The next morning, Caesar woke up, dressed himself, and exited the palace. He first headed to the training grounds to once again direct training. Bronson was absent due to muscle failure, exhaustion, and an extremely sore body.In contrast, the other knights were extremely pumped up. Caesar decided to take a break from mantraining for the time being and ordered both the human knights and fox-kin to partake in physical training. Even if they learned mana manipulation skills, their physique was still of most importance.
This continued for around two hours until Caesar left them to train themselves in sword techniques, strategy, and other critical things that were important to know as knights. He exited the training grounds and headed for the nearest masonry company.
Today was the day that Ginger departed from Rahvin kingdom, however, the atmosphere was still rather calm. As long as no problems arose, Caesar wouldn"t act on such trifling matters. He quite liked Ginger, and she gave him a new impression of the church.
It was clear that although the higher-ups in the church seemed to be relatively evil, their ambitions were not. They simply deemed their own race to be holy, while the others were seen as evil. Such teachings had slowly corroded the human brains with hate, racism, and other repulsive emotions. They firmly believe that all humans are equal, a grand claim, but that doesn"t apply to the fox-kin, dwarves, furbolgs, kobolds, trolls, or any other race for that matter.
Instead, they abuse their power and subjugate the other races merely because they were ordered to do so. Similarly to Ginger, many of the churches subordinates were probably recruited at a tender age. After being brainwashed and trained, their loyalty was hard to shake.
This would mean that if Caesar and the church happened to go to war, many innocent people would die for nothing. Even if they were brainwashed to believe in such unjust morals, their hearts were still good. Alas, there was nothing that could be done.
Thinking to here, Caesar"s face grew troubled as he finally reached the masonry company. He had asked his father for directions last night and was forced to glance at the address one more time. The battered building in front of him didn"t strike him as a prestigious masonry company, in fact, it looked more like a beggars household.
An old and dirty blanket was draped over the entrance and fluttered with the wind. A broken door riddled with holes could be seen at the side. Caesar hesitated for a few moments before begrudgingly pushing the blanket aside and entering.
The smell of mold and dust combined together to form an even fouler stench. Caesar scrunched up his nose as he trod across the squeaky floor. The interior was even shabbier than the exterior, not a single clean spot in sight.
Caesar continued walking until he reached a small desk. A bulky man with his bare feet out rested on top of the desk, an opened book resting on his face. The sound of snoring escaped from his mouth and a few empty liquor bottles littered the floor.
Suddenly, the burly man scratched his hairy leg with his feet and removed the book from his face. He glanced curiously at Caesar whilst sitting up and attempting to drink the last droplets of alcohol from an empty liquor bottle.
"Hey lad, what brings you here?" he asked, "someone of your stature doesn"t normally request for their houses to be built in person."
As he spoke to here, his eyes squinted and the muscles on his body bulged a tad bit. Unfortunately for him, his attempt at striking fear within Caesar went unnoticed as the man in question was currently admiring himself in a nearly cracked mirror.
After a few moments, Caesar finally turned back to the burly man and put a platinum coin on the table. "I want two buildings crafted," he said, "one will be tall, wide, and much better than the other. I want a beautiful and soothing interior, one that doesn"t lose to the bank in Rahvin kingdom. As for the other, you can make it as ragged as this building here."
The man halted his foolish attempts to scare Caesar and stroked his scraggy stubble, "I can do it, but I need money…" he said, "the ragged building will be cheap, 10 gold coins. As for the grand structure, I wanted 2000 gold pieces."
Caesar knew the man in front of him could be trusted, as his own father had referred him. However, the 2000 golden coins were quite expensive. Thus, Caesar"s expression turned cold as he walked out of the shack. A playful smile danced on his lips as he turned around.
The burly man felt that his reaction was peculiar and couldn"t help but frown deeply. He hesitated for a few moments before begrudgingly opening his thick lips, "m-mister, If the price is too steep, I can go down by 500!" he roared at Caesar"s retreating back.
Immediately, two more platinum coins were flicked into the man"s hands. Caesar turned around with a sly smile, "what"s your name?" he inquired.
"Hudoff." The man replied after a few seconds of silence. The corner of his lips twitched as he glanced between the platinum coins in his hands and Caesar. "I"ve been played!" he thought inwardly as a small tear fell from his right eye.
"I"ll be expecting great things from you Hudoff, don"t disappoint me," Caesar said while exiting the dirty shack. He dusted off his casual suit and soon made way to his workshop. His company possessed many overdue orders and it was finally time to make more money.
,,,
Like this, two weeks soon pa.s.sed by. Ginger and her forces had peacefully left Rahvin kingdom and tranquility was restored. Caesar frequently visited the workshop, bank, and training grounds to further implement his plans.
The flying b.u.t.tress didn"t procure very much results, however, it did supply Caesar"s company somewhat of a face. On top of that, the new recruits coupled with a strong desire for promotion resulted in much more merchandise being crafted at a faster rate.
The two buildings that Caesar had Hudoff and his team craft were moving along quite splendidly. In fact, most of everything in Rahvin kingdom was going rather smoothly. Elizabeth progressed in her studies and Crowley had finally taken some much needed time off.
Bronson slowly, but surely, trained his body and the results were finally starting to show. His body was slimming down and even signs of muscles started to appear. As for the other knights, they were getting a hang of sensing mana and the fox-kin were starting to become even stronger, physically.
As for Caesar, he was currently in the library reading a stack of books. The candle at his side dripped with wax and the flame flickered ever so slightly. The book in front of him was barely lit and he was forced to squint his eyes to read the contents.
He needed to leave Rahvin kingdom in 1 week, but first, it was detrimental that he planned a few things for his company. Furthermore, he was also hesitant about whether or not he should bring Ahri or anyone else with him. So far, the only person he wanted to bring was Joe.
"Sigh, do I really want to travel alone with that dwarf, though?" he whispered wistfully whilst staring up at the ceiling. A wry smile played on his lips as he jotted down a few words on a plain piece of parchment.
He suddenly stood up from his chair and headed for the door, leaving the piece of paper on the table. The flame flickered once again, revealing the words on the paper. "Routine for Evolution"