Within the Baruch clan manor, Hogg was reclining in a chair, carefully reading an exceedingly thick book.
“Lord Hogg, dinner is prepared.” A female servant said respectfully.
Ever since Housekeeper Hiri had gone off to accompany Wharton to the O’Brien Empire, the Baruch clan no longer had any servants in their employ. But Hogg was the clan leader of the clan of the Dragonblood Warriors. He couldn’t do all the servant’s work himself, right? So he forced himself to hire a female servant.”
“Oh.” Hogg closed his book and glanced at the female servant. In his heart, he sighed, “Fortunately, now that these other nobles know that my son is a genius magus at the Ernst Institute, they are willing to loan me money again. Otherwise, life would be even tougher.”
Based on the low taxation rate in Wushan township, Hogg was only able to just barely pay his bodyguard’s salary and also pay his yearly tithe to the kingdom. Hogg felt unhappy just thinking about it. By the time the clan had fallen into his hands, virtually all things of value had been sold off.
Fortunately…
He, Hogg, had two sons, two wonderful sons.
“Linley is already a magus of the fifth rank. He will graduate soon. By then, I can hand the position of clan leader to him, and I’ll be able to do some things I have always wanted to do.”
Hogg stood up, preparing to head towards the dining room, when suddenly…
“Lord Hogg, Lord Hogg!” Hillman’s voice rang out from afar.
Hogg looked questioningly towards the main gate. In a short period of time, Hillman ran in, and right besides Hillman was a tall, sturdily built young fellow.
Upon seeing the young fellow, a smile blossomed upon Hogg’s face. Laughing loudly, he advanced. “Linley, you are back. Haha, this is wonderful. This is an enormous surprise!”
“Agatha [A’jia’sa], please prepare a more sumptuous dinner.” Hogg intimately patted Linley on the shoulders. “Nice, kid. You are almost as tall as me now. Oh, right. I thought you were usually only allowed to come back at the end of each year. This time?…”
Linley smiled secretly. “Father, I’ll tell you later, during dinner.”
“So mysterious?” Hogg intentionally frowned at Linley.
Hillman, next to them, laughed, “Lord Hogg, Linley wouldn’t tell me either, but he’s prepared a mysterious gift for you. I asked him what, but he refused to say.”
“Uncle Hillman!” Linley frowned at Hillman.
“Alright, I’ll be quiet, I’ll be quiet.” Hillman laughed loudly.
Darkness fell upon the world, blanketing the earth in shadows, but the Baruch clan manor’s dining room was brightly lit with many lanterns. After finishing dinner, the serving girl Agatha cleared the table, leaving behind only Linley and Hogg in the room. Only now did Linley place the backpack in front of his father.
“This is?” Hogg stared suspiciously at Linley.
“We’ll open it in a bit.” Linley stood up and closed the door to the room. Hogg couldn’t help but chuckle. “As secretive as all that? You even went to close the door.”
Linley sat down confidently. “Father, you can open the backpack now.”
“Hrmph, let me see just what you have in here.” Hogg curiously opened the backpack, but much to his surprise, there was another sack inside the backpack. The mouth to the large sack was closed tightly, and it was bulging with the magicite cores that were hidden within it.
Rubbing his hands against the sack, Hogg said suspiciously, “What a large sack. It doesn’t feel like gold inside. Can it be pebbles?” Hogg didn’t understand what was going on. As he spoke, he opened the sack up.
As soon as the sack opened…
Gaudy, beautiful, multicolored magicite cores all gleamed with rainbow light. Hogg couldn’t help but feel dazed upon seeing them. This sack was filled to the brim with magicite cores. In all his life, Hogg had never seen so many.
“These are magicite cores?” Hogg’s eyes were round, and he stared at Linley in astonishment. And then, he slowly swallowed. Hogg had seen magicite cores before, but he had never seen so many in one place. So many magicite cores in one sack really did have the capacity to astonish its viewers.
Linley nodded. “Right. This bag is filled almost exclusively with magicite cores. There’s a very small number of magestones inside as well. Based on what I read, these magicite cores should be worth a total of around 70,000 gold coins.”
“Seventy thousand gold coins?” Hogg felt his heart pump frantically.
All these years, Hogg had been suffering from the restrictions of money. By now, even if one just wanted Hogg to produce 500 gold coins, Hogg would probably have to go borrow money. One could imagine how dire their straits were.
Seventy thousand gold coins!
What sort of wealth was this? 70,000 gold pieces definitely could keep the entire Baruch clan fed for over a hundred years.