Level 1 Strongest Sage 1

Glendale’s Royal Castle –

“Oh, Tina, it's been a while.”

“It's been a while – is what I wanted to say; however, wasn't Your Majesty present during Mai and Mei’s birthday banquet at the start of this month?”

Tina came to Kind Gil’s office.

“I was there, but it's been a month already since that party!! You guys should do another banquet. Well, you can also hold one every day, that's totally fine. I will shoulder the expenses and ingredients out of my own pocket, so do it, okay?”

“T-That would be too…”

“Your Majesty, I’ve already said this many times before but please, consider putting yourself in the shoes of your guards.”

Cain, Halt’s brother and the one who took Tina to this place, advised Gil.

“I don’t need guards when going to the safest place in this entire world.”

“However, during the journey –” “That’s not a problem. I can just summon Halt here so he can take me with him.”

So saying, Gil showed the palm-sized crystal to Cain. It was the communication magic tool that Halt gave the royalty of the kingdoms he is friends with. This crystal not only grants a way to communicate with Halt, it’s also possible to contact the other kings that received the same magic tool from him.

This palm-sized tool connected several royalties, moreover, it doesn’t need mana to be activated. It was considered to be upper-level even among the legendary magic tools.

By the way, the bracelets that Halt gave to his wives were far more superior than this crystal.

“...However, it is not good for a king to give special treatment to his subjects.”

“Halt is my friend! Can’t I visit my friend and hang out with him!?”

Cain repeatedly tried to discourage Gil, but he realized that he had to throw a straight ball to Gil, whose main goal was to enjoy Tina’s handmade dishes. “My brother is a married man. No matter how close Your Majesty and Halt is, it would trouble some of his family members if you keep on visiting them.”

“R-Really?”

“Yes. Well…Ah, of course it’s fine if you go visit them to play, if you tone it down to two times a month at most.”

Gil’s most frequent visits were once every three days. Since Halt deems it necessary as the head of the family to entertain his guest, he would definitely stayed with Gil whenever the king visited his home. It wasn’t a big deal for Halt, but some of his wives held grudges because they felt he stole the time they spent with their husband.

“O-Only t-twice a month? N-No way…”

“That’s the reasonable frequency.”

“Please pardon me for interrupting, but may I offer another proposal? Perhaps Your Majesty can commission me to cook and deliver food to you.”

“Commission? What do you mean by commission?”

“Halt-sama is about to become a C-ranked adventurer soon. It’s not finalized yet, but he is also considering establishing his own clan.”

“Whoa! Then that means —”

“G-Goodness, Your Majesty, are you going to issue commissions to Halt’s Clan in the name of the kingdom?”

“That’s fine, don’t you agree? Since I’ve been willfully commissioning the Adventurers’ Guild to get ingredients for me already, the frequency of those commissions will just increase.”

“We are also grateful to receive stable commissions from the kingdom.”

Gil is satisfied with the dishes prepared by the Ernol family regardless of who cooked it. There's no need for them to make pompous garnishing and arrangements to make it presentable for him.

Remuneration for food deliveries doesn’t amount to much. However, there is a classification system for clan commissions, based on who issued the commission and where it was, as well as how many had been accomplished. If it’s a commission from the kingdom, then no matter how trivial it was, it would still be beneficial to the clan.

“I see. Well then, I have to go visit Halt to support him when he takes the Rank Advancement Exam.”

“Please don’t arbitrarily go there. I’ll be accompanying you.”

“Got it, got it. By the way, where will Halt build his clan house? How about he build it on one of the lands I own?”

“Ah, ahm, Your Majesty…”

“Ah! I just had a brilliant idea! He can just make this castle his clan base!”

“This King is really hopeless.”

“Please do not worry about the base site. We already have our eye on an excellent place. Actually, I requested an audience with Your Majesty because there is a favor that I wish to ask.”

“Good, you can ask for whatever you want.”

Gil would grant whatever Tina wished for. That’s because he thought that if he granted her wish, Halt would establish his clan in this kingdom and he’d be able to enjoy Tina’s dishes to his heart’s content.

“The other day, this kingdom’s greatest adventurer clan had collapsed…You must be aware of this.”

“Ahh, that matter huh. That was one heck of a disaster alright.”

Shiryoo and the other top members of Notorius went to the headquarters of the royal knights to confess every single one of their misdeeds, and they even conscientiously brought evidence of all their crimes. Of course they did it because they were brainwashed by Kikyou and Youko. The news of the kingdom’s greatest clan’s crimes caused a disturbance among the upper echelons of Glendale. However, since some of them were aware of Notorius’s misdeeds to some extent, the situation was handled swiftly and discreetly.

“By the way, the masses don’t have any idea of this incident yet.”

“That’s right. Tina, don’t tell me you guys –”

“Ididn’t do anything.”

The adventurers from Notorius disappeared one day, but it didn’t cause much of a stir. It was because even their families and associates had been brainwashed by Nine Tailed-Fox who became a Divine Beast.

Those who committed sins were punished accordingly, and their victims found solace.

The funds collected by Notorious through illegal means were used for the relief of the victims. The shortage caused by Shiryoo and the others’ embezzlement was covered by donations made anonymously by a certain company.

“Well, that matter is already over. Let’s stop prying into this case. So, what’s the actual favor you wanted?”

“Please sell the land where Notorious's clan house was previously situated. We wish to purchase it.”@@novelbin@@

The kingdom caught every single high-ranking member of the clan, so the ownership naturally belonged to it.

It was actually a prime real estate in the capital. If a person were to try purchasing it through the usual channels, it would be far too expensive; so expensive that an A-rank adventurer could barely buy 1% of the total land area in their entire lifetime.

The H&T Trading Company, which is managed by Tina, has the financial capacity to purchase. And yet –

“Very well. How about I sell it to you for ten meals of Tina’s homemade dishes?”

The land was deemed so expensive that an A-ranking adventurer would struggle for a lifetime just to buy a measly piece of it — yet the king of this country proposed to exchange it for ten meals.