Emperor of Steel
chapter-98

Chapter 98: Encounter with the Fairies 1

Du Du Du Du!

The wagon had exited the Emperor’s capital Nemesis and headed north along the highway.

Krom, the northern part of the Empire, was far, so the wagon constantly had to change its horses and stop from time to time.

And without a station attendance, they had to stay in the village Inn or had to stay homeless.

They were prepared for the homeless part of the trip, so they didn’t think of it as an inconvenience.

Was it around 5 days since they have left the capital?

When the sun went down near the wilderness on the northern side they were heading, Luke asked Mabu, the wagon driver, to find a place suitable to camp.

There was a campsite not far from their location.

However, there were people who had already gone there.

People from 30 different wagons were seated and burning fire.

Half of them were merchants and the other half were mercenaries.

“Should we just pass?”, asked Philip

There were many mercenaries who haven’t been doing well in recent times. And then there were those kinds of con-artists who acted like merchants.

Philip wasn’t very keen on camping with strangers in the wilderness.

He was a man who could deal with an unexpected situation, but as he was tired and feeling down, he wanted to avoid any unfavorable situation if he could.

Luke shook his head.

“Is the next village a day away? Let’s just sleep here.”

“Tch, okay,” responded Philip

At Luke’s decision, the wagon was brought into the campsite.

Once their done parking the wagon, Philip and Mabu started preparing dinner.

A merchant, who had been looking at them, came over to talk.

A middle-aged man with a bald head greeted them with a smile and introduced himself.

“I am Clark of Merlin. From which family do you come from?”

“He is the Lord of Rakan Viscount.”

At the response of Philip, the bald man, Clark, was rather surprised.

He thought that the group was just a noble family. But they were the Rakan family!

Clark began to speak much more politely to them.

“Ah! The descendant of the legendary hero Rakan. If it doesn’t bother you, I would like to serve you dinner, would that be alright?” Clark asked.

Clark had known just a month ago that the Lord of Rakan had won the battle against Count Monarch.

The Rakan Viscount had devoured the second largest estate in the South. Their fame and reputation had increased tremendously after that. Even the future trades, the traders had been entertained in numerous ways.

Clark looked over at Luke and pulled out a wine he had been saving.

“By the way, why are you going through here?”, asked Clark.

“Things just happened and the next thing we know we’re here.”

Luke replied rather roughly.

The impression Clark had presented to Luke didn’t seem that good, there was some kind of suspiciousness in his behavior.

That was why Philip refused to talk as well.

The words weren’t providing them any hints. However, there was just something that bothered them very much.

It was the luggage in the carriage.

A thick wooden box. A thick large box. In addition, the back door was locked tight with a bolt.

It was very inconceivable to think that the carriages used by regular merchants were open-fitted with anchored ropes and covered with oiled-waterproof tents on the cargo.

‘There is a product on the cart. But this guy had found something quite unique.’

Luke frowned as he found the mana flow from the box.

Clark, not knowing what Luke was thinking, asked once again,

“And your destination is?”

“Why are you so curious to know where strangers are going?”

As Luke questioned him instead of answering, Clark was flustered for a second.

“That… I am not curious, I just wanted to borrow the extraordinary power of the Lord, that is all.”

“My power?” Asked Luke.

“Yes, I heard that you are a destroyer class…”

Whether he used magic or just his sword skills, if a man could defeat 4 Gigants with just his body, he surely had some extraordinary power.

The stranger believed that such a strong person could solve their problems in an instant.

“There was a wizard aiming for us for three days now. The wizard’s skills are great. We already lost half of our merchandise, and over 20 people were killed.”

Somehow the merchants and the mercenaries weren’t saying the reason why the situation had turned out that way.

Luke looked at him and asked,

“Wouldn’t it be better to ask for the help of the patrol?”

The highways were a great help in boosting the empire’s economy.

Hence, there were a lot of patrols that wandered the place to keep businesses safe from rogues and monsters.

“This wizard can’t be defeated with the patrollers’ level, and it would require a lot of money.”

“…”

“So I took the liberty and asked for a nobleman. A noble would be given the help of the Lord.”

Perhaps the old young Lord of Rakan would have decided to jump in and help them.

Luke, however, wasn’t a Rakan, which was why he began to speculate what could possibly happen.

Clark began to sweat with nervousness.

“It isn’t much, but we can pay a little.”

“Price, what do you want to pay?”

“Well, that…”

“You don’t think you can make us accept it with a few gold coins, right?” Asked Luke.

Luke knew most of it.

Clark then offered the biggest thing he could.

“The largest I can give is 5,000 gold.”

Luke nodded with a satisfied look.

However, his thoughts were different.

‘I need to go to a place where there aren’t many people and save the slaves these men have kept.’

Luke smiled realizing that he had met a slave trader after a long time.

He was thinking about how to deal with them without leaving much evidence behind.

He had saved many slaves during his time as Saymon.

And if the slave wasn’t a human being, then Saymon was much more active in saving them.

After his resurrection, he was very glad to have come across a slave trader once again.

‘Those who buy and sell slaves don’t deserve to live.’

Those were Luke’s thoughts.

“Ahahah, Viscount. Thank you for your support.”

Thinking that Luke had decided to help them, Clark smiled and poured a glass of wine for him.