You're Late

"Do you trade slaves from the villages you raid around this city?"

"Yes, my Lord..."

"Do you rob people, collect taxes, and violate those you desire most?"

"Yes..."

Jun looked at Gild standing before him, extended his hand to Gild's throat, and with a single motion, slit it with ease.

Crack!

Jun's face was splattered with blood, but he didn't care. Instead, he turned to Trevor and said, "Can you handle the rest?"

"Yes, I will kill them all."

After finishing off everyone in the gambling den, Jun gathered all the valuable items he had won and stuffed them into a wool sack before leaving the place.

His white clothing was now stained with blood—a real shame. No matter who saw him, he walked calmly back to the city lord's mansion.

Things were about to change. He knew he would have to kill many men who could have been useful to him, but this wasn't the time for recruitment.

Upon returning to the mansion, he asked the servants to prepare him a bath. He was already familiar with the process, so it didn't feel awkward for him to be served directly.

"Any new updates?"

"We rescued fifty slaves, all of them young women who were planned to be sold to regular buyers."

Jun stepped out of the tub, grabbed a towel, and said to the person behind the bathroom door, "I want you to take care of killing the criminals. If we want this city to become our top income source, we need to keep it safe."

"We will take care of it."

"Oh, before you leave, call for Rugal. I need to speak with him." This time, Jun began dressing in his black attire. It was starting to get cold, so it was convenient to wear it.

Upon leaving his room, he walked toward a table filled with steaming dishes.

"Sir, the city guard commander is waiting for you."

Jun, who hadn't touched his food, said, "Let him in; he's my guest."

"Understood."

Soon, Rugal entered the dining room, where Jun sat, staring at his food. Fortunately, Rugal was good at conversation, so he said, "I heard about what happened at the gambling house..."

Jun cut him off and said, "I heard you're a good commander of five hundred men. Since you'll be under my command, I need more than just your oath of loyalty."

Rugal had allowed the crimes to go unchecked instead of solving the problems with his own hands. "I've sworn my loyalty to you. You'll have my honesty as a more appropriate response."

"What I need from you is to follow my orders exactly as I give them. I don't want any contradictions in the work."

Jun knew exactly how common dishonesty was among people, especially in this era, where everyone fought to survive.

"That's what I'll do, my Lord. You can trust me."

Jun was about to start eating when he smelled a familiar scent. "You'll need to prove that trust."

"Yes..." Rugal was about to leave when he saw a female figure dressed in white at the entrance.

"You're late, Kyou Kai."

Kyou Kai looked at Rugal, who was kneeling, and said, "If you had let us use the faster horses, we wouldn't have prayed so much, but you care more about that thing called genetics."

"Sit down and eat. My guest is about to leave." Jun didn't need to say more for Rugal to understand that he should leave the room.

But before Rugal could leave, Jun reminded him, "If you don't do your job properly, I'll replace you."

"You won't be disappointed, my Lord."

Kyou Kai looked at Jun as she sat beside him and asked, "Life here doesn't seem that different from home."

"Yes, it's not that different." Jun felt a quiet sense of happiness as he realized he wouldn't be eating alone.

It wasn't just him who had changed; Kyou Kai had too, now considering this place a home she could return to.

These were not just improvements for both of them but also for their future actions. Who wouldn't improve with these small new steps?

"What will we do here?"

"In order to visit the royal family, I had to pass through this castle to rest from the long journey. The King of Qin likely knew this and granted me the city with more crime than expected." Jun took a glass of what appeared to be wine and poured himself a drink.

"You still worry too much about others."

"I feel that if I have the chance to improve things, I should. It costs me nothing, and the gains are significant for us." Jun was building up his private army for the next war he decided to engage in.

But before going any further, he needed to have a solid base of resources, armaments, and certainty about where to intervene.

"Do you want to visit your former teammates? Go."

"No, we can do that when we have a more solid opportunity," said Kyou Kai, who had grown much over the past year.

She was almost fourteen now, and Jun was about to turn fifteen. Both were still growing, so in two more years, they'd probably reach their peak potential.

Jun glanced sideways at Kyou Kai and said in an indifferent tone, "If anyone asks, you'll say you're my fiancée. That's the only way they won't bother us."

"Your fiancée?" Kyou Kai didn't quite understand what a fiancée was.

But Jun, a bit more perceptive, quickly explained, "It's a female companion a man has for life. I'm afraid if we meet that fool of a king, he'll offer me a woman to be my fiancée."

"Oh, so I can carry your seed."

"Cough!" Jun almost choked on the meat he was eating and said, "Of course, we can plant as many seeds as you like."

He knew it wasn't wise to say such things, but at the moment, nothing pleased him more than these conversations with Kyou Kai, who was just starting to learn about certain peculiar things.