49 Eavesdropping

Savine wanted to tease them more, but she heard a voice in her head.

<Hey, kid, come over.>

<Whit! What are you doing here?>

<What? Do it yourself!>

'What is this?' Savine sighed. 'Is the whole city crawling with this boss guy's men or am I just unlucky?'

She closed her eyes and saw the kid Whit was talking with. Noting down his appearance, Savine opened her eyes.

"Savine?"

Eliseline was staring at her, a concerned expression on her face.

"Nothing," Savine smiled. This time, she did it normally. "Should we head to the inn?"

Thankfully, they managed to avoid getting found by the new stalker and arrived at the inn. It was located near the Teleportation circle and it was pretty fancy. Though, it only cost five silvers per day.

Really, gold coins were rare. Savine was actually quite surprised how the big merchants were paying hundreds of them to move their wares. Or maybe they were just paying in mana stones. The reason why the Teleportation Circles cost so much was because they needed tons of mana stones to work.

Every world that used mana had mana stones. The amount depended, though. Some worlds had almost an infinite number of it, while others had barely none. But since this world had the Wisdom Tree, naturally, mana stones would be scarce.

'In this world, it's most likely that they form a vein at the borders of the countries, far away from the Wisdom trees.'

Since countries were built with a Wisdom Tree at its center, naturally, their borders only reached the area that fell under the influence of the Wisdom Trees. Those spots also happened to be the likeliest places to possess mana stone veins. This arrangement spelled doom for any attempt at peace between the nations. Always, there would be conflicts over these mana stone veins.

As far as Savine knew, the Sovereignty had complete control over the mana stone veins at its southern and southwestern borders – the place the Erst Duchy was located on. It was because it was bordered against the Magicracy's tall mountains. Since it was inconvenient for the Magicracy to conduct mining operations on the mountains, they focused their efforts elsewhere.

This made it so that the Sovereignty had almost uncontested control over these veins, which meant that the mining process was safe. The Sovereignty did not need to keep countless soldiers and mageknights here to keep control. Things were stable. The king could leave the mining to one of the nobles here and grant them part of the dug-up ores as compensation.

'From the Dispatch Center's boss's words, it would be one Marquis Luckner in charge of the mines…'

And, it wouldn't be so odd if that Marquis Luckner also conducted various businesses using the money he got from all the mana stones. He would also soon realize that he could have an edge over the competitor merchants by being able to transport wares instantaneously. After all, he could supply the Teleportation Circles with mana stones directly. There was no need to pay all those gold coins for it.

'Huh.'

The situation became clear at once. Getting to the bottom of the matter, Savine was satisfied.

'Then what's the matter with the Dispatch Center's boss?'

The fat man clearly ran a tight ship. He was familiar with everyone, he wasn't averse to doing the small tasks occasionally and he also dabbled in the darker side of the city.

Savine's first guess was that he was a baron of some kind that was put to work by either duke Erst or Marquis Luckner. As he worked, he had spread his influence further and further.

She sat in a meditative position and focused her attention towards the Dispatch Center.

Her senses left her body and appeared at her intended destination. Upon arrival, her mind was immediately bombarded with information. The people working inside the building, the mass of insects crawling around the place, the rot and cracks in the buildings materials, and the piece of diamond ring stuck under the floorboards.

Not only was she aware of them, she was forced to see, hear, smell, touch and taste everything as well. Omniscience was not a fun thing to experience. Savine quickly cut down the things she sensed one by one until only her vision and hearing remained.

The boss was playing as the receptionist again, greeting the customers, making small talk. Whit walked into the building and nodded towards the boss. The latter switched with the actual receptionist and beckoned Whit to the backrooms.

<That's it?>

<They're also filthy rich…?>

<You've been following them for half a day and that's all you got me?>

<Boss, even if you get mad at me, it's not like I can force them to do things. They're just a really beautiful couple traveling around.>

<Hmm… what about the kid?>

<Dunno. I was far away so couldn't tell exactly, but felt like she acting as the group's leader.>

<Hmm… I noticed that too. When we were discussing payments, it was her who spoke, not the other two.>

<Yeah. Bought everything they looked at, never haggled, even the servant was carrying around a bagfulof silver coins casually. The girl pays for most things.>

<Mm… >

<Nah, boss. I was staring at them in daylight and they were never the wiser. think they're easy prey.> Whit looked at the boss, expectant. <So we're doing it?>

Whit smiled widely and walked off.

Savine pulled her focus back.

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