Chương 891: Chapter 890: Intelligence and Offer

August Summerfield"How much dam good fortune can one person have? The legacy, whores, and now the monster!" said Darius, slamming the newest intelligence on the table. Seeing my son's behaviour, a frown couldn't help but appear on my face. He seemed to notice me looking at him and collected his emotions.

"My apologies, Lord father," he apologised. There are too many responsibilities on his shoulders; the stress of it is getting to him. I wish I could take it slow with him, but we had lost our territory. All we have left of it are two cities and a lot of barren territory, which is barely worth anything. To prepare him, I have given him more responsibilities, but looking at the stress it is putting him under, I am thinking about taking some back, at least for a short time.

He would not like it, but it's better for him until he gets used to it, and then I return those to him.

"Yes, it's not good news for us, but it's a monster, not another Lv. 40 powerhouse," I stated. There is only so much a monster could do, even if it is powerful. If it had been a powerhouse, I would have been slamming my hand on the table as well.

"I was so happy receiving news of the new vein; this news had dampened the joy," he said, shaking his head, while I smiled, thinking about the good news. We have hit the vein in our Grade VI mine. It is large and pure; it will help us tremendously. We need it desperately. The mine is doing well, but given the challenges we are facing, we will need to do better. The new vein will help us build a larger army, acquire more weapons, and apply better enchantments to the wall.

Everything is necessary, seeing the enemies everywhere. Especially Silver and Grimvale. He had already taken my one city, and now he had sold part of my territory to his nobles; I protested, but the bastard claimed it was his. He did not do that with Silver; that bastard would not have taken that lying down. He would have fought, as he did in the baronies. Grimvale may be stronger than Silver, but Silver is growing faster and stronger. This brings complicated emotions to my heart.

Silver growing stronger is making Grimvale focus on him, giving me time to grow, but the thing is, once both of them have dealt with each other, they will turn to me. These two aren't the only danger; there are also those coming from the empire. Viremont and Arenthal are quickly gathering allies to attack the Renwell Region, and I am one of their target. Everyone is their targets, aside from Grimvale. Unless he weakens or is really busy, and they not think it is worth it, they will not attack the man.

Everyone is growing stronger, even that bastard. Heck, I need to grow strong as well, or it wouldn't take long for me to get swallowed by any of these bastards. … Baron Hungston"The conditioning of the soil is going well; it will be ready in around two months," I said as I deactivated the Soil Condition. Two weeks ago, we prepared the soil with all the microbes and enemies. Even with skills expediting it, it's going to take around two months.

"We can't expedite it?" my wife asked.

"Unless you could bring me a few kilograms of soil from the extreme magic region or someone with a really powerful skill, we can't," replied our son, who still has his finger touching the soil. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Clara glared, but didn't say anything to him.

"I still believe we should have chosen a different crop. Aetherleaf Grass is too delicate to grow," she said, turning to me. I could understand her inhibition. It's a massive gamble we have taken with this place. We won the contract for this place, but it cost us a lot. We could say we are betting everything we have on it and will be spending a massive amount of money to plant and grow the crop. We have not even started on it yet; we are still conditioning the soil and putting down the enchantments.

The crop we are going to plant needs a massive amount of mana. Usually, we use energy crystals for it and enchantments to concentrate, but here they are present naturally. Which makes it a perfect place to grow the crop, not to mention its size. This place is vast, bigger than we had expected when we came here for the first time. So much so that gangs didn't use it all to grow their drugs. We are using only the places they had used, since only those spots alread have enchantments.

We are making changes in those enchantments and adding a few. The cost of it alone is massive. As I looked around the large cave, I saw a pair of enchanters. There are more of them working on different caves and caverns. We need these enchantments ready before we start planting the crop.

"Those gangs really made a massive investment here; the cost of those enchantments alone would have bankrupted us," said Clara, looking at the enchantments.

"It didn't happen in a year; it is a century's worth of investment, Mom," said Jasker as he finally got up. It isn't just enchantment, but the whole place. Each cave and cavern; many of them are natural, but many are artificial and took centuries to form. If we are ever able to plant into the whole undersea farm. We will earn more than we did through taxes in our old barony. Though it would be very hard to do that, it is my dream and ambition.

We got this place for five years, and I got assurance that if we did well. We will get a five-year extension for the farm. We paid a lot of money for it and promised the city 20% of the profits. It was the only way we were able to get the farm; there were many bidders for it. We checked the other fields one by one. I come here daily with my son, and Clara comes once a week. Our responsibility is to handle the farms, while her role is to manage and handle their logistics.

It was the same in the barony: she handled most things, while I showed up at meetings. The rest of the time, I would focus on the farms. In just two decades, we had made massive progress. Tripling the revenue of the barony and moving toward quadrupling it by focusing on special farming when the enemies attacked. Ours was not the barony with a big army; we were mostly dependent on our neighbour, the count, for defence. So, when he fell, we evacuated without waiting for even a day.

Which was a wise thing, as many of our neighbours were either killed or captured. I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the farms. It took a few hours, but we finally finished and walked back toward the exit. Soon, we reached the zero cave, where the carriage was waiting for us. The gangs intentionally kept the entrance and nearby caves small and narrow. After we took over, the first thing we did was widen the caves. So, the carriages could come inside.

The work is still ongoing and will continue till all the caves and caverns can be traversed through with the carriages. It wouldn't be a problem, as most of the caves and caverns are huge. Which is good for us, since we need to move massive amounts of stuff around in the caves. From fertilizers to farming tools, using the just labourers is too inefficient. Soon, the carriage moved out of the caves and turned toward the city.

"So, have you both thought about the Duke of Blackwell's offer?" asked Jasker. Turning the mood heavy, instantly. Nearly a week ago, an offer came from the Duke of Blackwell, called the Bloomheart Orb. It's a plant growth artifact; it was in the hands of Edruin, not long ago. He wants to exchange it with Kindred Edge—the artifact of my house.

"I don't know why both of you are even thinking about it. We have lost the territory, and it is unlikely we will ever get it back, even if the empire is somehow able to take it back."

"Even if they did and gave us territory back, it would still be more useful than that old blade we have," he said, looking at my waist where it is hanging. I have been trained in the blade, but have no interest in it. The same is my son. As for my wife, she is a mage.

"It's not about the use, but about the legacy. That blade had been in our family for five hundred years," stated Clara. It is for this sole reason that I had not even reviewed Lord Silver's offer. I may not use it, but this blade is a legacy of my family. Tens of generations of my family had killed and died for it. It is synonymous with our house. Even if it is just hanging like a showpiece on my waist, I can't bear the thought of giving it away for any reason.

"Bah, that legacy disappeared with the territory," he replied, shaking his head.

"I would say, either rent it to Lord Silver, he is offering a huge amount of money for it, or exchange it for the artifact the Duke is offering. It would help us tremendously," he added.

"It's not an easy choice to make, my son," said Clara.

"I understand, but it's decision we need to make, or others might make it for us," he replied with his eyes turning serious. I shuddered when I thought about what happened a little over a month ago. Viscount Barthlome was found dead in his home, with his artifact gone. Emperor's protection had disappeared, and now the artifacts are open game. In the past year, three nobles have died, with their artifacts stolen.

I fear for my life when I carry this blade; the danger wouldn't disappear when I exchange it, but offensive artifacts are more important than others. The thieves and assassins focus on those the most, besides here, the security is pretty tight. It had become even tighter with that assassination incident over a week ago.

"We are going to think about it," I said finally. He opened his mouth, but closed it when he saw our expressions. When it comes to tradition, inheritance, and legacy, rationality doesn't work. Still, I know my son is right; I have to think beyond that and consider my family's safety. Like it or not, I will have to make the decision quickly, for me, for my family, and the business, that is our future, not the past territory we had lost.