Chapter 181 – Getting dressed.

“Good day, Mr. Wayland I presume?”

“Ah yes, that’s me…”

Roland wasn’t at his best, his face was covered in sweat as he had just walked out of the workshop to get some fresh air. It was still the middle of the day but he didn’t really care if people saw his dirty face. All the craftsmen in this world were somewhat expected to be covered in grime.

Before him was someone that he never expected to get a home visit from. While his clothes were different now, the man was once the town mayor. During some announcements at the town square, he had seen him performing some speeches. Even when the new lord showed up this man was there.

“Good, Mr. Wayland I won’t take much of your time as I have only come to deliver a message.”

The man looked more like an old butler now than a city mayor. It was quite the fancy suit along with a vest and white gloves. In those gloves, he was holding a letter that had a seal with the emblem of the Valerian household.

“This is?”

“It’s a letter from Lord Arthur Valerian, the lord hopes that you respond positively to his call, the details are included in the letter, please read through it with haste.”

Roland just looked at the sealed letter while spacing out for a moment. The golem that he sent to the new noble was probably the reason for this letter. If this was a reason for joy or despair would only be revealed when he read through it but maybe this butler could answer some questions first.

“The Lord calls for me?”

“I’m afraid that I’m not allowed to relinquish any more information, I have only been tasked to deliver this letter thus I will bid you farewell Mr. Wayland.”

The old man bowed quite graciously before him. This reminded him of the old butler from the Arden estate, both of the men had a similar air around them. Ferdinand did appear a bit different now as during the speeches he seemed more relaxed. Now on the other hand it looked like a switch had been flipped and he was now role-playing as a proper high-class butler.

“Ah yes, good day…”

Ferdinand turned around and started walking away. Not far away he saw three people holding spears standing next to the forest. There were obviously guards from the city, one of them he recognized to be one of the gate guards.

‘Maybe I should clear out some trees…’

In the past, he decided to clear out a path towards his store. Without a road, it would be impossible for a carriage to get through the dense forest. It was fine now as it was just the butler, but some nobles would find it offensive if they needed to walk through the forest to get here.

The people that delivered the message left, Elodia quickly peeked her head out of the store while Roland was looking at the letter.

“Wasn’t that the Mayor?”

“I think it was.”

Elodia looked down at the item Roland was holding before asking the next question.

“Did he come to deliver that?”

“It seems so.”

While he didn’t think there would be something incriminating in it, he wasn’t sure. Maybe the new lord figured out his true identity and was trying to blackmail him? This was highly unlikely as he wasn’t anyone famous when he left the Arden estate.

Besides his closest family, no one would probably be able to recognize him at his current age. Probably half his family members would have trouble, Robert was somewhat different as the two had more interactions while they were younger.

His two older brothers and sisters only met during the family dinners which grew lesser and lesser with time. Their father was quite busy with military work and did not stay at the estate too much. Only when he returned would they sit down to eat but even then, most of the time his brothers were missing as they were busy with the knight academy.

“It’s a letter from the lord, you probably should go through it alone.”

Thankfully Elodia didn’t prod the issue and just turned around. Roland was even considering reading the letter in front of her to further their trust but he wouldn’t be given a chance. They weren’t married, so a degree of confidentiality was still out on the table. Just like she didn’t pry into his history before he arrived in this city, so did he.

“Let’s see then…”

After Elodia left he decided to go back to his house and open the letter. With somewhat sweaty palms he held it out in front of his face and started reading.

“… What is that guy thinking?”

The letter was filled with flowery words and somewhat hard to read. If he was a common blacksmith he would probably had gotten a headache after going through the first few statements.

At the beginning of the letter, the person name Arthur started praising his craftsmanship. The golem that he had sent seemed to have done the trick. After the paragraph of praise, he finally arrived at the meat and potatoes of this letter. It was actually a call for a business offer.

‘It has come to my attention that you had been wrongfully barred from participation at our Valerian auction house, I would wish to discuss this issue further…’

It looked like the lord had looked into his ban from the auction house. Roland did know that the Valerian household was the real owner of that establishment and it seemed that he was now getting another chance.

‘So in short he liked the golem so much that he sees a potential business opportunity?’

Arthur Valerian was a new player in this growing city. It was normal for him to not have made any contracts with the dwarven union or any other powerful merchants. He could very well unban him from the auction house to allow him to reach a broader customer base if he so wished.

‘The question is, why would he be willing to work with me over the dwarves? Couldn’t they just supply him with similar wares?’

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Roland wasn’t really sure what Arthur’s angle here was. While he could make golems that would probably go for a lot, he was still just one man. His output wasn’t that great as he would not be able to supply the auction house with constantly golemic constructs.

On the other hand, the dwarves could produce more in bulk as they had many more craftsmen. Probably in the future, some higher leveled smiths would appear, if he went against the auction house they might decide to not use it at all. They had their own shops in which their wares could just sit on the shelves.

They didn’t really need the auction house at which they also needed to share some of the profits. It was still a good place to drop off some wares as there was a certain spectacle to it. Some people liked to show off in the bidding wars which did inflate the prices.

‘Does he know something I don’t?’

From Roland’s standpoint, if people knew his true level and his special class they would probably be willing to invest money into his progress. If he managed to become a tier 3 Master Runesmith his worth would skyrocket. Was this Arthur banking on his quick progress? Did he want to entrap him in a contract after doing some research?

‘That’s a possibility…’

Roland frowned while putting the letter to the side. At the end of it, he was invited to the auction house. The date was for tomorrow at noon, the person inviting him wasn’t losing any time.

‘Either way, I can’t just refuse a meeting with the city lord.’

It was an unwritten rule for any commoner to answer the call of a noble. If he decided to not show up, he would be accused of dishonoring the noble’s name. This was an actual law for which you could be thrown into prison. The sentencing depended on the noble and they chose when they felt disgraced.