Roland's surprise, the Seventh Guardian, Thunder-Drinking Blood Fiend

When the Icebreaker reached Faoken's docks, everyone disembarked from the warship.

Their first glimpse of Faoken made them wonder whether they had come to the wrong place.

After all, Hawk and the others remembered how miserable these docks had looked when they left Faoken half a year earlier. The so-called docks had been little more than a makeshift arrangement of stones, with crooked planks covering the piers and holes in many of them. Yet in just six months, not only had every facility been renovated, the docks had also expanded several times over! Most importantly, every berth was occupied, and workers hauling cargo back and forth filled the entire waterfront. The sheer volume of goods passing through rivaled even the largest port in the Ostan Duchy.

They gazed at the dense, seemingly endless throng of workers on the docks nearby.

Hawk had no doubt that if John had not arranged this berth for them in advance, they would not even have found a place to set foot. "This is simply incredible!"

"He expanded the port tenfold in just six months. That's Governor John for you!"

Looking at the utterly transformed Faoken Port, everyone marveled inwardly, their amazement mingled with pride.

Of course, while Hawk and the other longtime members rejoiced at their territory's development, no one was more surprised than Roland himself. In truth, even after receiving Krauser's recommendation, he had remained skeptical about coming to Faoken.

His inquiries had informed him of the various commercial ventures John, the governor of Faoken, had launched recently. In particular, he had heard about the ruin exploration venture that the Empire's aristocratic circles had condemned as utterly shameless and a disgrace to the nobility.

The first time he saw that fraudulent scheme, he was utterly awestruck.

Before then, he had never imagined that