“Please follow me, Mr. Wayland.”

Roland nodded while going through the gate of the mansion where the city lord was living. The first thing that he noticed is that the number of soldiers had increased. They were wearing the usual armor and weapons that would probably not be all that great against anything than other humans.

Most of them were holding spears with a couple also having a side blade strapped to the side. From what he could tell, Arthur was starting to expand his personal forces. The men looked to be young and their levels weren’t all that high. There weren’t that many people over a hundred in levels and quite a few haven’t reached their first tier 2 class.

‘I guess he doesn’t have the money to gather a proper battalion but this is a start…’

There was no tier 3 class holder here, without one working under a noble, they would not be taken seriously by the other aristocrats. The guards here could produce an artificial crowd to make the lord look better in the eyes of the commoners, but only with enough high-level retainers could they be called proper nobles.

This could be attained in a couple of ways, the most common one was, of course, wealth. Powerful adventurers would swarm to become proper knights as a retirement plan. In certain aspects, it was safer to become a soldier of a noble than to battle swarms of monsters.

The second one was prestige and influence, under a powerful house the soldiers and retainers would have various perks. Sometimes the potential for growth would also be enough, but Arthur Valerian lacked all of these in the eyes of the masses. Probably only with money could he sway anyone's mind.

‘I might be the highest level ‘lackey’ that he has but not like I’m loyal to him, it’s only a matter of convenience for now.’

Roland wasn’t sure what to do with the Arthur situation. Even though he was a hidden noble that didn’t mean that he couldn’t be a retainer of another one. He could easily become a knight as a son of a baron and due to having a commoner mother, this would be as far as he could go.

There was another way, if Arthur actually became a Duke or a higher status noble. Roland could be given land and a title of his own, just like his father did before him. This was the case with his father, after attaining many accolades in battle, the aristocrat that he was subservient to had given him a title as a reward.

He was somewhat convinced that if he asked Arthur, he would be glad to take him on as a proper retainer. Yet he did not want to get locked down by another person, his life as a craftsman just gave him all the freedom he wanted. Even though the work was hard, he was still working towards his own dream and not someone else’s as he used to.

“I see that you have already noticed, Mr. Wayland.”

“Yes, the improvements are hard to miss, are you renovating?”

While walking towards the entrance of the mansion, Mary the silent walking maid called out to him. Besides the increase of the soldiers, he also spotted a surplus of builders. The walls were being expanded and he could even see a few watchtowers springing up here and there. This place used to be the house of the city Mayor so it did lack some defensive features that a noble would use. Assassination attempts between opposing aristocrats were quite common, so this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“The world is a scary place Mr. Wayland, now even more than ever with that cult on the loose, but you probably know more about that than me.”

He just nodded at the statement as he wasn’t quite sure about how much of the information he should disclose. If anyone found out that he had a skill to counter the cult relic, he would probably be a dead man. After seeing the lengths the cult was willing to go through in Reeka, he knew that they would quickly swarm this city to either kill him or get to the bottom of his skill. Becoming a lab rat for a strange cult wasn’t something that he was willing to take. Luckily he could just shift all the responsibility to the church that was also here. Loreena was the perfect scapegoat.

“Yes, there is an important fact that the Lord needs to know.”

“Then let us not delay!”

Mary clapped her hands together while smiling before increasing her pace. Roland was then guided through the busy Mansion that was going through some improvements. He could even see new side houses being set up behind the main one, perhaps with more money, Arthur could even add a separate wing to the main mansion. The big question was if he had enough funds and if he did, then where was he getting them from.

‘Did he take a few bribes from the merchants or did he perhaps increase the taxes?’

There weren’t that many ways of earning money in this city besides the obvious ones. The most lucrative ones were probably related to adventurers and the resources in the dungeon. Arthur would probably make a lot of money if Roland ever decided to disclose the secret mining location.

‘On the other hand, he could have finally taxed those dwarven mines in the dungeon…’

Before Arthur appeared in the city, the dwarves along with the merchants were monopolizing the mines. They could easily fake the numbers without proper supervision or by bribing the officials. Roland was sure that Arthur would probably go through a purge of those officials, perhaps during his time spent in Reeka this had already taken place.

Without anyone faking the numbers more money would flow into the pocket of the governing noble. This didn’t mean that he couldn’t work a deal out with the dwarves that would be more lucrative for the both of them. With official records out there, he would need to send a large chunk of those earnings back to the main house. Instead, he could pocket all of the bribes for himself while still giving the other side a better deal than if they did everything by the book.

‘That would explain why he got so much cash to spend and why he hadn’t been that active…’

Roland knew that Arthur had locked himself in the mansion. Rumors had spread at that time, everyone thought that the bastard son of the duke was just scared to manage his territory. Yet instead he was going through all the records and probably sent a large portion of the city officials to prison.

This also put him in danger, he was withholding information about the secret mine spot. Even though he was not a city official or a proper retainer, this wouldn’t matter. Everything that was in these lands belonged to the nobles. It was similar to hunting without a permit in forests belonging to aristocrats, it was something that could be punishable by death.

Roland was still willing to risk it, it was the fastest way of reaching tier 3. If the need arose to gain more money it was still possible to unload the rare ores on the black market without being discovered. Luckily in this kind of world, it was not that hard to commit tax evasion. There was no paper trails leading to his home and the thieves' guilds would take care of the selling.

“Please wait a moment.”

Finally, they had arrived at Arthur’s main office, this was the first time for him here and the usual two sentry knights were guarding it. Previously he only came across the city lord at the auction house but these two always followed after him. Their levels weren’t all that high compared to him but if the Lord actually needed protection he did not know. Like most nobles in high places, he wore an artifact that jumbled up his identification skill.

“Come in, the Lord is expecting you.”

“Excuse me then.”

After entering through the door he was greeted by a large desk that resembled the one at the adventurers guild. The person sitting behind it was a lot smaller though, his aura of nobility was clearly shining through. Bookshelves with thick books and documents were everywhere, he could even see some of them stacked on top of chairs. The man was clearly working hard and still going through the records.

“Mr. Wayland, please take a seat, I’m sure you know why I requested your presence today.”

“It’s about Reeka, isn’t it?”

“I’m glad that we are on the same page, would you be so kind to describe the events that transpired in that city, please don’t leave any details out!”

Arthur was not beating around the bush, the work seemed to only be piling on so he needed Roland to quickly give him a recount of what had happened. Normally such information could actually be sold for some coin but he also needed to show some respect to his new landlord. There was no reason to push his buttons just to gain a few gold coins that he could earn by inscribing a few runes in five minutes.

“Very well, but this could take a while to explain… and also…”

“Mr. Wayland?”

“Sorry my lord, you must understand that this information concerns the Abyssal Cult and one of their most well-guarded secrets… are you aware of the consequences of this information ever leaking?”

In all honesty, Roland was worried about giving away the secret. Luckily the rumors spread by everyone would cloak the people with the true scoop. Yet if the Abysall Cult pinpointed a rumor about their secret relic being spread from this city, it would put a bullseye on everyone.

“Hm, now you really got me interested in this Mr. Wayland but worry not, whatever is said here will not leave this room, you have my word for it.”

“Very well then, but this could take a while.”

“Mary, prepare some tea and some snacks!”

“As you wish my Lord.”

Roland sat himself down before the lord while the maid started preparing the tea. There was a cart with everything required for tea brewing on the side. The kettle could be activated by mana to boil the tea by a simple heating rune. Thus while his beverage was being made he began to tell his story while also keeping some facts of it to himself.

“I see that you already knew that I had gone on a guild mission towards Reeka. Besides a few bandits and monsters on the way, it was mostly uneventful, that is until we reached a strange village…”

He continued to tell his story while twisting some facts. Instead of presenting himself as the hero of the hour, he shifted the glory onto the golden order member that helped them defeat the abomination that was created from the cultist's suicide. Roland focused more on the brain parasites and how the city had been infected instead of how he managed to survive, at the end Arthur was left speechless and with quite a frown.

“A magical artifact that puts people under an illusion and monster possession…”

“My Lord…”

Arthur mumbled to himself while Mary was visibly shaken. He didn’t blame the two, they were just informed that anyone in this city could be infected and turned into a strange tentacle monster.

“I’m fine Mary, I just didn’t think it was this dire of a situation, can these… Abyssal Larvae, only be removed by Solarian church clerics?”

“The creature has an adverse reaction to divine spells, I think priests from other non-evil gods should be fine too but there might be another method…”

“This method is?”

“Do you perhaps know what an empyrean crystal is?”

“The ones produced by the priests?”

“The same.”

It didn’t take Arthur long to realize what Roland was proposing.

“Yes, those crystals are used to create divine magical weapons. But Mr. Wayland, would creating such a weapon do us any good? The cost themselves would be quite fierce…”

“I do not intend to make anything as grand as a weapon, I was thinking of something more compact, this devices purpose would not be to remove the creatures, it’s enough if we leave that to the clerics.”

“Then what would it be good for?”

“It would help us to detect the creatures, I have observed a change in the host of these parasites. If they are exposed to even light divine mana they will be affected by noticeable symptoms. My proposition is simple, we place this device at several checkpoints in the city and have the citizens be exposed to this mana, the ones that show signs of corruption will then be taken to the church for proper treatment.”

“Hm, that could work…”

This was Roland’s sales pitch for the crisis at hand. If he gained access to some empyrean crystals along with some divine runes, then it would be possible to design a magical apparatus of this kind. This would also aid him in developing proper divine runes and perhaps allow him to somehow emulate this different source of energy.

“How long do you need Mr. Wayland?”

“I’m not sure, first I need to get the correct materials then I will need to make a schematic, I also require some divine weapon or armor piece for examination… ”

“Could you make it within a week if you had them?”

“A week might be a little…”

Before Roland could continue Arthur raised his hand to stop him. The noble was clearly listening to all of it and quickly turned to Mary.

“Mary, take Mr. Wayland to our storage, I think we should have a few of those empyrean crystals lying around, you also required something with a divine rune? There should be a few of those in our auction house as well, isn’t that right Mary?”

“You are correct, my Lord. I will be sure to give Mr. Wayland everything that he needs.”

“Great, I will be expecting good news from you Mr. Wayland. If you require aid from the Church for your research, please contact Mary, she will help organize things.”

“I, uh… My Lord? I’m not sure that I can make it in a we…”

“Time is of the essence Mr. Wayland. I will do my part and prepare these checkpoints and also contact the local Church. I’m sure rumors of these creatures will be spreading soon and we must preserve the piece. Now then, we all have a lot of work to do!”

It was of utmost importance to not paint a grim picture to the public, at least not yet. If they had a solution for the problem before people started asking questions, then they would have one less battle to fight. If the city became chaotic it would affect all of its bottom lines. People that were backed into a corner didn’t make the most logical decisions and that was something Arthur clearly wanted to avoid.

‘This bastard…’

Roland was forced to go outside and tag behind Mary that was rushing him back to the auction house. While it was his idea to create the divine energy devices he didn’t expect the lord to have all of the materials ready. He had planned to create it within a month while also doing research on Kassia’s healing arts.

While he wanted to help the people from the city out, his plan was driven by his own home that he wanted to outfit with the divine energy devices. They would probably protect him from any afflicted and perhaps even work against proper members of the cult.

“Here we are Mr. Wayland, please pick out the items that you need!”

Soon they found themselves in a storage facility under the auction house. There he saw various objects that had not yet been auctioned off.

‘I won’t be sleeping much for this entire week, will I?’

He wanted to curse but in reality, the situation required his expertise. The world around him was becoming a lot more dangerous and the sooner he built the countermeasures, the faster he would be able to relax.