"Ah... fuck this damn forest!"
An irritated voice echoed as a sharp blade carved a path through the low bushes of the eternal forest.
He was one of the twenty guards protecting a rchant caravan.
Behind him, ten enormous beasts advanced through the trees, their heavy footsteps sending tremors through the ground.
They resembled bulls, but far larger, reaching the size of elephants.
Giant black water buffalo. One of the few creatures capable of hauling cargo through the eternal forest.
On their broad, muscular backs, each carried roughly three tons of rchandise. Thirty tons in total.
"You complain too much! It doesn’t even seem like you’re about to receive a paynt that would keep you from working for years once we reach the Kingdom of the Burning Ice, hahaha."
A relaxed laugh rolled out from sowhere behind the guard.
It was the caravan leader. A wealthy rchant from the Kingdom of the Burning Ice.
With short black hair and a powerful build, he looked far more like a warrior than a man who made his living behind a pen.
But when it ca to anything other than money, he was a coward through and through.
This love for money was precisely what had made him so successful.
He ran crossings from the wealthy city-states of the western plains, threading through the eternal forest to the kingdoms of the continent, where he sold imported delicacies to local elites for small fortunes.
The ideal route would have been by sea, and he was just two crossings away from affording his own boat.
"Sir, there seems to be a settlent here."
The lead guard stopped, stepping out of the treeline into a clearing that stretched nearly two kiloters toward Lake Azur.
"Darkwall or sothing like that. A miserable place, not worth stopping at. Just keep going." The rchant waved a hand without opening his eyes.
"Well... this isn’t the Darkwall settlent, sir. You should see this for yourself."
The rchant opened his eyes with an irritated expression, already forming a retort, but his lips closed the mont he took in the sight before him.
On one side, a long road led straight to Lake Azur, shimring faintly in the distance.
On the other, a palisade with fresh repairs stood with its gate wide open, the wood still pale and raw, clearly installed not long ago.
He still wanted to just continue his way. But curiosity had already won.
Patting the thick neck of the giant black water buffalo beneath him, he steered the beast toward the Goldenveil settlent.
The others followed close behind, their massive fras barely clearing the gate.
The people of Goldenveil were not frightened by the enormous creatures. Quite the opposite.
Clutching silver, bronze, and the occasional gold coin, they surged toward the rchant’s employees with eyes burning with excitent.
Others, like Roderik, even seized the mont to sell their own creations.
rchants in Goldenveil were rare. Very rare. They had to make the most of it.
The rchant dropped from the bull’s head with ease and gestured for his four employees to handle the negotiations.
He had no interest in haggling over trinkets. He wanted the lord of this place, and it didn’t take long to find him.
From the entrance of the lord’s mansion, a young man stepped forward. Golden hair, blue eyes, and a composed bearing.
"Greetings, and thank you for welcoming my humble caravan into your settlent, Lord..." The rchant tilted his head, waiting.
"Ethan Goldenveil." The young lord smiled warmly. "Co inside. I’ll pour you sothing to drink, and then we can talk business."
"Business! Now that’s what I like to hear, hahahaha." The rchant matched the smile, his excitent already sharpening.
"This humble one’s na is Ron, by the way. I passed through this area a few months ago and the place was in ruins. What did you do to bring it back like this?"
He followed Ethan through the mansion with a curious look, turning thoughts over in his mind.
Perhaps the young lord had unearthed a great treasure. And if he had, would he be willing to part with it?
"I just got a little lucky." Ethan smiled, leading him into a well-kept office.
From a shelf, he retrieved a bottle filled with a strange green liquid, wisps of mist curling from it in the sa pale color.
The mont the cork ca free, the room filled with a powerful, dicinal aroma, dense and alcoholic, rich enough to make Ron’s aura reserves stir on their own.
He swallowed hard, watching Ethan pour two glasses.
Whatever that drink was, the mana and aura radiating from it were very dense.
"May I, my lord?" Ron asked, reining in the urge to grab the glass and drain it in a single motion.
"Go ahead." Ethan watched with quiet amusent as the rchant brought the glass to his lips and drank it down in greedy gulps.
It was divine.
Clearly brewed with healing spiritual herbs and second-stage mana beast blood, yet the density of mana it carried felt closer to sothing third-stage.
"What’s it called? And how many bottles do you have?" Ron set the glass down, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.
"The na is Green Fairy Wine. I currently have fifty bottles available, with another fifty already in production."
"Hm..." Ron leaned back slightly, turning the numbers over in silence.
The quantity didn’t disappoint. Wines of that caliber were always sold in small batches, offered exclusively to wealthy nobles at a fortune per bottle.
Fifty of these, placed with the right buyers, and he would have everything he needed for his boat.
"Five gold coins per bottle!" he declared, full of confidence.
Ethan laughed.
"Twenty-five gold coins per bottle. Plus a commitnt: in one month, you return here and open a shop in Goldenveil.
Do that, and I’ll supply this wine exclusively to you and no one else, with at least a thousand bottles a year beginning next year."
Ron fell silent after hearing those words, scratching his chin thoughtfully.
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