Chapter 652 Out of Money Again
Roland didn’t consider himself another Prime Minister Cao[1], nor was he interested in other people’s wives.
It just so happened that Andonara, the woman he loved, had been married to someone.
Seeing the obvious anger on Roland’s face, the young noble was briefly stunned and then said prudently, “Sorry, I really shouldn’t have spoken this way in public. Where do you live, sir? I’ll pay you a visit at night.”
He wanted to make friends with Roland.
The intelligence of his family suggested that Stephanie was quite close to this man, and that there might even be a relationship between them.
He had already read the report. The First Princess’s dead husband came back to life and sought revenge against the First Princess, but he was killed by Roland.
The First Princess was a widow, and the queen was a married woman.
So, the young noble had no doubt that Roland was interested in other people’s wives.
He thought that Roland was upset because he talked about it in public.
Loving married women was not a despicable matter in Fareins, but maybe the Golden Sons had their own customs.
But Roland’s face got darker after the young noble said that.
If Roland weren’t so good at self-control, he would’ve slapped the young noble so hard that his teeth would be flying out.
Roland snorted and walked away.
The young noble was quite bummed, knowing that he had probably misspoken.
A lot of the players nearby overheard their conversation. They all laughed delightedly
conve
Watching a big shot get humiliated and gloating over that was really enjoyable.
The environment near the portal was filled with a joyful air.
Roland spent the next couple of days around the portal, partly to discipline the Fareins nobles who weren’t very obedient, partly to wait for the troops of the Church of Light to come over and mediate for Schuck’s sake if any conflicts were to happen.
Nobody wanted anything to happen, but most matters would always take a turn for the worse.
That was a theory that someone had worked out, although its validity was questionable.
Roland wanted this period to pass peacefully, but one thing happened after another.
First, it was the friction between the Fareins nobles and the local troops of Sisilia.
Those nobles dared not piss off the Golden Sons, who seemed formidable, but as young people, they undoubtedly had to seek fun.
At first, they dutifully looked for prostitutes in town, but those prostitutes were too unattractive to them, so they laid their hands on the decent women of Sisilia.
They didn’t cross any lines when they seduced women with money or fancy words.
However, some of them gradually began to use violence.
It stirred quite some indignity in Sisilia.
Roland simply broke the legs of the culprits and threw them to the victims, asking them to apologize and compensate.
As a result, the relation between Roland and the Fareins nobles fell to the freezing point.
But Roland didn’t care. Whenever anybody did something like that, he would break their legs and make them apologize.
At first, when Roland was alone, the young nobles of Fareins still had the courage to fight back and yell at Roland, but as the other members of F6 joined and helped him, those people began to lay low.
Then, more players reinforced Roland. They established a patrol team of a hundred people. Under this high pressure, the young nobles finally went on rampage and gathered to attack the patrol team.
SO
Naturally, the players didn’t chicken out at all. They beat the two thousand young nobles so hard that the nobles dared not complain anymore.
They were truly beaten into submission, as the players didn’t use any real weapons but merely the unsharpened sticks or swords that were for exercise purposes when they put the young nobles to the ground.
The battlefield was awash with blood, with a lot of people gravely wounded.
But nobody was killed.
Then, Roland didn’t have to do anything.
In the patrol team, there were about twenty people who were different from the others.
They walked and sat very straightly.
When they stood, they would be as straight as pineapple trees, and their hands would be subconsciously stuck to the sides of their pants.
Their leader had quite a unique way of speaking too. He liked to say “everybody, listen up” at first and “dismissed” in the end, with many interesting jargons such as “be simple and hardworking.”
Every time the other players saw them, they would put on subtle expressions.
Then, those people took over the administration of the two thousand young nobles.
Each of them led about a hundred people and set up camps near Sisilia.
They asked the Mage players to build some simple barricades and led the young nobles through exercises every day, including weight training in the morning and parading in the afternoon.
There were even moral lectures at night.
Whenever a young noble was sick of the training, they would speak to him nicely at first. If he still refused to listen, they would throw gloves at him and beat him until he succumbed.
All the players knew exactly what was going on, but nobody said anything. After all… whoever had been to the college had been trained by such people, even though there was no corporal punishment.
Things were a lot easier for Roland now that someone was willing to manage the young nobles.
Soon enough, more Guardians of Light were dispatched, and three other Saint Samurai came over too.
Dinah, whom Roland knew, was among them.
After meeting Roland, she found a chance to ask him in private, “Well… How is Betta doing?”
The young Saint Samurai seemed rather shy.
“Very good.” Roland smiled and said, “Do you want me to create a teleportation array and send you there?”
She shook her head. “I’m only asking. Good to know that he’s fine.”
She then waved a goodbye at Roland and followed the troops into the portal to the Realm of Devils.
It seemed that he wasn’t needed here anymore.
Roland wavered between going to the front line to get more Reputation and studying magic.
If he could modify the black cloud and make it larger, so that it could carry dozens of people at one time, wouldn’t it be a simple aircraft?
In that case, it would be useful in the decapitation plan.
Also, it would be highly mobile. If it carried the teams who were very good at fighting, such as the girls of the Phoenix Guild, to fly around and kill the demons, he would get Reputation very quickly.
The thought of that was quite thrilling.
So he decided to hone his magic first.
After all, one couldn’t cut the wood very fast without sharpening the chopper.
When Roland was about to teleport back to Delpon, the leader of the patrol team came to
him.
“Greetings, Comrade Roland.” The man had a square face and looked rather reliable. “I am Pavel, chairman of the Red Sun Guild.”
“Pavel Korchagin?” asked Roland subconsciously.
“Just Pavel.” He smiled delightedly and innocently. “I’m wondering if you could help us with something that troubles us.”
Roland made a gesture. “I’m all ears.”
“There are more than seven hundred people in my guild…”
Upon hearing that, Roland almost blew a whistle.
The Phoenix Guild was the guild with the greatest number of members on the surface.
Apart from the hundred core Elven Summoners who were Masters or very close to it, they had three hundred peripheral members who were Summoners too.
But not many girls loved fighting and leveling up. Those peripheral members preferred traveling. Some were even casual Summoner players.
Everybody had different purposes when playing the game.
Roland didn’t expect a guild that had seven hundred members to have been hiding so well. Few people would’ve known about them if they hadn’t revealed themselves.
However, it was quite understandable considering their military background. Pavel continued, “As of now, we only have Warriors and Archers. We have some logistical classes too, but we’re still seriously unbalanced. We can only launch physical attacks, and we don’t have a variety of offense and defense methods.”
“You don’t have spellcasters?”
Pavel shook his head.
Roland was briefly stunned. “No Warlocks?”
Pavel shook his head again. “What about Priests?”
“We’re atheists, and we have our own belief.” Pavel put on a helpless smile.
One had to worship a certain god in order to become a Priest.
Roland realized his intention. “So you want me to help you raise Mages?”
“Yes.” Pavel nodded. “In fact, we can transform into Warlocks, but we aren’t used to the magic they use. Neither the Devil Contract nor the special chaotic spells are useful to us.” That was quite natural. The Warlocks’ class features made them Chaotic Neutral at best in terms of alignment.
However, the players before him were probably all Lawful Good.
It was possible for them to become Warlocks, but the power of their spells would be discounted.
Also, they wouldn’t be able to contract devils, which would mean they would only be half as strong as a normal Warlock.
As for the Priest class, it was impossible for them to become one.
Therefore, the Mages, who weren’t bound by alignment, were their only choice as spellcasters.
“Okay, I can do that.” Roland nodded. “My Magic Tower can take another hundred apprentices.”
“Thank you very much.” Pavel didn’t expect Roland to be so nice to talk to. “We don’t need a hundred. Twenty will be enough. Right, what’s your tuition fee?”
“For you, free!” said Roland casually.
He would be making a fortune soon; it wasn’t a problem to feed some twenty apprentices.
Pavel shook his head. “That won’t work. We can’t let the people suffer losses. It’s against our discipline.”
Roland thought for a moment and said, “Okay then, just give me however much you want to.”
Pavel smiled and said, “Three days from now, our men will report to you in Delpon.”
“Then I’d better go back and prepare myself.” “Okay, thank you.” Pavel thought of something and said, “Right, feel free to ask for our help if you ever need us in the future. We’ll give you a hand as long as it isn’t anything evil.” “You’re too kind.”
Roland waved at him and then teleported back to Delpon.
He began his magic experiments the moment he returned to Delpon.
He parsed the magic nodes of Nimbus Cloud Flight layer by layer and modified them significantly.
On the third day, twenty apprentices came to Delpon as promised.
They caused a minor fuss when they entered the city.
mo
ат!
It was because they marched in two rows and moved in the same rhythm. They were quite intimidating too, and could easily strike anyone as elite soldiers. Cage, Andonara’s uncle, happened to be patrolling on the city wall with a team. He was quite shocked to see the 24 newcomers.
He ordered to shut the city gate immediately and then nervously asked them where they were from and why they came to Delpon.
The newcomers replied truthfully.
Cage was relieved to learn that they were here for Roland. He asked someone to confirm it with Roland, while he kept an eye on them from the city wall.
A patrolman asked in surprise, “Boss, is it necessary to be so nervous? There are only 24 of them, but more than two hundred of us. We can easily defeat them with the advantage in numbers.” “Keep dreaming.” Cage slapped the head of the patrolman heavily. “You probably can’t take them down even if you have another hundred men.”
“Seriously?” All the other patrolmen were greatly astonished too.
“First of all, they’re all professionals. Although their level is low and they look like Mages, they carry the intimidating aura of soldiers,” Cage continued. “Also, they’re highly obedient. They have been standing in two rows at the rim of the road without moving at all. They’re not just elites; they’re soldiers ready to sacrifice themselves.”
“So they’re standing very steadily. What’s the big deal?”
Cage looked disdainfully at the patrolman who just spoke. “What do you know? Obedience is what matters most in an army. They may be outnumbered, but if we fight them, we’ll definitely collapse first. Morale is too important on the battlefield.” “They’re so good?”
Cage nodded. “If they’re hostile and they’re let into the city, they can probably crush our line of defense and then escape with half of them still alive.”
All the patrolmen were quite shocked.
Cage then said, “But don’t be too worried. They’re only strong to the likes of us, and they’re barely useful against a genius Mage like Roland.”
“You’re right. That’s why they’ve come to learn magic from us.” Roland landed from the sky.
“Roland, they’re indeed here for you, right?” Roland nodded. “Let them in.”
Watching them enter the city, Roland landed too and led them to register at the magic school.
He also told Vincent who they were.
Vincent was astounded. “Sweet mother of god. Even the authorities are studying magic from you?”
Roland opened his hands.
He then returned to his manor and continued his magic studies.
Five days later, Andonara came to him. “Roland, sorry to interrupt your studies, but I have to inform you that we’re running out of money.”
“How is it possible?” Roland was quite surprised. “Don’t we have a lot of gold coins?”
“The spell you’ve been studying requires the best magic resources and materials, so…” She made a helpless gesture. “If you pause your study for a while, we’ll be able to make the money back based on our income.”
Magic studies were always costly. A city would be considered wealthy enough if it could support two top Mages.
“How long will it take?”
“About three months.”
It was too long. Chances were that the expedition to the Realm of Devils would already be over by then.
Roland thought for a moment. Since he probably couldn’t get any money from the Goddess of Magic, who couldn’t establish her enterprise until half a year later, he would have to make money on his own.
So, he posted a thread on the forum.
I’m out of money, so I’m auctioning the Dragon Meat Reagent.
A moment later, his thread was abound with replies. [1] Cao Cao, a character from the Three Kingdoms who took many married women.
