三个女人的秘密工作生活

Chapter 81: Gathering materials in the Split Mountain part 1

The next day, Gilbert escorted Kayn early in the morning back to the Town Hall while Natas followed closely behind the two.

Just like what Gilbert had mentioned yesterday, Old Chief George had long already finished his revision to The Ways of 'The Bridge' a few minutes later after they left the Town Hall. The rest of the time he gave them was indeed just for Kayn to use to consider the matter.

"I have brought Kayn, Old Chief," Gilbert reported their arrival.

"You're earlier than I expected," Old Chief George felt slightly disappointed as he looked at Kayn. "I was assuming that you'd come here late, like a day or two late,"

"I imagine that you will escape my Village in the evening then once you reach the Tenderfoot Village you will realize the mistake you've committed after you find out the hard way just how worst and bad the living condition of that place is,"

"I was expecting that because of that reason, you will crawl your way right back in front of me and beg me to have mercy and help you. To make sure that I truly agree, you'll use my relationship with Sebastian as your leverage. But what you don't know is, I would actually just pretend to change my mind and accept you back. Albeit, I would still honor my promise to Sebastian, except I will no longer view you favorably,"

"You're underestimating me," Kayn shook his head.

"This is something I always do to someone with the kind of background like yours — an orphan who luckily became the son-in-law of the Mayor of one of the greatest cities on Earth. I know you've lived a fair share of struggle and hardship, that is why now that you're standing in your position right now, you'll think of enjoying the fruits of your labor,"

"Do you always think of people that way?"

"Yes, and that's the exact reason why I survive until now despite being an orphan like you, and on top of that, being an old man," Old Chief George took a piece of paper and slid it in front of Kayn. "Until you prove yourself, my opinion about you will stay as it is. Don't even try to persuade me with mere words, because trust me, a lot of people tried, but all of them failed,"

Kayn understood and took the piece of paper. But before he can begin scanning the content, Old Chief George interrupted him once again.

"I have listed a considerable number of different materials that you can only find in the Split Moutain and nowhere else, and the quantity that I need you to bring to me. Collect all of them and transport them to me in three days. Otherwise, you will continue to repeat this task over and over again until you finally complete it before the deadline,"

"And just to remind you, the more you repeat this task, the fewer materials you can find in Split Mountain. Moreover, there are other people who collect these materials to make a living and I won't be helping you to stop them from doing anything to you. So, good luck, and may the Gods be in your favor," Old Chief George said in his last piece.

"Will Gilbert still be coming with me?" Kayn turns to look at Gilbert.

"I'm afraid not,"

"Even if I want to, I can't. As you know already, I have a job in the Town Hall, which is more important than babysitting you," Gilbert said jokingly. His relationship with Kayn has already reached the point where they can joke like this with each other after they talked at the coffee shop yesterday.

"So, you would choose to do your boring job rather than go adventuring with me?"

"You do your own thing, while I do mine," Gilbert left it at that as he can't reveal anything more to Kayn.

Unbeknownst to Gilbert, his response is actually more than enough for Kayn to understand that he would most likely be following him in secret while he scavenges for the materials on the list.

Kayn is already aware that Gilbert is not just any ordinary receptionist, especially after knowing that he works directly under Old Chief George and the fact that his chosen subclass is Assassin. It's probably because there's not much to do during this time of the month that's why he was temporarily assigned as a receptionist. But now that there is, he would most definitely be leaving that boring job soon and be assigned to a new and important one.

Looking at the list, Kayn notices thirty materials that he needed to collect. It wasn't a lot, but it's definitely not a few as well.

"I guess I have to start looking for them now, lest I failed the task," Kayn said before making his way to the Staff's exit as he doesn't want to be seen leaving the office of Old Chief George. He can already see dozens of people out the window walking inside the Town Hall right now. And he is certain that they will line up in the Chief's office again. There's no telling what their reaction would be after seeing him again receiving what they would most likely assume as special treatment.

As soon as Kayn left the Town Hall, he didn't immediately leave the Green Horn Village to start looking for the materials in the list.

What Old Chief George had given him was only a list of all the names of the materials. He had read some of them along the way, but he can only recognize a good half of them. That's why he has to find another way to be able to identify them. Luckily for him, he knows where exactly to get that information.

Kayn made his way to the Alchemist Shop that Gilbert had pointed to him before.

Arriving at the Alchemist Shop, Kayn quickly bought a book that contains a compilation of all the materials that can be found in Split Mountain. He also bought a compilation of all the materials that can be found in 'The Bridge', obviously intending to study them later on in case one of the future tasks would be to look for one of them.

Once he was done with that, he made his way back to the Green Horn Inn to get some things that he'll be using in his search.

"Is Gilbert following us?" Kayn asks as he pretended to read the book he had just bought.

"He is," Natas confirmed.

"Where is he hiding right now?"

"On the roof of the building to your six o'clock,"

"What do you plan on doing?"

"Inform him that I know where he is at," Kayn suddenly turns around and waves his hand in the direction of Gilbert. "After all, we can use every manpower available to us to help us with all the tasks,"

Not long after, Gilbert revealed himself. He jumps down and quickly approaches Kayn, "How'd you know?"

"As I said before, you guys are underestimating me,"

"Did you know I was following you all this time?"

"From the moment I left the Town Hall,"

"This is bad. I will be punished by Old Chief George once I report this to him," Gilbert felt stressed.

"Why would you do that? You can just pretend that I didn't discover you, right?"

"You…" Gilbert instantly realized what Kayn is planning on doing. This guy wants him to help with his task. "I can't do that,"

"Why?"

"If I help you, The Ways of 'The Bridge' would lose its purpose,"

"I don't mean that you help me directly. You can just help me indirectly. Using this first task as a reference, you can point out the exact location of all of these materials in Split Mountain then you can leave it to me to collect all of them,"

Hearing that, Gilbert turned silent as he starts to consider Kayn's proposal.

"I'll be going back to the Green Horn Inn to grab some stuff. Once I return, I expect to hear your response," Kayn left to give Gilbert some time to think about his proposal.

"Shouldn't you be persuading him relentlessly until he finally agrees?" Natas wonders.

"That would cause me harm rather than good," He can see that Gilbert is loyal to Old Chief George. In that case, if Gilbert misunderstood that he is trying to abolish what Old Chief George is trying to achieve with The Ways of 'The Bridge', which he isn't as he is trying to use it to adapt to this place, then he would no doubt report that he has found him by some means that only he knows. By then, someone else would be tasked to follow him secretly. That would be disadvantageous for him as he won't be familiar with the next person in charge and there's no telling whether that person would truly help him or not if he faces danger.

"I guess you're right," Natas immediately understood the reason why. To simply put, if ever Gilbert felt that Kayn is harming his Master's interest, he would in turn cause harm to Kayn's interest instead.

It didn't take long for Kayn to meet up with Gilbert again. He had already unpacked all of his stuff last night. So, he simply has to store some of the necessary items he things he needs for this task in his Storage Ring, and then he is done.

"Have you made up your mind?" Kayn asked one more time.

"Are you sure that I really won't be directly helping you?" Gilbert still wanted to confirm something.

"All you have to do is provide me with the necessary information I need and I'll be the one to take action to complete them," Kayn assures.

"Okay, I agree," Gilbert put his hand forward.

"Glad that we made an agreement," Kayn shook Gilbert's hand.

With that being said, Kayn and Gilbert departed from Green Horn Village.

Kayn and Natas walked openly, whereas Gilbert continue to hide while at the same time following them pretending as if they don't know where he is.