Dismissal

"Mm."

Gask nodded and said to the kneeling men, "Get up."

The merchants rose trembling and huddled together, staring at Gask and Butler Lauren with terrified eyes.

As though doing so could give them a little more sense of security.

Bang.

Following behind Gask, Butler Lauren flung Nitrang's corpse in front of the merchants.

After rolling across the ground several times, Nitrang's body came to a stop before them, face up.

The merchants could not help but glance at Nitrang.

There was dried blood on his forehead, streaks of blood on his face, foam at the corners of his mouth, and his chest had caved in toward his back...

What a miserable death...

"Your merchant association found that person for me. According to the task I posted, I will pay you a reward of one hundred thousand gold coins."

"This, Lord Gask... our admiration for you is as lofty as the mountains and as vast as the sea."

"We are more than willing to serve Lord Gask. There is no need for any reward."

"Yes, yes, yes, Lord Gask, we don't need a reward."

After hearing the old man's words, the other merchants hurriedly echoed him, as if they feared that speaking too late would earn them the same fate as Nitrang.

Gask frowned and snorted.

"What are you doing?"

"Do you think I can't afford the reward?"

"No, no, no, Lord Gask, how could you possibly be unable to afford it? We merely..."

"Then that settles it."

Gask waved a hand, cutting off the white-haired elder. He then said to Butler Lauren, "Lauren, settle their payment."

"Yes, Lord Gask."

After giving Gask a slight bow, Butler Lauren walked up to the merchants, reached into his robes, and pulled out a purple-gold card, handing it to them.

"This is an Imperial Bank Purple Gold Card. With it, you can exchange it for one hundred thousand gold coins at any Imperial Bank."

Butler Lauren's heart was bleeding.

Those one hundred thousand gold coins had been scraped together from the twenty thousand gold coins he had saved over the years while serving as Viscount Gask's butler, plus the eighty thousand gold coins he had skimmed from Nitrang's reward for this task.

Moreover, in order to avoid arousing suspicion, while Viscount Gask had gone to meet Nitrang, Butler Lauren had taken those one hundred thousand gold coins to the Imperial Bank in Gemur City and exchanged them for a Purple Gold Card.

He had never expected Lord Gask to see through him in the end.

Butler Lauren knew that Lord Gask carrying that bag of twenty thousand gold coins and still making him pay the merchants one hundred thousand gold coins was his punishment.

If he could not cough up those one hundred thousand gold coins, Nitrang's fate would be his warning.

"Then... thank you, Lord Gask."

The old man hesitated for a moment before finally bowing to thank Gask. Only then did he reach out to accept the Purple Gold Card from Butler Lauren.

When he gave it a slight tug, the white-haired elder was surprised to find that he could not pull the Purple Gold Card from Butler Lauren's hand.

Just as the elder was about to let go, Butler Lauren took a deep breath and stiffly pushed the Purple Gold Card toward him before releasing it and slowly walking over to Gask.

"Lord Gask, I have paid their reward."

"Mm."

Gask nodded, then said to the merchants, "Now that our transaction is complete, payment and goods are settled. No objections?"

"Mm, no objections, Lord Gask."

Looking at the Purple Gold Card in the white-haired elder's hand, the merchants all let out a sigh of relief.

Since Lord Gask was willing to pay the task reward, they would most likely survive.

However, Gask's next words made everyone's hearts leap into their throats.

"Since that is the case, let us discuss the next matter."

"I imagine you are all wondering why I killed Nitrang even though he completed the task I assigned him."

The merchants wore troubled expressions. How could they possibly know why Lord Gask had killed Nitrang?

Clatter...

Gask tossed out the gray money bag in his hand, and gold coins immediately spilled from it.

"I was delayed by some matters, so I had Butler Lauren withdraw one hundred thousand gold coins from the treasury to pay your task reward."

"The gold coins in this bag are the reward Butler Lauren paid Nitrang. You may take a look."

"This..."

The merchants looked at one another. In the end, it was still the older merchant who stepped forward and picked up the money bag.

In an instant, the white-haired old man's expression changed.

The amount was wrong!

One hundred thousand gold coins could not possibly weigh so little.

As merchants, they frequently handled enormous quantities of gold coins.

Every member of their merchant guild received at least two thousand gold coins a year, which meant that the guild as a whole handled at least thirty to fifty thousand gold coins annually.

The old man only needed to lift it once to know that there were, at most, around twenty thousand gold coins inside.

The reward had been one hundred thousand gold coins, yet less than twenty thousand had ultimately reached their hands...

"How ruthless!"

The old man could imagine that if it had been him, being so openly cheated like this, he would probably have been utterly helpless as well.

Even more frightening was the question of what they would do if Nitrang had come out carrying only those twenty thousand gold coins.

By then, even the most basic foundation of trust in this merchant guild would be gone. Could the guild still survive?

"After I finished handling my affairs, I intended to come and properly thank the person who completed my task."

"But I never expected that the moment I appeared at the entrance, I would run into this fellow."

As he said this, Gask adjusted his collar, letting the merchants see his slightly disheveled clothes after being struck by Nitrang.

"Gasp..."

After Viscount Gask said that, how could they not understand how Nitrang had died?

"Lord Gask, regarding President Nitrang's matter, we are deeply sorry."

Clearly, after being toyed with by Butler Lauren, President Nitrang had lost his temper and violated Lord Gask's taboo.

"Mm."

Gask nodded, then said to Butler Lauren, "Lauren, for all these years, you have served as my butler in Gemur City, working tirelessly. You have both merit and hardship to your name."

"For the sake of everything you have given over the years, I will not kill you. But from this moment on, you are no longer my butler."

After saying that, Gask did not look back. With his hands clasped behind his back, he walked toward the City Lord's Manor.

But Butler Lauren's expression changed drastically.

He never imagined that Master Gask would abandon him over a mere eighty thousand gold coins.

"No, Lord Gask, I was wrong. Please give me one more chance..."