Sam felt like this oath thing is a bit over the top.
But after hearing this guy's story, he understood what exactly is happening. This guy is so in love that he is so afraid that he would be losing the opportunity to reach her sooner all the while fearing that the opportunity that came to him is a hoax.
Sam didn't have enough patience to convince him normally and since the tree spirit oath is active he doesn't have to bother too much about the future situation.
After the whole narration is completed, they both pledged that the contents they spoke here wouldn't be revealed to another person and that is exactly what happened.
While walking back to the town, Sam is currently thinking about what kind of luck he had. He is attracting lovebirds once again. Previously in Naga Loka, he encountered the two Yaksha who are so in love that they tried to kill him to keep the secret.
Now he is entangled with another pair. It is almost as if he is their messiah or something solving the problems of the lovers and granting new life to them.
After thinking so, he just chuckled the thought away and went back to his residence.
Currently, his actions bought him some time. They don't want to take action against Sam directly without any evidence as for secretly taking action, they don't want to lose more transcendent stage cultivators and the consummate realm cultivators are not exactly a resource they can move at their will.
So, Sam just continued with the research. For the next three days, the business was closed and Raunak put out the word that Sam is selling recipes in an auction.
The word spread rapidly and the traveling merchants who are also supposed to leave this place are staying to join in the fun.
Sam didn't care much. He knew that the true customers are the two factions.
They would fight it over and they will give him enough income so that he can free Raunak of his target all at the same time.
Anyway, he is already giving him enough money through the bagasse and molasses. So this would be easily clearing his target.
Sam also got some extra sugar canes freshly from the farmers even before they sold the harvest to the factory.
After all, Sam did help them by stopping the mob that almost destroyed their fields. They can't do much for him, so all they can do is show some respect through their harvest.
The elves worship the gods of forest and trees, which Sam doesn't know if they even exist.
They offer their first batch of the harvest to those gods and the second batch was actually brought to Sam which actually made him feel the honor.
Even though he stopped the mob for purely personal reason and he tried to explain this to them, they still insisted that he should take the harvest.
For the first time in a while, Sam felt emotionally touched. He knew better than anyone else what the harvest means to a farmer. It is just like the final product of a research a researcher worked for months or a finished piece of art on which an artist worked for months.
Sam looked at the sugar cane that was given to him and shook his head to not get affected by this too much.
He used a few of them in the divine dimension so that he can create a sugar cane farm for himself and he kept the rest of them for his own consumption. It has been a while since he happily chewed on a sugar cane.
But that still has to wait, he has to find a way to finish the auction.
On the day of the auction, Sam went to the only auction hall that is present in the city. He didn't even inform his friends about the auction.
They had to find out about the news from the talk around the market.
They silently followed Sam without speaking anything. Whenever they tried to talk to Sam, all he did is give one stare and stop them from speaking more.
They went to the auction house in extreme silence.
By the time he went in, there are many guests already waiting for the auction to begin. All the major restaurant owners in the town and some other merchants are all there.
There are some people in the private rooms and it wouldn't take a genius to guess they are some nobility and the people from the factions.
Sam didn't bother announcing everything. He is not that interested in the current situation of selling this.
These recipes are not that important to him. The recipes that he gave away to Mackey are far more valuable and far more useful, the specialty of these recipes is only based on the fact that rice is a major crop that is being produced in this place.
The auction started with Kheer's recipe. It is not exactly a big secret. Most of the restaurants tried to replicate and some of them managed to get a close copy made with their efforts, but there is still some decent competition and a couple of million spirit stones are bid for this.
After that the biryani recipes are being auctioned one after another.
At first, the normal guests are all bidding for the recipe at the start until the nobility and the factions fought over it like rabid dogs, the auction is fiery than Sam thought.
Each recipe is going on for around ten million to twenty million spirit stones and Sam has to pay the tax of fifteen percent overall over them and the auction house will take a two percent charge due to the large amount.
Sam is sure that the target will be reached easily and he can make some pocket change that could compensate the travel charges to this realm.
The last piece for auction is actually the elven special and even before that Sam has already achieved the target for the tax amount. But if he stopped this last piece from the auction, he is sure that he wouldn't have a day of peace for the rest of his stay in this realm.
The last auction is extremely intense. The price is going up and up with time and there is no end.
Finally the people that are left are the two factions and they are going at each other's throats and the cost almost reached a hundred million at which they finally stopped.
Sam couldn't help but chuckle at their stupidity. But he knew what is happening. This is an election trick, they are more concerned about the power and elections than the money they are over spending.
The same thing happened back in the earth. Particularly a country like India. The candidates spend an ungodly amount of money just to please the populace.
Sam just took the money and left. He completely avoided having any conversation with the extremely enthusiastic merchants that wanted to talk to him.
He went to the administration office directly and paid the tax.
Raunak didn't even waste a single second and already started making his application to the superiors about his promotion.
From what he knew he would be promoted within a week and he has pulled all the strings he can to finish the process as quickly as possible.
After dealing with the situation, he went back to do his research.
His friends are completely blinded about the future plans and they couldn't take it anymore. The trio went to confront Raunak about that so that they would get some context.
"Aren't you guys his friends? Why are you asking me?" Raunak asked in a confused and defensive tone.
He didn't want to make an enemy out of Sam, particularly after the oath and the way Sam made his promotion as fast as possible, he wouldn't want to lose such an important person who can make his dreams come true.
His mind is going out of control as he thought of many scenarios about the current situation and those thoughts included the three friends either being imposters or them being in cahoots with one of the factions.
But their explanation did alleviate some of his doubts.
"Don't think too much. We did something stupid and he is being petty. He is not talking to us."
"Why don't you apologize to him?"
"The thing we did is too stupid to even get a chance to apologize."
Raunak looked at them suspiciously and said.
"I am about to get the promotion and I would be going to the capital city of this planet, he said that he would follow me and then start a new business there so that he can help me achieve the next target."
"What kind of business is he opening?"
"I don't know."
"How long does it take for the promotion to go through?"
"A week and at most ten days."
"The elections would just be a week away from then, why are we leaving this early before the elections?" Philip thought out loud.
"You can go ask him." Raunak has become extremely defensive by this point.
