After his first successful trade, Dorian headed home and returned to the blacksmith the following day.
That’s right, after striking a deal with the blacksmith, he told the man he would be coming the next day with a contract to seal their deal, and the man should also get his daughter ready.
Knowing things were going according to plan, Dorian couldn’t help but wear an evil grin on his face.
’Maria Gadina, or so she is called.’
The daughter of the single blacksmith in the entire barony.
According to the rumors, Dorian and Maria were once close, until suddenly they were not, and Maria went to study at the royal academy.
When she came back, she was known to be a powerful knight, already accruing the rank of Master in a brief amount of time.
But rather than taking the offer to be a knight for the royal capital, she chose to remain in the barony, serving and protecting the people.
However, it was not under any noble; she carried this out as a citizen herself. As such, people respected her so much; she was practically the angel of the Aurelian barony.
It wouldn’t be a far stretch to say people loved her as much as they loved the baroness, and the baroness is someone who is never hated, despite the situation of the land.
’If I get someone like that to work alongside me, getting the people’s trust and faith to carry out future projects will be less tasking, hehe. This might not be a bad idea.’
[Evil lord, would you like your stats updated?]
’Shush, not now. I have a damsel to win over,’ he paused, ’But first, I need to steal something from my father.’
...
Later that day, Dorian arrived at the blacksmith shop with the dragon iron ore.
Standing in the same spot as last time, Dorian was particularly surprised to see the additional person standing in the room with him.
She was standing behind the blacksmith, her eyes cold and almost frightening.
’Maria?’
Dorian couldn’t help but stare for a while.
It had been a while since he had seen her; from Dorian’s memories, she would always go out of her way to avoid him, but taking a closer look now, for a warrior, she looked exceptionally beautiful.
Her long silver hair glittered like the light of a full moon; her eyes, though big, held so much hatred and disgust. Not to mention her overly attractive physique.
Licking his lips, Dorian made slow steps to the front.
He then dropped the sack on the hard surface.
"Is this your daughter, old man?" he asked with a princely-like voice, obviously trying to look good in front of the barony’s angel.
The old man responded with his arms folded, "Yes, I managed to convince her, but she had a few ifs and so on. Perhaps you should discuss it with one another."
’Ifs and what? Are you screwing with me, old man?’ Dorian didn’t say anything, but his piercing gaze was enough to convey his emotion.
Unexpectedly, Maria spoke up.
"Why is it you want me to work for you all of a sudden? I already rejected the offer a few years back."
Dorian clicked his tongue as he looked to the side.
’This old man should have handled all of this, tsk!’
Turning his attention back to the girl, he replied.
"Okay, I’ll be honest. I want to rebuild the barony and make it prosperous again; in order to do that, I need you to gain the trust of the people. And also, you can protect me if I am about to get ganged up on—killing two birds with one stone, as they say. Is that truth enough for you?" He raised his hand with a shrug.
For some reason, the expression on the girl’s face changed slightly, almost as if she heard something that warmed her heart, but it vanished just as quickly as it came.
"Why should I help you? There are many other thugs that will gladly be a better protector."
"None of them are master rank, though. Besides," Dorian stuck his pinky finger in his ear, "I know for a fact you want this barony to succeed, at least from the rumors. Since you’re willing to work for free. So why not take the offer to up the chances? It seems pretty valid to me. What could you possibly lose?"
"My sanity." Maria threw a cold gaze his way.
Rather than acknowledge it, Dorian waved his hand. "Nah, you won’t, trust me. I have studied sanity-related books."
After a while of silence, Maria uttered, "I accept, but only because i know how much my father wants whatever it is you sold to him. That said, the moment I see you are doing the direct opposite, I will leave you without a second thought."
"Excellent choice!"
Dorian reached into a pocket and pulled out a very thick document, placing it right in front of the blacksmith before he dropped a pen on the very top.
"...Just to seal our deal, sign the contract."
"What is this?" asked the old man.
"Just a contract; feel free to read it if you want. It’s 50 pages, but I have the time." Dorian smiled rather gravely.
Thinking about it for a while, the old man read the contract; after getting to the 20th page and seeing it only covered information about payments, he decided to sign it.
"Thank you for your time. Now then—"
Dorian pointed at Maria. "Let’s go do something illegal!"