Distant Past

Meanwhile, inside the office room presided by Count Alvis.

While reading his document, he asks his Captain.

"Is he gone now?"

"Yes, My Lord. What do you want me to do?"

"None, for now, let's just observe him first. And bring the young man named Payne Blanc here. I just want to ask him a few questions."

"As you wish, My Lord."

The captain gives his bow and leaves the room to stand outside the door.

Count Alvis sighed and turn his gaze to the windows beside him.

How long has it been since Rook took the place of the Town Chief? More than a decade or so.

He then reminisces about the past.

The first time he encounters Rook where his carriage almost hit a young lady when he went to see the West Town for the first time after succeeding his father as the family head.

Fortunately, the lady only received a slight scratch on her shoulder. His knight scolded the young lady but Count Alvis stop them. He also gives an appropriate amount of coins to the young lady.

It was then the old man started running out of nowhere and hug the young lady.

"My daughter, are you hurt? Where are you hurt? Tell father so I can bring you to the clinic!"

His voice is hoarse and his worried tone was heard by the people nearby who started gossiping.

His face also expressed the love of a father for his kids.

Count Alvis was touched, he too has a daughter.

"Old man, here. Take this. The coachman didn't see the young lady that cross the road."

That's the only time the old man looks at them.

Count Alvis clearly saw the shocked expression of the old man when he recognized him.

Instantly, the old man prostrated on the spot.

"Please, My Lord. Forgive my blunder and spare my daughter."

"Old man, raise your head. We are not going to sue your daughter for blocking the way of my carriage. Here, take this."

Count Alvis gives the cloth bag that contains a few gold coins and silver coins.

"My Lord, there is no need. I cannot accept such money."

For the first time, Count Alvis encounters such a man. In the capital, if he went to give a piece of a coin or plenty amount of coins, the masses will instantly try their best to get it.

But the old man in front of him is different from the majority. He was surprised.

"What is your name, old man?"

"My name is Rook."

"What do you do for a living, Rook?"

"I am just a farmer, My Lord."

Count Alvis nodded his head and put the cloth bag containing a few coins near the daughter and father duo.

"My Lord, I cannot accept it. Please, it may offend you somehow, and apologize for that but I do not want to owe a debt, mostly to a noble like yourself."

Rook bows his head again.

The knight standing beside Count Alvis quickly scolded the Rook.

"You bastard, who told you to refuse the generosity of ---" but the knight was stopped by Count Alvis by raising his right hand alone.

"Accept it, use it as you see deem fit. You do not need to concern yourself and saw it as debt. I freely give this to you."

Count Alvis went ahead and enter his carriages.

The father and daughter duo bow their head and thanked him.

The carriages continue and went to Town Hall. He was then received graciously by the current Town Chief.

After hours of talking, he went outside to continue his sightseeing and that's the time he heard some dreadful news.

The daughter of the old man name Rook was stabbed to death.

The news angered him greatly and quickly have his knights investigate and caught the suspect.

After hours of looking for the suspect, they found them. There are two suspects. They forcedly killed the young lady when it refuse to give the cloth bag that was given to him by his father to pay in advance the rent due on their farm.

The two suspects saw what happened earlier and they follow the father and daughter. And when they saw the old man give the cloth bag to his daughter, they follow the young lady and it escalated to them stabbing the young lady to her death.

Hearing the results of the investigation, Count Alvis order the Town Chief to hang the two suspects to death publicly.

The Town Chief is agitated about receiving the order but he has no choice. It was ordered from a noble.

The Town Chief quickly has his knights and people create gallows in the plaza. This is the first time in West Town that a suspect will be hung to death and it will be seen publicly.

For Count Alvis, this is also the first time he put people that were convicted to their death. This will serve as a warning for those people who do such things.

On the gallows, while the convicted are hanging to their death, the public masses are looking in disgust, and pity and a look similar to serve them right. While Rook is full of anger in his face.

After the scene, Count Alvis went to Rook's house and give his condolences.

"My Lord, thank you for avenging my daughter! They deserved it! How they stab a young lady to her death. They can just take away the coins and leave her be!"

Rook gushed out while clenching his fists.

He didn't know what come to him. Maybe out of pity? Yes, but it can also be the different way of thinking of this old man he displayed earlier when he refused the cloth bag.

Speaking of the cloth bag that contained few coins, If he just let the old man refuse the cloth bag, maybe her daughter is still alive now.

He didn't know the reason why, but maybe all of them that he offered Rook the position of Chief Town.

The old man was shocked beyond relief. And as expected, the old man refused first.

He then told Rook that he will leave West Town tomorrow morning so if he changes his mind, tell him tonight.

It also saves Count Alvis a lot of time in choosing the successor of the current Town Chief.

The current Town Chief already reached the maximum 6 years of serving him.

Time passed and evening came, Rook accepted the offered position to replace the current Town Chief.

Count Alvis has all the Town Hall personnel to process the succession. And tomorrow morning, it was spread that the new Town Chief is Rook.

Since then, Rook did his best to produce satisfying results which made Count Alvis glad. Glad that he made the right choice. Time passed, and he deem that Rook is trustworthy, he decided to have Rook partake in a simple task concerning his Network Intelligence.

As payment, he gives Rook a lot of money and lets him stay as the Town Chief until now. He was able to pull it off thanks to the connection he has using his Network Intelligence.

8 years have passed, and during that time, Count Alvis visit the West Town multiple times. But something changed.

He felt something odd about Rook. As an experienced noble, he quickly stops giving Rook an errand concerning his Network intelligence and secretly investigates Rook.

That's when he found out Rook secretly harboring great envy regarding his status as a noble.

Count Alvis admitted that Rook performed splendidly and produce a satisfying result for every errand and mission he was tasked with. But he never once thought of making Rook to be knighted.

A commoner has a right to be knighted if the condition is met. A great and significant contribution to the good of the Edo Kingdom.

Even if he wants Rook to be knighted, the King will decline it immediately.

Although harboring great envy against him, Count Alvis didn't take any action that will jeopardize Rook.

But alas, as time passed, Rook's envy start affecting him which even affects his position as Town Chief. The satisfying results and performance are nowhere to be seen.

Count Alvis return to reality and sighed. It's a shame that he will soon lose someone with talent in management.

A pity.

But he has no choice. Although he is strong to rival any captain in the Edo Kingdom in terms of martial arts and swordplay. He cannot risk his life. The main reason for losing one's life is not the danger ahead, but the danger lurking in the shadow ready to pounce on him once he let his guard down.

Count Alvis return to his work and read the document again and god knows for how many times.

This document is his and his predecessors' lifelong dream. Their greatest treasure. After all, this document contains all the information regarding the massive wealth and artifacts from the missing amulet.

It is said the content explains in detail the location, the uses of artifacts, the hidden power behind the weapons, and even forbidden text are included.

But there's one problem. The text is decrypted. Due to unknown reasons, his late predecessors forgot the content and until now, no one was able to decrypt the hidden information.

All that was written in the documents are about the story of the far future.

There are objects called TV. A bidet, air conditioner, and many more that has no meaning.

The documents he is holding are just a copy of the original. The original document was safely placed in the deepest part of his treasure on his estate.

He read this one-page document a thousand times and he cannot still get a sense of it.

What should he do to know the hidden meaning of those objects?

Through his influence, he hired many intellectual decryptors. Many decryptors ask him where he had found the document and what made him think the written text is encrypted and needed to be decrypted but no one was able to decipher the true meaning.

And he is also not afraid the Royal Family finds the documents odd. Although it is actually odd, he doubted the Royal Family will waste their time inquiring too much about the documents.

He then heard someone knock on the door twice.

"You can come in."

His Captain and Payne Blanc enter his temporary office.

The young man curtsied and greet him respectfully.

Count Alvis looks at the Captain implying he can leave now.

He placed the document on the table where Payne Blanc can read it, but Count Alvis is confident that the young man will understand such terms indicated in the documents.

"I heard from Rook, your Town Chief that you want to join the mission of the heroes and cook for them?"

"It is correct, My Lord."

"I also know the reason why but I want to hear it from you. Why do you want to join and face the uncertainty that was full of danger?"

Count Alvis the eyes of Payne Blanc glint for a fraction of a second.

"It is because it is my dream to see the outside world. There are a lot of dangers ahead but to pursue my dreams to learn more about the world, I need to face all the dangers and struggle to achieve it. That is all."

Count Alvis felt conviction of Payne and scrutinize him.

He actually likes the idea of having a cook during the mission. It may not account for too much, but it can help the heroes saves time and instead of wasting time cooking for themselves in the forest, they can use the time to replenish their strength.

And he cannot find any fault in the unwavering eyes of this young man in front of him.

"Okay, I'll understand. But remember that it is not my responsibility if you didn't make it alive. And it is not the responsibility of the heroes to protect you all the time. After all, in front of the death door, they rather choose to survive instead of helping others. Are we clear?"

"Yes, My Lord. This humble servant understood it all!"

"Good, you will receive the wages that the heroes will receive."

"Thank you for benevolence and generosity, My Lord!"

"It's okay, you can leave now."

Count Alvis pulls one of the drawers to get some documents that he needs to read. These documents contain the taxes of the citizen from West Town.

While trying to take out the documents, he didn't realize that Payne Blanc is in shock after taking a glimpse of a document on his desk.

After Count Alvis sorts the document in the drawer, he realized that he was thirsty.

"Oh please, by the way. Can you bring me some cold drinks, and put some alcohol in them?" Count Alvis ordered Payne and close the cabinet.

Payne Blanc on the other hand wakes up from his shock stupor.

"Of course, My Lord. The drinks will be right on your way in a moment."

Then Payne bows once again before leaving his office.

What didn't Count Alvis know is that Payne already cracked the code.