"I see.
Assuming we do help you, what's in it for us?"
Seeing Evan's positive attitude, David internally did a guts pose before beginning the discussion of benefits.
"Firstly, for everyone more accomplice we discover, we are going to charge the noble more as the initial reward was only for one person."
He looked towards the scout, Suzanne, who nodded in affirmation before continuing.
"Yeah. In that case, a percentage of the reward money would go to you for your assistance."
Evan alternated his gaze between David and Suzanne, having noticed their earlier eye contact before replying.
"Well, to be honest, money isn't really a problem for us. With the quests we have undertaken, we could get enough to feed an average family for at least three months with the rewards."
He placed a hand to his chin and sunk into his thoughts for a moment before cupping his fist into his palm and continuing.
"How about we see what other stock this group of thieves have, besides the item that you are meant to recover? If there's anything on the level of the reward there then we'd take it."
It was an unwritten rule that upon catching thieves, bandits or other criminals, the possessions of the captured ones belonged to the captors, provided the original owners of these items could not be found.
"Okay, let's go with that for now, then."
"Cool."
The two shook hands to conclude the deal before Evan posed a question to David and Suzanne.
"Oh yeah, why'd you look at her when you spoke about charging the noble more? Is she the noble's daughter of something?"
He chuckled to himself as he spoke but upon receiving silence from the six of them, Evan's smile disappeared as he asked.
"Wait...I'm right?"
Seeing the expression on Evan's face, it was David who burst into laughter this time, while Suzanne only nodded lightly, affirming Evan's words.
◇ ◇ ◇
A short while after Evan's unexpected discovery, the group recovered from their silent shock with Evan posing a question about something he found weird from David's explanation.
"You said you tracked him from the great Western Empire, right? How did you do that?"
To this question, it was Suzanne who gave the answer.
"I have a skill that lets me track the location of the item since I have-"
"-previously marked it with your magic power?"
Her eyes widened in surprise when Evan completed her statement for her.
"How do yo-Oh, you have the appraisal skill."
"Hmm? I haven't used that on you. It's just that someone has told me about this skill before."
The young hero placed his hand on his chin and thought about it for a moment. Turning his gaze to Suzanne, he appraised her and studied her skill name and description.
|Track Down;
Type: Rare Active Skill
Effect;
Grants the user the ability to mark a particular item with their magic power and be able to 'track down' the location of the marked item(s) regardless of distance, provided the magic power mark is not removed.
The user is able to observe a detailed three-dimensional blueprint of the location of the marked item. The blueprint is in a form of a hologram which consists of a meticulous representation of the target location, including the changes that are happening to the original location due to various means. |
Upon setting his eyes on the name of the skill, his memory was jogged and he remembered who told him about the skill before.
"It was Laurene."
"Huh? Laurene?"
Hearing her friend's name being called, Eliza joined in on the conversation while echoing Evan's words.
"Yeah. You know she has a sweet tooth, right?"
"True, she did try to deny it at first though."
The battle priestess replied while remembering the embarrassed expression on Laurene's face when she originally called the princess out on it.
"Really? Well, that's beside the point.
The thing is, she once told me about this noble family that was into the confections business and had quite the connections to be able to get so many ingredients for expensive deserts. (The noble family spoken about in chapter 6).
We were talking about useful skills (that I could mimic) and she mentioned that the daughter of the family head had a tracking skill just like that."
As soon as he spoke up to that point, his eyes widened in surprise as he turned to David and asked.
"What did you say your last name was?"
"Huh? Dyer."
After receiving David's reply, he turned to Suzanne and asked.
"Are you two cousins?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
Hearing her response, Evan face palmed and asked one more question.
"What are the chances that you are the daughter of Count Dyer?"
"...100%"
"Thought so."
Everyone gave both Evan and Suzanne looks of confusion but the two were too busy confirming each other's identities to notice.
"I'm guessing when you spoke of 'Laurene', you meant the Princess, right?"
"Yep."
"Then my guess was correct. You really are the Prime Minister's son."
Although there were a lot of commoners who were not aware of the appearances of nobles, the same wasn't the case for other nobles.
They were made to learn the names and appearances of other nobles, especially those higher ranked than they were.
Hence, the reason why Suzanne said she thought she knew who Evan was when he said his name earlier, she just wasn't sure since his appearance was quite different from what she remembered.
"Well, I'm not sure I can proudly admit that. I did run away from home and it's been close to a year since then, honestly, it's quite a miracle that he hasn't disowned me."
The young hero shrugged his shoulders as he replied casually, however, the reactions of the others who heard his conversation with Suzanne, weren't casual, to say the least.
◇ ◇ ◇
It took Evan a few minutes to convince David and Suzanne to drop the formalities and the polite speech, and a few more to convince the other party members that they had not unknowingly disrespected in any way or form.
Then again, they could not be blamed for their reactions as Evan was indeed the son of the second most powerful person in their home country. Getting on his bad side was one of the worst decisions any Great Western Empire citizen could make.
Even if he said to be casual with him, it was nigh impossible for that to happen now that they knew of his identity.
Only Suzanne who was a noble, albeit a mid-ranked one was able to adjust her attitude towards Evan to a degree that was just barely acceptable.
'Still, I gotta say, the nobles in this world aren't as weak as I had expected.
None of the older ones I met when I was still at the Duke's residence was below level 100, with the majority of the higher ranked ones surpassing level 150 and approaching 200 too.'
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