Chapter 476 476 Quality Goods
Chapter 476 476 Quality Goods
While the chaos of the shopping frenzy began to die down, the soldiers moved forward to take a look at the weapons. They would be the ones most likely to be using them, and the old women weren’t all that interested in them, preferring to leave matters of defence to their successors in the younger generations.
“These are fine weapons. I don’t see a single tooling mark or defect on them.” One of the soldiers noted.
“The bows are top quality as well. I don’t think that these are surplus items that they have enchanted. These are magically made.” One of the others agreed.
“We’re ready to meet with the senior officers now. Young man, would you be so good as to help me back to the meeting hall?” One of the Elders asked, but Wolfe saw her casting an envious glance at the enchanted walker.
Wolfe held out his hand for the old woman to take and then cast a gravity and wind magic inscription on her glove. Not a permanent one, but it would get them to the meeting hall in style.
Cassie shook her head as the cackling old witch did her best imitation of a debutante walk, strutting along with her hand on Wolfe’s arm like he was leading her to a formal ball.
The Colonel chuckled and held out his arm for Cassie to take.
“Since your husband has been absconded with, might I accompany you to the meeting?” He asked with a teasing smirk.
“Why, thank you. Who would have thought these young ladies were all threats looking to join his harem of Consorts.” Cassie laughed.
The witches laughed and joked as they walked into the meeting hall, making the soldiers wonder what had put this notoriously irritable group into such a good mood. They barely tolerated each other most of the time, but today, they were laughing and joking while accompanying a young couple that must be the Demon and his escort into the room.
“Gentlemen, might I have your attention for a moment to introduce Mister Wolfe Noxus, better known as the Snow Demon, and his Consort, Cassie Noxus. They are here as the representatives of the Forest Grove village, and they have brought quite the array of trade goods.” The Mayor introduced them while her mother, the Village Elder, took the seat on her right-hand side.
“Welcome back, Mister Wolfe.” One of the officers who had met Wolfe last time he was here greeted him, while the others replied with a polite nod and waited for the meeting to start.
“Today, the delegation from Forest Grove has brought us an entire Cargo Container full of magical goods. We have hundreds of enchanted outfits for the ladies, housewares and a collection of a few hundred enchanted weapons, both swords and bows, that are inscribed to a standard beyond anything that the Witches of the Swamp can achieve.” The Mayor explained.
“Hundreds of dresses? Oh, that should be popular back home.” One of the officers agreed, while the Colonel and the others who were there tried not to laugh.
“I’m afraid that the village Elders have spoken for most of the contents of this load, but the weapons will be evenly split among the military delegations, as per our previous agreement.” The Mayor informed him.
The soldier sighed and looked around the room at the unrepentant old women.
“I should have expected that. Alright, the rest of the villagers and the trade groups can wait for the next load. We weren’t expecting it to come this quickly anyhow.” He sighed.
Cassie nodded and addressed the room. “In light of the surprisingly large alliance that we have found here, we have made plans to increase the number of trade goods that we will be sending in the future. We originally intended to bring three pontoon planeloads a month, but that amounts to less than we have brought here today, and it was all instantly claimed.
It might take a few weeks to build up enough with our other obligations, but we will come again with another container load of goods, and we can tailor it to your requirements if you need something different than what we had today.”
That got the officers all excited. The village here had a Garden Charm cast on it, but only one other out of the thirty-two did, and Cassie still had the Witch charms with her. They weren’t in the cargo container.
Other than the daily basics, those charms were the promised item that every village Elder was after. Well, that and the possibility that Wolfe might cast a protective barrier around their village in the future.
The rumours of his power had placed him at Rank Three, but now that they were close enough to examine him properly, it was obvious that he was on the low end of the Fifth Rank.
That much power was enough that if he put his mind to it, he could start to level cities at a time and restart the old war once again. One demon who had run amok was all it would take to level a country. The oldest of them knew, as they were still alive the last time that it happened, and the Kingdom of Hiziros, to the north of the mountains, had been razed.
Eventually, the Demon had been put down, but at great cost to everyone. This time, they suspected that it might not be so easy. Wolfe wasn’t a rogue Demon insane with rage that his Witch had been attacked, and he had a decent understanding of military tactics and modern weapons.
He had even shown up here in a military helicopter. If they wanted to go against his fledgling empire now, they were going to have to overcome not only the mutants of the Wastes but their own weapons upgraded and turned against them.
Not that Gormana was planning any such thing. They just wanted to be ready for the fallout when the Grand Dutchies did.
“These weapons that you brought, are they the top tier of what your Witches produce? We have some rather nasty monsters in my end of the Swamp.” One of the officers asked.
Wolfe shook his head. “They’re sufficient to deal with Rank Two monsters. At the moment, that is all that we feel comfortable trading with outsiders. We are allies and intend to remain that way, but it has only been half a year since your army marched across our land without so much as a [By your leave].”
The officer looked outraged, but a man in the back burst into laughter.
“You know, it just occurred to me that if we had explained the situation and that we were here to ensure the sanctions on the Grand Dutchies remained intact, they likely would have just let us drive through, and we wouldn’t have suffered a single casualty all winter.” The man chuckled.
“But they’re well, you know. Wouldn’t they have defended their, no wait, the Frozen Wastes weren’t allied to the Witches at the start of the winter, were they? That started with Mister Wolfe. Dammit, you might be right, your Highness,” the man next to him muttered.
All eyes turned to them at the mention of the words “Your Highness,” and the laughing man suddenly turned very serious.
“Fourth Son of the Chancellor of Gormana, Niall Leopold.” The man stood to introduce himself.