Chapter 5 - Making Money

"Details? Well, there will be three total steps." Iris replied. "First of all, you will completely discard the identity of the 'Dark Creator'. If the 'Dark Creator' is dead, the assassin team will have no choice but to give up on their hunt. It will also stop other unwanted troubles from approaching you. Of course, just spreading word of your death won't do, we will have to stage it to be more realistic. All of that you can leave to me. Besides, it won't be in the near future anyway."

Rivas felt a slight chill hearing her continuously talk about his death.

"Second step, you will completely change your previous way of designing swords. Once the identity as the 'Dark Creator' is discarded, you will not be able to continue making swords the same way as you did before. In fact, you should make a total 180 degree turn from your previous style, lest you raise suspicions. Will you be able to accomplish that?"

Rivas frowned a little and thought for some time before ultimately nodding his head. He had great confidence in his skill of swords-making, and Iris knew that. Besides, every design was his own creative idea, and making something new wouldn't be too hard for him.

"Good" Iris nodded in appraisal.

"The last step is the marketing. After much analysis on your previous way of doing things, I have detected quite a few flaws. Though your swords were in high demand, the fact that you would not be the one directly selling them has had quite an impact on your profit. You would always sell the swords to the big marketplace, which in turn would sell them at almost twice the price they paid you, inflicting loss of profit." She said, trying to put it as simply as she can.

This gave some shock to Rivas. But after thinking a little, he realized that the swords he would sell would indeed be sold off for more money after him. He never paid it much attention...

What a waste of good money!

"So to solve that problem, we will start our own marketplace. No, we will start our own auction house. Each and every single one of your swords will be auctioned off at an great price, but instead of the marketplace, the entire profit would come to us."

If they had their own Auction House, not only could they get a great amount from selling their very own swords, they could also host other products. Of course it won't be one sword at a time, but a line of them, like 10 or 20, sold off at once. However, there would naturally still be a set price to begin from, and that won't be too low either. Iris had already planned to extort every last penny they could get from these swords.

"The profit distribution will be 50-50. As for the money for the raw materials and auction house, we will use your money, the one you earned from selling swords all these years. I assume you have more than enough wealth for this work." Since she had not a single penny at the moment.

Rivas suddenly felt extremely wronged.

This money was earned from his blood sweat and tears ah!

Wasn't this blatant extortion?!

Iris easily saw through his thoughts.

"In return for this investment that you are making, I will completely wipe clean the entire assassination group from the face of this planet. This will also serve as a revenge for all those subordinates of yours that they killed." And the family of yours that they killed in my past life.

Rivas sighed heavily at the thought of his subordinates that were killed because of him. In reality, he also wished to extract revenge on these people, just he was too weak to do so. He could only hide away from the world, in hopes of keeping himself and his family safe.

But little did he know that albeit many years later, his identity really was eventually discovered. Now receiving support from the imperial family, the organization of assassins had rapidly grown, their sources and network of information had become capable enough to trace Rivas. After tracking him down, they approached his family instead of him and kept them hostage as they demanded him to make swords for the army. Rivas, in deep worry for his family, rapidly rushed over and agreed to their terms and conditions and started his work. He worked for over two years, but never once had the chance to see his family. Ultimately, after accidentally stumbling upon an open prison room, he discovered the dead bodies of his family members. The flesh had rot away and only the bones were left, showing how long ago they had been killed.

Then he naturally lost any motivation to live, wallowing in despair for the loss of his family and eventually killing himself.

Iris was very sad at his death. She confronted Leon for the first time in her entire life, as the one of the imperial family who gave backing to the assassins group was none other than himself. Leon pretended to be innocent and vehemently denied any sort of involvement in this matter, even going as far as saying that he would teach the assassins group a lesson. Naturally, he didn't do anything and naturally, Dumb Iris had believed him wholeheartedly.

The worst part was that the services of Rivas had increased the strength of the military under the control of Leon by leaps and bounds. Their weapons were high class and way better than those in possession of their enemy army. Thus, Rivas's life had been a sacrifice for Leon's rise to power...

"Rivas, right now you may be thinking that I am just extorting your skills, but in the future you will realize how beneficial working for me really is. Your family and identity, even without me telling, will not be able to remain hidden forever. At that time, you will not be able to protect them. I understand your motivation to work independently, but in this world, those with power will rule and those without it will perish. I suggest you trust me with this work. I will make sure you don't lose out on anything." Iris spoke softly. In that life, she could not save him or repay him for saving her when she was dead and injured on the battlefield. In this life, she will make sure to protect him. Because they... are the best of friends.

Rivas understood what Iris was telling him. He was weak, very weak. He did need someone to help him. He loved to work independently, but that could be given up for the safety of his family anytime. This deal indeed brought him profit. Finding a golden t.h.i.g.h to hug was a good idea.

Just that...how was he supposed to hug the t.h.i.g.h of a 16-year-old girl younger than him?!

True she seemed incredibly smart for her age, but she didn't look all that powerful to him at all!

If the Prime Minister Manor was supporting her, then it would still be fine, but he had only ever heard of the name of the 3rd Miss of the Silcia manor-nothing more, nothing less!

Also, who the hell does recuperating at a worn down village such as this?

This was clearly abandonment ah!

If she didn't know everything about him, he would have never taken her seriously.

"Miss Silcia, do you speak as a representative of the Silcia family?" He asked, thinking that maybe there was something he didn't know-maybe Iris was sent here as a spy under the guise of recuperating.

However, he noticed that at the mention of the Silcia Manor, Iris's originally mild eyes abruptly turned cold!