Chapter 23: The Lord of Sifur

Since we had already gathered quite a bit of information in town, we didn't waste any time and went straight to our next stop - the merchant guild. 

It was almost evening, and the guild staff were about to finish work. We just barely managed to see the person in charge before they closed.

At first, the guild manager didn't want to meet us. He insisted on going home to rest and dealing with our request tomorrow. But he couldn't resist when Adrian secretly slipped him a whole gold coin as a "tip". The manager's face immediately lit up with a big smile, and he warmly welcomed Adrian and Cyra into his office.

"Tsk, we should have chosen a different identity," I thought. 

As the "carriage driver", I couldn't go in with them. But luckily the office window was open, so I could easily see what was happening inside.

"Of course there's no problem with you doing business here! But Sifur is under the direct control of our lord. Large trade deals must be approved by him first. And as usual, we need to take a certain tax rate, usually 20%. The exact amount can be negotiated. Can you accept that?" the guild manager explained the rules after hearing our request.

"No problem at all!" 

A 20% local tax was quite high. This didn't even include the national taxes of Ilandra Dominion Empire. But we weren't really here to trade, so it didn't matter how high the tax was. So Cyra, pretending to be the young master, agreed right away without thinking. This surprised the manager.

Ah, her voice was still too obvious. Even though Cyra tried to lower her voice and had practiced many times, it was still far from sounding like a real "young master".

This was the first time Cyra spoke out loud in her disguise. The guild manager looked a bit surprised. Luckily, Adrian was quick to smooth things over.

"Young Master Antonio just turned 16 recently. He came here to learn about business at our master's request. So he needs to make most decisions himself. I'm just here to assist."

"I see. I was wondering why Young Master Antonio looked a bit feminine. I didn't expect him to be so mature at such a young age. Very impressive indeed!" 

The guild manager seemed to "understand" now. After praising Cyra a lot, the discussion finally got back on track.

"So what kind of goods do you want to trade? Food or other daily items? If you're importing foreign goods to our town, our lord might give you early approval if he likes what he sees!"

"It's not really food, but not exactly daily items either... The goods we want to trade are quite special. How about we show you a sample first?"

We had prepared our lines beforehand. After Cyra spoke, she nodded to Adrian. He immediately took out a small bottle that was glowing faintly white. He stepped forward and carefully handed it to the manager with both hands.

"This is... holy water! And it looks very concentrated?"

The guild manager knew his stuff. It only took him a few seconds to recognize what was in the bottle. He looked very excited, and his pupils seemed to dilate.

"Of course! It's good quality, right? We have a lot more of this, about 40-50 bottles. We got them specially from the holy city in Cresthaven Papal Dominion. They were all made by a high-ranking cardinal in the church! Then the Sage Council helped transport them here. You know Parristol tried to become independent recently? The taxes there are so expensive now. You know how valuable this stuff is!"

Cyra was clearly an expert at making things up. Her exaggerated bragging and wild associations immediately fooled the manager again.

Because of the new Emperor Reider, the empire had introduced many unreasonable new policies. Not just the household registration policy we mentioned before, but also banning religion, which many people complained about.

Simply put, Emperor Reider didn't believe gods existed. He didn't think the True Church's Yawee was real. He didn't allow people in his country to believe in gods. So in the past few years, churches in the empire's cities had almost disappeared.

Whether gods really exist or not, and whether the emperor is right, holy water definitely works in this world. At least in my experience, adventurers really need holy water. Most adventurer teams don't have a good water mage, and light mages are even rarer! So if you get hurt in the wild and can't get medical help quickly, holy water is the only cheap option besides expensive healing scrolls. It can ease pain, stop bleeding, and save lives. It's a must-have for travel and fighting enemies!

Everyone knows the church has the most light mages. After the empire banned religion, the church's power faded away. So there was no one left to make holy water. Even if some was imported from other countries, it wasn't enough.

The price of holy water had been going up for years. In the Astralrealm Kingdom, you could easily buy it for about 100 silver. In the empire, it cost at least 500 silver, and often you couldn't even find any at that price. The quality was very poor too. The kind Adrian showed could sell for at least 1,500 silver after diluting it. No wonder the guild manager was so excited.

"This is big business! I'll write you a recommendation letter right away. You can go see the lord tonight!"

After seeing us take out several bottles of holy water, the guild manager couldn't wait any longer. As he sat at his desk busily writing, Cyra secretly made a V sign to me sitting in the carriage outside. I couldn't help smiling too.

We didn't expect our long-prepared plan to work so quickly. Now we didn't have to worry about not having enough time if it got delayed to tomorrow. This was mainly thanks to Adrian's understanding of the empire's situation, which let us come up with the idea of making fake holy water to trick them.

At 7 pm, we went straight from the guild to the castle outside Sifur. This was where the lord lived.

It was a very ordinary small castle with a moat around it - the standard setup for most lords. But in today's magical world, this level of defense seemed a bit weak. Of course, there might be other hidden defenses we couldn't see.

After we gave the guards our recommendation letter, the drawbridge slowly lowered across the moat. I drove the carriage along the winding streets inside until we reached the lord's mansion.

There was a very wide square in front. Even though it was dark, we could see the square was full of grass and all kinds of flowers. The carriage stopped on the path between the square and the mansion.

Before we got out, we saw a big group of servants coming out of the mansion. Led by the butler, they lined up in two rows to welcome us.

"Once we're inside, you don't need to hide your identities anymore. We can explain why we're here directly to the lord. We'll just have to see how it goes after that!" 

The lord here must have been notified by the guild manager in advance. We weren't surprised by this welcoming. But before we got out, Adrian quietly reminded me and Cyra one last time.

"No problem!"

I agreed and jumped down from the carriage first. I walked in front, followed by Adrian, with Cyra getting out of the carriage last and walking at the end.

Usually the "young master" Cyra should walk in front, and I as the driver shouldn't even go in. This order immediately caused some confusion. The maids on both sides looked at the butler guiding us with puzzled expressions. But their training was good - even though they noticed something was off, they stayed quiet without whispering to each other.

"This way please!"

The man dressed as the butler also looked surprised for a moment when he saw this. But his face quickly returned to normal. Acting like he didn't notice anything, he led us through the front door towards the living room.

On the way, he briefly told us about the lord's situation. The lord here, Sebastian, was very old - about 110 years old. His health had been poor for years and he was bedridden. The lord had a son and a daughter. Because of the empire's army recruitment, his son had gone to serve at a border fortress as his duty. Now only his daughter Altima was left managing things at the mansion.

Oh no, do we have to deal with this Altima?

Hearing this, I felt a bit worried. They say this Altima was quite good at managing the estate's affairs. But she might not have any control over the empire building a military base in their territory. And with the eldest son away, would we end up failing?

I couldn't help looking back at Adrian again. He also looked worried, but he was calmer than me. He nodded slightly, telling me to meet them first before deciding what to do.