Chapter 312 – Keeping Up Appearances

Chapter 311 – Playing the Role of A Silkpants

Laura looked at the vast lands, she repeated the words with a flat tone, “Our own kingdom, Our own kingdom.” This thought would make any person feel excited.

Zhao Hai smiled faintly, “Yes, our own kingdom. Let’s wait for Grandpa Green and the others to come back, we need to discuss the matter about the living conditions of the hundred thousand people so that after spring they could arrive. Although they were only half-beastman, they still had lived their entire lives in the prairie, so they might not have any experience with farming. It seems that we need to head sooner towards the Rosen Empire and buy some human slaves.”

Laura agreed, “We should, but before that we should meet up with Bell and settle the milk wine business with him, then we proceed, what do you think?”

Zhao Hai nodded, “Sure, we can go through Stony Mountain to head towards Casa City and see the situation there. From Casa City, we could then head towards Iksa Territory and find Bell, then settle the milk wine business and at the same time asking if he has any connections in Carson City. This is important for our later actions, but this time’s travel, we cannot do so with my Dark Mage persona, that would be obviously inappropriate.”

Laura nodded, “Naturally, that wouldn’t be proper, if you go with your Dark Mage persona, people may hold suspicions. First we need to head back and wait for Grandpa Green and the others to come back, then we should discuss with them our further actions.”

Zhao Hai agreed, then turned his head towards the snowy area outside, he then lead the three females to return to the fort. The four sat down, and after a while, Green and the others had come back from the outside, along with Green were Merine, Kun, and Shue.[1]

Shue wasn’t in the castle most of the time, the nearby terrains of the Iron Mountains weren’t explored before so Green gave the task to him.

Shue carried out reconnaissance on the surrounding mountains, Green wanted to know all about the mountains these past few days. He wanted to know where were the good spots for mining stone, as well as spots for cutting trees.

Green wore a cloak made of rabbit skin, it was obvious that the temperature outside didn’t compare to inside the castle. Since the castle was warm, they just put on this easy to remove cloak on.

Seeing that Zhao Hai’s group had returned, Green stared for a moment. Then after which the others became happy, Green smiled and asked, “Young Master, why did you return this early? Was the matter in the prairie already dealt with?”

Zhao Hai nodded, then gave them some items he got from the prairie, then he told them about the Radiant Church’s Ultimate Weapon Program and the church’s nurturing of beastman children to send them back to the prairie and deal with the prairie’s inhabitants, he also made these things confidential.

This was the first time that Green had learnt of these matters, when he heard Zhao Hai’s testimony, he frowned, “I didn’t think that the Radiant Church would have such a plan. Young Master, you should inform someone from the League of Dark Mages about this. If they receive this information, they would definitely do some preparations against it, additionally, they could deal with the Radiant Church, relieving us of some pressure.”

Zhao Hai nodded, “I was going to do that exact thing this time that I came back. I cannot wait for spring to arrive at the prairie, so I planned to use this period of time to arrange some matters. I would like to take a look at the situation inside Casa City, then head towards Iksa domain to find Bell and settle the milk wine partnership. I could also use this time to tell him this information as well as ask if he has any connections inside Carson City of the Rosen Empire. If he did, then it would make our travel more convenient, we would be able to open a proper trade route towards the prairie.”

Kun agreed, “Good, Carson City is considered to be the biggest supply market and distribution center in the entire continent. It is a truly good place, we have our products and if we decide to sell it there, nobody would take notice. And Bell wouldn’t be able to handle our full milk wine capacity, so we should sell those at Carson City. But in Carson City, there are numerous influential figures, each and every one of them had greed as their second nature, if we cannot find a powerful backer, then I fear that we cannot escape the same destiny as in Purcell Duchy. Bell is a member of the league, so perhaps he has some connections. I heard that among the Rosen Empire were some Dark Mages who were serving their army, which says that Rosen Empire wasn’t opposed to Dark Mages. So the League of Dark Mages may hold a lot of influence there, we could use that influence to our advantage.”

Zhao Hai nodded, “Grandpa Kun’s words are right, we could use this to our advantage, but the issue now is, I want to look for Bell but I cannot go out with my Dark Mage persona. I am thinking as to persona should I go with?”

Green chuckled, this really became a problem. Currently, in the Aksu Empire, all Dark Mages were under deep monitoring, so if Zhao Hai appeared as a Dark Mage, then people would deduce who he is.

Green looked at Zhao Hai, “Young Master, what persona would you like to go by?”

Zhao Hai thought for a moment, then he said, “A merchant would not be good, I think I could appear as a Mage, but not a Dark Mage. Now, the Space could use Fire and Earth Element magic, might as well appear as a dual element mage. Moreover, it would be best to get arrogant, making myself widely known, if it’s like this then people would perhaps not suspect me.”

Green nodded, “Acting high-profile wouldn’t be a problem, we didn’t need to fear anyone judging by our present strengths. Even if the came to know of our real identities, they would only send a 9th rank expert, which we can make deal with easily, even more so with an army, therefore being high-profile would be good.”

Zhao Hai smiled, “I have never thought of releasing my identity, if it were really revealed, then I certainly wouldn’t need to fear. But it would be a problem with future missions, as my false identities might be exposed, so I absolutely cannot make them know who I am.”

Kun smiled and said,”Right, a dual element mage isn’t bad, in the entire continent, there weren’t a lot of dual element mages. So these mages were considered to be geniuses, and they were given leverage to become a bit arrogant. But we still need to make Little Hai prepare, we should at least apply some simple makeup.”

Zhao Hai scratched his head, “How to we apply it?”

Kun looked at Zhao Hai, then turned to Laura and said, “This depends on Laura. Laura, make Zhao Hai look like a silkpants.”

Several people chuckled, Laura looked at Zhao Hai and said, “We need to dye Brother Hai’s head. I happen to have some dye powder, we can dye his hair golden. Then we could glue a small beard on his lip, making his age look older, a pair of pink crystal glasses would do good as well.”

A black line appeared on Zhao Hai forehead, “I could settle with the dye and the beard, but why the pink crystal glasses? Can we trade it with another color?”

Laura smiled, “Pink is good, pink is a very popular color in the Continent right now. I saw a lot of silkpants wearing pink crystal glasses, very beautiful. Rest assured, I have a pair of pink crystal glasses, I will give them to you in a while.”

Zhao Hai shook his head, and decided to not oppose anymore, and just went with Laura’s plans. He turned to Laura and said, “How about you? Exiting like you are currently would be conspicuous. I think in the Continent, there are a lot of people who knows of you more than me.”

Laura faintly smiled and replied, “Mine would be very simple, I could just dye my hair and then wear a veil. You should know that any aristocrat would have their female companion usually wear a veil, so as to prevent any other people appreciating their female companion.”

Zhao Hai can only smile bitterly, he really didn’t have anything good to say. Here, there were differences between men and women. For men, generally only Dark Mages would wear veils, but for women, the could wear them casually.

Green nodded and said, “This is good, but when the day comes, you should travel by carriage, and not any ordinary carriage. We need it to be more majestic, Laura’s carriage cannot be used since many had already seen it. The Radiant Church’s carriage cannot be used either since one could notice it at a glance. What kind of carriage would you use?”

Zhao Hai knitted his brows, to be honest, he didn’t think that he would act a role of being a silkpants. So having proper carriage wouldn’t just be enough, to the continent, a carriage is a sign of a man’s wealth and status.

Now the issue is that Zhao Hai embarrassingly didn’t have a very good carriage. In the continent, a good carriage is made from good materials. But Zhao Hai didn’t have any good materials, naturally, he also wouldn’t have a good carriage.

Zhao Hai just shook his head and said, “It would be very difficult to get a good carriage in such a short time.”

Laura knit her browns, “It’s not impossible, we can demolish the lightwood carriage of the Radiant Church, then use those lightwood to make our own carriage. A lot of good carriages in the continent uses lightwood as their material. As long as we do not follow the carriage design of the Radiant Church, then would should be fine.”

Kun agreed, “Good, then well arrange for it immediately. We shall bring some artisans and also among the beastmen there should be some who knows how to make carriages. I think the task should be done in a few days, but what Magic Beast would you use to pull the carriage with?”

Zhao Hai thought for a moment then said, “How about using a large horned bull? This magic beast is ordinary, its endurance is also very good. What’s most important is that a beastman race’s magic beast is a rarity, if we pull the carriage with this magic beast, then people would know that we are in a good relationship with the beastmen. Like this, we can sell beastman products and nobody would have suspicions.”

Kun thought for a moment then agreed.

1. Shue was an assassin that made a Blood Oath with Zhao Hai.