NOVEL NEXT Chapter 62: Whose side are you on?
After staring at him for quite a long time, Ishtar finally gave a knowing smile.
"I see. So you've thought that far ahead," she uttered. "By any chance was that the reason you insisted on speaking to my father instead of me?" she pressed.
Dorian replied,
"Partially," his words were certain. "I had a feeling your father would try to start a war if things didn't go his way. And I don't intend on handing over the mining ground either, so this was the only possible outcome I could think of."
Hearing what Dorian had just said, a look of disappointment played on Ishtar's face before she sighed and rested her forehead on the table.
"Of course you did," she kept her head down. "If I am being honest, I knew my father had his eyes on the Aurelian barony for a while. It was bad enough the duke gave part of his land to the Aurelians and turned it into a barony, and now he has to watch them grow faster than his own territory. I can understand why he is suddenly making rash decisions."
"Is that to say he has already begun planning an assault?" Dorian narrowed his gaze as he asked.
"More or less." Ishtar slightly raised her head to look at Dorian. "I believe he came to your barony with an investigator a few weeks ago; well, initially, he thought your father did stuff illegally and called his friend from his capital to come expose it."
She slowly sat up, both her hands on the table.
"He came home that day angry about the outcome. Stating how he didn't expect you to pay his loan, and now he has nothing to hold against you. The investigator is currently helping him sort some things out; once that is done," Ishtar paused for a while, "I am sure he will launch an attack on your barony."
'I figured as much. Men like these are very predictable. Glad to know I made the right choice,' Dorian uttered in his mind.
Soon after, Ishtar spoke again—
"Worst case scenario, my father will get all 4 baronies under him to lend out their soldiers to help, but that can only happen if the count permits it. Which is unlikely. So I guess you have only 700 elite men to worry about."
Dorian kept quiet for a while.
To think she was willing to tell him this much, even though he didn't use any of his wish on her.
Which then begged the question—
"Are you going to support your father in this? No matter how you try to twist it, whatever move he makes on my plan is a violation of the law in and of itself. Even if he somehow bypasses that, it is still an abuse of power. Do you support this?"
There was not a single hint of sarcasm or playfulness on Dorian's face.
He didn't need to say much for Ishtar to know how seriously Dorian was going to take her response.
"If my question is not to your liking, will you use your wish on me? And make me submit to your every word, even if I don't like it?" she asked, her eyes slowly growing with a familiar obsession.
Dorian waved his hand with a stoic look in response.
"Not on your life. I don't want any more God of Gamble than I have right now. That said," the seriousness slipped back in, "I will consider you an enemy."
Silence settled for a while.
"Is that so? Well, I expected nothing less. Very well, I will give you my response."
She leaned forward with a seductive smile.
"On the side I am truly on…"
….
Moments later, Dorian was done with his meeting.
When he had stepped out of the mansion, he could see all seven wagons, lined up in front of the house, each filled with layers of volcanic rocks. All of which were drained from the Forane viscounty.
Slowly, Dorian approached the wagons, Maria and Seraphina stepping aside.
As he got near, he grabbed one of the rocks and held it in his hand. The rock was hard, but at the same time, simply shoving his thumb on the surface made it sink in like it was made of slime.
'So this is how it feels. My research was right.'
[You are currently using the skill Analysis.]
[Name: Volcanic ash.]
[Status: Rare and invaluable.]
[Quality: High.]
[Chances of success: 98%]
A smile hinted at his face.
Thanks to his title [The Merchant], he was able to tell the project set for the mining ground was going to do well, and this particular product was going to play a huge part in that.
As soon as he cancelled the Analysis skill to rest his mana, a notification popped up in front of him.
[Congratulations on acquiring the volcanic ash for your product.]
[7000 points have been allocated.]
'7000?!' Dorian rested his hand on the wagon mid-thought. 'This is the highest I have ever gotten.'
[Congratulations, a new feature has been unlocked.]
[Talent acquisition]
description: Every time you do a new skill, you gain a talent pertaining to that task that can be obtained with points, depending on the rank of the talent.
'Oh, interesting. Eh? Come to think of it, there should be another feature I haven't explored since I killed those crawlers.'
[That is correct. Then again, who am I to remind you?]
'Geh~ are you sulking?'
[...]
"Lord Dorian, the driver is here; we are set." Seraphina found a way to place herself in his line of sight.
When she appeared and noticed Dorian was spacing out, she frowned.
"Hmph, did that evil woman say something mean to you? You haven't said a word to us since you stepped out."
Dorian didn't know this, of course; his mind was focused on the product he just stole from Embre, or rather, negotiated.
"What are you talking about? Let's go. We still have to milk this place dry; no time to waste."
He walked away.
Smiling, Seraphina followed behind him, skipping left and right.
Maria wanted to follow as well, but when she looked towards the mansion window, she could see Ishtar, gawking at Dorian like she was going to drool.
"Another stalker. Great," Maria uttered with sarcasm, pinching the bridge of her nose before walking away.
...
[A/N]
I should release Ishtar's character art tomorrow. In the meantime, please don't forget to show your support. id like us to reach 100 ps before this week ends, and 50 gt if possible.