"I will arrange the carriages the moment I return to the capital." Silas said. "And do not worry. I will keep my youngest daughter, Chloe, at home with me. I do not want a noisy child taking up your valuable time or disturbing Serena’s recovery."

Adrian frowned slightly when he heard this.

He originally wanted the little sister to come here so Aria could have a proper playmate. But he decided not to push it. Getting Serena to live in his mansion was already a massive victory.

She only got pushed up the ranks from the blood sacrifice but she had to learn all her spells herself, which meant that she was talented but was held back by her own body. If he could help her rank up, she could be of great help to him.

"That works for me." Adrian agreed.

"Once again, if you ever need anything." Silas leaned forward. "Money, food supplies, military reinforcements, rare magical ingredients or anything else you wish.... you can just send someone to my estate."

"I appreciate the offer." Adrian smiled. "I actually needed food originally, but my import lines are currently stable. For now, let us just focus on a mutual alliance. If my territory gets attacked, or if yours gets invaded, we watch each other’s backs."

"You have my word." Silas said with a nod and grinned. All the weight he had been carrying up until this point, seemed to have been lifted.

Adrian grabbed the bottle of whiskey and poured some into his own glass and also the Duke’s.

"For our daughters." Adrian raised his glass.

"For our daughters." Silas clinked his glass against against Adrian’s.

Both men took a long, satisfying sip. The deal was officially sealed.

Unbeknownst to either of them, a thin strand of mana retracted out of the room and went towards Aria’s bedroom.

Aria lay in her bed with her eyes open, but she had a smile on her face. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

’She won’t have to go through the same pain this time... and thanks to papa, she’ll also come and stay with us.’ she thought and hugged one of her big dolls.

’Papa’s fixing everything... it really does feel like a dream.’

And just like that, she finally closed her eyes and fell asleep.

The next day.

Thirteen angry, incredibly wealthy nobles sat around a long wooden table.

They wore expensive silk robes and heavy gold jewelry. A few days ago, they expected to meet with Adrian to finalize their trade agreements. Instead, they found themselves staring at a commoner.

Cassius sat alone at the head of the table.

He wore a clean, simple merchant’s suit. He had a stack of papers in front of him and he twirled a quill between his fingers. He looked completely relaxed as he glanced at the nobles and smiled at them.

"This is completely unacceptable." a skinny Earl sneered. "We are high ranking Lords of the Crestwall Empire. We do not negotiate treaties with a peasant accountant."

"Baron Sterling is busy and if you had an issue, you should have complained to him yesterday." Cassius replied calmly. "He appointed me as the Chief Financial Manager of Oresfall. You deal with me, or you do not deal with Oresfall at all."

The nobles muttered angrily among themselves and soon, they tried to throw their weight around immediately.

"Fine." a fat Viscount slammed his hand on the table. "We want a thirty percent discount on all steel ingots exported to our territories. In exchange, we will allow your merchants to travel safely through our borders. We bring you military protection, so you bring us cheap metal."

Several other nobles nodded and voiced their agreement. They threw out ridiculous demands, asked for bulk discounts, free shipping logistics, and some even had the balls to ask for exclusive buying rights.

They thought they could easily bully a commoner merchant.

Hearing all of their bullshit, Cassius just calmly placed his quill down.

He slapped his open palm hard against the wooden table and ten men stepped into the room immediately. They wore heavy steel plate armor and each one of them was an F rank knight.

The moment they rushed in, they pulled their swords out and glared at the nobles.

Every single noble at the table instantly shut their mouths. Their arrogant, smug expressions vanished amd several of them visibly paled and shrank back into their chairs.

Cassius did not raise his voice. He just looked slowly around the table, making direct eye contact with every single noble in the room.

"Let me make something perfectly clear." Cassius said coldly. "Lord Adrian does not need you."

The nobles stared at him in silence while completely stunned by his words.

"We already have secured supply lines." Cassius explained. "We import double the amount of food our population actually consumes. We have thousands of soldiers and hundreds of sworn knights. We do not need your military protection, we do not need your crops and we do not need your trade routes."

Cassius leaned forward, lacing his fingers together.

"If anyone in this room needs a trade partner, it is you." Cassius stated a matter of factly. "So there is absolutely zero chance I am giving you a discount."

The fat Viscount looked outraged. "You cannot just deny us..."

"I can and I will." Cassius interrupted him completely. "If you wish to sell your goods in our markets, you will sell them at full market price. If you wish to buy our goods, you will buy them at full market price."

He tapped a finger against his ledger.

Unlike Adrian, who preferred moving massive quantities of product for a slight discount just to generate fast cash, Cassius was a pure, ruthless merchant. He knew the absolute monopoly they held over the refined metal market.

"Here are the rules." Cassius dictated. "We can provide you with top quality iron and steel. But there will be limits to how much we export. Any single territory can purchase a maximum of one thousand ingots per year at the standard one hundred percent market rate."