From Slave To Ruler

Now, Dalerus was the one who was forced into a blush. A bit of redness even started appearing on his forehead! He usually gets nervous around Z, but redness rarely appears anywhere on his face. "Husban Husband?!" He asked while uncontrollably mumbling, shy to his limits.

"We will just need to play along well enough for him to take the bait, we don't actually need to be married or share a bed." Z clarified it, making the plan crystal clear to Dalerus who understood the idea differently. He thought that they would get married. Although he loved that thought, it was very unexpected.

"Peeewww!" He let out a sigh of relief. He can't really process being this shy and nervous. He isn't really used to it with coins being his main goal in life. Well there is more to this story, he didn't like how other men used coins on gambling or threw them at women they wanted to get into bed with. So these sort of emotions are new to him since he was disgusted of those men enough to actually not chase Women.

A bit hurt of his reply, she couldn't help asking with a pissed off tone. "Wow! Mee being your wife can't really sleep with your subconscious ha?" 

"No! Yes. Actually." Nervous, he had no idea what to say. No, actually. A lot of thoughts rushed through his head but his mouth couldn't keep up. Unable to form a sentence.

Noticing that the situation was getting uncomfortable for him when she yelled about such a topic, she decided to help him calm down. "You don't need to say anything if you don't want to."

"No, you misunderstood me. I'm just nervous, you know that's not the case!" He answered her the Question they both desperately wanted to hear. Today's situations made it impossible for both of them to not have at least a small little crush towards each other if not more!

"Really?!" she replied stretching that one word and feeling a lot of ease on her heart, with butterflies invading her stomach. Heck of a conversation between two shy people.

"Yes." He answered boldly, finally finding the bit of courage to reveal just a little hit how he felt. Although he didn't go in detail, both knew what he meant.

"Good to hear." She replied feeling internal satisfaction. This kingdom, might have more adventures to it.

Trying to avoid this shyness topped off with awkwardness, he proceeded to ask. "Since your safety is a topic that we can feel sure about. How about we finally talked about second issue."

"Which is?" Still a bit zoned out, she legitimately had no idea what that issue is. She usually is a bit above average when it comes to perception. But this scenes have forced her to zone out with her thoughts, happy thoughts actually. Making it hard to focus on the main topics.

"The sh.i.p.s?" Answered Dalerus Bewilderedly pulling back his head. 

"Oh right right! Sorry." Answered Z, avoiding eye contact and trying to fight off her emotions. They are way too much for her to experience under an hour.

"Don't worry about it." He assured her and proceeded to speak feeling a bit nervous about the prices he is about to mention. "So that merchant, who provided me with all of the information we needed about the sh.i.p.s."

"Yes?"

"Told me that, a medium-sized ship would cost around 400 Gold Coins to bring here in hawk Kingdom and back to Salmon River Kingdom!"

"400 Gold Coins?! Are you trying to rob me blind?!" She yelled with a bit of concern, finally making eye contact with him. Yelling is of course something she hates doing since she doesn't like to drag attention. But these prices sound insane. She felt hurt, thinking that he actually wanted to scam her. She felt that all he did today was to get more Gold. But remembering that he almost dropped the project just for her, brought her back to realization. He is no scammer. She also hired him to do some different jobs before, and he never attempted to scam her. At least based on how much she was able to notice.

"My reaction was very similar to yours when i heard the prices." He replied with a playful tone, trying to calm her down and give her a further explanation around this topic.

He proceeded to explain, "It costs this much because the distance between Hawk Kingdom and Salmon River kingdom is somewhere between 1,000 to 1,500 Kilometers when traveled through the river by ship or boat. It would take 2 weeks to come here and 2 weeks to go back."

Although returning most of her trust back to him after she weighed some thoughts, she was still confused about this issue. "Meaning?"

"Meaning that you will need to pay a month's worth of salary, to a crew of 30 people and a little bit of a bonus to the captain for the trouble. If the distance was closer, the prices would be below average. But you do know it clearly that our situation is very different." Hearing Dalerus' deeper explanation towards this topic, she almost trusted him about it completely. But she still had to ask some questions to assure everything.

"And how much is one crew member paid per month?" This would be the best way to find out if the man is lying or not, calculations. Although she did miscalculate the time of which the sh.i.p.s would need to arrive on the shores of Hawk Kingdom, she expected it to take a bit longer. At least the salaries is one thing she has no chances of miscalculating.

"According to what I've heard from a few other merchants, around 10 to 12 silver coins." Answered Dalerus feeling a bit unsure with himself. Those Merchants mostly guessed after all. But with Blacksmiths being paid 20 Silver Coins a month, 10-12 can't be so far off for Ship crew members.

He caught Z looking upwards right after, staring at the ceiling. Interesting enough, that was her way of calculating. "Can this woman get any more adorable?" Thought Dalerus to himself while awaiting for her answer with the deepest anticipation.

Barely a minute after, she broke the silence and caught Dalerus looking at her face. From the looks of it, he got too distracted as he was awaiting her reply. She didn't say a word about, but just smiled and answered. "Damn it, you are right. A salary for a crew of 30 people would cost exactly 360 gold coins."

"Wow you are great with numbers." Answered Dalerus, stunned at her skills. You can't simply see such academic skills too often around these parts. It makes it clear that her employer put trust in her skill set for a reason.

"Thank you!" She answered with a big smile on her face. It isn't anything that she didn't hear before, but from who she heard it this time made it all the more special.

"So do you still want me to bring a ship here, after a month and a half from the looks of it?"

"No! I want you to bring 3!"

"3?!" Answered Dalerus in shock. "But you didn't even like the price of one Ship. How is 3 better?"

"Because 3 Sh.i.p.s would fit more people!" She answered boldly, making her ideas more clear by every sentence she spoke. "You will also need to make the Captain agree to charge each family for 150 Bronze Coins. My identity and possibly yours too, will need to be private from the public!"

"Will you be able to afford 3 Sh.i.p.s though? You already have other people spreading the word for you, you will need to pay them as well eventually!" Z did claim that she has 2,000 Gold Coins to throw at this project. But 4 medium sized sh.i.p.s would cost possibly even over 1,200 Gold Coins to hire. If only he knew that Z has 10,000 Gold Coins to support this project.

"Don't worry about the Gold. In fact, i will give you 2,000 Gold Coins."

"2,000!"

"Yes." She answered calmly as if 2,000 Coins were like a small sack of Bronze Coins for her. "Bring 3 large sh.i.p.s here. I entrust you with the gold." Looking directly at his eyes with a straight serious face, she proceeded to say. "Don't betray my trust."