I Need Wives For My Gacha System
Chapter 57 --57

Chapter 57: Chapter-57

Rex sat at the head of the long table, his fingers drumming lightly against the polished wood as he observed the three city lords seated before him. Ayana stood silently at his side, her expression was cold like ice. The atmosphere in the room was heavy, a quiet tension lingering between them as they awaited his words.

Rex finally broke the silence.

"Do you know why I called all of you here?"

At those words, Jasiah and Rory flinched slightly, their eyes darting to one another before settling on Rex. Austin, however, remained calm, his aged face betraying no sign of unease. It was clear to Rex that the old man had far more experience than the other two. But even if he had experience he wouldn’t be able to hide everything from Rex.

Before any of the others could speak, Rory was the first to react. He leaned forward slightly, a reverent gaze in his eyes as he hastily spoke.

"Lord, if there is anything you would like me to do, I will do it with all of my power"

His voice carried an eager devotion, a clear attempt to curry favour with the young noble. Rex knew that the loyalty of these three were above sixty. But, interestingly enough, Rory had the highest among them above seventy. Rex knew of it as soon as he saw them but didn’t know why Rory had such loyalty to him but now hearing the bootlicking attitude of the man, he understood.

He was either going to be a very good chess piece for Rex or be a very annoying one. After a brief moment, Rex decided to get to the matter at hand.

"Then tell me"

"Why have the trades between your two cities been suffering as of late?"

Rory looked down, a bit guilty,

"My lord... it started because I married my wife."

There was a slight pause before he continued,

"My wife is the daughter of City Lord Austin."

A ripple of tension passed through the room as Rory turned his gaze toward the older man.

"Father in law..."

Austin flinched at the title, and Rory immediately caught it, his words faltering. Noticing Austin’s reaction, Rory decided to correct himself, clearly not wanting to push his luck in front of Baron Rex. The man didn’t like being called father in law by him, that he knew but time had passed and Rory thought somethings would change but it seems that it wasn’t the case yet.

"City Lord Austin... did not approve of our marriage"

"But we truly love each other, and one day, my wife ran away with me"

"City lord Austin opposed our union from the very beginning, and that was how all of this started."

Rex raised an eyebrow and turned his attention to Austin.

"Is that true?"

The old man let out a deep sigh, his posture straightening as he took responsibility.

"It is, my lord. This is my fault."

He paused briefly before continuing.

"After Rory took my daughter and married her against my will, I was furious"

"In my anger, I commanded my son to become a bandit and told him of the trade routes between our two cities. From then on, he and his men looted every shipment that passed through"

The room fell silent for a brief moment as Austin shook his head, a grim expression settling on his face.

"I only wanted Rory to suffer... I thought that a few attacks would teach him a lesson"

"But I don’t understand what had happened to my son"

"After he embraced the life of a bandit, he no longer listened to me"

"He became worse than I ever intended, and his group of bandits grew like snakes in the dark"

"Even after I tried to put a stop to it, they had already established themselves deep within the forest"

The forest that Zhanbert had and the only forest around here was connected to Drakenshire.

"That route has since become too dangerous, making it nearly impossible for us to exchange trades unless I go with the trade carts"

Austin clenched his fists and lowered his head.

"I don’t know how I raised such an ungrateful child, my lord"

"I take full responsibility for what has happened"

"Please... punish me as you see fit"

Jasiah remained silent throughout the exchange, his eyes were running through from one person to another seeming as if he didn’t knew anything that had happened and he did in fact had no knowledge of it.

"Punishment can wait," Rex said

"The issue still remains"

"You will be the one to resolve the issue you created"

"Find a way to deal with your son and the bandits"

"Until then, your punishment is suspended"

Austin knew that he was being given a chance at lessening his punishment.

"Thank you, my lord, I will not fail you"

"Tell me about the strength of this son of yours"

"He was my eldest son but also my most talented son"

"He had a Grade B beginner talent"

"I know I was strict with him since young"

"I just wanted him to be better"

"But I didn’t expect it to turn out like this"

Looking at Austin, Rex knew that it shouldn’t been only be that he was not strict with the eldest son. Just looking at his stature, he could see that.

"His cultivation was at Essence Absorption realm second stage before he became what he was now"

"When I last saw him during my scouting, he was at fourth stage"

"My own cultivation is around fifth stage"

Rex hearing that felt that the old man was not confident in being able to accomplish it and Rex didn’t want this problem to go on longer.

"You will be accompanied by a few of my men, they will help you with the task but you will responsible for locating and tracking every single one of them"

"You have at most two weeks to finish this task"

"You are dismissed City lord Austin"

Austin solemnly nodded and Rex let Ayana tell Callan and his group. As for who they select, it was none of his problems. After Austin left, only Rory and Jasiah were left. He decided to deal with Jasiah first.

"City lord Jasiah, I will have to ask you to do something"

Jasiah unlike the other two when handling his city, he made sure that what he needed to do was done stably, he never risked nor done anything better than he could.

The city of Nerpolis was a city dependent on fishing for it’s entirety. They were under his rule so they would have to change their ways, his proposal was simple supply the other two cites with their resource which they had plenty of and do more trading with other cities and to negotiate good deals with them. It would be a good standing source of income if they were to get it.

Even though it was simple, Jasiah was sweating as if he had been given a heavy task. He hasn’t focused on his city yet but he was already like this. Unlike Austin he was lacking in experience but time can fix this. They were going to be his city lords and serving as city lords before they more or less had experience ruling the city whether it be more like Austin or less like Jasiah, they ruled before and the citizens knew them. So instead of changing them, Rex was going to make them loyal. Of course if it doesn’t work, he would simply change it.

After dismissing Jasiah, Rory was the only one left in the room. Out of the three cities, the one he ruled Zhanbert could be said to be the one which had the best possible situations out of the three. The had a forest to work with, they could still do farming unlike the Nerpolis city where the rocky terrain was present unlike other seaside cities. It was also the reason for him choosing it to be the source for his wine production.

Rory who was left in the room was smiling with his teeth from ear to ear as if he had gotten the favour of Rex.

"City Lord Rory,..."

"Just Rory will do, Lord"

"Okay, Rory, I need you to give out these contracts to all the industries within the industrial sector"

"See to me who accept and who doesn’t"

Rory reading the description of the contract had his eyes widened as he looked back at Rex.

"Lord, I am sorry to ask you like this but are you sure about this"

"I know what you are thinking about"

"They have marked their past in the history before but I am not trying to be like them but I am not trying to be like the others either"

Hearing the words of Rex, Rory’s eyes widened as he said immediately.

"Lord, I believe that Lord’s plan will work out brilliantly and the future of Zhanbert will shine brighter under the rule of you, my lord"

He said before leaving getting dismissed by Rex. Rex also saw that the loyalty of Rory went through the roof reaching above 90 he same as that of his private army which surprised him quite a bit. As for why it had such an effect, Rex didn’t need to know nor wanted to.