City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Chapter 266: Trip

Click!
 
A young man walked out of the door with a huff. It is clear by his expression that he is not happy, with what happened during the meeting with his father.
 
“We will be late by only a week, my lord. The day the princess left, we can leave too,” said the middle-aged man.
 
The young man had just been told that a princess was coming and till she left, he could not leave either. He is tired of them; she is not the first princess and prince, who came in the past year. There have been several, and they have spoiled his plans before.
 
He wouldn’t have minded if he had been Crown Prince or Prince Grelt or Princess Orlene, who has a chance for the throne.
 
No, it is just a general critter from imperial litter.
 
“She has to come now, just when we were preparing to leave for Renwell!” asked the young man in indignation.
 
The middle-aged man smartly didn’t reply to that.
 
“I will be informing them of our delay,” he said a few minutes later, and the young man didn’t reply.
 
…
 
“Give this to Dane once you reach there,” said Count, sliding the envelope toward me. I took it and placed it in my bag.
 
“Anything you want me to say to him, my lord?” I asked. “No, I have written what I want to say to him in the letter,” he replied before his expression turned serious.
 
“Be careful, Remus; it is just a few hours ago, they killed someone in Almin.” He cautioned, and I shuddered. 
 
It is the first thing, he informed me about when I had come a few minutes ago. I had expected, seeing how he had called me suddenly, when we had already had a meeting in the afternoon.
 
It is also very late. Count doesn’t meet anyone this late unless it is important.
 
“I will,” I replied and got up before leaving the office.
 
As I stepped out of the office, I added one point to the strength, taking it to thirteen, while the second into the vitality, taking it to eleven.
 
Immediately, I felt the change; the others also seemed to have felt it since all three of them turned to me.
 
I have been thinking about the attributes hard since I received them in the morning, but after I heard the news, I knew I had to add the points to the physical attribute. I cannot take the risk, when those bastards hadn’t stopped killing.
 
It is not the first assassination attempt after that day. It is a third one and the first that had succeeded; there might be more, and the cities hadn’t shared the news.
 
Soon, I reached my carriage. It is heavily protected; with two captains and twenty-four other soldiers surrounding it, all over Lv. 20.
 
These are no normal soldiers, each one of them is proficient in protection. 
 
Not to mention my own guards.
 
With such protection, the enemies will need to try very hard to kill me. They will either need a large number of people, or several powerful people if they even want to have a chance.
 
Despite that, I want to run to the establishment and not go to the Mirador Hold, but unfortunately, I can’t hide forever. It would be a sure way to lose the job I had worked so hard to get.
 
I sat in the carriage, and it began to move toward the establishment. I am going to the establishment, just picking someone from there.
 
Fifteen minutes later, the carriage stopped at the gates of the circle. 
 
Click!
 
A few seconds later, the gates opened and a young woman with thick blond hair, wearing a traveling tunic and pants, stepped inside the carriage.
 
“Master Silver,” she greeted. 
 
“Varza,” I said to the young woman. The young woman is one of the few people I respect. She had brought a change in the establishment by her daring choice.
 
She took a seat opposite of me and the carriage began to move.
 
“You can remove the wig; wear it when we reach the Mirador Hold,” I said, to her, seeing her unconsciously touching it, several times, despite it fitting her perfectly.
 
If I did know, I wouldn’t be able to tell that she was wearing a wig.
 
Her original hair is cut into pixy cut and painted in neon blue. She is the reason why, many girls in the establishment had started cutting their hair short.
 
She is Varza Steel; one of the assistant madams. One of the five girls was promoted to assistant madam with Cath and Gloria.
 
She will be coming with me to Mirador Hold, before going with Ina. With Andrea helping Carla, Ina needs someone and Varza is perfect for that.
 
“It is fine, I need to get used to wearing it,” she replied with a small smile, and I smiled back, but there was no mirth in my smile.
 
I hate that she is being forced to wear the wig, but the world is not accepting it as our den of sin.
 
Soon, the carriage passed through the gates of the port and stopped at the river. We got out and sat in the boat, while the boat moved toward the other side.
 
We are not the only ship that is moving. There are many. 
 
Due to the trade with the Navr and baronies, there were a lot of boats that moved across the river, and that disturbed the ships coming and going toward the merchant cities.
 
We have controlled the boat traffic and moved them when the traffic of ships is less, but it is not a permanent solution. 
 
If the trade keeps increasing at current. Then, within a year, it will pose a real difficulty.
 
A bridge would be a permanent solution; it would make things much more efficient, but the Count didn’t want to pay for it. Even though the toll from it, will be enough to pay the debt incurred from it.
 
It will take even less than that, if we count the ease and increase in trade it will bring.
 
We reach the other side and sit down in the carriage that was waiting for us, before continuing our journey.
 
Hun!
 
A few minutes passed, when suddenly, my mind buzzed, and a small smile appeared on my face.
 
I willed it and the missive opened, and I began to read. It is a lot like opening a mail but inside one’s mind.
 
This is a ‘Missive,’ the new skill of Ina and, according to me, the most useful. A hundred times more secure than the message spell.
 
Ina sends a missive every day at eleven pm. Here, she could write things, that she couldn’t in message spell, and I found it immensely useful. 
 
According to experiments we did; she could only be sent one missive at a day, and the limit of it was two thousand and five hundred words. It is why, she sent at eleven in the night, when she finishes with her day, and an hour later, at midnight, her skill refreshes.
 
This means, that if there is any emergency, she could send the missive during the day, at any time.
 
Currently, the distance didn’t seem to be a problem, but Navr isn’t that far, I don’t know whether she would be able to send it. If she went to Namdar or another continent.
 
We have also not tested whether the skill would work in ancient cities of Navr, which are laden with powerful magic. I had asked her not to use this skill in cities of Navr, who knows what kind of magic they have, I don’t want them to know that Ina has this skill.
 
We might be small players on big boards, but it always helps to keep one's cards hidden.
 
I finished reading the missive quickly; in it, she had explained everything that had happened in the past two days.
 
She took merchants of Deerpond and other six cities to Navr three days ago and will be returning tomorrow morning. Those merchants have brought goods massively; they seemed to have wanted to make up for a year of lost opportunity.
 
Count Darrow had been very happy seeing the number. It is a single number that made him happy, but how that number will repeat and rise in the coming weeks and months.
 
It will earn him massive taxes.
 
I closed the missive and saw it disappear; it would have disappeared on its own in twelve minutes if I had not closed it.
 
I opened my eyes and saw Varza already sleeping, while Zela was still studying. 
 
She used to study the before, but after the attack, she had started doing that zealously. She would study and practice the spell; in every minute she has.
 
“Sleep, Zela. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow,” I said. She didn’t even glance at me, but I could tell she had heard me as she nodded faintly.
 
I smiled and closed my eyes and within a minute; I fell asleep. Hoping that no assassins would come to murder me.

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