The Fallen Noble

Clang!

Nolan dropped the sword onto the dyed red floor.

"Aghhh!" He gritted his teeth in pain as he sat on the bed. Sitting on the bed, Nolan held his right hand in his left.

Just now, when he attacked Rosalia and Finn, he did so with the sword in his right hand. As a result of attacking with his dominant hand, the success rate of his plan was higher, but the pain he had gone through was indescribable.

[Ding]

[You completed the Quest: Revenge]

[You received: Village level 1 construction drawing, Exp50]

Even though he felt an unbearable pain, seeing the system messages, Nolan could not help but smile.

"System, didn't you forget something? What would have happened if I had to unsheathe the sword and then attack?"

[Ding]

[The system lost the bet]

[You received: 10 allocation points]

"Status window." Nolan instantly opened the status window, wanting to allocate the allocation points to his stats and ease the pain in his right shoulder.

[Name: Nolan]

[Gender: Male]

[Age: 19years, 5 days]

[Personality: Mentally unstable]

[Occupation: Beggar who knows basic swordsmanship]

[Level 2]

[Exp: 50/100]

[Martial arts: Basic swordsmanship]

[Strength: 10]

[Stamina: 11]

[Agility: 11]

[Allocation points: 10]

Without even thinking, Nolan put five points into agility and five into stamina.

[Stamina: 16]

[Agility: 16]

"Ahhh!" He let out a long, kind of a sigh of satisfaction. "That's a lot better." The pain in his right shoulder eased and did not hurt as much when he moved his arm.

"Looks like it's time to make my escape." Nolan stood up from the bed.

He picked up the bloody sword a few meters from the bed and wiped the blood off the sword with the red curtains. He then stored the sword in the Reward inventory.

Just as he was bout to leave, a thought popped into his mind. 'Is it not possible that there is gold hidden in this house?'

He searched the whole house. In the end, he did find money, but not as much as he expected.

"Just 25 taels of silver." He muttered disappointedly. He expected there to be at least a hundred taels of silver.

"Well better something than nothing." He muttered, storing the silver in the inventory.

[Ding]

[New Quest: Escape]

[Escape from Rosalia's people]

[Reward: 100 bags of grain]

[Penalty upon failure: Death]

[You cannot decline this quest]

"Hundred bags, huh? Let's say each bag weighs twenty-five kilos (55 pounds). That's about two and a half tons (5500 pounds) of grain." Nolan did a quick math. "System, what do you say you give me fifty bags of grain and fifty bags of rice?"

[The host's request is impossible]

"So stingy!" He muttered as he made his way to the wooden terrace.

"Perfect!" He exclaimed after he found that the red lanterns hung on the terrace still burned.

He took a lantern and headed back inside.

He threw the lantern on the bed, resulting in the curtains coughing fire. The fire slowly started spreading to the bed.

Before the fire caught the whole floor, Nolan went to the first floor and exited the house. He dared to leave the house freely without a pre-made plan because he knew the yard was void of people.

Because the furniture in the house was made out of wood, the fire spread quickly. Soon, smoke started coming out of the house, and the fire became visible from afar.

Nolan stood by the wall behind the house, ready to jump out of the yard the moment Rosalia's men entered the yard. The wall he wanted to jump over was opposite the entrance, so there was no way for Rosalia's men to see him.

He did not wait long.

Seeing the house on fire, dozens of muscular gorilla-like men stormed inside the yard.

But the moment they stormed inside the yard, Nolan jumped over the wall.

The night was dark. Clouds covered the moon. He could barely see where he ran.

Thanks to the rise in agility and stamina, he could run faster and longer.

He ran with all his might. He knew it would not take long before Rosalia's men realized what he did.

…

His lungs hurt. He could not tell how long he ran. He could not tell where he was, and did he even leave their territory?

His vision blurred, and his pace slowed.

He tripped. He did not have strength left in his body, so he fell to the ground. Before losing consciousness, he saw a bunch of system messages.

[Ding]

[You completed the Quest: Escape]

[You received: 100 bags of grain]

…

'Aghhh!" Nolan slowly opened his eyes.

It was daytime.

His legs hurt like crazy.

He could not move even a muscle, but he could still move his head, so he raised his head to examine his surroundings. He found himself lying in a bed covered with a linen cloth serving as a blanket.

The door of the room was closed, and he was alone In the room.

The daylight entered the pretty ordinary-looking room through the window above his head. The room only had a bed on which he laid, a carpet, and a small square table in the center of the room.

Nolan leaned back. His head fell on a soft block pillow.

Creaakkkk!

The door opened.

Nolan instantly raised his head to see who entered the room.

"You are awake?" He heard a familiar voice.

"It's you?" Nolan's eyes widened in shock.

"Yes, it's me."

It was the salesman from which he bought the black leather boots.

"You saved me?" Nolan asked.

The salesman smiled. "I just returned the favor."

'Inspect.' Nolan used his skill.

[Name: Harley Frye]

[Gender: Male]

[Age: 38 years, 1 month, 25 days]

[Personality: Good man]

[Occupation: Fallen noble, Excellent cobbler]

[Martial arts: Very Good knifemanship]

[Passive occupation skill: Business manager]

[Martial arts skills: Eagles eye-Active, Flying knife- Active]

[Strength: 18]

[Stamina: 25]

[Agility: 32]

Nolan's eyes widened in shock at the sight of Harley's status window.

'He is strong, a good person, and has a handsome face befitting that of a noble.' Nolan thought.

Though Harley wore shabby clothes, trying to overshadow his noble look, if one looked closely, he could not miss his noble features.

"Thank you for saving me. What is your name?" Nolan asked, though he already knew.

"Harley."

"Harley, how is your family doing?"

"Thanks to you sir, it's better," Harley replied with a smile.

"Just call me Nolan," Nolan said. "Harley, are you interested in doing business with me?"

"What kind of business?" Nolan sparked Harley's curiosity.

"We would open a restaurant. You get fifty percent of the profits, and I get fifty. What do you say?"

"It's a really tempting offer. And it's not like I don't want, but Nolan, we need a large amount of money to open a restaurant."

"How much?" Nolan asked. At first, he wanted to sell half of the grain he has, but seeing Harley's stats, he got a far better idea.

Harley sat on the bed. "We would need to buy a place and renovate it. Then buy ingredients and hire people… If my calculations are correct, we would need at least a hundred taels of silver."

"I have twenty-five taels of silver and two and a half tons (5500 pounds) of grain to sell." As Nolan said this, Harley's eyes widened in shock.

Where did he get so much grain?

"Nolan, If we sell half of the grain, we would have enough money to open a restaurant. And we could use the other half for the restaurant's needs." Harley spoke with a smile on his face. This could actually work. They could actually open a restaurant. His family would not have to worry about food anymore. They could eat as much as they want.

"Yes, we could sell half of it and use the other half. But why don't we rob the money we need?" Nolan spoke with an evil smile on his face.

This smile of his made chills run down Harley's spine.

Though he had the strength, even if his family died of hunger, he would not steal.

"I don't want to rob." He immediately expressed his dissatisfaction. "What if the money we rob is someone's last money meant to feed his family?! Harley spoke angrily. Nolan's image in his eyes has completely collapsed.

"Harley, Harley, Harley." Nolan shook his head. "Who said we are gonna rob, ordinary people?" The devilish smile on his face grew wider.

"The-Then are we going to rob a noble? Nolan, the nobles are protected by…" Seeing Nolan shake his head again, Harley did not finish his sentence.

"Have you heard of Rosalia?" Nolan asked.

Hearing Rosalia's name, Harley's expression turned dark. He clenched his fists in anger. "I know her. It's because of her that my family almost starved. I offended her, so she sent one of her men. How was he called again? Fann, Finn something like that. That man announced in the middle of the street that whoever buys footwear from me would be their enemy."

Nolan smiled. "She is dead. And her right hand, Finn too. I killed them."

Harley's eyes widened in shock again. This Nolan does not stop giving him surprised. How many surprises would he give him in the future?

"What happened? Is it possible that you are in this state because of her?" Harley asked in a serious tone.

"You are correct. I ended up in this state because of her. As to what happened. In short, Finn and a group of gorillas came, we fought, I lost, and they captured me. Then Rosalia wanted to take me into her bed. I pretended I was drunk, and while she talked with Finn, I stabbed her through the heart." Nolan spoke like he had done nothing impressive. "If I am correct, now her people must be fighting about who to be the next boss. Why don't we take advantage of this chaos and rob them?"

"This could work!" Harley shouted excitedly.

"Good. Since I still need to recover, three days later, in the middle of the night, we will act. Cover your face with something. After all, you will run the restaurant, so we can't risk anyone in their group accidentally recognizing you later."

"I understand. But How did you know I would accept your offer? I'm just an ordinary person."

"We both know that's not the case." Nolan winked at him with

a smile. "Don't worry. I won't tell your secret to anyone. After all, we are partners now."

Harley's expression turned dark again. "You know I can kill you right now?" He spoke, dead serious. He took a knife out of his sleeve.

Nolan saw the knife, but the smile on his face remained. "I know. But you won't do it."

Honestly, he dared to say this to Harley only because his status window showed e as a good person.

"Ahhh!" Harley sighed helplessly as he returned the knife back into his sleeve. He headed to the door and was just about to leave the room.

"Ohh, I forgot to mention. Rosalia wanted me because they thought I'm a sorcerer. And they are not far from the truth." Nolan added.

Harley closed his eyes, smiling at the joke. "A sorcerer…"

Pam!

The sound of something heavy falling on the ground forced Harley to open his eyes. Seeing what fell on the floor, his jaw dropped.

A bag of grain.

A bag of grain fell on the floor out of nowhere.

"How??" Harley asked, still in a state of shock.

"Magic." Nolan smiled. "I'm starving. Take the bag and bring me something to eat."

Seeing that Nolan kind of dodged his question, Harley did not pursue the matter further. After all, he knew that some things are better off unknown.

However, he knew one thing for sure. Nolan was a good person.

He then took the bag of grain and left the room.