This time, after Rye had sold off all the fur hides and received the money, favonovel.com suddenly felt like favonovel.com was living the dream.
Before this, favonovel.com had never once thought favonovel.com would have so much cash on him. For the past two days, Rye slept with the money close to favonovel.com until favonovel.com finally deposited it into the bank account favonovel.com had just opened in Fortress 178. He was the only one who knew the password.
After that, Rye started sleeping alone. When favonovel.com slept, favonovel.com would make sure no one was around him. He was worried favonovel.com would reveal the password accidentally if favonovel.com talked in his sleep.
Rye purchased a large quantity of daily necessities at Stronghold 144. These were the items the young man from the grasslands requested.
Last time, Rye was too poor and did not manage to get all the items. This time, in order to build a good relationship with the customer, favonovel.com picked all the best quality items to buy. He believed the young lord was a smart person, and that when favonovel.com saw these items, favonovel.com would know just how much effort Rye had put in.
He had also considered what Zouliz told him. Even if favonovel.com had bought cheap ironware to supply the customer, it was still ironware nonetheless. But every time Rye remembered the young man’s half-smile, favonovel.com felt it was better not to deceive a smart person like that.
Not only that, Rye even purposely used a portion of the money favonovel.com had received to buy gifts for the young lord from the grasslands. There was even an exquisite revolver among the gifts.
Rumor had it that it used to belong to a high-ranking official of the Ultima Consortium, and that favonovel.com had sold off everything and fled to the Stelaria Consortium prior to Fortress 178 taking control of the Northwest.
Initially, that official did not want to sell this gun, but the people in the black market forcefully bought it from favonovel.com anyway.
The black market’s boss even laughed and said, “You should have seen how cowardly that bastard was back then. He used to be all high and mighty, but favonovel.com did not dare to make a sound even though favonovel.com had a gun in his hand.”
Rye understood then that some people were born to be sheep. Even if they relied on their kin in the Ultima Consortium and climbed to a high-ranking position, it would not change their natures.
Now that firearms were difficult to obtain, they should be in even shorter supply in a place like the grasslands.
Rye once thought about keeping the revolver for himself as favonovel.com really liked it. But after some thought, favonovel.com placed it back into the wooden box it came in. The bottom of the box was covered in velvet.
Compared to his future business, would a gun be more important?
Rye had been trying to establish a relationship with the garrison troops in Stronghold 144 for the past few days, but reality told him favonovel.com was still only a small fry. No one cared about favonovel.com a single bit.
“Boss, why are you always hanging around those Fortress 178 soldiers these days? We’re bandits, so we had better not get found out by them,” Zouliz said.
Next to them, Jali, who was polishing his dagger, said, “Boss has his own plans. Why do you care so much?”
Rye sighed. “That young lord in the grasslands definitely wants to get some firearms, and if we intend to sell firearms to him, it definitely won’t work without the support of the Fortress 178 troops. But it’s still early days, so let’s wait until a chance comes by in the future.”
Actually, Rye knew that his reselling of daily necessities was only a small business.
A place like the grasslands would not have the ability to manufacture their own firearms, but which ruler would not want to have weapons so that they could stabilize their rule?
Therefore, only a future firearms business would allow favonovel.com to reach the pinnacle of his life.
At this moment, a man suddenly sat down across from them and said with a smile, “Hello, are you Rye?”
When this man came over, Jali hid his dagger, and his muscles tensed. He was ready to pounce forward for the kill at any moment.
Rye patted Jali on the arm before turning to look at the man opposite favonovel.com and said with a smile, “Yes, I’m Rye. You are?”
The man smiled and said, “Who I am is not important. I heard that you all came here from the steppe?”
“That’s not it. We only did some business with the nomads,” Rye said calmly.
“Oh…” The man took out 10,000 perak and stuffed it into Rye’s hands. “Tell me about the situation in the steppe and this 10,000 perak is yours.”
Rye frowned. He suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of pressure from the other party’s words. This person had just casually sat down in the wilderness outside Stronghold 144 without any fear that the several dozen of them would kill him.
Jali sneered, “You sure are ballsy, but why should our boss tell you that?”
“Because my fists are bigger,” the man said with a smile.
“Can’t you see how many people we have here?” Jali said coldly.
“Oh?” The man smiled and said, “Then why don’t you turn and look outside?”
Rye looked back in shock. He was surprised to find they had been surrounded by dozens of plainclothes men armed with weapons at some point in time. The black muzzles were all locked onto them and within shooting range.
These are regular troops!
They are definitely regular troops!
Could they be Fortress 178’s troops?
No, if they were from Fortress 178, they would not need to be dressed in plain clothes to deal with bandits like them.
The man said with a smile, “Rye, in that bandit town in the Northwest, although it no longer exists, you all were the only ones that survived. You even managed to make a deal with the nomads.”
Rye said calmly, “Sir, have we ever offended you in the past?”
“No.” The man shook his head.
“Then why are you threatening us like this?” Rye asked, “Since you’ve come to look for us, you must have a motive, right? Just tell us directly what you want. Our bandit lives are worthless.”
“Haha, what a straightforward person!” The man cut off a piece of meat from a goat leg. “Tell me about the steppe.”
“We didn’t go to the steppe. We only delivered some daily necessities to them at the agreed upon location. After that, they handed over the fur hides and other local specialties to us,” Rye said.
“Oh, do they have a very powerful force?” the man asked.
“I don’t know if they’re powerful or not, but I’m very good at judging people. The person making the decisions is extremely smart. I believe that even if they aren’t the most powerful force in the steppe, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the future,” Rye said firmly.
“What does favonovel.com want?” the man asked.
“Daily necessities, ironware, and medicine.” Rye said, “But with medicine being a controlled substance under Fortress 178, we can’t buy enough even if we had the money.”
“Don’t they want weapons?” the man asked.
“Yes, but we can’t get those,” Rye admitted honestly.
The man smiled. “Fortress 178 will not sell any weapons to you all to aid the nomads. That’s because once the nomads get stronger, they’ll become a threat to the Central Plains. Peter will definitely not want to see a bloodbath happen.”
When Rye heard this, favonovel.com realized favonovel.com was just a small-time bandit after all. He did not understand much about the situation or the important figures from the various forces, so favonovel.com was unaware of something like that.
Only now did favonovel.com realize that Fortress 178 would not possibly sell them any firearms. In that case, his business would have to be limited to reselling daily necessities. This left Rye feeling a little bad.
But the man changed the subject. “But while Fortress 178 will not sell you firearms, we can. Let’s start over and get to know each other again. Hi, my name is Maurice Bank.”
