“Your family is really good at giving me a headache,” the King said with a helpless tone.
“Thank you for your praise, Your Majesty.”
Noah rubbed his temples as he looked at Mordred who was happily eating a slice of cake.
There was a condition attached to the letter that Mordred had given him. In exchange for the information, he was to allow the forming of a Private Order within the Hellan Academy led by none other than William Von Ainsworth.
James added that without the information, the Hellan Kingdom would have been taken by storm, if the two Dynasties outside their borders were to launch an attack without warning. Because of this, Noah was currently stuck between a rock and a hard place.
If he chose not to agree to the condition then it means that the Ainsworths’ would no longer support the kingdom in any which way in the future. If he chose to agree then the nobles would start yapping and raise a ruckus.
Both were equally troublesome, but the last paragraph in James’ letter made Noah reluctantly agree to the condition.
“If you don’t agree then I promise that you will regret it.”
Only a single sentence. Noah had seen this sentence many times during his reign and he ignored each and every one of them. However, when it came to this particular old man, he had to take it seriously.
Noah knew that deep inside, James had grievances with him. When the king exiled James’ son, Morgan, from the Kingdom, the old man started to give Noah the cold shoulder.
William’s Grandpa, James, served the former King and they were very close. The former king even wanted to make James a Duke, but the latter declined and only settled for the lowest rank of Baronet before leaving for the farthest edge of the Western Region.
There he built a small town, and stayed there ever since. Far from the politics of the King and the nobles. Only the old generation knew of how formidable he was, and all of them could attest that he was the last person they wanted to mess with.
Only the next generation, like Rebecca’s father, were unaware of how influential James could be. All it would take for James to silence them forever was to lift a finger, and it would be done. The only reason why Rebecca’s father was still alive was because of the “Old Fox” Lawrence.
He and James were good friends and had been on the battlefield together. In order to give him face, James decided to let them off the hook.
If the Tribes were the Overlords of the North, then James was the Hidden Dark Lord of the West.
Noah had to tread carefully when dealing with these two forces. All these years, James didn’t ask for anything. Even when he took the towns of Fushia and Xynnar, he didn’t expand his lands any further. He conducted himself in a manner that even Noah found it hard to find fault in his actions.
James restrained himself and did it well. Because of this, Noah reluctantly agreed to give William a badge that allowed him to form his own order.
‘Such a shame, I was planning to add him to the Knight Order of Gladiolus after he graduated from the academy,’ Noah lamented.
He had already made the necessary arrangements by giving Est the badge of the Knight Order, so that he could pass it to William. It was his way of bringing the next generation of Ainsworths under his wing. Who would have thought that the old fox, James, had seen through his move.
Ezio had already reported to James that William had acquired the badge of the Knight Order from Est. This was also why the old man was forcing Noah to allow William to establish his own Order. An organization that would be recognized by the Hellan Kingdom.
That way, he would have his own Private Force. What better place to recruit members for that Private Force than the best academy in the Hellan Kingdom? This was the only part that made Noah’s heart itch. He silently cursed James for shamelessly using the talents of the Kingdom to raise his grandson’s private army.
—-
Back in the Grand Hall of the Solaris Dormitory…
After the ten minutes had expired, the majority of the students had come to their senses and left the hall one by one.
A soft sigh escaped William’s lips and the officers behind him thought that he was sighing in disappointment. What they didn’t know was that William was actually sighing in relief. Forming an order was not an easy thing to do. In order to arm his subordinates, he needed gold and other resources.
William was currently fourteen-years-old and the Ainsworth family was very poor (or so he thought). He didn’t want to ask his grandpa to give him money in order to support his subordinates.
The red-headed boy wanted to use his own powers in order to build a strong force whose name would be known throughout the entire Southern Continent.
What he didn’t know was that James had a mountain of gold and treasures at his disposal due to the fact that he constantly raided the hideouts of bandits in the Hellan Kingdom. If William knew about this then he would shamelessly hug his grandpa’s thigh and beg for him to give him a few thousand gold coins for his personal use.
In the end, out of the more than three-hundred students inside the Great Hall, only thirty-six remained.
William looked at these young men and women and nodded his head in appreciation.
“Thank you for your trust,” William said with sincerity. “I will do my best to exceed your expectations. For now, let’s sign the contract. Please, form two lines.”
The students obediently complied and formed two lines. William then handed a stack of contracts to Priscilla and Kenneth to distribute to those that had remained, and willing to join his organization.
—–
Somewhere in the Temple of the Ten Thousand Gods…
“Gavin, your follower is a good person,” Sancus, the God of Oaths and Contracts patted Gavin’s shoulder inside the restaurant. “It’s a shame that I didn’t see him sooner. He has the potential to become a good scammer. Such a shame, we could have conquered the world together using loans and debts. Hah~ quite unfortunate. Truly unfortunate.”
The corner of Gavin’s lips twitched as he forced himself to keep the smile on his face. Deep down inside, he didn’t know if Sancus was praising him or not for having a shameless follower like William.
Gavin also agreed that Sancus and William would have been a match made in Heaven. He could already see the red-headed boy grinning like mad as he laid upon a mountain of gold while being surrounded by beautiful ladies.
“That’s it! I’ve decided!” Sancus suddenly stood up as he looked at the projection in front of him.
William was currently supervising the signing of contracts using the person’s blood in order to empower it and allow Sanctus’ divinity to bind it in place.
“I’m going to give him a gift,” Sancus chuckled mischievously.
“What kind of gift are you planning to give him?” Issei who just arrived in the restaurant overheard the conversation and decided to join Gavin and Sancus.
“Ah, Issei, perfect timing,” Sancus grinned. “I’m planning to send this as a gift to William using the Mail of the God Shop. What do you think? Will he like this gift of mine?”
Sancus opened a box to show the two gods the gift he was planning to give to the red-headed boy.
Gavin and Issei almost spat blood at the same time when they saw the contents of the box.
“Y-You can’t be serious?!” Gavin exclaimed. “Oi, think twice! No! Think thrice!”
“Sancus, my friend, I think William wouldn’t like this gift.” Issei was already sweating buckets. “No. I’ll be perfectly honest, he wouldn’t like it. He might even curse you and stop believing in your power as the God of Contracts.”
“Is that so?” Sancus heaved a sigh of disappointment.
The two Gods wiped their heads in relief after seeing Sancus’ expression. Both of them knew that William would go into a mad fit if the God of Contracts sent that horrible thing to him at this point in time.
“Donger, don’t worry,” Sancus said as he caressed the wooden box in his hand. “I will find you a good owner one of these days.”
As if to respond to Sancus’ words, the box shook a little. It was as if it was agreeing to its Master’s words.
Donger, the Great Dong that pierced the Heavens thousands of years ago, and made all the ladies scream in panic at the sight of it, was currently sealed by the God of Contracts. The contract between him and Donger was going to expire in four years, and Sancus was looking for a worthy person to take in the poor Donger.
Gavin and Issei exchanged a glance at each other and nodded their heads. No matter what happened, they would not allow William to receive Donger from Sancus. If that were to happen then the World of Hestia would definitely experience a world shaking calamity.
