After the town head left, Sam looked at Raunak and said.
"What is your problem? You are pestering me since morning. What do you want exactly?"
"I want to know what happened. Why did the assassin target you and who killed him?"
Sam shook his head in mental exhaustion and said.
"Yes, I killed him. An offspring of an elf and a human walked in here and tried to kill me and my friends and I burned him alive. He is an initial stage transcendent stage cultivator and his elf bloodline is extremely dormant.
He couldn't even access his wood element and he mostly used fists.
What else do you want to know?"
"Are you behind the attack on Envoy?"
Sam stopped his actions and looked at Raunak before asking.
"Are you sure you want an answer to that question? Be careful what you wish for?"
Raunak shuddered and gulped nervously.
"Do you know what the consequences would be?"
"There is something you seemed to have forgotten. Is there any proof that I did it? Is there any way that they can prove me, a pre-transcendent stage cultivator at middle stage capable of burning a Transcendent stage cultivator almost to his death?
Does that sound plausible to you?
And above all, we are living in a society governed by law, unless they can prove to the law that I did it, they cannot do anything."
"But they can do so in secret."
"Like yesterday?" Raunak was stumped. He calmed down a bit and asked.
"You are saying everything to me, are you not afraid that I would sell you out?"
"Really? Why don't you try? That envoy managed to stay alive because he is a Transcendent stage cultivator, what do you think would happen if you are caught with the same flame? Would you be able to survive?
I am also kind of curious to find out.
Are you curious too?"
Sam asked with a faint smile which made Raunak take a step back.
"No, need."
"So, is that all you wanted to talk about?"
Raunak finally remembered what he is really for and said.
"I am here to carry a message from Ragad. They are announcing the new price for the sugar cane and the refinement of sugar with the new method will also start today. The bagasse and molasses will be sent on a daily basis to you.
I am here to ask what kind of delivery method you would like."
"Delivery method?"
"Yes. We can get it delivered in many ways. A direct method would involve dumping everything in a destined location. Handing over to someone discreetly and so on."
Sam thought for a moment and said.
"What happens after you complete the tax target?"
Raunak became a bit suspicious and didn't want to answer, but Sam just smiled and said.
"Do you really think I am still plotting against you? Trust me, I need a partner in this world and I am thinking of you as that potential partner. You don't have to worry about me stabbing your back, because I can just finish you off from the front whenever I want to."
Raunak heaved a sigh and said.
"As soon as my target is complete, I will be promoted and transferred to another place and from what I know, my next transfer would be the city headquarters of the Planet-2.
I will still be transferred to the business administration or finance. But then I would have to manage the taxes of the certain area within the planet. Maybe a couple of towns and all the villages that are under those towns' jurisdiction.
Why do you need to know?"
"How much more do you need to finish the task?"
"Around another twenty million spirit stones."
"That's it?"
"Yes."
"Okay then, I think you are going to finish this target soon enough. I would like to make it faster. Announce that I will sell the recipes. All of them in an auction. I am selling each recipe separately. The auction will start in three days."
Raunak was surprised.
"Are you not going to wait for the election to be over?"
"No. I am not going to wait. I want to get out of this town as soon as possible. I will sell the recipes and from what I could guess, the tax would be enough to reach your target. Both of us will leave this place after the auction and you finish your promotion procedures.
I want us to be out of here before the election even starts."
"Then what would you do after getting out of here?"
"I will help you with another target and make you get a promotion in a record time all the while entering a new business."
"Why would you help me?"
"I don't know how an ambitious guy like you can be so dumb at times. I am giving you a chance so that you can climb the ladder of authority in this place and I could use your help to develop my own business in this place.
Is that reason enough?"
"But without that restaurant business, it is hard to break through into different areas. That is a surefire method."
"Any method I use is a surefire method. You haven't seen any of what I am capable of. You will see it soon enough and you will feel that partnering with me is the greatest decision you made in your entire life."
Raunak became silent and decided to walk away for now.
But after some walking and clear hesitation, he came back to Sam and said.
"Sam, I have something to say regarding this.
I want to get promoted faster, but I don't want to risk my career. There is a lot of stake for me on this and I don't want to lose my career and life because of your actions."
"I have my own life and three friends at stake, do you really think I would risk it, just to screw you over?"
"I don't know. But please can you tell me where you are from? I just want some reassurance."
"I have enough reason to suspect you, just like how you are suspecting me. Why don't you tell me your secrets before asking mine?"
Raunak stayed silent.
"See, you want to know my secrets without revealing your own. How can I trust you with my secrets like that?"
Raunak took a deep breath and said.
"We will exchange our secrets, but not here. Let's go to the forest and take the tree spirit oath."
Sam is a bit surprised. But he agreed.
"As you wish."
He knows a bit about the tree spirit oath. He had heard about it a few times. The tree spirit oath is an oath that was protected by the tree gods which are worshipped by the elves.
Under this oath, no one can speak lies and break the promises they made under this oath.
If anyone breaks the promise made under this oath, they will become the enemy of the forests all over the charbhum realm.
Sam doesn't know the exact principle behind this. But he knew this works.
As for how he knew, he learned it from the memories of the intruder. This guy is bound by a tree spirit oath to work under the envoy.
Both of them went to the forest and Raunak made some runes over the trees and created a formation.
Both of them sat in the middle of the formation and soon the runes glowed with wood element energy as they held hands a golden green light enveloped both of their hands.
The oath was completed and Raunak started his questions.
Sam answered everything. It is simply about Sam not being a person of this realm, coming from outside, his abilities, and his goals in this place.
There is not much of secrecy in those questions and Sam's turn came.
"I won't ask you any questions. Tell me your story. However much you want, but make sure that every word you say is true."
Raunak was surprised. He didn't expect Sam to be so laid back.
"Are you not afraid that I would hide my true intentions?"
"There is not much you can do even if you hide. I am Sam."
"It is just your name."
"Yes, it is just my name. But you will know what it truly means later. Just give me you story."
Raunak went on to explain his story himself and Sam couldn't help but sigh at the end.
It is a simple story of a love-struck fool. He has loved a girl from a noble household that belongs to faction 1.
And she loved him back.
But when they loved each other, he doesn't know her status nor her true identity. So, after her father learned of it, he interfered and he was only safe due to him being a student of the bureaucrat school.
He persisted and managed to strike a deal with the father of the girl. If he managed to become a powerful central government official within a certain amount of time and he would let him marry her daughter.
The story is nothing special. This was used so much in the movie plots on earth.
