Chapter 122 - Unfathomable

Laura, Kun, and Nier were sitting in the carriage as they went down Stony Mountain. They weren't talking.

A moment later, Laura opened the window and saw Sergio who was riding next to the carriage. "Sergio, have you eaten yet?"

Sergio was surprised, not knowing what Laura meant. Although he was her chief guard, Laura had never before cared about whether or not he had eaten. But since she asked, he immediately nodded. "Yes, Miss, back there."

"What did you eat?"

Again, Sergio couldn't help but feel surprised. "Mister Zhao ordered the undead to send us food. There was pie, rabbits, and some vegetables I had never seen before."

"How did it taste?"

"It tasted good. There were a lot of meat and vegetables. The magic in the vegetables were very strong. As for the dish with the magic radishes, its magic was several times stronger than the ones we sell in our store."

Laura nodded, then she left the window and looked towards Kun. "Grandpa Kun, what do you think?"

"It's unfathomable. Zhao must be someone with a lot of influence. He's probably the spokesman for the big force that's supporting him. But what's strange is that the large forces in the Continent usually have their own distribution network. So why did they specifically come to us?" Kun shook his head, but then he answered his own question, "No, although we have some enemies from the heirs in our clan, we can't be considered Zhao's real enemy. After all, our strength is too small. Compared to the entire Markey clan, we can't be regarded as a threat. That must have been within their calculations. Since Zhao is able to raise so much fire fish, he must have wanted to work with someone that wouldn't take that much effort to destroy, in case they might become an enemy that would covet what he has."

Laura nodded. "Ah, yes, from Zhao's words, you could tell that his territory isn’t small since it could produce so many things, like oil and fire fish. I can't really think of a place in the Continent that could raise that much fire fish. Even if there was such a territory that could do that, why would Zhao want to cooperate with us?"

Kun was frowning. “I really can not say. He said that he was researching plants, which doesn't seem fake. If he wasn't studying plants, then it would be impossible for him to come up with magic radish seeds of that quality, and vegetables that I had never seen before. Did you notice it when we ate today? Even his servants were eating the fire fish. Apparently, in their eyes, fire fish aren't rare. The only ordinary thing there was the meat from the blue-eyed rabbits, which he had bought from Casa city."

Again, Laura nodded. "When I said that he would become an ally of the Markey clan, he was unwilling, and that he would only form an alliance with us. That's not the only thing that's strange. Supposedly, if there was a black mage that powerful, he should have been well-known among the important figures in the Continent, yet I had never heard of him before. Oddly enough, at his side he has a high level warrior, a maid that is also a mage that is not of a low level, and a very powerful undead light mage. This man has too many secrets, right?"

“Indeed, there must be a reason why Zhao has an eighth level warrior by his side. If I fought against him one on one, I'm afraid I can't tell if I would win or lose. Not only that, his maid is at least a sixth level mage, and at such a young age. She definitely has a lot of magical potential. Even his cook is a high level mage. With those types of servants, and the power to summon more than a thousand undead, Zhao's strength certainly is not small," Kun said.

"Anyway, it now appears that Zhao doesn't mean to do anything with us other than conduct business. If he really can provide such high quality magic radishes, then that's very good for us, just as long as we are careful. After all, we don't want him as enemy. We need a powerful ally."

Kun nodded. "Yes, we have to be careful. I suspect that Zhao has a shady identity. He isn't just a simple black mage. Even when he eats, he wouldn't lift up his veil. It must be because he's afraid of his face being seen."

Laura smiled slightly. "But whatever his true identity is, it doesn't matter, just as long as there is no hostility."

"Miss is right. No matter who he is, as long as he isn't hostile to us, we can cooperate with him. But we must still pay attention to this man. Getting so many fire fish to Stony Mountain is not an easy task, yet he was able to do it so that those who were watching him were totally unaware. This in itself showed his strength since he was able to get a spatial item. Not only that, but he also clearly knew our whereabouts. It seems that he could be arranging for someone to watch us, making sure that we don't leak anything. We must be careful."

"Don't worry, Grandpa Kun. I know what I'm doing. As long as we don't try to fight him, he will maintain his cooperation with us. It'll be fine. You might not see it, but Mister Zhao is a good man."

Kun started smiling. "Is that so? Oh, I think that he took a fancy to you, Miss, otherwise why would he want to cooperate with us?"

Laura blushed. "What nonsense are you speaking, Grandpa Kun?"

Kun couldn't help but laugh, which made Laura's face turn even more red. Laura had a good impression of Zhao. After all, he was kind enough to help her, yet he was also so mysterious. In addition to feeling gratitude, Laura also felt a hint of curiosity. When a woman was curious about a man, it wouldn't be long until her heart falls.

Laura had made up her mind to keep up their cooperation with Zhao. The strength he had exhibited was not weak, and was comparable to a large clan. That was why she dared to cooperate with him.

At this time, Zhao was preparing a few large empty rooms in the castle to later put in the oil presses. Also, the mines were getting tidied up to get ready for the blue-eyed rabbits, and Meirin was looking if there were any water spirit beasts in the underground lake.

The reason why Zhao didn't order this to be done before was because he had almost no money, but now he had forged an alliance with Laura and was about to get some funding three days later. Although it wasn't as much as he would like, it could still be considered a stable income, and he believed that later this income would just grow more and more.

When they had returned to Iron Mountain in the afternoon, they could see that the slaves hadn't been idle. The castle was slowly getting repaired, while the female slaves were planting alfalfa seeds and oil fruit trees throughout the mountain. Of course, they couldn't finish in such a short time because they also had to do some weeding.

The moment Zhao came back, he immediately arranged for someone to clean the large rooms outside the main parts of the castle. These rooms were like warehouses used for storage. For a long time, no one had lived in them, but now they were getting them ready to put in the oil presses.

Translator Notes: This chapter is to make up for the one I missed on Sunday, 5/29