Chapter 1564: Targeting Toolmakers
A few days before the wedding, Sean and the others went to their targets. They were one of the main reasons they were here, after all.
The main targets of this mission were the toolmakers and servants associated with the Golds.
They were asked to determine who remained loyal to the Golds, who betrayed, and who were having trouble because they were associated with them.
For the latter, they were also tasked to determine if it was possible—and safe—to take them with them. Of course, this was assuming they were willing to go, as well.
For most, it actually wasn’t too bad. As long as it wasn’t working for the Lord, the servants were able to take employment elsewhere. They mourned for the Golds—still were—but people had families and they had to live, too.
Fortunately, there was little to gain in torturing the Golds’ servants, but a lot to gain by recruiting them instead. First of all, the Golds kept few servants, and each one of them functioned better than a few of other nobles’.
Gaia was a superior head of domestic issues and only accepted the best (who also passed the character tests), and also trained them well. This was something quite well-known and had been a model for many noble ladies’ handling of their respective households.
There was a good effect of superior training, as well as the fact that most of their servants were citizens, too, even if some of them—especially the older ones—used to be slaves.
The Golds just paid that
well back then.Anyway, most of the servants had been taken and hired by other noble families. They were good workers, after all, and there was a certain prestige in getting them in their households (and an added bonus if they’d be willing to serve for a lot less salary).
So in that line, there was little Sean and the others could do. The Golds mentioned that if the servants were living decently, there was no need to disrupt their lives.
Toolmakers were a different story. They were a lot more prideful and would usually work independently unless they had a deal with powerful individuals. They were also not easily taken by nobles, because their stature was about the same.
When the Golds disappeared, while some did quickly ally with the lord, there were others who preferred to do things independently.
However, the Lord had been subtly punishing them using other people, so they were suffering.
Of course, the Lord didn’t make things too obvious. It was more like he was trying to get them to approach him on their own. Toolmakers were rare professionals and had to be handled with care—they’d just move elsewhere or get rescued by other territories otherwise.
However, so far, Lord Bleumrick had managed to stop this by closely monitoring the toolmakers and anyone who approached them. This was why even now, they hadn’t dared approach them yet.
In the meantime, during the past weeks, they had zeroed in on a few toolmakers, studied their situation, and made plans on how to contact them without getting detected by Bleulle.
There were two toolmakers they hoped to recruit. One of them was Kalfene, who was a Class C Toolmaker who could make aether letters!
Imagine if they could have an endless supply of it! Especially now that they found out radio waves and such didn’t work the same way as in Terran, such ways to communicate were extremely important!
Apparently, the waves were intercepted by aether or whatever and it would take a long time for the researchers to find a workaround, especially when they were all busy with other projects.
Anyway, having a surge of aether letters would be a dream come true!
Speaking of Kalfene, he was pretty much kicked out by his former colleagues, who had signed a decade-long deal with the Lord.
To keep him working for them, the Lord still lent him a small house to live in, provided he gave a good price for the aether letters.
However, Sean and the others found out that many people who had been trying to convince Kalfene to take the deals were likely sent by the Lord.
This happened many times, and there was one time they even witnessed it happening live.
Kalfene refused adamantly, saying the Golds saved his life and he would not be able to work if he were under the person who wronged them.
They were excessively brave words, but he had the capital of talent, so he was still alive... for now.
When his former juniors, who were now working under the Lord, were to achieve his level... then nobody knew what his fate would be.
A similar case was happening to Sleuth, a Class D Toolmaker who could create the Voice Blocker—also a very useful tool!
He was not originally from Bleulle, but was pirated by Otto from his hometown South.
Like Kalfene, he also refused to serve the Lord or any other noble family and was selling things independently. The raw materials were sold at high prices to him, though, but when he raised the prices in turn, he’d get a lot of nagging.
Anyway, their lives were difficult. They did not lack basic needs, but there was not a day that they felt peace.
According to their investigations over the past couple of weeks, there were a few territories that tried to recruit them were blocked rather harshly.
It was considered immoral to pirate other people’s talents anyway, but strength spoke, so the other places could only step back if they didn’t want Bleulle territory as their enemy.
That said, this made Sean and the group all the more careful. Afraid that recruiting these people would not be worth it. However, when they reported this to Alterra, they just told them to go ahead.
They were told to be as subtle as possible, and if it got dangerous, then abort the mission. As always, the bosses reiterated: their lives and safety were priority, if those were threatened, then nothing else mattered.
As proud Alterrans though, how could they not do their best?