—–
I had decided to leave the slaves rescued today with Julia; she had told me that she was going to help them go back to society slowly and see if she could do anything for them in the meantime.
It is very hard to make former slaves into members of society when they had gone through so many things, it will be an arduous job, but I am surprised that she seems devoted enough to do it without expecting any compensation whatsoever. That’s very surprising, and it left me thinking about a few things myself.
Of course, I had yet to grow more confident with her, so I had decided to spread my Snake Ghosts around the place and leave them on standby, mostly spying over everything.
But for now, I will have to postpone helping her out. Perhaps in a month or a few weeks, I will be able to, whenever we reach that place with my people.
I had to tell this to her directly.
“So you’re in a hurry? You came to buy supplies for the trip and also a few more carriages? I see. For helping me out in this regard, let me help you back,” She said.
“Ah, Julia…! Really? We have almost a hundred people, though….” I sighed.
“A-A hundred people! Ugh, well, I think it depends on how long you plan your trip to be. How far is your territory from where your people are on standby?” Asked Julia.
“All the way to the south… The coast,” I said.
“T-The south coasts?! I see, so that’s why I couldn’t recognize you as an owner of a plot of land. You were given such a desertic and cold place… I guess this explains why you could afford it as a commoner- No, offense,” She said.
“Don’t worry. I don’t mind it. And yeah, it was cheap,” I said.
I am just lying at this point, but this made it more believable for her that a random commoner got a piece of land without being an aristocrat or at least related to one.
“Well, there’s no time to waste. Let’s begin this right away… How many caravans do you require?” Asked Julia.
“Roughly to fit around 40 or so people, perhaps 4 or 5 that could fit 8 to 10,” I said.
“Hm, seems reasonable enough. I know the workshop that my uncle used to manage. It’s now mine, so I can get you the caravans for a discount,” Said Julia with a prideful smile.
“Oh! That would be nice,” I said.
“But about the food… I could sell it to you for cheap as I can easily tell the merchants and providers to bring the crates with food here for you, but can you afford it? You would roughly need hundreds of kilograms of food to feed so many people over the time that the trip will take you,” Said the girl.
“Yeah, we can afford it,” I said.
After all, I had the fortune of the last three aristocrats I stole, including a duke, so I had millions of gold coins.
I took out a leather bag filled to the brim with gold coins and put it over the table.
POOF!
The precious shiny coins shone brightly before her.
I had begun to feel rather desensitized with money because I was just stealing everything anyways, but now that I want to make more reasonable transactions that don’t just make everyone poorer, perhaps using the currency and managing it would be for the best.
“T-This is a lot of gold!” She said.
“I do a lot of risky jobs. I’ve even hunted Vampires. Want to see their heads? I keep them saved in my shadows,” I said.
“I-I would prefer not to… So you’re even a Hunter of Vampires and other stronger beasts? I guess it makes sense now, but… H-How much is this?” She asked.
“I just went to the Guild, and they didn’t have enough money to pay for me the bounty of hunting three Vampires, but they gave me all the money they had for the moment. It’s around five million coins,” I said.
“Hm, five million… I see. This gold is enough, although you would actually need some more. Each caravan from my workshop is around a million each, but I will give you a discount of fifty percent, that would make the five only two million and a half… the rest will be used to pay for the food, which will cost the most. I’ll pay the difference,” She said.
“Really?” I asked with sparkling eyes.
“Indeed, it is the least I could do; hopefully, this will also strengthen our relationship,” Said Julia.
The young girl had a sharp insight. Her eyes were also filled with a strong will, and she seemed ready to put a lot of investment into me. I was just what she lacked, someone strong to be at her side and cover her back.
“Thank you. I will make sure to keep doing business with you then… Actually, let me give you this,” I said.
“Oh?”
Julia looked at what I took out of my Inventory. It was a large, red-colored Magic Crystal, the Magic Crystal stored inside of Silvio’s corpse.
“This is the Magic Crystal of a Vampire of at least B+ Rank. Do you know how much magic power there is in this palm-sized crystal?” I asked.
“I-Impressive, just by looking at it… the pressure… You fought such a monster yourself?” She asked.
Ahh… Well, be cheesed it out…
But I can’t let her know that.
“Yeah, we put a lot of effort. I guess you could say we are all B Rank Adventurers in the level of power, but due to the lack of quests completed and merit, we are still stuck at F-Rank,” I said.
“Hm, I suppose being at such a low rank is actually beneficial to keep yourself away from the spotlight. You seem to be a woman that acts at night and doesn’t like to bring attention to yourself,” Said Julia.
“Indeed,” I responded.
—–