The group went on their separate ways once again and tried to look for properties once again. Even though it is called a town, it is a decent-sized city.
They really do have many options, but none of them are willing to sell anything to them. Particularly, when they knew that they are outsiders and just came here, they are even more reluctant and even a bit hostile to them.
By noon, they came to the market street and went to another restaurant where there is a dish similar to the fried rice and ate to their fill and discussed their results. Three of them didn't get any positive results on their end, but Jack who went on a different mission did.
"I went out of the town and met with a merchant carriage that camped a few kilometers away. They are traveling from this town. I managed to fish some interesting information out. Not just the information on the village.
There are two factions within the political circle of this realm and that spreads to the towns and even villages.
One faction strongly supports the Elven supremacy and doesn't approve of the humans and centaurs that grow in some administrative position unless they are servants or subordinates of some noble family. They are also extremely biased towards the noble-blooded elves.
The second faction is more liberal. They think that their birth doesn't matter as long as they are useful for the elven development.
Ironically, even some humans and centaurs support the first faction as they think that noble elves are supreme and the nobility within the elves are the only ones suitable for the rule.
As for how this is connected to our plight, it is because of the elections.
There is a tacit understanding from a few centuries here that in every village, town, and city, whenever an election is conducted, only two people compete for it and each one of them will be from each faction.
These factions are not official and law bounded so there is obviously no rule, but this is happening for centuries.
For every ten years a new leader would be elected and this time, the past leader who is kind of decent and had a love-hate relationship with the town residents is retiring as he broke through past the Pre-transcendent realm.
Now his brother is trying to take his place. Both of them are part of the second faction while the first faction also has a strong candidate.
The residents are torn in between the two factions and the competition is extremely high. Even the fights that we are seeing every night are between the people are these two factions, each side trying their best to reduce the other side's votes.
But killing is a serious offense so they chose the next best one, reducing the assets and the riches of a person that could make them lose their civilian ship.
There is another news, the candidate from the first faction is arriving at the town today and this day we will not get any success with the residents. They will try to compare the two candidates today."
"But if that person is only coming now, wouldn't it be unfair as the other candidate has his brother who is the resident of this town for the past decade?"
Philip asked.
"Well, there are still two months for the election timing and the other candidate didn't actually stay here for long. He only visited his brother a few times. I didn't get any information on how candidates are selected, but it is what it is."
"What about the village location?"
"I got that too, there is a village called Virnel which is also under the administration of this town and that is the farthest place.
That place is a bit isolated due to the location and there is not much in that village that interests anyone. The land is small and people there only grow banana trees of different kinds. So except for the merchants who are interested in these bananas, no one goes there. It is the farthest and also the less known place.
But there is a catch, there the village head is only a Middle-stage Pre transcendent stage cultivator. We are already on par with him, this would make them suspicious."
"Then how about we say that we traveled a lot since we were little and left the village after we awakened?" Watt suggested from the side.
"For that, we have to have some decent knowledge about the rest of the planet."
They are in a pickle once again.
"Let us get some information from the merchants once again. Just ask where they are from and what they do for living. Try to fish any form of information. For the next two days, we will just be doing that. From now on we are orphans that mostly lived in forests.
You never managed to integrate into society much and didn't make many friends. Get all the information you can about the beasts near every village and town and we can concoct something out of it."
Sam instructed and all of them separated once again.
For the next two days, they just made small talk with the merchants by treating them to the best meals and drinks. All that took was some small talk and banter which made them speak all they wanted.
After all, the group has the best wine in the town which almost made the Ape cocky.
This monkey really made the wine that could beast every other place. He almost lost his cruel and beastly side his and became an extremely refined winemaker.
The situation went on smoothly for them and the merchants didn't even think that they are lying, They even made some friends. They shared their information and concocted a story.
These two days the chaos in the town increased so much that they couldn't have a moment of peace at night.
There is nothing they can do more than this for now.
The four people finally went to the administrator's office.
There is a large board at the entrance of the office.
'CANE TOWN ADMINISTRATION'
The town is named after the most popular agricultural product and it is not paddy even though there is a large field out of the town, the most popular product is still the sugar cane.
And it is used for many purposes and the sugar cane juice or even the crystallized sugar that is being made out of that cane is mostly a supporting nutrient. It is mostly used for recovery rather than cultivation and it also increases the digestion of spiritual energy from other sources.
It is a good addition to absorb the spiritual energy from the food, meat, and even the spirit stones and the elixirs.
They entered the office and decided to meet with the official in charge of the business administrator.
The town seemed to be under an expansion recently and Sam has found many empty newly built shops in the town, but no one is willing to sell them to him.
Sam and his friends entered the personal office of the official who is an elf.
One must admit that Elves are beautiful creatures. They really look like manifestations of beauty.
They have tall figures, white skin, sea-green eyes, and the most noticeable of all the pointy ears and their silky hair which can even be seen from miles away.
Such an elf is sitting in front of them and asked with a smile.
"What can I do for you?"
"We are some traveling humans. We are orphans from birth and managed to get by while traveling from one place to another. We mostly lived in woods and collected resources from the forests to sell them in the nearest towns and villages.
Finally, we want to settle down a bit and develop out of our current situation and we decided to stay in this town.
But due to the sensitivity of the election, we couldn't manage to buy any property or even rent. We have some business ideas which I believe would be very popular. We would like to get some assistance or guidance so that we can buy some shops and a residence."
The Elf looked at them and said with a smile.
"I do encourage new people coming to our town and developing it. But the time is indeed too sensitive. Particularly, four Pre-transcendent stage cultivators that survive the world all by themselves trying to buy the residences and shop so desperately.
They are too sensitive about it being a ploy of some faction and it is not the first time it happened. So, I hope you understand. But I don't really care if you belong to some faction. As an official, the most I care is about the well-being of the town and its prosperous development.
I don't care which factions bring it or which leader makes it happen. But currently, helping you is risky. But I will do that for a few reasons.
The first one is that no one ever dares to ask an official for help. Not a single human would do that. But you dared to that. So I will take a chance with you and help you if you can satisfy two conditions.
One of them is that your business being worthy of this help and the second one is you wouldn't side with any faction until the election is over. You can become enemies of both sides, but you cannot become friends with one of them.
Are you down?"
Sam just extended his hand to seal the deal without a second thought.
