NOVEL NEXT Chapter 99: planning
Redthorn didn't experience any of those things in reality, however he was experiencing the pain he would have felt if he experienced such torture.
Even Esdras felt sick to his stomach seeing Redthorn convulsing and writhing on the ground. He understood one thing for sure now, the infernal pact was indeed the real thing.
He knew that before, but seeing it firsthand was different than just reading an item description.
The torture lasted only a minute in reality but the goblin felt as if an entire lifetime had passed already.
"I'm sorry, please… I will tell you everything I know." The goblin looked at him with the look of fear and realization.
He realized that the contract he signed recklessly, was actually binding. He knew about magic items for sure, but he had never seen one before. And even if he did, he would not have recognized the infernal pact for what it was.
This was a new item in this world as it had never existed before, and the goblin was not magically attuned. He could only curse himself for his recklessness in despair.
"Okay, now tell me everything about Ilundar and don't leave anything out… if you do, you know what will happen."
"Hik! Yes, I understand. But I truly don't know much about him. All I know is that he is a member of an organization. I don't even know what they call themselves. But one day around six months ago, Ilundar and a masked man came to meet me and they wanted to recruit me to their organization."
" So Ilundar was a member of this organization, and this masked man, what else can you tell me about him?"
" He is powerful, really powerful. I have never seen anyone as powerful as him before. Not even you can match up to him. He was terrifying, but he did not force me to join his organization. He just told me to think about it and tell Ilundar if I changed my mind. He was tall, but there was nothing special about him except his mask.
It was split in half, half was gold, and the other was black."
Esdras frowned, Ilundar was at peak of rank 2, and even now he wasn't sure that he could take him on. After all he just recently advanced to rank 2, if he had accumulated a decent amount of spells and time to actually practice, he had the confidence to defeat him, but not now.
After all his display today might have been great for others but actually, it was amateurish at best. If he was a real experienced mage he would have done things differently.
But it wasn't like he did badly, he did accomplish his objective in the end.
The masked man was interesting. He must be rank three or higher if he could have a subordinate like Ilundar. Moreover, he was confident to actually leave such a powerful subordinate here.
Either he placed great importance on Redthorn or such a subordinate was not very special to him.
In any case, it was best to avoid going back to Yellowstone for the time being.
"So, about your little scheme in this town, who is working with you?" Esdras already had an idea, but he wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth so to say. Besides, he could have missed something.
"I made a deal with the mayor and the Tigerclaw mercenaries, they would pretend to protect this area while allowing my tribe to steal as we wish on the conditions that we do not kill anyone and the loads we stole would be sold back to them cheaply."
Esdras noted that it was not a bad plan, it was very direct and effective as well, for all three parties involved. The mercenaries would spread their name and influence for at least attempting to help and would still get paid even if they failed.
The mayor, on the other hand, would get access to valuable goods for cheap prices. However, that was not all, the merchants who had their goods stolen from them would have to sell whatever they had left in this town just to recoup some of their losses.
"You might have been able to figure that out, sir," the goblin praised, " but I have discovered something else too, the mayor is actually working with Barron Fornhart of Cilios."
"How? And what would the Baron gain by working with the mayor?" Esdras asked, he had a feeling that this was not a simple matter.
" It's also about the goods, you'll see most of the goods sold to the mayor can't be sold back here otherwise it would attract unwanted attention. Some of them could be sold here because none of the townspeople can even afford these kinds of goods."
" That makes sense."
" It's also thanks to this that we managed to buy and even customize a lot of armor and weapons."
Esdras couldn't help but be taken aback by all of this, these guys were really making it big by going all out during the war. But who knew that they would end up offending the crown prince unknowingly.
*sigh*
Such is fate. He could see the resentment in the prince of the goblins. How would you feel if he knew that a nobleman actually did all this?
"I assume you have written evidence of these transactions in the pile of documents that I took from your storage, am I right?" Esdras asked.
It Looked like the goblin did not expect Esdras to figure that out, but he had already seen how smart the goblin Was. He must have prepared this to blackmail the mayor later on after building up his forces.
"Alright, I will give you this," Esdras took out a coin pouch and handed it to the goblin. I don't know exactly how much there is. There was a lot of silver and copper in it.
"Y-you're letting me go for real?" Redthorn asked hopefully, his eyes watering a bit in the corners.
"Letting you go? Wake the fuck up! You're my slave, where would you go without my orders? Now listen up and stop spacing out. Go to the Bone gorge of the Kazzat kingdom and make a base for yourself with the rest of the surviving goblins."
" That's too far!" The goblin complained.
" I imagine it will not be that hard for such an intelligent goblin like you, anyway, I'm just sending you close to the area. You must infiltrate and spy on the Varthos territory."
Esdras narrowed his eyes and an ominous energy radiated out of him. He was not going to spare anyone that targeted his life. Whatever the reasons, they could only die, even if they were related by blood.