In the blink of an eye, ten days passed since Vicente and Lauren had met near Saltstar City.

In those days, Miss Death and her party had completed their mission, left Snow Claw's head with the leader of The Ruby Devils, and collected their reward.

Vicente kept a low profile until that group left, which was no more than a day after Jonah's death.

With Lauren out of the city, Vicente returned to his old routine of working with Benson and occasionally meeting with Rory to discuss expanding the family and producing artifacts for The Ruby Devils.

The Ruby Devils had previously placed a large order because they thought Vicente was about to die. But the young man was still alive after Miss Death's group left. That faction then realized that he could be used for longer and lost its haste to send him large orders.

That was good for Vicente, as he would have less work and better deadlines to meet the demands of that group. That would give Jasmine time to do what they had agreed upon and also for Vice himself to take care of other local matters.

So, the last few days had been relatively quiet, and he still found time to train and cultivate, as well as to study, take care of Nova, and occasionally play with Nina.

...

Now, Vicente was escorting a local Count out of his house at the Fuller family's headquarters, having just closed an important deal for his group.

In the light of day, Vicente's focus was still on being a merchant. With plenty of resources and personnel to turn his family into a large merchant house, he had been developing the facade of his business since his time in Millfall.

Previously, Vicente had few contacts with the nobility, doing business with only a few Barons. But now he had deals with 20 noble families in the province and had just made his first deal with a Count!

"Your Grace, see you later. My men will bring your resources at the appointed time." Vicente said goodbye and watched as the local nobleman left with some guards.

Eve was at Vicente's side, as Nina was at the academy at that time, giving the blonde some free time for other things.

Then she said to him, changing the subject. "Vice, Layla sent us some information about Casey while you were with that nobleman."

"Oh?" Vicente looked into Eve's blue eyes, finally getting some news about this ally of his group.

"Casey doesn't seem to have suffered an accident during his hunt as we thought. He supposedly found traces of his father and started following this man." Eve said seriously.

Vicente narrowed his eyes when he heard this information. According to Shelby, Casey had lost part of his family. However, unlike Vicente, Casey's father had been the real culprit.

After investigating Casey for months, Shelby discovered this after finding a letter from him in his home in Millfall that contained some pertinent information. She learned From that letter how much the man hated his father and wanted revenge.

"Is this reliable?" Vicente asked.

"The person who gave us this information did so after seeing one of our wanted posters for Casey in Snow Province. Since this person has received his reward, I believe it's reliable." Eve informed.

Rewards like this weren't paid to the first person who came forward with information. Rewards like this were only paid upon proof, either physical evidence that showed what had happened or some kind of contract that forced the person to tell the truth.

The rewards that Jasmine had helped Vicente distribute throughout the kingdom were mainly in the mercenary guilds. If someone wanted the promised reward, they would have to make some kind of agreement with these guilds that proved the truth of their words, and then the guild would make the payment before giving the information to the contractors.

All the protocols had been followed so Vicente could trust the information.

"So he was seen in the Snow Province..."

"The information is recent, so maybe he's still in Snow Province," Eve commented. "What do we do?"

"I can't travel right now. If he was seen recently in Snow Province, then he's still fine." Vicente said, a little relieved, although he was also worried. "But to avoid losing track of him, we'll investigate the clues he's following. Even if we lose him again, we'll find him if we follow his father's tracks."

"I'll make sure of that." She told him, feeling good that at least this partner of the group hadn't died or gotten himself into worse trouble.

Casey's father was probably a problem. But that was an old situation, not something new that would spill over into their whole group.

"I just hope he doesn't leave before I get to him," Vicente commented, wondering if he would be so hasty if he found clues of his great enemies so close to him.

Since he didn't know the answer to that, he didn't judge Casey for making such a rash move.

Then he went back to his estate beside Eve and informed her. "Anyway, I'm leaving for Dryhaven in four days. Tell the rest of the group to watch for me during my trip. Tell Rory to come back and stay here to look after the family for me."

"All right. I'll let everyone know."

Watching her go, Vicente went to his office to pick up a few things, not forgetting what he had to do.

'I still have to save Eve's mother. But to do that, I'll have to wait for The Ruby Devils to fall from their prestigious position.' He thought of his promise to his friend a long time ago.

Vicente hadn't forgotten anything. He just wasn't ready. He knew that Eve and Nico always thought about this woman after they moved to Saltstar City, but there was nothing he could do to help them solve the problem faster.

If he didn't want to run into problems like in Millfall, he would have to be more cautious and calm with his plans in this city!

So, with the situation of Eve's mother and Casey in mind, Vicente left his estate to the local blacksmith association, where he had been gaining more and more prestige lately.

Because of his prestige as a blacksmith, his reputation as a merchant grew, so Vicente had recently been making better use of his forging skills.

In addition, he had to get the items from The Ruby Devils ready for delivery in his absence, which would allow him to travel with Nova for a few days undisturbed.

And so the day would soon come when they would travel to Dryhaven!