Chapter 427 Auction trap (4)
"Then let's discuss this further at a later date." Viscount Teomold said with a wide smile on his face.
I said with a nod, "I hope that you'll help me spread the news to the others."
Viscount Teomold's lips twitched a bit, but in the end, he still said, "I'll do my best." Then after a pause, he added, "But there are some people that aren't as willing to listen, so I hope that you understand if I fail, Count Zwein."
I revealed a knowing smile when I heard this before saying, "Just do what you can. I'm not expecting much."
Viscount Teomold's smile became wide again when he heard this as he said, "Of course, of course. I hope to have a long cooperation with you."
I gave a nod without saying anything.
As Viscount Teomold walked away, I looked at him and gave another secret cold laugh.
There are people that aren't willing to listen?
In front of all this ore and a connection to the Dwarven Kingdom, who wouldn't be willing to listen?
I knew that he was just trying to keep this secret so he could earn as many benefits as he could off me. At most, he would just tell this to a few other nobles that he was close with so that he could keep the benefits within his group.
But his thinking was just too small.
After all, there was no way that he and his noble friends would be able to digest all of the ore that I was getting from the Dwarven Kingdom.
After he saw all this ore, if he still didn't tell others, it would be equal to offending me.
He would have no choice but to spread word of this.
At the same time, it wasn't as if I would just rely on him alone to spread the word.
The actions of a small villain really weren't worth paying attention to.
After Viscount Teomold left, there were other nobles that came forward to talk to me.
Most of them were talking to me for the same reason, they had all heard about the trade deals with the Dwarven Kingdom and they wanted a slice of it. But when it came to these people, I didn't respond as enthusiastically as I did with Viscount Teomold.
All of them were nobles that I had never met before and they were nobles that didn't have territory near me.
There was no incentive for me to build this relationship with them while I was still trying to take over the area around my territory.
If one stretched their business too wide, there would be holes that would form.
Once holes formed, there would be the danger of creating gaps and dangers of making mistakes.
One had to make sure that they kept the core of their business tight so that no one could take advantage of it.
As such, I gave them all ambiguous responses when they asked me about the ores.
It was clear by the looks on their faces that they were unhappy about these responses, but I didn't care at all. I wasn't afraid of them since this was a trade that was backed by both a duke and the king.
Even if they were unhappy, it wasn't as if there was anything that they could do to me.
Of course, I didn't burn the bridge with them completely since I didn't know what Haley wanted to do.
We couldn't use up all of the ores and it was impossible even if we included all of our neighbours. So we would have to eventually sell these ores to others.
It was just that before we did, I wouldn't make any commitments.
I would leave it all the Haley when the time came.
After talking to these nobles for a bit, I was finally able to enter the auction house.
But before entering, I gave Shaka a look.
He gave a nod in response to this to show that he had also seen it.
There were some cloaked figures that had entered from the side entrance while we had been talking to the nobles.
They were either our targets, or here to do some shady business.
It was better to keep our eyes on them than to let them leave unnoticed.
So Shaka gave a sign to the driver to let him take care of this.
The driver was our link to the fourth prince's forces, so he would pass this message on to the fourth prince for us.
After entering the auction house, we were immediately greeted by a beautiful woman.
At first, I didn't think that she was here for me, but then she came up right in front of me.
She gave a bow before saying, "Count Zwein, thank you for coming to our auction house today. I will be your guide for today's auction."
It seemed that she worked for the auction house and was here to guide me.
As we followed her in, I looked over at Shaka.
Shaka saw me looking over and shook his head.
What I was asking him was if this beautiful woman was an assassin or a guard and his response was no.
As far as Shaka could tell, she was nothing more than a simple worker for the auction house.
The beautiful woman led us up a set of stairs and up to a different floor.
The rooms that were on this floor were completely different from the rooms down below.
It was clear that this was some kind of VIP space.
But we didn't stop there.
She led us up another set of stairs and brought us up to an even more luxurious floor.
This was most likely the VVIP area, reserved for only the most important guests.
I couldn't see how I would be able to make it up here, but I knew why I was here today.
It was the fourth prince.
He was the one that had prepared this room for us.
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