Conquest

At the same time the pitiful princess was venting her frustration, the hillbilly was laughing gleefully as he scooped hand- fulls of gold and silver coins in his hands.

This was taking place on the dining table of an inn on the side of the road.

Shaar and his entourage were with the caravan on the road, and Shaar was enjoying this kind of a lifestyle- drinking wine and chatting during rest stops, and finding all kinds of entertainment.

In regards to Shaar’s peculiar taste in women, Shaar would definitely not expose himself now that he had his doubts, so he diverted attention towards a gambling proposal, which was warmly supposed by all.

For the businessmen and merchants that traveled quite often, gambling was a welcome source of entertainment.

And now at the table, the few Landis people saw their last bronze coin taken away from them, and could not help but be unhappy.

Regardless of the game being played, whether it be dice or roulette, this Byzantine was exceptionally skilled!

And the most frustrating part about it was it was obvious that he wasn’t rigging the game, because the dice used were the ones that the Landis had carved themselves, and the roulette, too, was brought by them…

Shaar was extremely elated at all the money he had won. After three days, he made the Landis empty out most of the money in their pockets.

The reason for Shaar’s happiness not only stemmed from his earnings … even more importantly, he was testing out a magic.

The she-dragon that was hidden inside Shaar’s neckpiece had finally started teaching him dragon magic- the dragon soul imprint that was imparted to him was extremely weak and only allowed him to use the most simple of all dragon magics…. But magic was magic after all!

The magic that Dora first taught to him was called the Transparency Technique.

This spell was not very useful in actual battle and didn’t have a great effect, but for a hillbilly, especially for one that is still a virgin, he was very satisfied! At the very least, he could use this technique to peek at girls….

With the weak dragon soul imprint that was allowed to him, after accumulating sufficient amount of concentration, he was able to sustain the spell for up to 5 heartbeats and see through a piece of wood with the approximate thickness of a finger. However, the denser the material, the more difficult it would be for him to see through. If he tried seeing through a wall, or something made of metal, it would be impossible but for materials like wood and cloth, it was sufficient. Though he can only use it for 5 short heartbeats, this was enough to become unparalleled at the gambling table.

However, to peek at women poses some difficulties right now. To see through something with this technique, you must pay very close attention. Not only that, the subject of the technique must stay still in one place throughout the duration.

He can’t possibly find a girl and ask her to sit there without moving to let him stare at right?

Of course, he could always spend some money to hire a few prostitutes to sit in front of him…. But then in that case, what use is peeping?!

In the span of another few days, Shaar won the last few coppers the Landis owned, and even the fatty also lost a few gold coins to him.

In the past few days, Gu Luo and Shaar had become close, at least at a superficial glance. Gu Luo was careful when he tested Shaar’s background and details, and he had grasped a good idea of it. In reality, Shaar did not have much of a background to hide- his story was simple and straightfoward as he was born to a poor background, and in war made many great achievements and was promoted. This information was made public already by the military.

However, the more straightforward he seemed, the more that Guo Luo thought that this guy was not so simple!

One of the most important reasons …. it seems silly to even mention out loud….

When night fell and everyone retired, Gu Luo walked into a room, there was a handsome youth in there already waiting.

“Did you make any headway today?” The youth sighed.

“Sir.” Gu Luo hesitated for a moment, his face stern and serious. “I believe suspect that he might be born of a prominent Byzantine military family! He might have deliberately hidden his identity and used this war as a jumpstart for his military career…. I believe that he has a powerful force behind his back.”

“Oh, why?”

“One of his squires!” Gu Luo said, assuredly. “I closely looked at one of his squires, and that skinny guy doesn’t seem like a warrior at all. It’s incomprehensible as to how this guy can become a cavalryman at all. Earlier today, I secretly hid a magic detection crystal in my clothes… I actually got a magical response from the crystal!!”

Gu Luo lowered his voice and said, “The magnitude of the response from the magic crystal was very weak, and probably only the response of a level one! However, this is enough to prove that that squire, is a magician!!”

“Oh?” The youth’s eyes lit up.

“Yes, a magician! I’m guessing that this magician would have some magical artifact to forcefully suppress his magic and keep it hidden, so we would not take notice of it! He must be a very powerful magician! Humph, for this Shaar guy to be able to trade blows with Hastings, his strength must not be very simple. Such a powerhouse, how the people that follow him be any weaker? So… that magician must definitely be hiding his strength!

Furthermore, to take a magician as his squire, this Shaar’s background is definitely not simple! It’s just that we can’t determine which side he’s on, whether or not he’s a pawn cultivated by the Byzantium royal court, or…

(At this time, Tatara who was feeding the horses in the stable sneezed, and rubbed his nose while complaining, “To make me feed the horses, this Lord Tatara is a noble magician ….”)

The youth stood up, in deep thought. “If there is a powerful force behind Shaar, then this time around, this promotion of his is definitely not as simple as it seems! His return to the capital this time will definitely be closely followed, and will become an important person in the Byzantine Empire…”

The youth waved his hand. “Buy him out! Think of ways to buy him! No matter what he wants! Money? Women? Buy him! At the necessary moment, send him help! Give him some incentives! What does he want? Probe him a bit, and try to meet his wishes! Do not give him any demands first and do your best to meet his greed. Any important person that wants to make an investment in him must do it before he has gained any measure of fame or accomplishment. So… Buy him!”

After he received his command, on the following day, Gu Luo began to try to curry favor with Shaar.

“My lord Shaar, with a feat like yours this time, when you return to the capital you must be receiving a lot of attention right?” Gu Luo purposefully began to butter him up. “Life must be so nice, with such a glorious achievement, wealth and power will begin to roll in.”

Shaar, in contrast, sighed, face full of indifference. “Wealth and power, huh? Humph, so what?”

He rubbed his nose. Sitting on his horse, the chilly wind made his nose runny. “For money, it’s sufficient as long as you have enough to use. In regards to what to eat, it’s enough if you can fill your stomach. As for sleeping, no matter how large your house is, you only need a single bed to sleep. Although delicacies are good, eating too much of them will become tiring….”

Hmm, he doesn’t love money, then he must love women right?

Gu Luo set his heart on this point, so he opened his mouth and said, “From your lordship’s youth and promising look, there must be no shortage of beauties by your side right?”

Upon arriving at this point, he suddenly poked at this hillbilly’s weakness!! This hillbilly’s face suddenly changed colors….

Women huh….he recalled that scene at the inn in (lol) Wildfire town, where that little child ran into Aunt Sofia’s embrace and called her “Mother.”

Ahh… a tragedy….

Upon seeing the expression on Shaar’s face, Gu Luo immediately became excited, as he had finally found a point of breakthrough! This guy seems to have a weakness towards women!!

And so, Gu Luo delicately phrased his words to dig deeper, to see what this guy’s preference in women was.

I’m not afraid of what interests you have, I’m just afraid that you don’t have any at all!

No matter what kind of women you want, beautiful, glamorous, tsundere, or a loli … you only need to open your mouth and ask, with our capabilities, nothing is a problem!

As a result, although he tried digging for an extremely long time, the beauty standards that his old man filled him with were forcefully suppressed and hidden and he even had a faint feeling that his old man tricked him….

(Old man… still, once again, laughing from the underworld…)

However, Gu Luo was not without a harvest of his own, after digging for half a day, he finally heard a clue from Shaar’s mouth.

“The women that I like … probably … Hmm, is probably like Aunt Sofia right… Mm, should be something like that. Shaar’s voice was not as assured as before.

However, upon receiving this piece of information, Gu Luo was as if he received a piece of treasure, and that night returned to that youth to discuss with him.

That night, that youth sent out a decisive order.

“Search!! Mobilize all of our information networks! Find it out for me! Find out all of the information surrounding this Sofia woman!! I want to know everything about her!!”

Very quickly, all of the information networks and agencies of the Landis in the northern part of the Byzantine Empire received an emergency order!

After mobilizing such a force, they quickly aimed to find out all the materials regarding a woman called Sofia in Wildfire Town!

In a short period of time, chaos ensued.

Countless spy and intelligence personnel that the Landis empire had diligently cultivated for many years all surged in swarms to that little town on the Wildfire Plains.

Many years later, when Gu Luo had become the head of the Landis Empire’s Ministry of Intelligence, whenever he recalled this happening he would feel grief and indignance, and he considered this incident to be the biggest stain on his reputation in his life- that he once sent a third of all the intelligence personnel in northern Byzantium to investigate a little town’s auntie…. This incidence had also become the biggest ridicule in his entire career.

“Fuck! That year I was tricked by that asshole! What kind of bullshit background! He’s a hillbilly from his head down to his feet! A dumb virgin that has never seen a beautiful woman!!!”