The God of Jesters
Chapter 499 - 8.03.2 The Plant(s).

Chapter 499: 8.03.2 The Plant(s).

The figure appeared clothed completely without any significant signage which might point toward her affiliation, which annoyed Heroth.

But he stayed in the place, looking to the ceiling as he felt the little steps of Arahi move on the first floor before she slipped a small note out of the door, making the figure go away. ’Guess they lost patience.’

The figure can be considered lucky that they didn’t make any disturbance, otherwise it would be another night of singing for Heroth to calm down his anger.

It was always the little things that miffed him. While for greater things like an attempt at his life or even an outright fight, he won’t be that much bothered at all. The most he will do is run away to save his life.

But once he is sitting in his own home and resting. Any slight offenses cause issues that are harder to deal with than one might assume.

This was the volatile nature of Heroth’s existence, and he was very much aware of this odd problem of his, which is why he had developed a habit of singing to soothe his mind, which generally works.

And it could be considered a lucky night that the figure at the doorstep didn’t make any outrageous move like entering the house uninvited, things might have gone ugly otherwise.

As for the little act of betrayal on Arahi’s end? That was to be expected. The shop had been closed for a month, and most of the groceries were bought by Heroth whenever he went on to refill his alcohol stock, while he banned Arahi from ever walking out of the shop at all.

His excuse is simple. "No one knows who that monster is." This was understandable from a reasonable point of view, but this was also done in order to see how Arahi would react to the temporary confinement.

Others in her position would generally ask to go out to send money to their parents, or they would try to escape just for a breath of fresh air because being inside a shop all the time can get stuffy.

But Arahi did none of such things, it would seem she didn’t even consider such excuses and chose to remain inside with some normal complaints from time to time. But nothing extreme.

Of course, part of it might be because Arahi had experienced the oddity that was Heroth, his laugh that tried to suppress the waves of anger the day some fool threw the stone through his window. It can be seen that he was far from a normal man. And a strong man is to be feared.

No matter what it was, after enough time, there was finally a crack and someone approached the shop to check if Arahi was fine or not. ’She is a plant...’ These were Heroth’s last thoughts before he finally fell asleep.

*****

The Eastern District of Rudrain was not as calm as the Southern one. Even without the Blood Flower disaster that took the lives of over four dozen people, the southern district was still completely calm in comparison to its neighbors due to the high control they had over the commoners, making all of them believe in a false reality.

There was no such case in the Eastern district.

Under the control of Four Merchant Families with no backing of any church. The whole eastern district was considered the richest part of the whole city, but also the most chaotic due to the existence of multiple business emporiums that have made this place their home.

Some of these can even rival the likes of the four major families like the Nine Cottage Consulate, a consultation firm with a close relationship with the Church of Truthful Deceit. Though it was only a monetary relationship and nothing more. The Consulate was free to do whatever they wanted however they wanted as long as they paid money to the church.

Though they might say on the surface that they had no relationship with the Church outside the money, inside the truth was far from what one might expect. "The Royals have banned the investigation?"

"Yes... An unexpected change, generally they don’t involve in noble matters, but for this, they came down themselves and ordered us to forego the matter, while handing us an appropriate compensation for our loss."

The consulate of Nine Cottage was made up of Nine individuals, among which were big businessmen of all backgrounds, without anyone else above them, but no one has said that two of the members can’t have deeper ties with each other. Just like no one has said that there was any real restriction on who could take over one of the seats of the Nine Cottage.

This is where the Branch family of the Dranath came into play. While the main family enjoyed their supremacy in the southern district, one of their branches had established themselves deeper into the eastern district as well.

A seat that took a while to occupy, as the previous owner was a bit of an old cod that had done his best to suppress the Dranath Family’s influence in the eastern district, but he ended up failing just due to his old age. Causing the Dranath family to sink its hook into the Nine Cottage Consulate.

"Garam, if they came down, you know that this matter is not simple, are you sure you want to keep looking?’

"Everyone else had been forcefully made to take a vow in my family, it would seem that the church is also ready to give up this matter. But I can’t... others might treat it as a hot potato, but for us, this might be an opportunity." The man’s name was Garam Bluefell Dranath, the head of the Bluefell Branch of the Dranaths,

Originally, in order to find the traces of the perpetrator, the church had informed all of its plants to look for him, including the Bluefell’s. But it was not long after Garam and his family started to look for the traces, a new order came to end it all and asked him to go to the church.

But Garam didn’t go to the church in the eastern district, for he understood that a forceful ban would be imposed on him to not talk about this matter, that’s how the royal family did things.

And Garam was not going to play this game by the rules. Which is why he came to his fellow friend from Nine Cottage.

Named Johar Kafiri, a son of a simple landowner whose primary source of income was freshwater ponds that were cultivated in artificial ponds, Johar was found to have a talent for mages and was taken fancy by the Kafiri Mage family. Who at first only treated him as a servant, but as he showed talents far outside of the norms, he was soon betrothed to the only daughter of the Kafiri family, which he soon took control over after taking their name and coming of age.

Even the seat in the Nine Cottage Consulate came from his identity, previously held on by his father-in-law. But it would be foolish to think of him only obtaining such riches due to nepotism.

If there was one man that Garam could trust in the whole city for this job, it would be Johar due to the specific set of odd skills he possessed.

"Opportunity, you are planning to blackmail the royal family with this?" Only a fool won’t understand that there was something odd about this matter with how the Royal family tried to suppress it.

Although ignorant of the details of the incident, he was not ignorant of the meaning behind the Royal family’s action and Garam’s intentions here. "It won’t be blackmail, but mostly a support. From what I understand, the search for this individual has not stopped, it’s just the nobles are banned from moving forward. But you are not a noble... you can look for him and then report to the Royals."

"..."

"Don’t think too much, you are probably not alone looking for him, there are others, most of which probably front eh secret police. So delaying any further would just make us lose our prize faster."

After a night of discussion, the figure of Garam disappeared. While Johar remained stiff.

"This is troublesome." Looking at the vial of blood that was frozen with magic, Johar really wanted to take it out and research it. But he held back his curiosity. "That man is pushing the burden on me..."

It took till morning before Johar finally calculated the profit index and came to a simple conclusion. "No matter how I see it, I will be the scapegoat if the word of it were to get out... hah these Dranath bastards." Although he can’t be sure if this was intentional on Dranth’s end. He didn’t look down on a family that was able to grow so strong in such a short time.

’They might have expected it, he might have directives from the main family, or directly from the Church... they wish to use me.’

Then Johar suddenly smiled, this was really an opportunity if he thought about it. So he took out a small pager and then used a small wheel to change its frequency, before sending a small message to his "Boss".

"Leader, send someone, I have something special with me."