Chapter 367 – Smith’s Appreciation

A person who was truly honest, and boldly shoulders his responsibility!

This was what Smith cla.s.sified Zhao Hai as. But when Zhao Hai proposed collaborating with the Sh.e.l.ley Family, Smith’s evaluation elevated by another level; he now regarded Zhao Hai as an overall great person.

Being able to use a situation to their advantage was not something that only Merchants do, even n.o.bles could make use of this philosophy. But in reality there were only a few people who could achieve such feat, and those people were exceptional in their own rights.

Smith greatly appreciated Zhao Hai even more. He believed that such a person was certainly a huge blessing to the League of Dark Mages.

Another point of Zhao Hai that Smith came to like was his ruthlessness. Smith already knew about Zhao Hai’s feats on the road heading to Sky Water City. For the powerful Calci Family, matters inside the Rosen Empire rarely escapes their radar. Thus, Smith had someone check Zhao Hai’s journey across the empire.

However after he checked, Smith became utterly surprised. This was because Zhao Hai had already killed several thousand people belonging to Grand Duke Lionheart just on the road travelling towards his city.

Several thousand people, what concept was that? Generally, large villages and small cities inside Rosen Empire wouldn’t even have that number of citizens. Yet, Zhao Hai managed to eliminate that amount of Lionheart’s men. Average people were usually lenient when it came to killing people, but Zhao Hai didn’t have that leniency.

Then when Smith accounted for the overall people Zhao Hai killed, including his river travels inside Rosen Empire, the numbers unimaginably reached to 10 thousand!

A single person killing ten thousand? What kind of joke was that? Isn’t that something a vicious and merciless person would do? But Zhao Hai exactly did that, this made Smith admire ZHao Hai.

As a leader, it was not acceptable to be merciful to your enemies. If your heart was too soft, it would be very easy for your enemies to control your actions while at the same time it would be hard for you to control your subordinates. That kind of situation was extremely unfavorable to any leader.

Smith also knew how Zhao Hai handled the bandits back in lifeline canyon, this was the reason why Smith didn’t see Zhao Hai as a murderous person. He knew how to deal with things and he did it very well. He didn’t kill blindly, and wasn’t unreasonably ruthless.

Normally, with Zhao Hai’s outstanding performance, someone like Smith would harbor some worries. This was because Zhao Hai was someone from the league, if he continues to express his talents, he may be able to wrestle control of the league from the Calci Family.

However, Smith also knew that the League of Dark Mages was a fairly loose organization, even the Calci Family struggles keeping it under control. So Smith knew that it was impossible for Zhao Hai to have complete control of the league, he also believed that Zhao Hai wouldn’t bring trouble to the Calci Family.

On the other hand, Zhao Hai and the Radiant Church shared a very deep enmity with each other. People knew that the Radiant Church wishes to get rid of Zhao Hai as soon as possible, this pushed Zhao Hai to side with the League. All of these facts made it so that Smith was very happy that Zhao Hai was an outstanding member of their organization.

For the league to advance, they couldn’t let go of such talented people. This was especially so for those with talent in leaders.h.i.+p, these skills were badly needed by any organization.

The reason the Radiant Church was quickly gaining power was because they had been using religion to ama.s.s talents from all around the continent. They also have close connections with the higher ups of various nations, and these higher ups would take the task of looking for talented individuals in place of the Church. This made it so that the Radiant Church didn’t lack in the personnel department, helping them accelerate their growth these past years.

But in comparison, the League of Dark Mages has fallen short in this aspect. There were only a few people who knew about the existence of the league. Moreover, the league couldn’t use religion to attract the ma.s.ses, after all, who would want to wors.h.i.+p something like the Dark G.o.d’.

There was also the matter with the temperament of Dark Mages; almost all of them were very eccentric. Not only are they generally bad at leading people, they were bad in interacting with other people, period. Therefore, the league had suffered a disadvantage with their fight against the Radiant Church. Currently, the only leading role present inside the League was the Calci Family, but even they couldn’t control all of the organization’s members. This was not good for the family since if all the Dark Mages were to be eliminated by the church, their family’s end wouldn’t be too far off.

So when Smith saw this new member of the league who had enmity with the Radiant Church, possess astonis.h.i.+ng strength, popular with the beastmen, vicious, and most importantly, a good leader, he knew that this Zhao Hai was the talent that the league badly needed.

Smith also knew that Zhao Hai went to the hotel today, so he chose to wait. He wanted to know that kind of news Zhao Hai would bring when he returns.

Before long, Zhao Hai returned to the City Lord’s Mansion and came to find Smith directly, this was what the latter told him. No matter what Smith was doing, he would always place Zhao Hai’s matter in front. So when Zhao Hai came to look for Smith, Phil immediately brought him to the City Lord’s office.

When Smith saw Zhao Hai come, he immediately smiled and said, “Hahaha, Brother you came, how was it?”

Zhao Hai knew that his whereabouts in the city couldn’t possibly be hidden from Smith, so he didn’t think of anything when the City Lord asked him that question, he immediately smiled and said, “Great, the Sh.e.l.ley Family agreed. They said that they’ll certainly give their full cooperation on this matter. But you’ll have to discuss it within yourselves, I have no interest on this stuff.”

Smith quickly replied, “Little Hai, you can’t do that, you’re the intermediary. You must be involved. How about this, I’ll have someone call over Might and Marriott so we can discuss immediately. After the discussions, then we will instantly message each other’s families.”

Zhao Hai smiled and said, “You must discuss those things yourselves. I don’t really have a grasp of these kinds of situations. I might listen to it, but I have nothing to add to the formula. Just have someone tell me what you decided, or if you need me for anything. Is that fine?”

Smith saw that Zhao Hai really didn’t like to partic.i.p.ate in this matter, so he didn’t push him any further, Smith just nodded and said, “Very well, but when it comes to dealing with Lionheart, you shouldn’t help.”

Zhao Hai smiled, “Be relieved, he chased me for so long and I had long wanted to deal with him. Now that there’s this opportunity, as long as you deal with him, I’ll just stay in the backlines and observe.”

Smith nodded, the Zhao Hai turned back. Him and Smith didn’t discuss anything about their business. Smith was currently busy with coping with Lionheart so Zhao Hai believed that it was not the proper time to discuss those matters.

When he returned to Sweet Plum Courtyard, Zhao hai didn’t notice Laura nor Meg. They weren’t inside the house but instead were at the small are near plum garden.

They were doing lady stuff there, and there was also another lady who wasn’t familiar with Zhao Hai, so he naturally wouldn’t bother the group. When Zhao Hai returned to his room, he immediately went to the s.p.a.ce to rest as well as see if Smith invited Marriott at this time.

Although the City Lord’s Mansion was big, it wasn’t to the degree where the monitor cannot cover the entirety of it. While he was inside the City Lord’s Mansion, it was obvious that Zhao Hai could monitor what Smith and the others were doing.

The reason why Zhao Hai decided to hide and didn’t accept Smith’s invitation was because he didn’t want Smith to be suspicious.

When Smith and Marriott discusses how to deal with Lionheart and their respective coordinations, they would inevitably speak about the strengths and capabilities of their families. Both of them understood each other and were in cooperation so there wouldn’t be any problem in sharing information. But Zhao Hai was an outsider, someone completely unrelated. Under such circ.u.mstances, it would be hard to say whether or not Smith and Marriott would be on guard against him. Zhao Hai thinks that Smith’s invitation was just to see whether Zhao Hai wanted to partic.i.p.ate, if he did, Smith would have probably doubted him.

Although he didn’t know exactly what Smith had in his mind, Zhao Hai still thinks that he shouldn’t be involved in their discussions. After all, he could just listen to them right here, so why bother staying there?

Smith immediately sent someone to invite Marriott over, he wanted to get this matter taken care of as soon as possible. The earlier they deal with Lionheart, the lesser time the Grand Duke would have to prepare, and also the less resources they would need to spend.

This time, with Lionheart’s attempt in kidnapping Megan being a failure, it was certain that he would be on guard. If he was given too much time to prepare, he would be even harder to deal with.

Marriott didn’t expect Smith to invite him over to the mansion this quickly. When Smith sent someone over call him, he immediately knew what Smith wanted to discuss. It was this point that solidified Marriott’s idea of Zhao Hai’s position in Smith’s heart. It really seems like Smith was very fond of Zhao Hai, otherwise he wouldn’t call Marriott over this quickly.

Marriott and Might immediately rode their horses towards the City Lord’s Mansion. Phil was already there to invite them over to the mansion’s living room where Smith was waiting for them.

Marriott and Might immediately gave a salute to Smith. The City Lord was also polite and quickly asked the two to take a seat while a servant served them fresh tea. After Smith drank a bit of tea, he turned to Marriott and said, “Manager Marriott, I know that your Sh.e.l.ley Family and Lionheart has an enmity with each other, which resulted in Megan being attacked. Naturally, I won’t blame this matter onto you, but no matter what, I cannot just let Lionheart off easily. So currently, your family and mine have a common enemy. I was told by Little Hai that you have already prepared to deal with Lionheart. Can you tell me about your plans?”