Lord Evolution: Starting With SS-rank Skills-Chapter 226: Migration ( 76 )

It was yet another morning with the people of Winterseed worrying about the whereabouts and safety of their beloved Lord Rowan and his men. While the worries were not visible on their faces, the mood across the village quickly revealed the emotions ruling their minds at the moment.

Of course, this mood was felt by Dragun, and he could only pray in his heart that Rowan and his men would return tomorrow, for that was the day they had promised to return.

Dragun had done a pretty good job managing the village, even though the villagers were open about their hate and disgust towards him.

He had patrolled the village throughout the night and, in the morning, did a few rounds of patrolling before halting.

It was morning, and he was about to finish his patrol when the neighing and thumping of horse’s hooves began approaching the village.

"Hmm, visitors? Rowan indeed spoke about merchants coming to purchase his merchandise," he thought.

While Dragun was unfazed by the arrival of the visitors, it was not the same for the villagers.

"War!" one of the elderly men spoke in a shaky voice.

"This is the sound of war; our enemies have found the perfect opportunity to attack us due to the absence of our Lord Rowan!" he continued.

As an elder, his words were seen as true and profound by the younger ones around him, and they became visibly scared.

Their murmurings soon filled the area, and most of them even sprinted back to their houses, shutting their doors behind them to prevent whatever chaos was about to befall the village from reaching them.

"What is happening... Why are the villagers so unsettled this morning?"

Riela approached Dragun.

She had just finished her morning practice and was on her way to the tailor’s house when she saw the villagers running from this direction.

Due to the noise of the villagers, she could not hear the sound of the horses approaching. They were currently standing close to the east border, where the visitors approached from, just like last time.

"They are afraid we are under attack by an enemy village, but that is not really the case," Dragun revealed with a tired expression.

"Visitors are approaching from the east. Lord Rowan spoke about these people; they are nothing but innocent merchants with the intention to do business and form a connection with us," Dragun explained further.

Riela understood right away—Rowan had told her about these visitors and even revealed his intention to make Winterseed a center of attraction for top-class merchants and to build strong relationships.

"Let us go and welcome our visitors then," Riela suggested.

Dragun wanted to refuse. While he believed those approaching visitors were merchants, there was still a chance he might be wrong, and Riela might get hurt.

’Riela is not the same helpless girl as before; she would be able to defend herself,’ he thought.

With this thought, he did not refuse her suggestion, and both of them proceeded to the eastern border, walking past the thick bush until arriving at the unmanned guardhouse.

Standing in front of the guardhouse, they saw a group of men riding horses and driving horse-drawn carriages approaching.

They were about twenty in number.

Six carriages rode in the middle, and two horsemen mounted the flanks of the carriage line.

With Dragun’s improved eyesight, he spotted the sword at the waist of those riding the horses that guarded the carriages.

"Merchants and mercenaries," he muttered.

He had been in the position of the mercenaries before, thus he found the formation extremely familiar.

The group soon arrived before them and halted.

The men on the horses were the first to dismount, grabbing their swords.

The men from the carriages got down after and approached Dragun and Riela with smiles.

"Good day, beautiful lady and gallant sire," they greeted almost in unison.

Dragun nodded with a smile, and Riela nodded as well, though her eyes were focused on the armed merchant.

"They mean no harm, my lady," one of them noticed her eyes and said.

He then signaled the mercenaries to drop their weapons and step back.

Afterward, they introduced themselves formally.

The men explained they were merchants from a big noble clan called the Black Gem. The Black Gem were one of the leading clans of a Dukedom according to the merchants, and as expected, they were here to check out the magical merchandise.

"Please come with me," Dragun invited them in.

The men—excluding the mercenaries who guarded the carriages—followed Dragun to the meeting hall.

The villagers who had been worried earlier finally quieted down after seeing the friendly strangers strolling with Riela and Dragun.

Some of them could not help but blame the elderly man who had started the ruckus in the first place. The elder felt extremely embarrassed and apologized, saying that he was only trying to keep them safe from the unknown.

On the other hand, Dragun and the merchants sat down inside the meeting hall and began their discussion.

Riela had already gone to the tailor’s house, leaving Dragun alone with the merchants.

"You should be much younger, according to our sources," one of the merchants said.

"Yeah, you should be around the age of nineteen or twenty, according to our sources," another added.

"Haha, the one you’re talking about is my son and the Lord of Winterseed. He is on a very important mission, and I’m standing in for him," Dragun explained with a smile.

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The merchants looked at each other, clearly confused.

"Standing in for him?"

They found his situation quite perplexing.

Dragun was not embarrassed to explain everything to them. In fact, he was proud.

"He is a better Lord than I am. He has been able to develop the village so much in less than a year—something I could never achieve in years," he narrated.

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He even told them how the magical merchandise they spoke about was created by none other than Rowan himself.

His story shocked the merchants, but they had no choice but to believe him.

After the introductions were sorted out, Dragun revealed the sewing machine, and as usual, its wonderful appearance and design immediately captured their attention.

They immediately began bargaining prices, and thankfully Dragun was a master of bargaining much like Rowan, enabling him to sell the sewing machine at a really high price, closer to that of Rowan’s.

Dragun also sold weapons to them at high prices due to their quality.

The trade ended very well.