Chapter 44

All of the people here knew about Grandma Melanie being a court official in her day so they weren't shocked by this revelation However all of them got a new perspective on the royal family and understood one of the reasons why Grandma Melanie lived here away from the politics of the Imperial Palace and was spending her days in rest, experimentation and leisure here in North-frontier town . While guiding Eva in potion making but as she found her interest as a fire magician she started finding a capable disciple who can inherit her legacy in potion making and now she can see that exactly in John or maybe he would go even higher than her and make a bigger name than her in the future .

Meanwhile, during the dinner at the Mansion of Baron Mendez, Joseph was the one kept the mood alive of all the people in the dining room .

Baron Mendez was quite surprised with the food he tasted this time around, he had heard a lot of rumors that about the food served by servants of John and Joseph, but he thought they were nothing special, it was only now that he felt that food today was quite good compared to the ones made by chefs at his mansion . He had thought of taking a shot at them if the food wasn't good enough but it seemed that the rumors among aristocratic circles were quite right and earlier thought that Marquis Ray was only giving them face because of their deal . So after tasting the dishes, he decided against ridiculing them but genuinely praised their dishes .

"It seems that the rumors were quite true about your dishes and chefs among the aristocratic circles," Baron remarked after eating the dishes .

While it seemed that Antonio also toned down his cold stare quite a bit after eating some delicious food . It was because he was quite surprised after making his first bite on the food . As a noble, he had eaten quite a variety of delicacies in Aelius kingdom so he thought it would be just like those normal dishes he often ate but this time he was quite surprised and hence the surprised reaction .

Watching that the mood of both Antonio and Baron Mendez softened a bit, he decided to start the main topic this time around after a bit of light talk .

"haha, no no, we were just lucky to across these new dishes and so we decided to share it with others . Actually, it was John who made this dish and told their recipes to his servants which were also transferred to my chefs . " Joseph replied while laughing .

Baron was skeptical a bit and smiled but he neither agreed nor did he disagree with Joseph .

While Antonio and James were watching the show from the sidelines .

"Last time I heard, you guys pretty much injured Antonio in the duel for 2 months . If it wasn't for the doctors or using precious herbs, Antonio still would be on his bed . How do you plan to explain to me about the previous incident?"

As expected, Baron had intended to use the previous incident to Jack up the prices and put pressure on them .

"Well, I think it was only a duel and as you know, in most of the duels some will get injured and some won't . How about this, we will pay for the road maintenance charges which would incur to us as compensation for the previous incident . " John and Joseph were already prepared for the jacking up of prices and hence they decided to use road maintenance as one of the chips . The thing was they were anyways going to unilaterally maintain the roads and hence John proposed this idea to Joseph earlier who in turn proposed to baron here .

Baron thought this would be better for his dominion as this would reduce his costs . he also made sure that John pays for Road maintenance later on even if John doesn't own the land later on,

"However you have to make sure that you pay for road maintenance in the future even if you don't own North-frontier town later on and if you fail to do so then your soap factory will become collateral against it . " This was Baron's main aim the time during their negotiations .

Joseph thought for a bit and didn't agree to it but later made a counter-proposal, the new proposal included, "As long as John owned north-frontier town he would maintain maintenance for free but in case he loses the land then he will only pay for 10 years worth of road maintenance in the future and if he fails to do so then his soap factory can be used as a collateral against it . "

"Ok, these terms are fine as well . "

After some thought Baron agreed to these terms as it was anyway a bonus for him since he got a buffer which would save his costs later on even if they managed to survive the Beast attack, Later on, it was Joseph who handled the negotiations for buying North-frontier and an honorary noble title of Baron .

The negotiations were quite hard and it seemed that Baron knew that John was willing to pay a big price for the town and hence he betted on playing hard during the negotiations . It was also because he knew that John wanted to finish the deal as fast as possible so that he can increase the defenses of North-frontier town for preparations later on and save as many people as possible . Baron didn't try to push his luck much later on but he knew this year's invasion of magic beasts would be more ferocious than the previous years . It was only when Baron reached their bottom line that he agreed to sell North-frontier town at a price of 25,000 gold coins with an honorary noble title .

Both the Baron and Antonio were quite happy with today's result as they got a buffer zone and this decreased their defense costs for the current year without any blame for the North-frontier town . And if anything happens later on, it will be their responsibility . While they successfully managed to hide the fact that this year it was going to be harsher than any other years for North-frontier town they thanked their fortunes gleefully however they still didn't know that John was already prepared and knew about the attack, that's why he made a big risky bet this time to get a dominion .

Meanwhile, Eric, on the other hand, reached East seaport in the north and arranged all the lodgings and required supplies for all the slaves and proceeded to transport the soaps which were newly ordered from the Rose Factory .

He already had orders from both Joseph and Frank about their treatment of slaves, mobilization of fleet and importance of this trade route since a lot of people will try to target them later on .

That was also why he got a bigger fleet and crew this time when they made their journey north this time around .

After completing all the tasks, Eric was going to wait for Joseph and John for further instructions .

During their journey this time around, he found Jake to be the most interesting person in the whole group of slaves . When he watched Jake, his eyes reflected deep sorrow and pain from his past .

One of his mates Sean saw this and understood what he saw in Jake . He didn't bother Eric and let him be on his own . he was one of the guys who traveled with Eric from a long time ago and he understood him the most .