When Rowan reached the guardhouse, he saw a group of soldiers gathered around D''andre, who was performing impressive magic tricks to entertain them. The air was filled withughter and amazement as D''andre showcased his abilities, his hands moving gracefully to weave spells.
"Look at this," D''andre said with a cheeky smile. He mixed light and wind magic together to create several fast-spinning, small balls of light that danced in the air around him, leaving trails of luminescence.
"Wow! So cool!"
"Incredible! I''ve never seen anything like it!"
"If I could do that, I''d be married by now!"
The young soldiers were easily drawn to the awe-inspiring tricks of D''andre, their eyes wide with wonder as they pped and cheered.
D''andre was still performing when he spotted Rowan and ra approaching from a distance. His smile brightened immediately; he called off the spell, causing the glowing orbs to vanish into sparks, and rushed to meet them.
Rowan also smiled and extended his hand to shake D''andre''s. "Wee back to my—"
He halted his greeting when D''andre ignored him and walked past to greet ra first. Rowan''s hand remained hanging mid-air, and a flicker of annoyance crossed his face.
"My beautiful ra, the woman who has been ruling my dreams with her lovely face since we met," D''andre dered, his eyes shining with admiration. "I can''t wash the thought of your beautiful face out of my head..." He began spewing all the romantic words he could think of, each one more extravagant than thest.
Rowan''s face twitched with anger and disappointment; he could not believe D''andre would actually leave his hand hanging just to speak with a woman who might not even fall for him. A mix of irritation and disbelief surged through him as he clenched his outstretched hand into a fist.
''This ridiculous fool!'' Rowan cursed inwardly and turned toward both of them.
D''andre leaned in, arms open wide, attempting to embrace ra while pouring out romantic words, but ra gave him her usual cold reaction, stepping back to maintain her distance.
She only responded with a simple and neutral "Wee," her face expressionless as she gracefully sidestepped his attempts at a hug.
"Come on, don''t be cold with me; my feeble heart will shatter if you keep being this distant," D''andre pleaded, his smile unwavering. He tried another set of wooing words, each more heartfelt than thest, but none of them worked on ra.
''You deserve it, you fool!'' Rowan grinned.
The soldiers behind Rowan at this moment were all surprised that even an angelic figure like D''andre could not win the heart of ra. They exchanged nces, murmuring among themselves.
"I used to think she ignored me because I wasn''t handsome and strong enough," one soldier whispered. "But seeing how she treats Mister Angel, maybe I''m not that bad."
"Yeah, me too! We weren''t the ugly ones; ra just has expensive tastes!" another replied, chuckling softly.
The young soldiers whispered among themselves, a mixture of relief and amusement in their voices.
Rowan smirked upon hearing their words, finding some sce in the fact that he wasn''t the only one amused by D''andre''s futile attempts.
D''andre''s cheeky smile faded after so much rejection. Clearing his throat, he turned to look at Rowan with an awkward smile, as if hoping to erase the earlier slight. He began approaching him, hand stretched out for a handshake. "Wassup, my good friend Rowan, it''s been a long time."
''You expect me to respond to yours when you ignored mine? You must be out of your mind!'' Rowan thought, a sly grin spreading across his face.
He did the same thing D''andre did, walking right past him without acknowledging the outstretched hand, causing D''andre''s confidence to waver slightly.
"Hahaha, I see your territory has evolved already!" D''andre eximed, trying to brush off the awkwardness. "I have a lot of items avable now. You will definitely love them. I even have a map of the Southreach continent; it includes some dungeons with unique rewards!" He kept his hand extended, attempting to y it off smoothly by speaking casually with Rowan.
''Dungeons with unique rewards! Those were really rare toe by in Emperor''s Domain,'' Rowan thought excitedly. But he shook his head, reminding himself of the earlier slight, feeling pretty disappointed in D''andre''s behavior.
"We can''t discuss all that out here," he said firmly, turning on his heel and starting to walk away. ra fell into step beside him without a word.
D''andre sighed, realizing he might have pushed things too far, and followed them toward the meeting hall.
---
At the meeting hall, Rowan and D''andre could be seen sitting opposite each other. Rowan had a neutral expression on his face while D''andre wore his usual cheeky smile.
"To be able to evolve your territory in less than a month of transmigration, you are really something special, Rowan," said D''andre, leaning back in his chair. "Makes me wonder why you weren''t popr on Earth with this insane prowess," he continued, raising an eyebrow.
Rowan only snorted; back then, he didn''t possess as many high-quality skills as he does now. Unlike the lucky and rich yers like Venerable Mario, who had more than enough resources on their hands at any time.
"I brought a lot of goodies for you today! Since your territory has reached F-rank, you''ll be able to purchase F-rank and E-rank items. But I''ll warn you not to be surprised at the price of the E-rank ones; they are far more expensive than what you got thest time I was here."
Rowan nodded; he was more than prepared already to buy anything. Also, he would love to sell.
"You are a merchant; you do not only sell items but you also buy them, right?" he asked.
"Of course. Do you have anything you want to sell?" D''andre leaned forward, his interest piqued.
"I have a lot of them. Also, I would like to obtain gold coins, and if you can, I want you to connect my vige with other territories around so we could do business and form connections. That''s not too difficult for you, right?"
D''andre nodded his head thoughtfully. "I can do all of that, but it''ll cost you a lot. However, I''ll take you as my friend, so I''ll give you a healthy discount."
"No problem," Rowan agreed; as long as the cost wasn''t above a billion evolution points, he was more than ready to do it.
"You want to sell or buy first? Which one?"
Rowan picked sell, and D''andre muttered lowly, "Reveal target inventory."
These windows appeared in front of D''andre. At the same time...
Rowan was a little confused when he read the texts disyed on the window but revealed it anyway. After all, he had nothing he would like to hide, and even if he revealed the contents to D''andre, he was sure D''andre wouldn''t be able to collect them.
After Rowan epted, his inventory was quickly revealed to D''andre.
D''andre''s expression crumbled when he saw the items in Rowan''s inventory. "Seven thousand monster cores! Six thousand-plus weapons and many more! What type of monster are you? How were you able to obtain all these in less than two months—heck! I don''t think it''s up to a month!" D''andre yelled out in deep surprise after seeing everything.
Rowan already expected this reaction, so he was unfazed. To be honest, he too would be shocked if he saw something like this owned by a mere F-rank territory lord.
Holding two thousand monster cores at the same time for an E-rank territory lord is almost impossible. But yet, a mere F-rank territory lord had more!
"Are you going to keep staring at them or get on with the reason we are here?" Rowan frowned, tapping his fingers lightly on the table.
D''andre looked at him and then at the inventory beforementing loudly, "You are even more insane than Venerable Mario when he was at your level!"
Rowan''s interest piqued when he heard the name of the most popr Emperor''s Domain yer. "Venerable Mario also transmigrated?" he asked without wasting time.
"Venerable Mario has transmigrated far longer than any other transmigrator I''ve met so far. If he is not the first, then he must be amongst the first ten to transmigrate."
D''andre told Rowan so much about Venerable Mario, even sharing how close a friend they were. He recounted tales of their adventures and the challenges they had ovee together.
Rowan became curious and wanted to know about the current rank of Venerable Mario, but D''andre quickly shoved his question aside, saying he couldn''t reveal it to him. "He values his privacy, you see."
"He will be present at the uing Novice Lord Tournament. I''ve told him about you, and he is pretty eager to meet you as well," said D''andre.
"Venerable Mario wants to meet me?" Rowan was pretty surprised. Back on Earth, Venerable Mario was an idol to the gamingmunity, and Rowan was not excluded.
Rowan used to watch his gaming streams back then and was able to obtain some important skills that made his gamey better. To think that such a figure was eager to see him made him curious.
Unfortunately, D''andre did not clear his curiosity any further.
"How much of everything do you want to sell?" D''andre asked, shifting the conversation back to business.
"Everything."
"What? Are you sure?" D''andre''s eyes widened.
"Yes..."
"Tell me the price and exchange 50% of them for coins."
"Hmm, okay, the system will send you the prices; they are non-negotiable, and do not worry, I have no reason to cheat you."
After saying this, D''andre began operating the system in front of him with focused intensity. His fingers moved in the air steadily as he clicked on all the items, navigating through menus only he could see.
Each time he clicked on a specific item and amount, a window appeared in front of Rowan.
...
...
A series of simr notifications appeared before Rowan.
A few minutester, Rowan received a huge amount of evolution points, and severalrge pouches of different coin denominations appeared in his inventory. He nced at the totals, satisfied with the transaction.