"So that's how it is!" The young woman furrowed her brow slightly, and even Weilin found it hard to look at her distress.
"Please pass on my regards to the master who forged these weapons! I very much hope to meet him, and the Augustus family's doors will always be open to him!" the young woman said with measured poise.
Behind her, a guard immediately stepped forward and handed Weilin a small noble's emblem engraved with the same insignia as the one on his shoulder.
"This! This! And these arrowheads — we'll take them all!"
The young woman pointed at the display case.
"Yes! Right away!" Weilin's face flushed red with excitement. Without even taking time to examine the emblem carefully, he rushed over and bundled up the long sword and other weapons, handing them to the two guards standing behind the young woman.
"Total comes to one thousand and fifty gold feils! Thank you for your patronage!"
When Weilin watched the young woman nod, and the steward handed him a small pouch of gold coins and a purple-gold card, his face nearly went blank with shock, and the hand cradling the money bag trembled ever so slightly.
The young noblewoman clearly noticed his reaction, and a flicker of amused mischief passed through her eyes.
"I'm heading to the Wuti Wilderness. How about you serve as my guide? Ten gold feils per day…"
"Te… ten gold feils?" Weilin's breathing grew heavy in an instant.
Working at Leilin's little shop, his monthly salary was three gold feils — and that was already considered an enviable, high wage among all the residents of Bert Town.
Ten gold feils a day? That was something Weilin had never even dared to dream of!
"But!" Weilin glanced at Leilin and, gritting his teeth, refused the offer. "I'm sorry, my lady! I have to be at work here every day…"
Despite his desperate desire to earn that extra money, Weilin still understood the difference between the present and the future. What Leilin was teaching him was the Knight's cultivation method!!! In the Dark Abyss, such knowledge only existed within certain noble families with complete, unbroken lineages — it was something no amount of gold feils could buy!
If he gave up his future life as a Knight for a bit of temporary income, Weilin knew he would cry himself to death.
"How interesting! Truly interesting! I never expected that a single outing would lead me to such an amusing little shop!"
The young woman laughed like a lark.
"My name is Jenny. I'm staying at the largest inn in town. If you change your mind, you can come find me anytime…"
After Jenny and her entourage had departed, Weilin carefully laid the gold coins and the purple-gold card out on the table.
"A purple-gold card worth a thousand gold feils — it's my first time ever seeing one! And all these coins! My lord, we've struck it rich!" Weilin's eyes were full of little stars.
"Mm! Mm!" Leilin nodded somewhat indifferently and tucked the purple-gold card into his coat.
"The remaining gold feils can serve as your commission!"
"Oh! Boss, please allow me to praise you! You are truly the arbiter of fairness, the embodiment of mercy…" Weilin immediately cheered.
He tossed the emblem in his hand and caught it, then frowned in puzzlement. "Why does this look so familiar? And the Augustus family… I feel like I've heard that name somewhere…"
Then he let out a wretched scream. "Damn it! Sunvine Augustus! That hereditary marquis family in the Eastern Domain capital!! What on earth did I just turn down…"
However, despite his lamentations, Weilin did not run after them again.
After all, they hadn't been recruiting him as a retainer — they just needed a guide. Giving up Leilin's instruction over something like that would have been an extraordinarily unwise decision.
But the arrival of this marquis's daughter had clearly given the residents of Bert Town plenty to talk about. Every day, Leilin could hear the latest news about the group straight from Weilin's mouth.
"My lord! My lord! They say Miss Jenny came all the way here specifically to prepare a very special birthday gift for her mother, and she's planning to enter the wilderness to search for it. What a filial daughter!"
"Haha… I found out — what Miss Jenny is looking for is a special plant called the Dragon Blood Bud! They say it can preserve a woman's appearance for ten years without aging. At an auction in the Eastern Domain capital, one sold for nearly a hundred thousand gold feils! After the bounty was posted, every adventurer, mercenary, and even ordinary resident in the entire town went crazy rushing into the Wuti Wilderness to search for it, dreaming of getting rich overnight!"
"My lord! I just saw Miss Jenny head into the Wuti Wilderness, led by the baron's knight-captain…"
…
Weilin chirped and chattered before Leilin like an excited sparrow, making Leilin roll his eyes.
"Did you finish today's assignments?"
With a single sentence, Leilin silenced Weilin completely, and the young man drooped his head.
"Not yet! But I'm almost done!" After saying that, Weilin darted off to the training ground like a puff of smoke, grabbed a greatsword as tall as a man, and began swinging it.
"Still have the energy to run around when you've got daily training to do — you're quite spirited!" A faint smile tugged at the corner of Leilin's lips. "Today's task load is doubled…"