Chapter 184: Secrets.

“What is this?”

“What does it look like?”

“I mean… how did you get it? What did that noble ask you to do? Did you sign a contract? I… we could have found a different way, why did you have to…”

“Wait, calm down, why are you crying? I didn’t sign any contracts, just wait and let me explain…”

Roland was back home, the nice-looking vest was off and he had returned to wearing some loose clothes around his home. After the conversation with the city lord, he returned to his home where Elodia was waiting for him.

Thus after relieving himself of the new clothes he handed her the orphanage papers that he received. This of course caused a misunderstanding in which she believed that he sold himself to the new lord. It took some time to explain that the man named Arthur Valerian wasn’t like most of the other nobles.

“I’m not sure I understand the new lord but… he might just be a better person than we expected?”

“It does seem that way but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another reason for it.”

Roland commented as he wasn’t quite convinced. There could be various reasons why he decided not to use a contract, maybe he wanted there to not be any paper trails to lead back to him.

“Do you think they could be problems? Oh my, do you think he is doing something illegal and needs someone to be a scapegoat?”

“That’s a possibility but I’m not sure, he didn’t give me the impression of being the evil plotter type.”

He shrugged as from what he knew, the new noble really didn’t have much pull in the city just yet. At most he could control the Auction House and help him get materials. If he tried to strongarm too many people, the rich merchants could use some of their contacts to get revenge.

While he was dealing with commoners, they were rich commoners. Some of the merchants were in a better state than other nobles. They could probably pay some of them off to cause some trouble for Arthur in the future.

After living in the Arden estate for five years and reading up he heard about a few incidents. In those, some nobles caused incidents where they challenged others to duels for no reason. Then later they were given a costly gift from a rich merchant that the other noble insulted.

By the size of Arthur’s entourage, it didn’t seem that he had much pull in his own house. The name Valerian carried a lot of weight behind it, but only if it belonged to a proper heir or part of the family. If it was one of the bastard sons, they wouldn’t be taken as seriously.

“What do you think his real intentions are?”

“I’m not sure, normally if he wanted to gain power and prestige he should have gone to the union or the rich merchants. He could easily make their life easier while funneling some money towards himself.”

For Roland, it made sense to stick to the corrupt ways of the nobles. He could easily accept bribes while slowly increasing the wealth of the merchants in the city.

“On the other hand… if he really wants to own this city, he would need to get rid of them all, or at least make them work for him.”

Elodia nodded, the city belonged to the rich. Even though Arthur was the acting lord, he could be replaced. He wasn’t much more than a bonafide tax collector and judge. The real power belonged to the Valerian household that he didn’t seem to get along with.

“Though I’m not sure how he can go about this, a good way would be to find evidence of their hidden deals, if they evaded taxes in any way, it would be within his right as the city lord to apprehend them but even then, he could just put away one figurehead while another one pops up to take over the business from outside…”

Roland gave out a sigh before sinking back into the couch. Even though it wasn’t that late, he was feeling tired. The discussion with the noble went better than he could ever expect but he wasn’t sure what the future held.

“This might be over for now… but I think we should prepare.”

“Prepare?”

Asked Elodia while looking at Roland that he had some concern in his tone.

“Yes, we will have to look into other options, maybe find a better location for the children, aren’t some of them already working? Maybe we could find them an apprenticeship where they could live?”

Roland’s biggest concern now was to get rid of this problem. Even though Arthur helped him out this time, it was easy to make another bogus inspection paper to kick them out again. Some of the kids were older and could work.

It wasn’t strange for younger kids to live together with a master that taught them their craft. They would assist them in their work while being given valuable experience and also food. He went through a similar experience back in Edelgard but there he was offered his own small home.

“We?”

While Roland was slowly blurring out words, Elodia cut him off as he didn’t realize that he was implying that both of them were working together.

“Did I say something wrong?”

He asked as he wasn’t sure what the problem was. At this point, it should already be obvious what his intentions towards her were. Would he be taking sketchy papers from an unknown noble to help her out, if he wasn’t at least somewhat serious about her?

“Did you think I’d kick you out or something? At this point?”

Roland chuckled while placing his hand on top of Elodia’s head, this of course caused the woman to blush.

“But… aren’t you worried that you are wasting your time and money with me?”

She