I Inherited a Beautiful Wife and a Territory - Chapter 86
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Inheriting a Beautiful Wife and Estate Episode 086
86. Bellaast
When you have treasure, you become a target for people.
But that also depended on the treasure itself.
“Whoa.”
“There are actually people who caught those giant crocodiles… I heard those things live in the Nial River, but did they go hunting for those crocodiles on purpose?”
“…They have no fear. You don’t see it much these days, but there are still rumors that the Tyrant of Rajahaar occasionally appears in that river.”
The people at the pier clicked their tongues.
Everyone showed interest as they watched Cliff’s party dock their boat at the pier. To be precise, they weren’t reacting to a new boat arriving at the pier, but to the Giant Crocodile carcasses that Cliff’s party had hunted.
Even so, the Tyrant of Rajahaar was mentioned once in their conversations.
“There are rumors that the tyrant either died or moved its habitat elsewhere, right? That’s why there haven’t been any recent sightings, and most importantly, it seems to have definitely stopped coming to the Nial River occasionally. I heard the crocodile population there has increased a lot because of that.”
“That does seem to be the case. From what I can roughly see, it looks like they didn’t just catch one or two…”
The reason Cliff’s boat drew everyone’s attention from the pier.
It was naturally because of the crocodiles they had brought via the boat.
First, two from the initial Giant Crocodile attack. Then several more carcasses were loaded onto the boat as they faced more crocodile attacks.
To be precise, it was difficult to load the carcasses as they were onto the boat, so they only skinned them.
‘Even so, it’s noticeable enough from the pier…’
They had definitely hunted a large number of Giant Crocodiles. And this naturally made the sailors tense.
Because of all the hides they brought, they had no choice but to see Cliff’s party as ‘crocodile hunters.’ In other words, it meant that Cliff and his party possessed considerable military power.
“Plank!”
Since they had arrived, they needed to disembark.
With one person’s shout, those who had now become skilled sailors set up a bridge with the wooden planks they had prepared.
Before disembarking through this, Cliff surveyed the port they had arrived at.
‘Is this Bellaast?’
Cliff wasn’t very familiar with the place names in the southern part of the Yusta Peninsula either.
Still, there were villages they had passed through on their way here. Based on the information obtained there, it seemed they had finally arrived. At one of the major trading ports of the Yusta Peninsula.
And this was something he could feel just by looking with his eyes.
“Wow.”
“It’s really incredible.”
“Serpal doesn’t even compare…”
Cliff smiled bitterly at someone’s comment comparing it to Serpal.
While he might know better having seen the capital city of the homeland, for people from Yusta, Serpal was the most prosperous area. But as someone said, Serpal couldn’t compare here.
“There are also many large ships.”
“There must be several ships coming and going from the sea.”
Teobaldt came over and spoke to Cliff.
Cliff nodded as well.
At the same time, he felt anticipation.
‘From here, merchant ships from various kingdoms come and go, right?’
If so, there was a high probability of finding new trade goods.
Having come this far, there was no need to venture out to the open sea. There were already many products here worth selling at Ospal’s auction house. Just bringing those back would be like having already earned big money.
There was someone else besides Cliff thinking this.
“My lord. If you permit it, I would like to try selling the Giant Crocodile hides.”
“Of course I permit it. Make sure to get a proper price for them. Do you know how much trouble we went through to bring those things?”
“Yes. Don’t worry. With hides of this quality, there will be many who want them.”
He thought so too.
After Edan said that, he disembarked from the boat before Cliff. Cliff also hurriedly stepped onto the plank bridge. As he moved, Teobaldt and Leticia quietly followed.
And Lin too.
Incidentally, the Dark Elf couldn’t exert much power on the boat.
The shadow stealth she was proud of was impossible on the boat. To be precise, she couldn’t maintain it well due to the boat’s swaying. Thanks to that, she was spending time with her appearance revealed continuously for the first time in a while.
‘She might be able to enter the shadows again after setting foot on land.’
But not right now.
She had worse seasickness than expected. Even now, she wanted to get off the boat quickly. As he stepped toward the pier with two beauties, Leticia and Lin, gazes from all around focused on him.
‘Wow.’
‘Not just an elf, but a dark elf too… What a luxurious scene.’
‘Must be a noble, right? Phew, I’m envious. Some people are born as nobles…’
Even without using the lord skill ‘Benevolent Ruler – Identification,’ he could read the emotions contained in those gazes.
If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it.
This was what Cliff had said to Leticia. Cliff practiced what he had said without reserve at this moment. Though he hadn’t made physical contact with Lin yet, he wrapped his arm around Leticia’s waist and held his nose high.
“M-my lord…?”
Leticia called out to him softly with a flustered expression, but she didn’t seem to be avoiding him.
Thus, Cliff set foot in the port.
“There’s someone who wants to buy all 6 pieces together for 2,200 gold.”
This was what Edan told him after surveying the merchants once.
Cliff nodded upon hearing this.
“That roughly matches your calculation, doesn’t it, Edan?”
Edan had also expected those hides to sell for 2,000 gold.
The hides were traded at a price amazingly close to that estimate.
This gave them some breathing room financially.
And where to spend this money was already decided.
‘I need to buy people.’
This was a plan he had made from the estate.
With that intention, he headed to the slave market.
As soon as he entered, someone immediately approached him. A merchant who had noticed that Cliff was wearing fine clothes and was being guarded by obviously intimidating people like Teobaldt.
“Well, well, noble sir. If you’re looking for people, how about entrusting it to me? I can prepare the finest quality that would satisfy your desires.”
It was a young man with red curly hair.
A man who didn’t seem to have much age difference from Cliff. He approached Cliff first and began soliciting.
Cliff looked at such a man with interested eyes.
Cliff didn’t particularly dislike such proactive people.
Rather, he preferred them.
“Do you know what kind I’m looking for?”
The moment he asked as if testing him, the man raised the corners of his mouth in a grin.
“There are many alluring and exotic women that distinguished people can enjoy… However, you don’t look like someone who would casually embrace women.”
This man was quite perceptive.
At first, he must have thought of selling sex slaves to Cliff. Looking at Cliff’s young and noble appearance, it was a misunderstanding anyone could make.
However, he noticed Cliff’s interest waning in that brief moment.
He said.
“Then what someone like you would be looking for is obvious. Besides people to do rough work, what else would you need? So… people who have traversed Rajahaar or forces suitable for putting on ships.”
“Oh?”
An admiring exclamation came from Cliff’s mouth.
The man showed a relieved expression seeing this.
‘At least he’s perceptive.’
Cliff organized his thoughts while looking at him. He was proactive and quick-witted. Of course, he wasn’t impressed just because the man figured out what slaves he was looking for.
It was a multiple-choice question anyway.
For someone visiting this slave market, there were practically no other attractive slaves besides sex slaves or sailor slaves. Still, when he mentioned sex slaves, he noticed Cliff’s interest quickly fading and changed his words.
The man was interesting and caught his attention.
“Then may I ask if you have merchandise available?”
“Hmm. What kind of case are you hoping for? As you know, for slaves who board ships, it’s best to brand them with magic seals to make betrayal impossible, but magic seals themselves cost money.”
Magic seals that prevent slaves from betraying their masters and force obedience.
“If you want it, I’ll apply the seal… but that cost will be charged separately. Sometimes the seal cost might even be more expensive than the slave’s price…”
“What’s the cost of the seal?”
“50 gold.”
Branding a single mark was truly expensive.
‘That’s two or three times more expensive than an ordinary slave, isn’t it?’
This was why branded slaves were so costly.
Edan’s family had been the same way. But since he wasn’t short on gold coins, he nodded immediately.
“Very well. But show me some decent ones.”
“Ah. Of course, naturally.”
The slave merchant’s expression brightened upon hearing Cliff’s words.
He could roughly sense the intention to buy expensive slaves. The man led Cliff to one location.
“If you have no intention of branding them, I’d choose docile ones, but otherwise these ones here… it would be better to choose slaves of pirate origin.”
Pirate origin.
Just from the sound of it, these were people you’d absolutely never want to associate with. But the reality had some ambiguous aspects.
‘Wasn’t it said that there’s no ship in Rajahaar that hasn’t engaged in piracy at least once?’
The Rajahara Sea had many pirates. More precisely, all the seas in this world were overflowing with pirates.
Originally, there was no law on the seas.
So each merchant ship possessed armed force to protect itself, and also used this force to directly raid coastal villages. That wasn’t particularly strange.
Setting that aside, the fact that they emerged as pirates meant they were veterans who had experienced combat at sea.
Moreover, there was a possibility they knew secret routes unknown to others, either for evading pursuit or for plundering.
The man was right.
‘I wouldn’t choose them without branding, but the moment they’re branded, they’ll transform into trustworthy beings.’
Cliff’s mind was put at ease.
The merchant guided him to the front of a cell. There were about three or four physically robust men there.
“They were all in the same pirate crew. From what I heard, they were in Marco’s pirate crew.”
While speaking, the merchant carefully watched his reaction.
Especially when mentioning the name of Marco’s pirate crew.
And Cliff’s eyes also showed interest.
‘This… I smell a swindler, no, I can see the color of a swindler?’
Black clouds flowing from Marco’s mouth.
Indeed, the skill ‘Wise Ruler – Discernment’ was a very useful skill. He could tell when there were lies in the other person’s words. And while he himself didn’t react to the name of Marco’s pirate crew, Edan who came with him seemed to have heard that name before.
Flinch.
Upon hearing that name, he looked back and forth between the merchant and the cell in surprise.
“Just being subordinates of the legendary pirate Marco means their skills are as good as recognized. These are seasoned pirates who roamed this Rajahara Sea with Marco for a full ten years.”
The black smoke grew thicker.
“So how much are you asking?”
“Ahem. I bought the three together for 132 gold coins. With the branding cost, that’s 50 coins each. So in total… 282 coins. This shouldn’t be right, but I’ll only take cost price.”
The moment he heard the man’s words, he understood.
‘The Marco pirate crew thing is probably a lie…’
However, in the midst of this, Cliff’s eyes moved to one spot.
It was a white-haired old man in one corner. An old man with a gaunt body who looked like he might die any moment. Looking at him slumped there, Cliff’s eyes showed interest.
“Then if you throw in that old man as well, I’ll accept.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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