Chapter 259: 025 – Scheme
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The mayor nodded his head in understanding, he didn't know how long Lirian had spent in his training, but he knew that ordinary adventures could easily go of the radar for a few months at a time, let alone a cultivator.
According to Mr Cassy some cultivators could disappear for as long as a decade before remerging from their training, so he pondered on what to tell Lirian for a while as his wife made some idle chat with Lirian.
"Have you heard of the news regarding Lord Kurt?" the mayor asked, deciding to speak about something local, it was something which he understood pretty well so it made it easy for him explain it with ease.
"By lord Kurt, you mean the local lord of the region?" Lirian asked, as the name did appear on the map Lirian had scanned in the mayors study he was already a little familiar with it, back when he did the fate string search he just browsed through the mayors memories and watched what he found to be important, so he was still in the dark about this news concerning the local lord.
The mayor nodded his head, "About two months before all this trouble with the orcs started word reached our ears that Lord Kurt was banished from the Riverfall court,"
"Before that Lord Kurt was making huge strides in increasing his territories, there were even rumours about him gaining some influence in Port Cove, and from the looks of things he was trying to expand his reach to Atel,"
"If the lord succeeded he would have been able to take complete control of the central region of the road between Proge and Riverfall,"
"Supposedly Lord Kurt had some powerful backing in Riverfall that allowed him to make such large strides, but with his banishment he lost that backing and had to stop expanding his territories and now the other local lords are free to contest the lands he has taken,"
"So far the contests have been peaceful, but there is word going about that lord Kurt is preparing an armed force, a month ago there was even a war time conscription passed around through many of the villages," the mayor explained the ongoing troubles of the region
'It seems that even without my recent interference this place was bound to have troubled times,' Lirian thought as he contemplated over his course of action.
'If there is going to be a battle over territory, it might be a good chance for me to get in the good graces with this local lord and use my battle merits to get access to the method for cultivation,' Lirian quickly came up with a plan, it wasn't set in stone, but it was a feasible course of action.
But first Lirian would bide his time and wait for the most opportune time to act, to leave the most impactful mark he could muster on the local lord.
"Speaking of lord Kurt, there has been a fair deal of gossip regarding his daughter Lady Izlandi," the mayors wife chimed in.
"Lady Izlandi had a marriage arrangement with a noble from House Kant in Proge, she was to marry into the main family, one of their younger sons Tanicks Kant, who was already an adapt at the age of 40, a real prodigy," Ana shared her knowledge on the subject with vigour.
Lirian already learnt that in this world they gave names to each of the grades of cultivation, 'Novice' was the term for a first grade cultivator and 'Adapt' was the term for a second grade cultivator.
"But after lord Kurt's banishment from Riverfall, Tanicks Kant severed the marriage arrangement with Lady Izlandi,"
"The poor girl," Ana said with a sigh, "As if it wasn't already an insult to the girl to cancel the marriage, but Tanicks offered to take her in as a concubine,"
"There are a lot of rumours going around that Lord Kant actually accepted the proposal, and in a few months' time the girl will be taken away to keep the young Lords bed warm," she lamented with a sigh of pity that went out to the young lady of house Kurt.
After that the three of them went on to speak about a couple of other things, Lirian tried to probe a little more into the desolation, but the mayor firmly shut down the topic, so far he hadn't even told his wife about the news, and had no desire to let it be know until it became necessary.
Other than that the husband and wife pair teamed up to subtly probe into Lirian's origins, but unfortunately, even with their joined efforts, all their advances were easily seen through and deflected by Lirian.
Several hours had passed since the trio begun speaking and by now the mayor and his wife had a new found appreciation for Lirian, it was pretty clear to them that he was extremely well versed in the way of politics, if not for the fact that his armour and clothing looked so cheap and shabby they would have believed that he was of noble birth.
In fact they thought that he might be some child who was born very late into the family line, so instead of fighting with his siblings for power, he chose to wonder the world as a traveller.
Their thoughts were naturally all things that Lirian had subtly planted in their minds, and it wasn't a very uncommon situation, it was extremely common that some nobles ended up having to many children, the older children would usually be groomed for court and to act as bridges to other families through marriage.
But when they had to many children it was impossible to get anything arranged for them, so they ended up being cast aside, to cut out their own path in life.
Lirian intentionally wanted them to believe that he was just some discarded child, because while they had been busy talking the innkeepers wife Layla had come down in a new set of clothes.
The change had gone unnoticed by almost everyone except her husband, and when he spoke to her, Lirian heard her say a rather interesting story to her husband.
Ever since then the innkeeper was filled with seething fury as he looked on at Lirian, but he seemed to understand what would happen if he tried to attack Lirian, so he stayed his hand so far.
By the time the trio finished speaking the inn was mostly empty with the exception of the few who had drunk to much and passed out in front of the crackling fire.
"Thank you, for all that you've said, it seems that troubled times are upon us," Lirian said as he smashed one final mug of ale against the mayors and his wife's mugs and downed it in one go.
"I suppose that we'll have to arrange that meal you spoke of for one of the days in the week," Lirian said feeling a little tipsy, he had had a lot to drink, he didn't doubt that he finished an entire barrel of ale all on his own.
As he pulled his feet up the stairs one after the other, the innkeeper and his wife quickly approached the mayor and his wife.
Ana looked to her younger sister curiously, when her sister sat down she saw tear stains on her face, and looked at her worriedly, "Is something wrong Layla?" she asked and took a hold of her hand, she could feel her sister trembling at her touch and fresh tears started to pour down her face.
Ana and Cowen both turned to the innkeeper in worry, they could see that he was seething with anger and it seemed like Layla was in no state to speak, "Jack what happened?" the mayor asked the innkeeper.
"My wife," Jack said through gritted teeth, "Was raped by that bastard, when she went up to call him," he said pointing to the stairs where Lirian had just passed.
They looked at Layla with horror filled eyes, and their hearts could be heard pumping rapidly, "Unbelievable," Ana hissed in anger as she looked to the stairs with glowering eyes.
"To thank that we invited such a man into our home," the mayor said clenching his fist tightly he had no qualms with believing what Layla, why would he doubt his sister-in-law's words in the slightest.
All the good feelings he had to Lirian suddenly faded away, that kind of behaviour was absolutely disgusting, and he wouldn't tolerate it in his village.
Even if it meant he'd lose the seat as mayor, he'd rather die than harbour a rapist in his home, who knew how long it would take for such a man to touch his wife, or what if he tried to touch his two little girls, it was simply intolerable.
Ana wrapped Layla in a tight hug and stroked her back, "Layla and Jack, both of you are coming to our home tonight, we can't allow you to stay around a man like that," she said and her husband nodded seriously, if his wife didn't suggest it he would have.
Layla's eyes flashed with insanity as her crocodile tears fell down her face, 'If I can't have you, no one can,' she thought.
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The mayor nodded his head in understanding, he didn't know how long Lirian had spent in his training, but he knew that ordinary adventures could easily go of the radar for a few months at a time, let alone a cultivator.
According to Mr Cassy some cultivators could disappear for as long as a decade before remerging from their training, so he pondered on what to tell Lirian for a while as his wife made some idle chat with Lirian.
"Have you heard of the news regarding Lord Kurt?" the mayor asked, deciding to speak about something local, it was something which he understood pretty well so it made it easy for him explain it with ease.
"By lord Kurt, you mean the local lord of the region?" Lirian asked, as the name did appear on the map Lirian had scanned in the mayors study he was already a little familiar with it, back when he did the fate string search he just browsed through the mayors memories and watched what he found to be important, so he was still in the dark about this news concerning the local lord.
The mayor nodded his head, "About two months before all this trouble with the orcs started word reached our ears that Lord Kurt was banished from the Riverfall court,"
"Before that Lord Kurt was making huge strides in increasing his territories, there were even rumours about him gaining some influence in Port Cove, and from the looks of things he was trying to expand his reach to Atel,"
"If the lord succeeded he would have been able to take complete control of the central region of the road between Proge and Riverfall,"
"Supposedly Lord Kurt had some powerful backing in Riverfall that allowed him to make such large strides, but with his banishment he lost that backing and had to stop expanding his territories and now the other local lords are free to contest the lands he has taken,"
"So far the contests have been peaceful, but there is word going about that lord Kurt is preparing an armed force, a month ago there was even a war time conscription passed around through many of the villages," the mayor explained the ongoing troubles of the region
'It seems that even without my recent interference this place was bound to have troubled times,' Lirian thought as he contemplated over his course of action.
'If there is going to be a battle over territory, it might be a good chance for me to get in the good graces with this local lord and use my battle merits to get access to the method for cultivation,' Lirian quickly came up with a plan, it wasn't set in stone, but it was a feasible course of action.
But first Lirian would bide his time and wait for the most opportune time to act, to leave the most impactful mark he could muster on the local lord.
"Speaking of lord Kurt, there has been a fair deal of gossip regarding his daughter Lady Izlandi," the mayors wife chimed in.
"Lady Izlandi had a marriage arrangement with a noble from House Kant in Proge, she was to marry into the main family, one of their younger sons Tanicks Kant, who was already an adapt at the age of 40, a real prodigy," Ana shared her knowledge on the subject with vigour.
Lirian already learnt that in this world they gave names to each of the grades of cultivation, 'Novice' was the term for a first grade cultivator and 'Adapt' was the term for a second grade cultivator.
"But after lord Kurt's banishment from Riverfall, Tanicks Kant severed the marriage arrangement with Lady Izlandi,"
"The poor girl," Ana said with a sigh, "As if it wasn't already an insult to the girl to cancel the marriage, but Tanicks offered to take her in as a concubine,"
"There are a lot of rumours going around that Lord Kant actually accepted the proposal, and in a few months' time the girl will be taken away to keep the young Lords bed warm," she lamented with a sigh of pity that went out to the young lady of house Kurt.
After that the three of them went on to speak about a couple of other things, Lirian tried to probe a little more into the desolation, but the mayor firmly shut down the topic, so far he hadn't even told his wife about the news, and had no desire to let it be know until it became necessary.
Other than that the husband and wife pair teamed up to subtly probe into Lirian's origins, but unfortunately, even with their joined efforts, all their advances were easily seen through and deflected by Lirian.
Several hours had passed since the trio begun speaking and by now the mayor and his wife had a new found appreciation for Lirian, it was pretty clear to them that he was extremely well versed in the way of politics, if not for the fact that his armour and clothing looked so cheap and shabby they would have believed that he was of noble birth.
In fact they thought that he might be some child who was born very late into the family line, so instead of fighting with his siblings for power, he chose to wonder the world as a traveller.
Their thoughts were naturally all things that Lirian had subtly planted in their minds, and it wasn't a very uncommon situation, it was extremely common that some nobles ended up having to many children, the older children would usually be groomed for court and to act as bridges to other families through marriage.
But when they had to many children it was impossible to get anything arranged for them, so they ended up being cast aside, to cut out their own path in life.
Lirian intentionally wanted them to believe that he was just some discarded child, because while they had been busy talking the innkeepers wife Layla had come down in a new set of clothes.
The change had gone unnoticed by almost everyone except her husband, and when he spoke to her, Lirian heard her say a rather interesting story to her husband.
Ever since then the innkeeper was filled with seething fury as he looked on at Lirian, but he seemed to understand what would happen if he tried to attack Lirian, so he stayed his hand so far.
By the time the trio finished speaking the inn was mostly empty with the exception of the few who had drunk to much and passed out in front of the crackling fire.
"Thank you, for all that you've said, it seems that troubled times are upon us," Lirian said as he smashed one final mug of ale against the mayors and his wife's mugs and downed it in one go.
"I suppose that we'll have to arrange that meal you spoke of for one of the days in the week," Lirian said feeling a little tipsy, he had had a lot to drink, he didn't doubt that he finished an entire barrel of ale all on his own.
As he pulled his feet up the stairs one after the other, the innkeeper and his wife quickly approached the mayor and his wife.
Ana looked to her younger sister curiously, when her sister sat down she saw tear stains on her face, and looked at her worriedly, "Is something wrong Layla?" she asked and took a hold of her hand, she could feel her sister trembling at her touch and fresh tears started to pour down her face.
Ana and Cowen both turned to the innkeeper in worry, they could see that he was seething with anger and it seemed like Layla was in no state to speak, "Jack what happened?" the mayor asked the innkeeper.
"My wife," Jack said through gritted teeth, "Was raped by that bastard, when she went up to call him," he said pointing to the stairs where Lirian had just passed.
They looked at Layla with horror filled eyes, and their hearts could be heard pumping rapidly, "Unbelievable," Ana hissed in anger as she looked to the stairs with glowering eyes.
"To thank that we invited such a man into our home," the mayor said clenching his fist tightly he had no qualms with believing what Layla, why would he doubt his sister-in-law's words in the slightest.
All the good feelings he had to Lirian suddenly faded away, that kind of behaviour was absolutely disgusting, and he wouldn't tolerate it in his village.
Even if it meant he'd lose the seat as mayor, he'd rather die than harbour a rapist in his home, who knew how long it would take for such a man to touch his wife, or what if he tried to touch his two little girls, it was simply intolerable.
Ana wrapped Layla in a tight hug and stroked her back, "Layla and Jack, both of you are coming to our home tonight, we can't allow you to stay around a man like that," she said and her husband nodded seriously, if his wife didn't suggest it he would have.
Layla's eyes flashed with insanity as her crocodile tears fell down her face, 'If I can't have you, no one can,' she thought.
The mayor nodded his head in understanding, he didn't know how long Lirian had spent in his training, but he knew that ordinary adventures could easily go of the radar for a few months at a time, let alone a cultivator.According to Mr Cassy some cultivators could disappear for as long as a decade before remerging from their training, so he pondered on what to tell Lirian for a while as his wife made some idle chat with Lirian."Have you heard of the news regarding Lord Kurt?" the mayor asked, deciding to speak about something local, it was something which he understood pretty well so it made it easy for him explain it with ease."By lord Kurt, you mean the local lord of the region?" Lirian asked, as the name did appear on the map Lirian had scanned in the mayors study he was already a little familiar with it, back when he did the fate string search he just browsed through the mayors memories and watched what he found to be important, so he was still in the dark about this news concerning the local lord.The mayor nodded his head, "About two months before all this trouble with the orcs started word reached our ears that Lord Kurt was banished from the Riverfall court,""Before that Lord Kurt was making huge strides in increasing his territories, there were even rumours about him gaining some influence in Port Cove, and from the looks of things he was trying to expand his reach to Atel,""If the lord succeeded he would have been able to take complete control of the central region of the road between Proge and Riverfall,""Supposedly Lord Kurt had some powerful backing in Riverfall that allowed him to make such large strides, but with his banishment he lost that backing and had to stop expanding his territories and now the other local lords are free to contest the lands he has taken,""So far the contests have been peaceful, but there is word going about that lord Kurt is preparing an armed force, a month ago there was even a war time conscription passed around through many of the villages," the mayor explained the ongoing troubles of the region'It seems that even without my recent interference this place was bound to have troubled times,' Lirian thought as he contemplated over his course of action.'If there is going to be a battle over territory, it might be a good chance for me to get in the good graces with this local lord and use my battle merits to get access to the method for cultivation,' Lirian quickly came up with a plan, it wasn't set in stone, but it was a feasible course of action.But first Lirian would bide his time and wait for the most opportune time to act, to leave the most impactful mark he could muster on the local lord."Speaking of lord Kurt, there has been a fair deal of gossip regarding his daughter Lady Izlandi," the mayors wife chimed in."Lady Izlandi had a marriage arrangement with a noble from House Kant in Proge, she was to marry into the main family, one of their younger sons Tanicks Kant, who was already an adapt at the age of 40, a real prodigy," Ana shared her knowledge on the subject with vigour.Lirian already learnt that in this world they gave names to each of the grades of cultivation, 'Novice' was the term for a first grade cultivator and 'Adapt' was the term for a second grade cultivator."But after lord Kurt's banishment from Riverfall, Tanicks Kant severed the marriage arrangement with Lady Izlandi,""The poor girl," Ana said with a sigh, "As if it wasn't already an insult to the girl to cancel the marriage, but Tanicks offered to take her in as a concubine,""There are a lot of rumours going around that Lord Kant actually accepted the proposal, and in a few months' time the girl will be taken away to keep the young Lords bed warm," she lamented with a sigh of pity that went out to the young lady of house Kurt.After that the three of them went on to speak about a couple of other things, Lirian tried to probe a little more into the desolation, but the mayor firmly shut down the topic, so far he hadn't even told his wife about the news, and had no desire to let it be know until it became necessary.Other than that the husband and wife pair teamed up to subtly probe into Lirian's origins, but unfortunately, even with their joined efforts, all their advances were easily seen through and deflected by Lirian.Several hours had passed since the trio begun speaking and by now the mayor and his wife had a new found appreciation for Lirian, it was pretty clear to them that he was extremely well versed in the way of politics, if not for the fact that his armour and clothing looked so cheap and shabby they would have believed that he was of noble birth.In fact they thought that he might be some child who was born very late into the family line, so instead of fighting with his siblings for power, he chose to wonder the world as a traveller.Their thoughts were naturally all things that Lirian had subtly planted in their minds, and it wasn't a very uncommon situation, it was extremely common that some nobles ended up having to many children, the older children would usually be groomed for court and to act as bridges to other families through marriage.But when they had to many children it was impossible to get anything arranged for them, so they ended up being cast aside, to cut out their own path in life.Lirian intentionally wanted them to believe that he was just some discarded child, because while they had been busy talking the innkeepers wife Layla had come down in a new set of clothes.The change had gone unnoticed by almost everyone except her husband, and when he spoke to her, Lirian heard her say a rather interesting story to her husband.Ever since then the innkeeper was filled with seething fury as he looked on at Lirian, but he seemed to understand what would happen if he tried to attack Lirian, so he stayed his hand so far.By the time the trio finished speaking the inn was mostly empty with the exception of the few who had drunk to much and passed out in front of the crackling fire."Thank you, for all that you've said, it seems that troubled times are upon us," Lirian said as he smashed one final mug of ale against the mayors and his wife's mugs and downed it in one go."I suppose that we'll have to arrange that meal you spoke of for one of the days in the week," Lirian said feeling a little tipsy, he had had a lot to drink, he didn't doubt that he finished an entire barrel of ale all on his own.As he pulled his feet up the stairs one after the other, the innkeeper and his wife quickly approached the mayor and his wife.Ana looked to her younger sister curiously, when her sister sat down she saw tear stains on her face, and looked at her worriedly, "Is something wrong Layla?" she asked and took a hold of her hand, she could feel her sister trembling at her touch and fresh tears started to pour down her face.Ana and Cowen both turned to the innkeeper in worry, they could see that he was seething with anger and it seemed like Layla was in no state to speak, "Jack what happened?" the mayor asked the innkeeper."My wife," Jack said through gritted teeth, "Was raped by that bastard, when she went up to call him," he said pointing to the stairs where Lirian had just passed.They looked at Layla with horror filled eyes, and their hearts could be heard pumping rapidly, "Unbelievable," Ana hissed in anger as she looked to the stairs with glowering eyes."To thank that we invited such a man into our home," the mayor said clenching his fist tightly he had no qualms with believing what Layla, why would he doubt his sister-in-law's words in the slightest.All the good feelings he had to Lirian suddenly faded away, that kind of behaviour was absolutely disgusting, and he wouldn't tolerate it in his village.Even if it meant he'd lose the seat as mayor, he'd rather die than harbour a rapist in his home, who knew how long it would take for such a man to touch his wife, or what if he tried to touch his two little girls, it was simply intolerable.Ana wrapped Layla in a tight hug and stroked her back, "Layla and Jack, both of you are coming to our home tonight, we can't allow you to stay around a man like that," she said and her husband nodded seriously, if his wife didn't suggest it he would have.Layla's eyes flashed with insanity as her crocodile tears fell down her face, 'If I can't have you, no one can,' she thought.
