Chương 131: Book 3 Chapter 9 - An Unexpected Visitor

The day before they were to leave with the duke's caravan, an unexpected visitor came to the estate. A servant came in first to the room Kiara was seated in, announcing that a young man named Choppy was here to see her. It took her a moment to recall where she'd heard that name, before remembering that he was the gangster she'd rescued from Vance's gang a while back. Choppy came in and bowed respectfully, and the servant left and shut the door.

Kiara didn't really want to see him, and had no idea why he might have stopped by. She didn't want to be rude though, so she motioned to a chair opposite hers.

"Have a seat, Choppy." He smiled.

"Thank you, Lady Yountal, and thanks for receiving me." She raised an eyebrow.

"What can I do for you?" He took a deep breath.

"Honestly, there's a lot you should probably know, my lady." She didn't ask him to call her Shian. He wasn't her friend, and she had no desire to be his. He continued, unaware of her thoughts.

"That gang you attacked, Vance and his boys, they've mostly cleared out from Portish, thanks to how hard you hit them that night." He paused to watch her for a reaction, but when she didn't give him one, he simply continued talking.

"Word on the street is that they're watching your house close, looking for a chance to strike you back. They've mostly consolidated in other cities, since we've pushed them out of Portish for the most part, but you should be careful.

"I don't think they'd dare attack the duke's caravan, not with the guard unit they have, but once you're in Lakeshire you'll need to take care. Also, don't worry about them hitting your people here while you're gone, I'll keep an eye on things here for you." Kiara rubbed her temples, she felt a headache coming on. How did he know she was going to Lakeshire? And why did he think he should keep an eye on her estate while she was gone?

Under normal circumstances, she would be thankful to have an extra pair of eyes on things while she was gone, but Choppy wasn't the type of person she would normally trust with such a job. Plus, she had Janice, Yeager, and the guard unit to keep an eye on things here in Portish. She told him so.

"Choppy, while I appreciate your concern, I already have a guard unit to keep an eye on things here in Portish." He shrugged.

"Doesn't hurt to have extra help. Besides, I still owe you big for rescuing me. My uncle, Bert, is the head of the Edgeland Gang, the one I run with. I'm not sure if I mentioned that to you before. At any rate, he offers you his sincere gratitude for your helping me. My previous boss here in Portish, Ned, advanced to tier 4, and Uncle Bert pulled him back to Lakeshire to give him a new post." His chest puffed up slightly.

"I'm the new boss here in Portish, so the crew will do what I tell them to. You don't need to worry about a thing while you're gone." She folded her arms.

"You're an adult, so you can do whatever you want. Just don't get in the way of my guard unit, please, and don't interfere with their work." He placed his hand over his heart.

"You have my word." She shrugged to herself. He was right, it wouldn't hurt to have extra eyes watching over things while she was gone. Hopefully what he said about feeling like he owed her a debt was true, that would mean he was less likely to do anything to her estate himself while she was gone. He seemed sincere, at least. After a moment she nodded slightly.

"Well, thanks, I guess. And thanks for the heads up about that other gang. I'll be careful in Lakeshire. By the way, how did you know I was going to Lakeshire?" He laughed.

"An entire envoy from the duke showed up, it's the only thing people are talking about. There's gotta be at least thirty guards. I didn't get close enough to the leader to know much about her, other than she has red hair and is really pretty." He had stars in his eyes as he talked about Esmerelda, the woman who had visited Kiara's estate as the duke representative.

"At any rate," he continued, "they've been here for a week, and most of her guard unit has been spending time in the taverns." He shrugged.

"Word travels." That made sense.

"Hmm. Well, thanks for the information. Was there another reason for your visit today, Choppy?" He blushed slightly, then handed her a small card with an address written on it.

"What's this?"

"Remember I mentioned my uncle Bert?" She nodded.

"Well, he lives in Lakeshire. That's an address and some instructions for how you can get in touch with him. He'd like to meet you while you're there, to personally thank you for helping me. It meant a lot to my family." Uh… Kiara had no intention of meeting an even more powerful gang boss, especially the head honcho of the whole group. That would just be asking for trouble. She was already way more involved with Choppy and his gang than she wanted to be.

They were basically singing her praises for driving their rivals out of town, and were offering to watch her stuff while she was gone. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. She put the card into her soul storage, not wanting to be rude.

"Um, thanks, Choppy. Anything else?" He shook his head and smiled.

"Thanks again for taking the time to meet with me, Lady Yountal. Have a great trip, The Central Island is really nice." He stood and bowed, and Kiara dipped her head in return, keeping her eyes on him. He turned and left, and she spent some time lost in thought. That was unexpected, to say the least. Her reverie was interrupted by the same servant, announcing another visitor, this time one she was delighted to see. Victor walked in, smiled, and bowed. She stood and bowed in response.

"Victor! What a nice surprise. Come in." She motioned to the chair that Choppy had occupied not too long before. He sat, then pulled what looked like a bracelet out of his storage ring and held it out to her. She looked at him in confusion, but accepted the bracelet.

"What's this?"

"A gift," he said, looking pensive. She furrowed her eyebrows and checked her [Artifact Compass] ability. Knowing Victor, it was likely to be some kind of artifact. Sure enough, it lit up as one, so she activated [Artifact Sage 3] next. It looked to be some sort of obfuscation artifact, meant to shroud and hide some things about her, and it didn't seem dangerous to her in any way. She was having a hard time getting more information out of the skill than that. She looked at Victor with a raised eyebrow.

"Wanna tell me about it?" He studied her for a moment, clearly having some kind of mental argument with himself. Eventually, he just shook his head, as if to clear it.

"Promise me that you'll wear that the entire time you're gone. Don't take it off for anything." She itched her ear.

"Why?" He grimaced and looked to the side, then back at her.

"Please? Just promise me. This is important to me, Shian." She noticed that he had called her by name, so he wasn't feeling uncomfortable around her right now.

"You don't wanna tell me more about it first?" she asked, hoping he would at least give her a hint. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and she thought she caught a small flash of either confusion or suspicion in his eyes. He shook his head.

"I'm sure you know plenty about the artifact itself, but I don't feel comfortable explaining my reasoning. You mentioned that you see me as a friend?" She nodded.

"Then please, do this as a favor to me, as your friend." She shrugged and slipped the bracelet onto her wrist.

"Okay," she said, nodding.

"I'll wear it until the next time I see you." He visibly relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Shian. You don't know how much this means to me." He's so weird, sometimes. She smiled at him then looked at the bracelet. It was honestly quite beautiful, the craftsmanship was excellent. It looked to be made of pure gold. It was actually a very generous gift.

"Thanks for the gift! It's gorgeous." He blushed at the praise.

"I don't want to take up too much of your time, I know you're leaving soon." She waved away his worries with her hand.

"Oh, it's fine. You're always welcome here. Do you want to stay for dinner?" He thought for a moment before nodding.

"I'd love to." * They left early the next morning, meeting up with Esmerelda just outside the estate. Being on the north side of Portish, the estate was pretty much on the way to Lakeshire, only being a short detour from the main road to the estate. The caravan travelled faster than the one they'd joined from Horange to Portish over a year ago. Instead of oxen and large merchant wagons loaded with goods, this was just a caravan of people, travelling fairly light.

Esmerelda and a few of the others had storage rings, all with the duke's insignia on them, which they used to store most of the food and small equipment. A few of the mages in the company specialized in restorative magic, which allowed the horses to go further each day without growing as tired. Kiara estimated they were doing 30 to 35 miles each day. It was a snail's pace compared to her usual travel pace, but she had agreed to stick with Esmerelda for the trip. It wasn't all bad, though.

They played cards and other games while the carriages rolled. Kiara enjoyed the scenery almost as much as she enjoyed watching Ava enjoy the scenery. At night, after everyone ate, people told stories around the campfires. Ava convinced many of the guards to share their experiences in Lakeshire and The Capital. Her youthful exuberance was contagious, and by the third night they had to establish a rotation of whose turn it was to share their stories that night.

Apart from Esmerelda and the two tier 3s she had brought to Kiara's estate, there were an additional eight tier 3s in the company, and about twenty tier 2s. Kiara couldn't imagine that any bandit group would be stupid enough to attack a caravan with the duke's insignia on it, but if they did, she was sure no one in the caravan would be in any danger. Esmerelda alone could probably handle every bandit group that Kiara had ever seen.

Esmerelda took her leadership role very seriously, and kept apart from the others at night. She stood in the shadows, a bit away from the campfire, rather than joining in on the revelry and storytelling. She was close enough to listen, but far enough away to avoid being drawn into it personally. She didn't stop anyone else from having fun, but she did remember to call out the guard rotations each night and ensure they were followed. Kiara wondered if she'd consider coming to work for House Yountal.

Probably best not to ask until they had at least reached Lakeshire, though. Speaking of, she wondered if they could find tier 4s for hire in Lakeshire or The Capital. It was practically unheard of in Portish, as there weren't that many tier 4s in Portish to begin with. Baron Norshod had hired Kane, but he worked for the Silver Serpent Clan, not the baron. Lord Goren had hired Ugor, but that had been some kind of temporary situation, he hadn't actually signed on with House Goren.

Even in Portish itself, they had never been able to interview a tier 4 for hire as a house retainer. They all simply already had their own things going on, or already worked for either the count, another house, or some other powerful organization. Even hiring Jaden and Zoey had been a bit of a rarity. Most tier 3s in Portish also already had stable work. That was why hiring right out of the academy was so important. In the larger cities though, powerful mages congregated.

There were certainly still low-tier mages and mortals there, but the ratio of high-tier mages would be considerably higher than it was outside The Central Island. The powerful mages flocked to The Capital and the nearby ducal capitals on The Central Island because it was a place of opportunity. That's where things were happening. Even a large county capital like Portish was simply too far away from The Capital for many powerful mages to take up residence there.

If Kiara was able to find some tier 4s for hire in Lakeshire, she would likely have to pay them a very healthy salary to consider coming to work for her in Portish. They passed through a few other county capitals on the way to the coast, stopping at each one to enjoy sleeping in an actual bed and to resupply. They only ever stayed a single night, though, resuming their journey the following morning.