Chapter 46: Edward's Gift
"Alright!" Edward smiled. "I'm not really a man who likes owing a favor to someone. Everyone close to me knows that."
"What do you mean?" Lawrence felt curious. "Are you perhaps talking about when we attacked the henchmen of your competitors just so that we could reach you?"
"No!" Edward shook his head.
"Do you happen to know what he meant, Kael?" Lawrence turned to Kael.
"Yes!" Kael nodded his head.
Lawrence fell into silence. He can't believe something important just happened, and he's the only one who doesn't know about it.
"Going back to what I came here to do. One of your men…"
"Partner," Kael kindly corrected.
"I mean partner." Edward coughed. "One of your partners did me a huge favor last night. I hate to ask, but I don't seem to see him anywhere in your camp right now."
"Is he talking about Jayem?" Lawrence instantly became alert upon realizing who Edward was talking about.
"Oh, so his name is Jayem. If I recall correctly, he was also the one who took care of my competitors' henchmen, right?"
"Yes!" Kael smiled.
"It seems like that man deserves more than what I was initially going to offer." Edward started shaking his head while smiling in embarrassment.
"Hey, Kael, what exactly did Jayem do?" Lawrence insisted one more time.
"I'll tell you what he did," Edward took the initiative. "Jayem killed all of my competitors last night."
"He did what?!" Lawrence's eyes widened since he knew exactly what this implied. He heard about it when he was selling their materials at the time. Apparently, killing is strictly forbidden in the Sylvaris Kingdom, and the penalty for anyone found guilty of this crime is death.
"That's why I owe Jayem a huge favor." Edward sighs.
"Why did he do that? Did you offer him something beforehand? That's why he killed those people. You did, right? Because Jayem isn't the type of person to kill others indiscriminately and without a proper reason." Jayem could only believe Edward had something to do with it. He probably
"No, no, no!" Edward immediately started defending himself. "In fact, my men confronted him last night. His reason was that he simply wanted to eliminate potential trouble in the future. Regardless, he still did us a huge favor, that's why I'm here to repay him."
"Unless you can give him a get-out-of-jail free card, then there's no way you could ever repay that favor!" Lawrence scoffed with his arms crossed.
"You're mistaken, you don't have to worry about him getting to jail for killing." Edward shook his head and started explaining. "He didn't leave any evidence. And we also cleaned up the crime scene to make sure of that."
"This is a magical world. Who could say for certain that no magic can find the smallest trace!" Lawrence still doesn't believe Edward. He is so worried about Jayem right now.
"We also use magic to remove traces," Edward could guarantee Jayem's safety. "Also, he killed them inside an alley, not in a place that they frequently visit. So, the only possible way to find evidence is if the one investigating knows exactly which alley. Not to mention, they also have to know that a specific person was indeed killed in that certain alley."
"To simply put, it's next to impossible?" Lawrence raised his eyebrows.
"Yes!" Edward nodded. "Killing is indeed illegal, but if they can't prove it anyway, then no harm can be done to Jayem."
"We'll see about that in the future!" Lawrence doesn't trust Edward the slightest.
"Enough about that!" Kael decided to interrupt after allowing Lawrence to get his answers. "So, you came here to pay Jayem the favor that you owe him. But since he's not here, I'll see that offer and decide whether to accept it for him or not."
"Is that okay?" Edward wanted to confirm.
"Yes, I'm the leader of this group," Kael confirmed.
"Alright!" Edward nodded before handing Kael a piece of paper. "That's the list of everything I'm giving your group for eliminating my competitors."
Kael accepted the letter and started reading its content.
"Is it good?" Lawrence couldn't help but ask.
"Yeah," Kael smiled and handed Lawrence the piece of paper. "But I'm afraid this won't be enough,"
"Are you sure that's what Jayem would feel, and this isn't you just being greedy for more?" Edward clashed both of his hands together and rested his chin on top while wearing a serious look on his face.
"You really expect us to just accept twenty slaves, a few thousand gold coins, and a twenty percent discount for future purchase in your business?" Kael scoffed.
"My real offer is the twenty percent discount. That's a lifetime offer, so once my business starts getting on track…"
Before Edward could finish his line, Kael immediately cut him off to interrupt. "Yeah, sure, once your business starts getting on track. But is there a guarantee for that? I heard from a reliable source that those people are actually not the only ones who hate you. There's more, and one of those people is from a powerful organization."
"You… How did you know?" Edward was dumbfounded. He glanced at Nyvarr by the side of Kael, wanting to know inwardly if that informant was one of his previous slaves. If it's true, then he might have to double-check later on the other slaves, cause they might share confidential information about him with his buyers in the future.
Edward coughed. "Putting that aside. What you're trying to say is that you want more?"
"Yes, exactly!" Kael briefly clapped his hands in sarcasm before turning serious. "Let's lower the number of slaves to just ten slaves, and I'll have to pick them personally. Take the thousands of gold coins away, since we can easily earn that in the future. But increase the discount to thirty-five percent, and not to Jayem alone, but to our entire organization."
"That…" Edward fell into deep thoughts. "So, you only care about the discount?"
"You can put it that way." Kael naturally wouldn't say that he knew in the future Edward would become successful, and a thirty-five percent discount would mean a lot to them.
"But why decrease the number of slaves to only ten?" Edward was really curious about this part.
"Look around our camp. There's no way we can feed an additional twenty people at this moment. That would cost a lot of money on a daily basis."
"Fair enough, " Edward understands. He followed up with another question. "This organization, what is it called?"
"It's called the Cabal of Cards."
"Cabal of Cards?" Edward quietly likes the name. That means these people intend to be a secret organization. "Alright! That's the deal!"
"So, I reckon you bought the slaves you were going to offer?"
"Yeah, but I don't think you'll like any of them." Edward could only shake his head, slightly embarrassed. He was just picking the slaves at random, thinking that he could compensate for their quality with the quantity.
"I'll look at them first before deciding." Kael stood up from his chair.
"Sure, boss," Edward chuckled before leading Kael to the entrance of their camp.
Arriving at the entrance of the camp, Kael's attention was instantly caught by two beastmen of the wolf race and tiger race.
"You're also giving those two away?" Kael was doubting it.
He was familiar with those two beastmen. They were one of the loyal henchmen of Edward in the future.
"Yeah, is there a problem?"
"I suggest you train those two yourself and make them your bodyguards." Kael kindly suggested.
"Those two?" Edward glances at the two beastmen. "They do seem strong. Sure, I'll agree on your suggestion."
"That's good." Kael smiled before looking at the other remaining slaves.
Honestly, he could have chosen those two slaves for himself, and he would have gotten two capable men in their group. But he's afraid of changing Edward's future because of that. So, he might as well push the process earlier.
As Kael continued to survey the other eighteen slaves, one certain slave soon caught his attention.
"You're offering that member of the lizard race?" Kael turned to Edward.
"Yes!" Edward nodded. "Are you also going to suggest that I train him to become my bodyguard?" He chuckled.
"Just making sure," Kael smiled to hide that he was cheering loudly inwardly. That beastman isn't actually a member of the lizard race. He was just asking that question to confirm if that's also what Edward believed. The truth is that beastman is highly likely a member of the Drake race, a race that's partly a dragon.
Unfortunately, that beastman seems to hardly possess any Drake bloodline. That's why he looks more like a member of the lizard race, and nobody noticed him possessing a good bloodline.
Nevertheless, that's still better than a mere member of the lizard race.
Honestly, the only way he was able to notice was because that beastman had a small horn on his nose. No member of the lizard race possesses such a trait. Even their other counterpart, the salamander race, doesn't have a horn like that.
He could also consider the possibility that the beastman is a mix of another race that has a pointy horn on the nose, like the rhino race, but he is very familiar with every existing race that possesses such a trait, so there's no way he could be mistaken about that.
"I'll pick that for my first slave!" Kael no longer hesitated, especially since he couldn't remember this beastman ever being a noteworthy individual in the future.
"Alright!" Edwardly gladly accepted.