AN: If you like what you are reading, you can help by giving my novel Rating.
When we woke up the next day and were treated to a breakfast made from the bounty of O'zet's mountain, I collected the two logs of evolved wood, and with the help of Professor Sageira's dimensional storage, transporting and smuggling it into the kingdom would not be an issue.
Before we left to head home, I hammered out a trade agreement with T'Makka in case I need more evolved wood in the future. What they asked for in exchange for future evolved wood trade was metal, more specifically, metal tools, along with the tools and knowledge to make and repair them.
That means that in addition to providing them with the tools they can use in their daily life and possibly outside O'zet's shell if they need to harvest materials, I would need to bring them an anvil, build or at least demonstrate how to build a proper forge. Regarding the knowledge, since they can only read Elvish, I had to find a treatise on blacksmithing in Elvish.
But even with all that, it was still a steal of a deal.
***
The flight back home was uneventful as usual, because hardly anything in the sky had so little self-preservation as to impede a dragon in flight.
Fortunately, it was nighttime when we reached home, so Professor Sageira was able to drop me off at my backyard under the cover of darkness, and the moment we touched down, Spot ran off in the direction of the hippogriff stable, no doubt to greet his siblings. As I entered the mansion with a treasure chest I got from defeating Thryz in his Broken Scale trial, I surprised quite a few of the house staff, especially because I came in through the back entrance instead of the front gate.
As the house staff greeted me, one of the maids ran off into the mansion while shouting, "Young Master Luke has returned!"
It didn't take long before my parents, Alden and Amara, and, to my surprise, even my grandparents, grandpa Rowan and grandma Isabella, came to greet me. I only managed to get in a "Hi" before I was mobbed by my mom and grandma as they fretted over me, asking if I had taken care of myself while away from home.
While they were giving me a check-up, mom insisted that I had lost weight and called for the house staff to prepare supper for me. I have no idea if I really have lost weight, but I would just have to humor my mother. Besides, it is always nice to have a home-cooked meal.
As I was being led to the dining room by mom and grandma, dad asked what was in the chest that I was carrying over my shoulder. I couldn't truthfully answer at that moment because the house staff and my grandparents were still around, so I just responded while giving the chest a hearty pat, "It is just the reward for a private client." From the sound that came from my pat, it was obvious to everyone that the chest was full and heavy. The only reason I was even hauling the treasure chest over my shoulder was because I was reinforcing my body with aura.
During dinner, grandpa wanted to catch up and asked what I did on my adventures. Not wanting to lie to them... too much... so I told them a version of Thryz's Broken Scale trial. In this retelling, Thryz was the son of a mercantile noble family, and he was the first in his line to want to pursue more martial and military pursuits. I was hired by his parents to make him experience the rigors and dangers such a life would bring. (beating him within an inch of his life.)
My version of how things went had mum and grandma blanching in horror at how parents could hire me to beat up their son, while dad and grandpa were laughing. I wonder what my parents' faces would be like when I tell them that Thryz was actually a young dragon and that they have their young sent at challenges that could potentially kill them.
Grandpa looked at the trunk-sized treasure chest and said, "You were away for quite some time, and from the size of that chest, I assume you were well compensated for your time?"
Giving the old man a smirk, I flipped open the lid, and Dad, who was sitting beside me, almost had his eyes bulge out of their sockets while gaping with a slack jaw. "Come over and take a look."
Seeing dad's reaction, mum and my grandparents got up and came over to my side of the table, and were soon sharing the same reaction. "This much for beating up one kid?! My bones may be aching in my age, but I would gladly take the same job if it paid this much!" Grandma said as they saw the trunk full of gold, gems, and jewelry that Thryz's mother, Vruulkthaz, had haphazardly scooped into the chest as my reward.
"Merchant noble indeed." Grandpa commented before asking, "But still, why did they pay so much just to beat up their son?"
"From what I understand, their family has made a lot of enemies to get where they are, and they wanted someone like me who was completely unrelated and professional, so that in the process of beating up their son, there wouldn't be any 'accidents'. To be honest, this is partly hush money to keep my client's identities secret." I lied through my teeth, and added the last part to hint to my audience that I wouldn't be answering any deeper questions about the job.
After sharing an edited and toned-down version of my adventures and hearing about what they had been doing while I was away, we soon moved on to more mundane topics, mainly about the new territory that was being developed.
The towns and villages in the new territory were developing faster than expected, mainly because of an influx of tradesmen, farmers, and their families. More hands to work meant faster development; it was that simple. The only unexpected problem was that the demand for resources to be sent to these developing areas exceeded the supply, but that was quickly remedied with a few letters to merchants who were more than willing to meet the demand with their supply.
As for the standing army that the King had appointed Dad to raise, Dad reported that we were definitely on track. With the seed money from the crown, the extra money I brought in, along with the taxes from the already developed regions under my family, Dad said that if spent wisely and no expensive emergencies come up, the new standing army to guard the border should be funded until they started collecting taxes from the new region.