Chapter 184: Secrets. (1/2)

Chapter 184: Secrets

“What is this?”

“What does it look like?”

“I et it? What did that noble ask you to do? Did you sign a contract? I… we could have found a different hy did you have to…”

“Wait, caln any contracts, just wait and letvest 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 ho for hi hie papers that he received This of course caused ain 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’ht 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 probleal and needs sooat?”

“That’s a possibility but I’ 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 et arm too many people, the rich e

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 so in the Arden estate for five years and reading up he heard about a few incidents In those, soed 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 naht 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’e he should have gone to the union or the rich merchants He could easilysome 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 theed to the rich Even though Arthur was the acting lord, he could be replaced He wasn’t e The real power belonged to the Valerian household that he didn’t seeh I’ood ould 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 theurehead while another one pops up to take over the business fro 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 ht 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, ill have to look into other options, maybe find a better location for the children, aren’t so? Maybe we could find them an apprenticeshi+p where they could live?”

Roland’s biggest concern noas to get rid of this probleh Arthur helped hius inspection paper to kick theain Some of the kids were older and could work

It wasn’t strange for younger kids to live together with a ht them their craft They would assist theiven valuable experience and also food He went through a siard but there he was offered his own small ho out words, Elodia cut hi that both of the?”

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 so? 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 ti her gaze down, it was clear that she didn’t want to ask for help and felt bad about dragging Roland into this

“Wasting ether”

While had made his decision about Elodia, he was not that keen about beco a stepfather to so many orphans Instead, his plan was to find thee They could even work here as long as they wouldn’t live at his house where he needed to have his own space

That being said, there was a stray thought that appeared in Roland’s o forward along with Elodia, he wasn’t telling her the whole truth She was not aware of his past roots, if he really wanted to continue this relationshi+p he felt that he needed to fess up

“Elodia… I need to tell you soht want to sit down”

He wasn’t sure why but he felt that if he continued to lie about his origins, that sooner or later so so much time in this city, he became more comfortable with people around him, thus he would be inclined to stay true

“Oh? Is solasses was confused as the ated Roland leaned forward froainst each other while reht and soins but sooner or later it needed to be said

At this point, he trusted Elodia to not pronounce his secret to the world Not many people would actually believe that he was a noble This information was probably more detrimental to his ene the nah the Arden estate wasn’t that known, it would be enough to throw them into jail

“You probably have already noticed that I alear this thing around my neck, even e are around the house…”

The necklace that he was given by his gnoard was constantly around his neck Even during his sleep, he kept it there out of fear that someone would examine his status and find out that he had a last na his real name, he removed the trinket from around his neck and placed it on the table

“Go ahead, exah”

Elodia looked at the item that was always around Roland’s neck It wasn’t a secret that he was hiding sonore this part of him, but the curiosity never did die down

Her knee-jerk reaction was to tell Roland to just put it back on if he didn’t feel comfortable with it He on the other hand just looked at her very seriously, it was clear that he wanted her to proceed It wasn’t like she wasn’t interested either, there had been ins but as she had somewhat of a past herself, she didn’t ask

With the help of her glasses, she looked at him and used a pinch of loith a blue hue as they presented the stats to her Finally, she was able to see his full status screen and instantly she realized that the man that she used to call Wayland, wasn’t Wayland at all

“Roland?”