Chapter 126 - 126. What's The Use Of Money If One Doesn't Get To Enjoy It

"What's the matter, dear? Is everything alright?" Patricia looked at me after I had torn open the seal and read it. It was not a good piece of news and I folded the letter and place it inside my pants. It's lunchtime and for me, it's taboo to read such things in front of food that was blessed by the Lord.

"We discuss later, now we enjoy the food. Nom... Nom... Nom..." it has been some time since I've eaten meatballs and I love the Tex Mex spicy taste that goes really well with the rice and also the chicken vegetable soup.

"When you prepare the meals for your future employees, just one dish per day would suffice because you would be learning more than 50 menus by the end of the month," I announced to the apprentices and they nodded their heads because this is the first time they had eaten such aromatic rice and this would be enough with just a sliver of fish or some meats.

The meals before them were of royalty standards, and for a noble to have them on a daily basis, would definitely run their money ship aground in a few months. Hah hah hah...

I tried to keep a straight face but Patricia had used Insight on me without me realising and knew something was terribly wrong with the operations of Beauty World. Since I said that these things should not be mentioned in front of the food, she waited until we had cleared lunch and the members had a short break before some went to grind while others performed their quest.

I motioned for Prius and Rebecca to come over as we discussed the letter that I had received during lunch earlier.

"We have been hit by highway robbers that called themselves as 'The Rusty Blades'. It sounded like an 80ish rock band from the sounds of it. This letter came from the travelling merchants that ply the Eastern Borders."

"Although no lives were harmed, the sample products were offloaded and all contents inside the storage bag had been taken away. Their hidden stash only known by these travelling merchants were not discovered by the robbers so their life savings were untouched."

"The problem is that these highway robbers would strike at our delivery caravans and they would eye these porcelain wares as valuables which they could sell off. So far, the Western and Northern Borders didn't report in anything of such activities."

"No report doesn't mean no crimes, am I right? Do you think this matter should be addressed to the Ruler of Aermagh so that he could assign his advisors to attend to it? This would be damaging to our business."

"Late delivery is one thing, the other thing is that most men would wake up to strangers the next morning if these products were not delivered at all."

"Just imagine waking up to someone who basically had no make up, no lipstick or hadn't even taken a bath in days... Just imagine their messed up hair and stinky breathe that smells worse than a dead rat...!!"

"This letter also says that the number of highway robbers, bandits and thieves made up more than our number of adventurers in the whole of Ingmery. If we do not take up arms, then when would be the time to protect ourselves, right?" I said as I place the letter on the table so that everyone can read it.

On the letter were no words at all except for a drawing of a caravan being stopped by men holding swords, the occupants of the caravan and their children holding up their hands in the air. A piece of rusty shaving blade was taped and next to it was a drawn megaphone. The word CR was drawn in 3D lettering and had a pair of wings next to it and some bottles were also drawn with wings on it too. A drawing of a grave was marked X on it and the next drawing was the caravan with all 4 occupants riding away.

"You can really tell the whole story by looking just these pictures? Wow... You really amaze me, Audemars. You must be an expert in pictogram and I could draw a straight line and you could a story for hours...!!! WOW..." remarked Prius as he tapped my shoulders in a congratulatory way.

"I couldn't make half of it and you can know what is happening... So who would go and inform the Ruler of Aermagh?" asked Patricia and I placed my head in my palm and rested it just like The Thinker. Finally, I spoke up, "Prius, Blake and Bruce would go forth and meet the Ruler. As of date, he knew I was dead."

"Prius, you had met the Ruler twice, and that Ruler needs to be bent with carefully spoken words from a true man like you. Tell them you had brought the men that could enhance their army but at the cost of the actual selling price. Just say that these two gets the base material from a passing Forge Master who forges Level 3 iron weapons and armours."

"Level 3? Why stop at Level 3 and not Level 4 like our current weapon?" Rebecca asked since she knew I could forge Level 8 and she doesn't know that Patricia's Mark of Magi is forged by Level 15 Iron.

"The last encounter I had with their Berserker was a Level 1 Iron axe. But his brute strength is enough for that piece of junk to defeat normal low-class beast or monster. If we supply Level 4, won't it be a little over the top? Furthermore, the one I had fought against was at least a Level 5 Berserker."

"So we supply them with a lower graded weapon and armour since the Ruler of Aermagh knows a little bit of Iron grading since Quentin and Romulus were known to forge Level 2 iron and close to Level 3 grade."

I explained as I do not want to raise suspicion and risk myself being pulled into the courtyard of Aermagh once more. They understood as I explained to them and then Blake and Bruce were summoned to the Castle.

Since they hadn't lunch yet, we offer them lunch and discussed afterwards when we showed him the letter I received and explained the situation. The duo agreed its a good idea since there are no other Blacksmith or Bowsmith around except for them and decided to entice the Ruler to purchase Level 3 weapons and armours in according to their requirements and quantity.

They promised to bring back some pieces of their current weapons and armour so that I could fashion them out and hand it over to the duo when it's ready.

"Prices would be based on the current Level 4 pieces. Take a 60% deposit first, if possible. And tell them the pieces would be ready in 1 month. 75% deposit, the pieces would be ready in 2 weeks and 90% deposit, the pieces would be ready in 1 week."

"For this project, we only take 20-80. You take 80 and we take 20. Don't argue... It is fine with us. We have more than enough funds to go round." I finally said and gave Prius the letter to show as proof.

Since they were able to warp to the place, they took their leave and went there immediately. This beats taking a caravan or a horse to travel there. Within 1 hour they returned with a big smile on their face as they had somehow closed the deal. Based on the selling prices of their Level 4 pieces and also the inclusion of some of the weapons that they need to be crafted, the duo had managed to secure a 90% deposit and the military advisors demanded these pieces that they wished to be crafted with a week.

I held on to some of the pieces give and noted they were all common Iron pieces, and not even qualified for the entry-level 1 at all. No wonder the body of Audemars that I had taken over suffer greatly when his breastplate simply crumpled like a piece of aluminium foil when he was wheeled into Ingmery Infirmary nearly a year ago.

There was a one-handed short sword, two-handed long sword, falchion, short sword, claymore, one-handed war axe and two-handed battle axe. A total of 7 bladed weapons.

It also had a glaive, halberd, lucerne hammer, poleaxe and a war scythe. A total of 5 pole weapons.

They also brought Iron breastplate, half plate, medium shield, barbute helm and an iron galea helm and a chain mail full-length gauntlet that covers all the way to the upper arm. A total of 6 armour.

"How many pieces are they looking at?" I asked at the number of pieces and guess it won't take long for me to duplicate all to Level 3 Iron for sure.

"1500 pieces each. By the way, Blake and I have decided to merge our two smiths together so that we could share the profits equally. At least it is not so bad for this project alone." Bruce said and he told me they had settled for a price of 2000 credits each which means 18 pieces of weapons and armours.

Since they had gotten a 90% deposit, 48.6 million credits and Patricia told me that they had already deposited 10.8 million credits into her account. "Aww... Guys, thank you so much. This would mean a lot to all of us. So you would split the profit 50-50 among yourself?"

"So... 21.6 million credits per person, right? Wow... You both really have super deep pockets as deep as a sinkhole. Hah hah hah... Bravo... " I congratulated to them at achieving the unbelievable.

So in order to improve the whole army, the military advisors were fast to snap for their orders after they had haggled the price a bit and settled for 2k across the board. Ah well, since its a 90% deposit I'd better get to work fast and produce 18 pieces of Level 3 Iron for them.

I swiped all the 18 pieces of assorted weapons and armours into my storage bag and excused myself after Bruce and Blake had left the Castle grounds. I informed Patricia that I would be in my study for some time and she understood my intentions well.

With the injection of funds, our wealth had gained to 70 million credits and this is not inclusive from Beauty World yet. Ah well, credits are just figures only, and it could be a million, a hundred million or a 100 billion, but what's the point if one is not happy, right?