Chapter 218 – Wait[1]
After everyone finished preparing, Zhao Hai took them away. Laura, Green, Quinn John, Nier, and Meg, however, stayed back in Faith Mansion along with Zhao Hai.
They were waiting, not for anyone else but Carlo’s people. How many of his men were currently in Casa City? They would tidy them up before leaving.
Right now, they were forced to leave Casa City and the Purcell Duchy. They’d suppressed that anger in the heart, but if they couldn’t vent, then it would become very uncomfortable.
Zhao Hai knew that in two days time, those mercenaries would arrive in Casa City. When that time comes, they would make their move. For the past two days, they lived honestly. They were in seclusion, the gates of Faith Mansion completely closed as they declined any visitors. Nobody came in or out. Compared to the busy atmosphere from before, it seemed like another world.
Even though the forces within Casa City thought it was strange, they weren’t too surprised as Laura had sent away many of her people. They thought she’d already secretly left with the supplies stored in Faith Mansion. The large firms didn’t care much. For large merchants like Laura, they each had one or two of their own secrets. Commodities could easily be moved through a secret passage.
Big firms had big businesses as their livelihoods. The top merchant firms on the continent created headquarters within major cities and made secret passages to move from inside the city to outside. This was an open secret, and no one would know how vast the passages were or where they led to.
It could be said that these passages were secrets the large merchant firms used to maintain their livelihoods. They were the clans’ most valued secrets. Nobody knows of it except the core members of the clan. This was why the large firms weren’t that concerned about the whereabouts of those commodities.
Conversely, Laura’s actions made those firms think of another point. One must know that the secret passages were used as a clan’s final lifeline. So long as one didn’t face a life and death crisis, one wouldn’t use it. With Laura moving through the secret passage, it showed that they were facing a situation. This puzzled those who didn’t know of Boric.
The large firms thought Laura’s retreat was due to the Purcell clan withdrawing their support of her. Because of that, Laura couldn’t stand against the Markey Dell clan, so she decided to give up on everything and prepare to leave.
Those large firms, however, still didn’t make a move against Laura. In their opinion, although the Purcell clan wouldn’t help Laura, they still thought she wasn’t affable. A few days ago, Zhao Hai had entered Faith Mansion and hadn’t left. They had seen how formidable Zhao Hai was. With that recognition, they didn’t want to offend such a powerful black magician.
Laura’s stores were still continuing their business. Nobody dared to grab those businesses because the Purcell clan had made a public statement that said she’d transferred the Higanbana stores over to the Purcell clan. From now on, they were a part of the Purcell clan.
The large firms attached great importance to this news. Higanbana stores now controlled 40% of the Purcell Duchy’s daily necessities market. This was really too high. Laura had cooperated with the Purcell Duchy before, so she hadn’t been suppressed. Now, however, it was different. Those shops were now owned by the Purcell Duchy. In other words, within the Purcell Duchy, the Purcell clan now controlled the bulk of the daily necessities market. Wishing to storm into this line of business in the future would be impossible.
Since they knew Laura had to leave, they didn’t feel in the mood to pay her any attention. Instead, they placed their attention towards the Higanbana stores. The Higanbana commodities had been turned over to the Purcell clan. Future changes to the daily necessities market within the Purcell Duchy would be difficult to foresee.
The mercenaries didn’t let Laura and Zhao Hai wait too long. On the fifteenth day, the mercenaries entered Casa City.
When they entered Casa City, the Purcell clan set their eyes on them. They had to know what movements the mercenaries would make and report it to Laura. Evan had felt quite guilty towards Laura, and thus wanted to compensate by doing something for her.
Laura was grateful with regards to Evan’s good intentions. Although she had her own intelligence network, she didn’t move them. After all, the Higanbana stores had already been given over to the Purcell clan. She’d make the Purcell clan unhappy with her petty actions. As such, she’d wait for the gust of wind to cross first. Then she’d make use of her intelligence network at that time.
These days, Laura didn’t idle. Those that were willing to leave with her were sent to Fort Iron Mountain. Zhao Hai hadn’t intended to place humans at Stony Mountain, so Cai-er had withdrawn her seven-colored flowers and vines. Furthermore, the black fog had dispersed. But since it was still a known domain of Zhao Hai, no one dared to go up because of his reputation.
As a place where a black magician had stayed, not many had the guts to venture there. They feared the toxins. Other than that, there was a stipulation set for an individual’s property. This stipulation had defined provisions. For example, Zhao Hai bought Stony Mountain, so if anyone broke into it there would be repercussions and Zhao Hai could kill them.
They weren’t afraid that those sent to Fort Iron Mountain would run away. Even if there was a spy among them, Zhao Hai wasn’t scared. Outside of Fort Iron Mountain were undead defending the area, along with Eagle Virtuous Phantasms patrolling the skies. Simply put, even if they knew of the situation within Fort Iron Mountain, it was simply impossible for them to pass on the news.
Moreover, these past few days, Laura had arranged for the things she’d moved from Faith Mansion to be placed in Fort Iron Mountain. The problem was that Faith Mountain wasn’t small and there were many good things in there. Zhao Hai hadn’t decorated Fort Iron Mountain before, so there were only a few simple furnitures placed within and it looked very rough. Since Laura now transferred her items over from Faith Mansion, Fort Iron Mountain exuded a little more of a noble’s aura.
During their wait, Zhao Hai led Laura and the others around and let them adjust and understand the situation within Fort Iron Mountain. He brought them to the tarn and mine tunnels where he raised the rabbits. Quinn John and Laura sighed and sighed after seeing those places. They hadn’t expected Zhao Hai to have achieved so much in such a short period of time.
Zhao Hai didn’t hide the truth from them and led them to the Space Ranch in order to check it. It was now Level 5. We can say it was now Level 5 due to Laura. Previously, Laura gave Zhao Hai many magic beasts that he then raised within the Space. Some of those were many-legged insects[2] or long-haired swine[3].
With the help of those, Zhao Hai’s ranch was upgraded. Furthermore, he could now raise a hundred more animals, which made Zhao Hai happy. He immediately raised a number of those long-haired swines.
The Space’s rating for those long-haired swines was Level 4 magic beast. Outside the Space, however, it was given a rating of Level 1 since it had no aggressiveness and was known as the continent’s most common carnivore[4].
Zhao Hai didn’t raise many of the long-haired swines since the Higanbana stores weren’t something Laura considered anymore and was just being managed by the Purcell clan. Zhao Hai raised them for the purpose of providing meat and saving for future use.
Laura and the others now had quite a good understanding of the Space after several days of observation. In regards to the Space’s magical items, they had become used to them. The most free and unfettered of them now, however, was Karen.
After taking over the basement of the Spatial Villa, Karen made it his experiment room and rarely came out. He was busy doing experiments inside and once he tired out, he’d pass out asleep or take a stroll outside in the prairie. He was completely loose and unburdened and passed the days comfortably.
In Zhao Hai’s view, Karen was simply more of an otaku than himself when he was on Earth. He stayed home all the time and never went out. Aside from eating and sleeping, he would mostly be staying inside his experiment room. When he was tired, he’d just take a short stroll but never said anything about leaving the Space.
In Karen’s words, he didn’t like to see many people. Back in Faith Mansion, he didn’t leave the mansion and only went in and out of his room when he was tired. He’d also walk around in the courtyard, but never passed the gates of Faith Mansion.
When Zhao Hai heard him, he became speechless. Karen was simply a higher quality otaku. He also wanted higher quality goods than Zhao Hai.
Zhao Hai was tolerant. Wanting an otaku to contact the outside was a very difficult thing to do. Not to mention that Karen was focused on his research, so he was that kind of otaku. Making him get involved with others and wanting him to change was too difficult.
Zhao Hai didn’t want him to change anyway. Now that Space had grown, he could go out and stroll around whenever he wanted. Not wanting to leave his room was alright as well since the air within the Space was good. He didn’t need to fear any dangers occurring and it was actually good for his body to stay inside the Space[5].
Zhao Hai didn’t inquire into Karen’s experiments. Even if he did ask, he wouldn’t be able to understand it anyway. What Karen researched were magic arrays and formations. Although Adam had known about magic in the past, he didn’t dabble in magic arrays and formations. It was due to his ignorant and incompetent disposition back then. Nowadays, Zhao Hai was also busy and didn’t have the time to study such things, so he didn’t understand them.
In the end, he had people keep watch over Faith Mansion. This was due to Evan occasionally sending them information. Zhao Hai and the others were counting on this information.
The info they received today was very simple. This evening, the mercenaries would attack Laura. Moreover, the mercenaries had visited Evan and told him to not interfere with their matters tonight.
Originally, Evan had wanted to scold those people. He endured their tone in the end, for the Purcell clan. Evan, however, told them to not make any large moves, else he would be impolite.
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
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-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.
Footnotes:
[1] Otherwise known as the ultimate filler chapter. ↩
[2] 多足虫 – Duō zú chóng. Many/Multi. Legged/Foot. Insects/Worm/Invertebrate. ↩
[3] 长毛猪 – Cháng máozhū. Long. Hair/Fur. Swine/Hog/Pig. Think of a really hairy pig… ↩
[4] It’s either 食肉动物 – Shíròu dòngwù which is Carnivore, or the author somehow means the literal characters, which is 食, Food, 肉, Meat, and 动物, Animal. So meat animal? I dunno. ↩
[5] Ultimate NEET world.