City of Desire: Chapter 297 Deal (Patreon)

“Master Silver, Mr. Ashav, is here to meet you,” informed Jill. I looked at Caena before turning to the door.

“Let him in,” I said, controlling the faint nervousness that I was feeling.

Click!

The door opened and Ethan walked in. Immediately, his expression changed. He seemed to have sensed air in the room and his expressions turned serious from casual.

“I thought it would be a casual meeting, but it clearly feels not,” he said and took a seat in front of me.

“No, it is not,” I said simply.

“So, what it is?” he asked directly.

“Your family has a good connection with the Alchemist Amherst,” I said simply, to which he nodded.

“Yes, our house is his prime supplier,” He replied.

The House of Ashav is a powerful mercantile house, bigger than even the House of Silver. They have relations with many powerful alchemists, including Alchemist Amherst, the top alchemist of Oksall.

Much better than the bastard Aryveson.

“If I give you something, that is not so legal. Will you be able to make a deal with him and keep the deal secret?” I asked and instead of anger and worry, sparks of excitement began to dance in his eyes.

“Yes, it will be completely discrete on our part, and I am sure Alchemist Amherst would only tell people who he needs to, but the news absolutely won't leak to the people, who don’t need to know about it,” he replied and there was confidence in his voice.

I am sure, with what his house specializes in. They are used to such deals. No merchant house, including a house of silver, has become successful in following the law.

Many of our dealings are in grey and many in dark.

It is why, I had chosen him, instead of Ignatius or Valentina, who had some powerful connection in the merchant state.

“Good,” I said and turned to Caena.

She didn’t say anything, but a square wooden box appeared in her hand, which she slid in front of Ethan.

Click!

He looked at me, and I nodded. He turned to the box and touched it with the shaking hand, before clicking it open.

Gasp!

The moment he did, his eyes widened, and a gasp rang out from his mouth. He would have been expecting this, but still seeing the things in front of him, his eyes couldn’t help, but wide up.

The shock was even greater when he saw bottles inside containing pure emotion essence and not mixed ones that Grade 1 legacies could harness.

There are also more than a few bottles that he might have been expecting. We extracted the emotion essence, a few minutes earlier.

That box contained 75% emotion essence, that the establishment had produced to this day.

It took a while before he calmed down, and when he did, he took out tools and started to examine each bottle carefully. I am a little surprised, but shouldn’t be seeing the things we are dealing with here and the consequences we might face due to it.

“All of them are pure Grade 1 emotion essence, without the slightest impurity,” he said as he turned to me.

The impurity he is talking about is other emotions.

“What do you want in exchange?” he asked as he turned to me. “Potions. Grade 1 and Grade 2,” I replied finally.

“What kind?” he asked. “Healing, mana, stamina…” I gave him the list.

There are other things I could demand too, but I need the potions first. I need them in enough numbers to feel safe, before I try for the other things.

“Rate?” He asked.

“20% above standard. It is a non-negotiable,” I replied, and he smiled. “It is too much. He might not accept it,” he said.

“He will,” I replied.

It is above the standard rate, but I am giving him in much higher amount than usually appeared in the market. Not to mention, they are pure Grade 1 emotion essences; in them not a speck of other emotion is mixed.

Which only experience hosts of legacies could bring out. It is hard as there are always some other emotions snuck in despite one's efforts and skills.

I am sure, that not only Alchemist Amherst would accept it, but Ethan will also be able to earn some hefty commission, but it is not what he is after.

These things build connections, and strengthen those who already are.

Alchemists like Amherst or Aryveson do not work alone. They have workshops where hundreds or even thousands of alchemist’s work, and they need a large amount of material that merchant house like the House of Ashav provides them.

Sometimes, that is not enough. The alchemists require something extra. If they didn’t get those things, then they would switch suppliers.

If the big clients move away, then smaller ones also follow.

It is why merchant houses need carrots like these. With this, they could keep their clients happy and loyal. Not to mention, if they have such things in enough amount, they could use it to train their own alchemists.

From what I heard, house Ashav has its own alchemists, and every alchemist worth their salt would want to master emotion essence in their craft.

These emotion essences will be especially helpful, because pure emotion essences are easier to work with than mixed ones, but they are also harder to get.

Only those in Grade 3 and above could produce them, and they usually do not. Why would they produce Grade 1 when they could produce Grade 3? That makes these pure emotion essences even more valuable.

“Do you want anything other than the emotion essence? We could provide a lot of things. Things that couldn’t be found outside, even with money,” he said, and the bastard used the skill.

I have to say, his skills are powerful and would have affected me a lot if it had been before I got the legacy and my class upgraded.

“Currently, no,” I replied and could see a flash of disappointment appearing in his eyes, but he recovered quickly.

“Should we sign the contract then?” he asked. To which I smiled. So has Caena. “There is no need,” I replied, and could see a surprise flashing in his eyes.

“It is quite a trust. You are putting in me,” he said after a moment of silence. “If I didn’t trust you this much, I wouldn’t have given you this opportunity,” I replied, to which he smiled before his expression turned serious.

“The people behind you won’t be happy about such an approach,” he said, and I wanted to laugh, but controlled my expression.

“You do not need to worry about it,” I said.

It is the reason why; I decided to take the risk. Even if people found out about the deal, they wouldn’t suspect, these essences are from me.

They will think the other hosts of legacies are using me to make the deal. I am a host of new legacy and even with skills, could not harvest such pure emotion essence, not to mention in such an amount.

If I get caught. They wouldn’t punish me as harshly as they would have if they thought I was selling the emotion essence of my legacy.

Currently, it is only a month since the legacy is born. There is no way I could harness the emotion, especially of this quality.

It is not because of the trust that I am not signing the contract. I trust him, but not enough to not sign a contract, but signing the contract would leave a trail behind and I absolutely don’t want that.

“Thank you for your trust. I will not disappoint you,” he said, and a few minutes later, he left the office.

‘Jill, call Stone and others to my office.’ I said to Jill through the skill. I had asked Grandfather for something, and he was able to do it. It is going to make them very happy.

Click!

A minute later, the door opened, and Stone and others walked inside. Except for Eli, everyone is here.

Stone looked good. A little pale, but in a few hours, nearly all of his injuries vanished. Zela had said he would completely recover from the strain by tomorrow.

“The church of the sea god had agreed to help you remove your curse,” I said, and the eyes of Stena, Shaun, and Hugo lit up.

The curse had been restricting them a lot aside from being life-threatening. It is because of it they couldn’t use their full power and level up as they should be.

“Really, Lord Silver?” asked Shaun, and I nodded.

“You four will leave in the evening; I have already made the preparations,” I informed. “Thank you for this great favor, my lord,” said Steven, with tears streaming down his face.

“My apologies, Mr. Silver, but I am not going to Namdar,” said Stone suddenly, surprising me and Caena.

The others aren’t, and even Caena seemed to understand something as her eyes lit up understanding.

“Is there any problem with Namdar? If there is, I could ask for an exception from Grand Mage Salazar’s office. It will take a few days or even weeks, but I think, I will be able to manage that,” I said.

“No, there is no problem with Namdar,” he said, and the expression on the big man’s face turned a little hesitant for a moment before they returned to expressionless.

“I want to use the curse to awaken the elder blood,” he informed, and finally, understanding lit up.

I heard about elder bloods doing such things, but it is an extremely dangerous process. Many die. I opened my mouth to dissuade him from it, but closed it, seeing the look in his eyes.

“Just be careful,” I said after a moment of silence.

This is the only thing, I could say, seeing he already made the decision. Nothing I say will make him change his mind.