carry the body and pick up any other loot we can sell,” Duman told the others who quickly spread out to grab and carry any sellable loot. Orc’s iron weapons were often the favorite since it could be melted back. Nobody knew where the monsters came from and where they got their equipment. Nevertheless, the dropped weapons were free iron, and they weren’t going to pass on that. Tantan would pay handsomely for any iron. Additionally, they needed some iron of their own also.

 

Once they made back out, Kamil offered to skin the headless werewolf.

“I am pretty good at it unless you have someone else.”

Duman and Mezei looked at each other. It looked like they wanted to turn him down. Skinning was a hunter’s job. A noble would have never learned the skill to begin with. But then he played an integral part, meaning he earned a right to claim a trophy. He wasn’t asking much in that sense since he was offering to skin the monster.

“S, sure, Duke. All yours,” he reluctantly agreed, not wanting to piss him off or make him feel unpleasant. He was fully expecting to forego the skin. Mezei, meanwhile, handed over a skinning knife.

“Thank you.”

Once he got down to his knees, he began skinning the corpse. His smooth and swift action indicated that this wasn’t his first time skinning something. Anita, too, was observing him skinning from a short distance with her arms folded. It was in fact his first time skinning a werewolf, but the concept was the same. The bottom line was to get the fur out in as pristine condition as possible while getting the least flesh and fat on the skin itself, and because it was beheaded, there was little to no damage to other parts of its body, meaning the chance of acquiring a pristine fur was good as long as its skinner knew what he was doing. For Duman’s group, Mezei was the best skinner who used to be a small game hunter by trade, who was starting to look bewildered while watching him skin because it was clear that he was clearly used to skinning which didn’t quite make sense since he was a noble, not just any noble, either; He was a lord of his own domain.

“Duke, you surprise me. Who are you?” Duman asked what Mezei was going to ask.

“I thought you knew me? My name is Kamil Fenchel and I -”

“I am pretty sure that you know what I am asking,” He interjected at once. He wasn’t having it.

While continuing to skin it, he replied, “Let’s say I am a legalized bastard who was initially abandoned. Does that answer your question?”

He was essentially implying that he had to survive on his own because abandoned bastards were often forced to survive on their own without any financial support. It was hasher for boys than girls in this case. At least with girls, they’d be either trained to become maids or get married off to a merchant or something. When it came to boys, they were just thrown out.

“I see. That explains some things,” Duman nodded along. Mezei displayed a look of understanding as well. They understood that Kamil in his younger days had to hunt and survive on his own. Of course, that wasn’t the truth and, if anyone wanted to dig deeper, it wasn’t hard to see holes in his story because he was just fifteen years old. Yet, he was skinning like a veteran. But nobody really saw him as a fifteen year-old boy; His demeanor as well as manner of calm speech was not from someone who was that young. Therefore, as long as nobody brought up his age specifically, no one really considered his age. This was such a case.

“Done,” Kamil said curtly while placing the skinned fur next to the headless body. Mezei inspected the fur closely and gave an approving nod.

“You are as good as me,” she replied. “Good enough.”

Duman said, “Duke, we are done for the day. We’ve prepared a room for you and another for your maid at the tavern.”

Nodding solemnly, he walked toward the tavern, and Anita followed him closely.

 

Not long after he settled down in a room which wasn’t anything fancy, Anita brought in a large dish of -

“Boiled shrimp? Wow, so, I reckon they are importing food from Tantan.”

“I believe so.”

It had to be good for Tantan. Probably for the first time in their history, they had a trade route.

I believe this is exactly why Lord Aaron chose to retire in spite of the fact that he could still go on. If the town developed further under the new lord, his popularity would soar.

Whenever a new lord was appointed, doubts grew. Historically, it wasn’t uncommon that a new lord would turn everything upside down for one reason or another. A smooth transition was what everyone wanted but not always got. Aaron had the foresight to see good fortune coming his way, thus he chose to retire a bit early to make a smooth transition. It was a selfless action because it meant giving up on power, which was something Karsten would never do as long as he breathed.

She added, “They said they don’t have anything else but shrimp.”

“Hah! That sounds like bragging to me.”

Indeed, any dish from Tantan was heaps better than anything else although, no matter how good, consuming the same dish would get boring. Now that they had access to werewolves, red meat could become available.

In the evening, when he came down to the first floor, he saw Duman at a table with several large mugs of ale. There were a few more patreon around, but the floor was largely quiet. As it was a makeshift building, the floor was just compacted soil. This also meant that the whole floor smelled like soil.

“How is the water situation around here?” He asked Duman who noticed him approaching and threw a casual greeting.

“We tried to dig several holes around here, hoping for some. Nothing at all. And, since we’ve been here, not a single drop of rain from above. But I’ve noticed a good amount of dew early in the morning, which is probably how the grass is surviving around here.”

“But not enough for human consumption, I reckon.”

“Might be enough for one or two if they try hard enough, but cannot sustain a settlement certainly.”

“And you’ve got the ale here how?”

“A merchant from Tantan was more than willing to sell some along with a few kegs of water, but it’s not enough. We are actually drinking ale as water at the moment and are using water for bathing because our female members are demanding it.”

It wasn’t that uncommon to use ale as an alternative form of water because obtaining clean water could be troublesome in some cases. At this point, Kamil explained to him about the water crystals and how they defied physics.

“A fist-sized crystal can give a bathtub worth of water. An airship could carry hundreds of those. A shipment of such a case could well alleviate the water shortage.”

But not entirely since a settlement relying on water imports was simply unheard of. Under normal circumstances, the first condition of establishing a settlement would have been availability of water. However, the fact that this place had no permanent resident to speak of, that requirement was overlooked. If this place was to be a permanent settlement, the water issue would need to be solved before people were able to settle down. Of course, this was not Duman’s problem, nor the guild’s. At least, it wasn’t for the time being. After all, if Atra rejected this settlement, they would need to move out.

“You would need to speak to Brian. I am a senior guild member but I don’t have any authority when it comes to financial matters.”

“I am aware. I am simply telling you what to expect since I fully expect Brian to agree.”

Duman cocked his head; He was inclined to agree. Water availability was the biggest issue for them at the moment. If a bit of money could solve it, anyone would choose to spend money.

“Anyway,” He continued, “I will depart here tomorrow morning. You may call me again, should the need arise.”

Duman grinned. “If you weren’t a noble, I would have done everything I could to recruit you into my team. With you, this team was perfect.”

The missing piece of his group was a nimble archer who could take care of randoms swiftly and thin out incoming. Duman was an archer, sort of, since he was a crossbowman but he preferred power over speed by using an arbalest because an ordinary shot by a bow or a crossbow was often too weak to make an impact. Kamil overcame that limitation by using magical arrows. He had the advantage of power and speed by using magic, making him a potent ranged attacker without any need for delays.

“I am very much interested in adventuring,” he replied with a weak smile. “But my duties call me.”

If he wasn’t adopted by Edmund, he was sure that he would have become an adventurer eventually. That was his goal in Laufeld. He wondered how everything would have turned out if he wasn’t adopted in the first place. Given his prowess, he would eventually have been taken into a noble family at some point likely by Edmund due to the familial connection, meaning, even if the adoption didn’t occur, he would have gone to Lux anyway and would have ended up similarly because exacting his revenge required him to become a noble unless he was willing to turn everyone his enemy.

“I will see you around, Duke.”

“Likewise. Sweet dreams.”

 

In the next morning, as soon as the sun was poking out the horizon, Kamil was already on the airship, and it was ready to take off on his order. He would have stayed longer if it wasn’t for Flora’s pregnancy. Additionally, due to the ongoing negotiation with Atra, his presence was required. He simply couldn’t afford to be away and indulge himself in hobbies and whatnot.

I do wonder what Lord Knell is trying to do. He sounded like he was going to let the war happen and then backstab him somehow.

“Duke, I’ve brought some shrimp if you like some during the journey,” Anita declared, pointing at a small square leather bag on her side. Apparently, she went out of her way to acquire some.

“Anita, in case you are unaware, Brian the guildmaster has opened a restaurant called ‘Seaside retreat’. You can get boiled shrimp there.”

Her eyes opened wide. As a maid who rarely left the manor, she wouldn’t have known. It wasn’t a hard rule that maids weren’t allowed to leave their manor. It was just that maids neither had time nor reasons to leave their domain. This was especially true for the Ceres Fenchel manor since it was always short-staffed. In the case of Lux Fenchel manor, the maids there formed an isolated society of their own.

“You can get shrimp in Ceres?”

“Aye.”

Her reaction made it clear that she acquired some additional shrimp in the name of serving the duke.

“They do deliveries, I heard. Give the butler a shout, and I am sure he can arrange things. But you will have to pay.”

For some maids, money had absolutely no meaning. Those were maids who had decided to permanently stay at a manor with no intention of marriage. For them, money had no meaning. They’d keep saving just in case but often they ended up passing away without spending much if any. Brian’s restaurant might receive a small boon if those maids were to spend their savings.

Well, good luck, guildmaster. It looks like you are just as busy as I am.

Having such a thought, he beamed a grin. He wasn’t the only busy man after all.