029 Undercurrent (Please Subscribe)

In the blink of an eye, it was already the middle of the month according to the Kaido Calendar, and three months had passed since Karen opened his Necromancer Market.

Although only three months had gone by, the market’s growth had been astonishing.

In that brief span of time, its permanent population had risen to over ten thousand, while its daily turnover had climbed from the original one hundred gold coins to a thousand. Such a rate of development was nothing short of terrifying.

Even more astonishingly, during those two months, several cities belonging to the Silver Hand and the Bourbon Kingdom had begun large-scale cultivation of Whispers of the Dead.

It could be said that Karen’s fledgling market had already begun to exert a certain influence over the two surrounding kingdoms.

Naturally, as Karen’s strength continued to increase and his influence over the surrounding lands expanded, some of those who had merely watched from the sidelines when the Necromancer Market first opened began to feel restless.

Two full months after Karen’s market opened, the council of the Silver Hand brought Karen and his Necromancer Market before the assembly for the first time.

In reality, with the Silver Hand’s oligarchic council, the moment Karen and his market were brought up for discussion, there was hardly anything left to discuss.

What needed to be done, and how it should be done—the oligarchs who controlled the council had already made their plans. Bringing the matter before the assembly was merely a way of informing the lower house that they were about to act.

Sure enough, once the upper house raised the question of how to deal with Karen and the market under his control, several oligarchs simply adopted an attitude that amounted to: “This is what I intend to do. Who supports me, and who objects?”

The brutal lessons of the past had taught the lower house that opposition ended badly. They therefore dared not express any objection, and a decision concerning Karen was reached swiftly.

As for Karen and the market under his control, the upper house recommended winning them over by every possible means. Ideally, they would bring Karen and his market firmly under their control. If that proved impossible, then they had to secure at least a share in the market.

Overall, their attitude toward the matter was not particularly forceful.

Of course, this was not because they feared Karen. Rather, after waiting ten years for such an opportunity to appear, they did not want to close that window again through some careless move.

While the Silver Hand was preparing to make formal contact with Karen, two people had already entered his territory.

Both were old acquaintances of Karen’s. One was Old Jack, and the other was the Masked Woman.

Old Jack’s visits to Karen’s territory were nothing unusual. He had been coming frequently during this period, and as Karen’s market continued to develop, his visits had become even more frequent.

The Masked Woman, however, had left several months earlier, and this was the first time Karen had seen her since.

When he saw her again, Karen could not help raising his brows slightly.

His Eye of Insight had failed to work on her.

That came as a considerable surprise.

There were only two possible reasons why Karen’s Eye of Insight would fail. The one he had encountered most often was that the target’s strength exceeded the eye’s upper limit of perception.

Karen’s Eye of Insight was currently at the fourth level. If that was the reason, then the Masked Woman’s strength had to be at least Tier Five. For her to have risen from Tier Two to Tier Five in only a few months seemed almost inconceivable.

Karen therefore leaned more toward the possibility that she possessed some method of blocking the Eye of Insight.

But the Masked Woman and Old Jack gave him no time to investigate.

“We need to take Nifu away for a while,” Old Jack said, immediately stating the purpose of their visit.

“Oh, is that so? Then go ahead and take her.”

Old Jack and the Masked Woman were both stunned by his answer.

This was not how the script was supposed to go. Shouldn’t Karen have asked a few questions first? Why had he simply agreed and allowed them to take her away without a word?

It was obvious that the two of them had come with another purpose in mind. They could not possibly turn around and leave the moment Karen agreed.

When Karen remained silent, they simply continued on their own.

“A few days from now, someone will be coming here. His name is Crain, the current marshal of the Bourbon Kingdom. He controls half of the kingdom’s military, and he is also the man who killed Nifu’s grandfather.”

There was a great deal of information in that statement, but Karen appeared able to accept it all without difficulty.

Whether it was the content of their words or the subject they were about to reveal by suddenly telling him this, Karen had already anticipated it.

Thus, when he heard those words, his expression barely changed.

That made Old Jack and the Masked Woman somewhat anxious.

They had assumed that, given Karen’s affection for Nifu, drawing him into their camp would not be too difficult. They had not expected that, once they laid their cards on the table, he would react with such indifference.

If this continued, accomplishing their objective would be far more difficult. Even so, neither of them gave up.

“In truth, Nifu’s grandfather was Tien, the former marshal of the Bourbon Kingdom. He also had another identity: he was the leader of the kingdom’s reformist faction.

“He knew perfectly well that the Bourbon Kingdom had decayed to the point where reform was indispensable. In an effort to restore the kingdom, he opened a trade route between the Silver Hand and the Bourbon Kingdom.

“He hoped that the power of trade would strengthen the kingdom and transform it.

“Marshal Tien’s plan proceeded smoothly at first. Under his leadership, the kingdom’s national strength doubled in barely a year. Unfortunately, when his reforms entered a critical phase, they began to threaten certain people’s interests.

“After that, the marshal’s reforms were obstructed by every faction in the kingdom. He himself was assassinated repeatedly, and even the trade route he had worked so hard to establish was shut down. Enraged by the closure of the route, the Silver Hand launched an invasion of the Bourbon Kingdom, making the marshal’s situation even more difficult.

“But none of that could bring him down. Even in such a perilous environment, the marshal persisted.

“On one side, he resisted the Silver Hand’s invasion. On the other, he struggled against the forces within the Bourbon Kingdom. He was on the verge of seeing the dawn of victory when Crain, who had once been his ally in the reforms, betrayed him at the crucial moment.

“In the end, the marshal died, while Crain, the traitor, took his place and became the leader of the kingdom’s most resolute and reactionary conservative faction!”

At last, Old Jack had told Karen everything.

After laying all his cards on the table, he stared fixedly at Karen, hoping to see the emotions he wanted appear on the young man’s face.

Instead, he was disappointed.

After listening to the entire story, Karen regarded Old Jack thoughtfully for a moment.

“I remember meeting you once, just after I conquered Goblin Forest. Back then, you told me that I had changed—that the way I spoke had become rather roundabout. Can I say the same about you now?

“Still, I can understand why you went to such lengths, even revealing Nifu’s background.

“The moment you brought up Nifu’s identity, you should already have understood that your objective was virtually impossible to achieve.”

“It seems you already knew everything I came here to say.” Old Jack narrowed his eyes.

Now that everything had been made plain, Karen no longer saw any reason to conceal his thoughts.

“Don’t forget what kind of place this is. This is the Market of the Dead, where merchants from both the Silver Hand and the Bourbon Kingdom gather.

“What circulates through the hands of those merchants is not merely money. It is also information and intelligence.

“If I am curious, then with only a little effort, I can obtain whatever information I want about either kingdom.

“By coincidence, I was rather interested in the trade route the Bourbon Kingdom and the Silver Hand once established, so I looked into it a little. I also investigated your identity…”

“Since you already know all that, then if I say that I represent the power behind me and wish to—”

“I am very willing to cooperate in matters of trade. But as for cooperation beyond trade, I can only apologize.

“I only want to develop the Market of the Dead. I will not interfere in anything else, nor am I capable of doing so. After all, I am merely a minor necromancer.”

From the moment Old Jack and the Masked Woman arrived, Karen had already understood their purpose.

They wanted to draw him into their faction and have him help continue the Bourbon Kingdom’s reform.

But Karen could never agree to that.

For him, nothing was more important than developing steadily and peacefully.

In the end, Karen firmly rejected Old Jack and the Masked Woman.

Although the two were somewhat disappointed, they did not press the matter.

After all, just as Karen had said, the moment they tried to use Nifu’s emotional connection to persuade him, they had already known that he was unlikely to agree.

Thus, although the negotiations had failed, neither side developed any resentment toward the other—at least not outwardly.

……

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