86.

Noctis called out to the two androids and opened the inn with the addition of a beauty, who's good at cooking and single as well. The men travelled from afar just to see her. There are also women who heard of a gorgeous man who can put a princess to shame in the inn and many woman tried to gather as well at WoD. With the battlewolves patrolling and clearing the area, the WoD is turning into a safeplace.

Noctis was surprised to see Gildart's when the first batch entered.

"Owner! I miss your ale!" Gildarts shouted while laughing.

"You only miss getting drunk aren't you?" Noctis chuckled.

"Yeah, I quickly finished the mission and immediately went back to have a drink. A pity the guild have no one to man the bar." Gildarts said with a sigh.

"Haha, don't worry, I think someone will man that bar in the future." Noctis said with a chuckle.

"Of course, he/she might not be as good as you but as long as I get to drink, it doesn't matter at all." Gildarts continued laughing.

When Gildarts is here, the atmosphere will always turn merry in an instant.

"Yo, master. Who are those two? First time I've seen 'em." Gildarts asked who the androids are.

"My disciples. They help me man out the bar when I'm not around." Noctid said and Gildarts widened his eyes.

"D-disciples?! Two at that?! Are you still accepting?! I want someone from the guild to learn from you!" Gildarts said making other customers frown. Gildarts realized his mistake and lowered his head.

"My bad. I thought that you are currently accepting disciples." Gildarts apologized.

"No. I'm not accepting disciples at the moment. They do their job well so I'm satisfied with my staff at the moment." Noctis said.

"I see." Gildarts didn't say anymore and just drank his mug of beer.

The time passed by and nothing special happened in the day but before he closed the inn, a flying old man went in front of him.

"I apologize for the late intrusion but I rushed here as fast as I could after the meeting of the generals." He said to Noctis.

"And? Who might you be?" Noctis asked but he already have an idea from what he heard.

"My name is Leroy. I'm the one sent to talk with you." Leroy said as he panted.

"Get inside." Noctis motioned as he closed the door. Noctis have already sent the two androids back to the farm while Irene and thr chipmunks are already upstairs.

"So? Tell me why should I allow Irene to come with you?" Noctis asked as he brewed some coffee for himself.

"I'm not here for mistress Irene. I'm here to hire you, Mr. Noctis." He said and it surprised Noctis.

"Interesting, I thought you guys want to convince me to allow Irene to fight in the frontlines. It surprised me." Noctis replied.

"At first it was my goal when I rushed here but I changed my mind. Mr. Noctis I would like to hire you if you don't want mistress Irene to come to the frontlines." Leroy said as he tried to persuade Noctis.

"What do I get from this? As you can see, I was planning on bringing my family on a vacation and your war is interfering with our family affairs." Noctis said as he narrowed his eyes.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, Mr. Noctis. I would love to avoid war as well but as you can see, the rain kingdom doesn't want us to do that. As for what you'll get, how about 3 ancient artifacts?" Leroy said but Noctis just stared at him.

Leroy felt uncomfortable under Noctis' gaze but he needs one of the two to win the wat against the rain kingdom. It would be good if Noctis would be able to kill the enemy general quickly to lower the enemy morale.

"5, I want 5 ancient artifacts." Noctis said as he spread open his hands.

"But that's too expensive Mr. Noct!" Leroy said.

"Take it or leave it. Also I get to choose them. I don't want you guys to choose sh*tty artifacts for my hard work." Noctis said.

The maximum Leroy could offer was 3 and Noctis is asking for 5 of them and he gets to choose them.

'It better be worth it!' Leroy gritted his teeth

"Deal!" Leroy said. They are in precarious situation and the enemy army will arrive tomorrow at noon. Noctis knows what he's thinking spoke up.

"Oh, don't worry. Its going to be worth it." He said with a smirk. He needs to spread his name across the lands once more. Even a sh*tty spriggan is calling him a commoner. That's unacceptable. His name once spread all over the continent, but with years of inactivity and rising geniuses all over the land, the people soon forgot about his name. It would also help him to make sure no one will mess with his inn. Not like they can leave once they did cause some problem.

"Then w-would you like to lead mistress Irene's squad?" Leroy's eloquence was gone once he saw Noctis' smirk. He feels like he would do something outrageous.

"Hm? I guess I'll see if Heine and Juliet did their job." He said and Leroy nodded.

"As much as we don't want to involve mistress Irene, we really need any help to repel the invaders. I apologize for that." Leroy said.

"Sure. You can go back now. I'll be there by the morning." Noctis said and Leroy nodded as he flew back.

Enchanting can be learned by anyone who has the knowledge. Its just that, compared to Irene's knowledge and talent in terms of enchanting is simply off this world.

After Leroy left, he closed the inn and went upstairs only to see the sleeping chipmunks. He then went back to their room and lied besides the sleeping Irene. Noticing something moving, Irene opened her eyes to see Noctis.

"What took you so long?" Irene asked.

"Well, I didn't expect them to send the messenger as soon as possible." Noctis said.

"So? What did they say?" Irene asked.

"They want to hire me instead of convincing me to allow you to return to the frontlines." Noctis said and Irene is surprised to hear about it.

"Yeah, I had the same face as you." Noctis chuckled seeing Irene's surprised face.

"It really is surprising. Old man Leroy is indeed a cunning man." Irene said.

"He is indeed a cunning man but because they need my help, so... I managed to rip off some benefits from them." Noctis smirked and Irene shivered seeing that smirk.

"What did you do now, dear?" Irene shook her head helplessly. When Noctis smirks like that, she is sure that he's up to no good.

"Me? What? I didn't do anything wrong. I just asked for five ancient artifacts as my payment." Noctis said in innocence and Irene stared at Noctis.

"That's not all isn't it?" Irene stared at him with a deadpan look.

"I get to choose the artifacts I'll take?" Noctis said as Irene felt a headache coming after she returned to her post as a spriggan.

"You do know that, that's the kingdom I work for, no?" Irene asked.

"Of course. But if they want to ruin our vacation they need to pay a high price for that." Noctis said and Irene didn't say anthing anymore and just closed her eyes and slept. Arguing with Noctis right now is like arguing with a broken tape recorder.