Chapter 488 Visiting nobles (4)
With that set, there was nothing else to discuss.
Even if there was, Viscount Teomold didn't seem like he was in any mood to discuss it.
It looked like he had aged by several years just over the course of this meeting and it very much seemed like he needed to rest.
There was still the contract that needed to be signed, but that wasn't something that needed to be rushed.
After all, even if it was signed, there was nothing that we could do right now.
We still hadn't moved enough ore from the Dwarven Kingdom for this trade yet.
The ore that had been brought back in the first batch was only used for our personal use and to pay the share that we owed the king and the duke. So there wasn't any extra that we could sell right now even if we wanted to.
We would need to wait at least another week for the next batch of ores to arrive.
Surprisingly, there had been no problems with transferring the ore.
It seemed like the other countries still hadn't figured out that we were making this trade with the Dwarven Kingdom, so they didn't know to intercept it yet. It would be different in the future, so we should get as much out of it while we still could.
Since Viscount Teomold wanted to rest, we were allowed to go back to our rooms and rest up as well.
However, that wasn't what I wanted to do.
I wanted to go around this town and see what Viscount Teomold was like.
I wanted to get a good grasp of his personality and style of work, so the best way to do that was to look at his territory.
The servants that were assigned to watch over us couldn't stop us at all.
After all, Viscount Teomold wasn't in any mood to stop us since he was exhausted after that meeting with me. Not to mention, I had a title of count which was even greater than that of their lord.
So they were actually afraid of even talking back to me, let alone trying to stop me.
I was able to easily make my way out of the room with Rose and Haley.
Of course, we didn't go in our normal clothes.
Since we were nobles, we naturally dressed as nobles or others would look down on us.
But if we were to go to the town dressed as nobles, that would have the opposite effect of what we were trying to achieve.
We were trying to sneak into town to observe, but that would be hard if we drew attention in our noble clothes.
So we quickly changed into the commoner clothes that the servants had prepared for us.
At the same time, we made sure to put on some makeup to make ourselves seem more normal.
The two things that attracted attention the most were fancy clothes and beautiful people, so we had to make sure that we didn't have either of those.
Once we were in our disguises, we left the manor in a discrete carriage and headed into town.
That carriage went to one of the alleys and I helped Rose and Haley down before heading into the town.
The three of us acted like we were just here on a date having fun, but the ones that were secretly following us were tense.
These were the guards that Viscount Teomold had sent to watch over us.
But what they didn't know was that there was someone else that was watching over them as well.
Someone that was much better at hiding herself than they were.
So they had no idea that this person was hiding in the shadows.
As we walked around the town, we could see that the standard of living wasn't that good.
There was a market, but the amount of goods being sold was lacking.
Not only that, the prices that they were being sold at were much higher than the normal…or at least that was what Haley told me.
I didn't know what the normal prices were other than for a few of the common items.
Only someone with as much skill and talent as Haley would be able to remember the average price for all of these items. Especially some of the more obscure items that most people wouldn't know about.
Just based on this, it was clear that Viscount Teomold was not a good ruler.
He was one of those normal nobles that taxed his citizens heavily without caring about making their lives better.
The only life that he cared about bettering was his own…
This was clearly not a good sign for someone to cooperate with to have.
So it was clear that we shouldn't work with Viscount Teomold since it was clear that something bad was going to happen working with him.
Both Haley and Rose showed concern after seeing the state that the commoners of Viscount Teomold's territory.
But I just shook my head and gave them a look as if I was saying, "Don't worry."
Both of them still had the same concerned looks, but they didn't say anything in the end as they chose to trust me.
What they didn't know was that I was relying on Viscount Teomold to be someone like this.
I wanted him to run his territory into the ground and lose everything.
That would be easier for me in the long run.
In a sense, destruction was needed to rebuild.
So before I did anything with this territory, I would destroy the current system in place and turn it into a blank slate before I made my mark on this place.
After observing for a bit, it seemed like we had seen all that we could see.
So we were planning on heading back before Viscount Teomold completely freaked out over our disappearance.
But before we could…
"This pretty little lady, how about having some fun with me?"
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