Chapter 42: Heading to the Front Line (II)

After checking into the Sunflower Inn and enjoying a lavish dinner in its spacious and bright restaurant, Donald, in high spirits, took Clinton and his two attendants, Eric, out onto the streets.
Flashgold Town was equally bustling at night, giving Donald a sense of wandering through the night markets in his past life. As for Clinton, with his poker-faced expression, his rigid personality bestowed by the Book of Truth left him uninterested in anything other than his master’s safety and combat.
On the other hand, young Eric, like his master Donald, had never been far from Giantstone City. Seeing the most prosperous commercial town on the northern county’s border, he was utterly dazzled and filled with excitement.
As Donald stepped out of the inn, in a room at the end of the second floor of the Sunflower Inn, the five guests he had encountered at the front desk gathered together.
They had requested such a room on their own. Only experienced spies who had long worked in espionage would understand how suitable such a secluded room was for secret meetings, free from eavesdropping. Moreover, with just a slight crack in the door, one could observe the entire second floor of the inn, making it one of the best spots for reconnaissance.
Without outsiders around, they removed their cloaks used to disguise their identities, revealing their true attire.
Three of the five wore fine and lightweight leather armor. One was dressed as a priest, similar to a mage’s robe. The last person, even indoors, wore a shiny silver half-armor set, though without a helmet, revealing his short, stiff hair and a fairly handsome face.
Although their outfits varied, their colors were unsurprisingly mostly white. The emblem on the badge pinned to their chests—a hand holding a silver-white holy flame—also indicated that they were all members of the same organization.
The middle-aged man in the priest’s robe spoke up, “I can sense that young man’s strong mental energy. He is definitely not an ordinary person. It seems like a mage. And judging from his two attendants, who also possess strength above mid-level black iron, he likely has noble status as well!”
One of the young warriors in leather armor interjected disdainfully, “So what if he’s a noble mage? It’s the orc invasion again. I heard Celt will also face attacks from at least a thousand orcs. Many nobles and professionals will go to the front line to fight these days. Meeting one or two of them isn’t anything unusual!”

For those who have risen from poverty, the noble class has always been a figure that they both despise and envy. This complex and contradictory emotion is beyond the understanding of others.
The middle-aged warrior sitting beside the priest appeared much older than the other two, likely serving as the elder among them. He said to the younger warrior, “What Wayne means is that such talented young people, who still lack firm beliefs, would be perfect for our Church Alliance to recruit. This will be very helpful for our plans to establish influence in Seltan!”
The priest nodded in agreement. Another slightly older warrior added, “Don’t forget we’re here on a mission—everything else is secondary. Our target is cunning and has escaped capture many times. We don’t know when we’ll be able to return to report. We don’t have time to waste on unnecessary matters. Let the civilian priests handle preaching. Besides, trying to preach to a mage? How did you even think of that? Those mages are eccentric, obsessed with spells and experiments. It’s already hard enough to get them to listen to you for a moment! Even a young mage isn’t as easy to deal with as you imagine!”
The middle-aged priest replied with a smile, “Of course I know that. But a young mage probably won’t have the stubbornness of those older mages. When the time comes, I’ll devise some unexpected situations, which could very well change that boy’s mind. After all, there are precedents for such things!”
At that moment, the silver-armored knight, who had remained silent while listening to his companions, spoke up. “While there’s a chance of success through scheming, don’t forget that the tragic catastrophe from years ago was caused by uncovering the truth behind the scenes. You focus too much on schemes and strategies. The Great Lord of Dawn is merciful and never skimps on rewards for His servants. If you could put aside your worries and focus on prayer, you wouldn’t still be stuck at the Bronze rank.”
Remembering the past, the priest wore a bitter smile. Once at the Silver rank, he had a bright future in the Church and was the most likely candidate to rise to Gold. But due to a wrong decision, he caused great harm to the Church, and the gods punished him by demoting him. This guilt weighed on him, preventing him from communicating with the will of the gods and returning to the Silver rank.
After hearing the knight’s words, the others also fell silent, and the conversation soon ended as they went back to their rooms to rest.

Donald, who was busy shopping at the Flashgold Town night market, had no idea that his identity had caught the attention of a group of people and might attract the interest of some powerful organization in the future. At that moment, he was in the backyard of a shop, storing all the goods he had just purchased into his space imprint. After expanding his space imprint for the second time, Donald’s personal storage space had reached the size of a medium-sized warehouse. With the construction materials used up earlier, his storage space appeared quite empty, with only a few personal items and important possessions scattered in one corner.

Therefore, thinking that he had plenty of time and sufficient funds, and that his space imprint offered ample space, Donald decided to make bulk purchases as a way to prepare for the future development of his estate. Even if he didn’t need them himself, he could sell them to local merchants in the North County—thanks to the convenience of storage, he could even make a small profit by avoiding transportation costs!

So he bought everything from rare items like magic crystal cores and elemental crystals used by mages, to bulk goods such as food crops, beer, wine, specialty woods, fabrics, furs, and various ores used for crafting weapons and equipment. He also acquired noble luxuries, various ingredients and spices, as well as various gemstones and precious metal raw materials used for jewelry-making—nothing was left unurchased.

For this purpose, Donald stayed in Flashgold Town for a day and spent tens of thousands of gold sols, but he wasn’t bothered by the cost at all.

“The goods I acquired on this trip might come in handy someday. It’s always better to be prepared! After all, I can earn back this amount in three to four months just from selling Moonlight Wine. Moreover, my estate now has Black Tea, another highly profitable product that brings in more than three times the income of this expenditure each year.”

With the mindset from his past life, Donald believed that making money wasn’t just for spending. If one were to be as stingy as Gobseck, unwilling to enjoy anything and refusing to turn off the lights even before dying, what’s the point of living like that?

Besides, since he had the ability to make money and would earn even more in the future, he didn’t mind these expenses.

Shopping was a tiring task, especially for someone like Donald who wasted no time. After a good night’s rest, the three of them left Flashgold Town on the third day and entered the territory of Marquis Ansel in the western part of the kingdom.

After traveling back and forth over fourteen days, Donald finally arrived at the border camp located in the far northern part of Marquis Ansel’s territory.