22. Letter

"I guess that's all for today, rest well. Tomorrow is a holiday, spend your time wisely and don't play around too much. Bye bye." said Diana with a smile as she waved her hand and left the room.

The words don't reach Yoro's ear though. He was dead. Slumped in his seat while he was having some kind of migraine. He wondered if there was some kind of paracetamol in this world. It would really help right now.

Just now, he had learned about the state of the noble in the Escilla Kingdom from his mother. Initially, he sulked and wondered to himself as to why he should learn this kind of thing. The topic about mana core and it's uses was much more interesting and useful. Although, he got a smack on the head when realizing he said it out loud.

She explained helplessly that as a noble, it's very important for one to learn who you could consider enemies, and who could be considered allies. It raised another question though. Why the noble bother to fight among themselves rather than focussed on advancing their territory. 

His mother explained it was because the risk was little and yet the outcome was huge. On the other hand, investing in your own territory would be taking a really long time and it's not really profitable in the short-run, and that wasn't including the other possibilities that slowing it down.

All in all, he was forced to do it regardless of his consent in the end, and it was a bloody pain in the ass.

His thought was cut short abruptly when a creaking sound of a door entered his ear. Yoro raised his head lazily to check who walked inside, and there he found a lovely young girl with brown hair in the maid outfit was approaching him.

"Young master" Cecilia's face was that of a concerned one when she saw the pale-faced boy slumped in his desk as if he was having some kind of an anemic. Yoro managed to squeeze out a smile though, reassuring her that he's okay. 

She walked towards him kind of hastily, but just when she was only a feet away from him, she halted her step, frowning and biting her lower lips as her expression contorted into an unsure one. Unbeknown to Yoro, her eyes flashed into a red colour for a split second.

"Ah... Cecilia, what's wrong?" He said weakly and pointed at the thing in her hand. "Is it for me?"

"Ah yes, it was delivered this morning." She responded and gave him the envelope.

The envelope was sealed with red wax. Yoro raised his eyebrows as he jerked his body straight and looked at it intently, the lesson this morning came to his mind. 

<Most nobles more often than not used red wax to seal their envelope, more so in case of an important one. This red wax is actually an exclusive seal given by the royalty. Different from the normal wax, it had the feature to change its colour according to the importance of the content when you inject it with your mana. This very property is what make it very valuable and useful, but it also make it rare and hard to get.>

Yoro frowned upon remembering his lesson. His mind circled at the issue that in fact, he had no noble friend at all. Well, he didn't even know any as far as his memories were concerned. Yet, someone sent him this letter with his complete name written beautifully on the envelope, so he doubted it was being sent wrongly. His best guess was his mother who pranked him and sent him this letter just to check if he listened to her lesson or not.

He raised his eyes and glanced at Cecilia. She was still standing there, tilting her head and looked as clueless as he was.

Sighing, he then proceeded to inject his mana to the wax, withering it in the process while the wax gave him a faint gold colour. 

'gold, which meant it was about trading, exchange, or something similar.' he thought and pulled the letter inside.

The thing that quickly caught his interest was the logo of a black coin carved with B and C letters. For a split second he honestly thought it was a bit-co*n logo, but seeing Cecilia's understanding expression, he decided to ask her instead.

"You know from which noble house this is?" He asked and pointed at the black logo.

Cecilia shook her head. "It wasn't a noble logo, young master. It was a company logo instead." She explained.

Yoro raised his eyebrows in interest, gesturing to her to continue.

"B.C Company, or a Black Cipher Company, was an underworld organization founded around six years ago and had rapidly expanded itself since then. Some said the leader was a highly-talented anonymous mage, but some of the others said the leader was a noble. No one knows exactly which one, no one except their inner member. But even they couldn't meet their leader easily like that, or so was what rumour said."

Yoro nodded and shifted his eyes back to the letter. It seemed that it wasn't his mother's measly made prank. But then, who would send him this letter and why? Yoro was publicly known ill, and it helped him avoid the thick web of noble's political ploy. Actually, her mother's lesson hardly helped him in this part of things. In the end, it depended on his ability to judge things whether it was good or bad.

Yoro's eyes moved right and left as he read the letter. Wasn't realizing that Cecilia had been shifting in her place uncomfortably for a while now. She was biting her lower lips, looked as if she was frustrated about something while looking at the boy in front of her.

"Invitation." He said suddenly, startling dazed Cecilia before him.

"Y-yes?"

"This letter was about an invitation" He explained as he raised his head up. But Cecilia already gained her composure and her face was already back to normal.

Yoro stored the letter behind his jacket, an expectant look was painted on his face . "It seems they want me to visit their casino in Ehrenar City. Hmm… is it even legal for an 11 year olds kid to enter one? Or was there any requirement at all?"

Cecilia frowned for a second but then shook her head. "As far as I know, there wasn't. But there was still a common belief that a kid shouldn't be around that part of town. Yet on the other hand, the noble in Escilla kingdom encourage such a thing instead. They said the noble should manage their money wisely since they were little. That's why such a practice isn't strange in the capital." She explained.

"I see…. It was written in the letter that the sender…. had an offer for me. Considering their reputation and the fact that my father gave them permission to open business, I think it safe to assume they had no bad intention out of this. Well, I might check it out later while enjoying my holiday wandering around the city." Looking at Cecilia's concerned expression, Yoro smiled reassuringly again and said. "You don't have to worry. I will bring someone with me later."

Cecilia grumbled under her breath. "If you say so…."

* * *

 The sun was high in the sky at the moment.

In Ehrenar city, Yoro was seen walking across the alleyway at a normal pace. He was wearing a black cloak, hiding his appearances beneath while carefully treading his path and avoiding all shady people around him. Even if it sounded wasn't safe, no one even dared to attempt something yet. No one would dare to do so before the supervision of the bald guy beside Yoro.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ask the baldy, whose name was Chadrac.

"What do you mean I want to do this?" Yoro asked back, his face looked as pale as ever.

Chad was glaring at literally everyone who got 3 feets away from them, looking ferocious and dangerous. When they had gotten into a brighter part of the town, he continued "Going to the Casino I mean. If young master wants to spend your money on something, there are many other things that are way more beneficial to do. You can say that…. I was more experienced in this kind of thing."

"Losing money, you mean?" Yoro snickered, but Chad only grumbled and didn't respond.

"Well, I won't overdo it. I just want to test something in the process and maybe, we can get way more than we have right now."

"You mean…?"

"Well, you will see it soon enough." He ended it by that and didn't say anything further much to Chad's annoyance.

Soon, they arrived at the said place. It wasn't located in the slum, yet also wasn't located at the brighter part of the town. In fact, it was between those both. Anyone who'd chosen this location must be intending to attract customers from both sides, and it also indirectly saying that he was a neutral party.

There were guards on the door, watching out for any suspicious people. but when they tried to enter, the guards didn't try to stop them and just merely nodded at Chad. Yoro noticed this behaviour and noted in his heart that Chad seemed to come to this place often enough for the guards to know him.

And they easily entered B.C Casino.