12: Purchase Sky Knight

If he couldn't draw it, Arthur would immediately beg his mother, Charlotte, to take him to visit his grandfather, Duke Gryphon.

After all, Duke Gryphon possessed the strength of a Sky Knight; if there was truly no other way, he would have no choice but to copy his grandfather, Duke Gryphon.

As for other powerhouses at the Sky Knight Rank, they were not people he could approach so easily!

Therefore, Arthur's next plan depended on the items drawn from the Portable Shop in the new month, May.

After washing up just like the previous month and praying to all the gods once more, Arthur, alone in his room, clicked the lottery button on the Portable Shop with high expectations.

Shortly after the red lottery box shook violently, the image of a man wearing armor with an extraordinary Aura flew out of the box, landed in the Portable Shop, and became the fifth item.

It was actually a person, and a knight at that?

Arthur, who made an initial guess upon seeing the image, was quite surprised; after all, this was the first time he had drawn a human!

He curiously clicked to take a look:

"A captain of the Royal Knights during the fall of a kingdom, who fought until the very last moment—a true warrior! Possesses the strength of a Peak Sky Knight. Price: 10 million gold coins."

Seeing the description, Arthur's first reaction was not that the Portable Shop had truly fulfilled his wish and drawn him a Sky Knight.

Instead, judging from the character's description, this Sky Knight was in all likelihood a deceased individual.

What Arthur hadn't expected was that the Portable Shop could actually draw someone who was already dead! That meant it might give him even bigger surprises in the future!

Thinking of this, Arthur's mood shifted from shock to excitement!

He was excited for a good while, but when Arthur saw the 10 million gold coin price tag for the Sky Knight, he furrowed his brows slightly.

It wasn't that he thought the price was expensive; on the contrary, for a powerhouse at the Peak of the Sky Knight Rank, only 10 million gold coins was already very cheap.

For instance, his grandfather, Duke Gryphon, could earn at least 20 million gold coins a year, yet currently, his grandfather's household only had Duke Gryphon as a single Sky Knight!

The reason Arthur frowned was that while the Sky Knight cost 10 million gold coins, he happened to have only 9.9 million gold coins on him—he was short by 100,000 gold coins, which made him feel very frustrated.

His urgency for the Sky Knight made Arthur not want to wait another ten days for the transaction with the Dawn Merchant Guild.

He began to rack his brains for a new way to make money.

Very quickly, a method that served both purposes sprang into Arthur's mind.

Arthur had always felt that the strength of the Counts Fief was a bit weak; apart from his parents who were powerhouses above the Gold Rank, there were only five Gold Rank knights remaining.

Although they were already considered strong compared to counts of the same level, Arthur felt it was still not enough. Before the territory he was developing was fully established, this was his rear guard.

He could now completely redeem five powerhouses at the Peak Gold Knight Rank and have them pledge allegiance to the Counts Fief.

Then, he would have those five people voluntarily request to sign a contract lasting ten years or even longer, and require the Counts Fief to pay their salaries in advance, allowing him to obtain a large sum of remuneration.

After these salaries were transferred into Arthur's hands, it would also solve his urgent need.

After all, a powerhouse at the Peak Gold Knight Rank would have an annual salary of at least 50,000 gold coins; even if all five people only signed a ten-year contract, it could bring Arthur 2.5 million gold coins!

In this way, Arthur would both gain money and strengthen the Counts Fief—it could be called killing two birds with one stone!

As for the issue of the Counts Fief's trust in the five, the contract Arthur mentioned before was not just a piece of paper.

In the magic-wielding Continent of Gods, those contracts truly had restrictions and would not allow people to act recklessly.

Even strong magical contracts were just generally a bit expensive, potentially reaching tens of thousands of gold coins, but compared to ensuring the reliability of Gold Knights, that amount of gold was nothing.

So, all in all, as long as those five were willing to sign magical contracts, Arthur believed the Counts Fief would not turn away five Gold Knights coming to pledge allegiance, even if they would be left scratching their heads!

The reality was as Arthur had anticipated; when he summoned five Gold Knights in an uninhabited area within the city and gave each of them a set of gold knight armor and a space ring, he sent them to pledge allegiance to the Counts Mansion!

This action caused Arthur's gold coin count to decrease by 700,000 all at once—besides the people, the five sets of armor cost 150,000, and the five space rings cost 50,000.

The Counts Mansion was initially very surprised and incredulous at the arrival of the five; after all, powerhouses at the Peak Gold Knight Rank were not cabbages, and they had never heard of these five.

They were initially very hesitant, but when the five proposed that they could sign magical contracts, only requiring an advance payment of their ten-year remuneration.

Count Abergh ultimately could not resist the temptation of having five powerhouses at the Peak Gold Knight Rank and slowly nodded in agreement.

Because signing a magical contract meant there was no need to worry about them causing any harm to the Counts Mansion, and requesting ten years of remuneration at once also increased their credibility to a certain extent.

After all, if a stranger casually said they wanted to pledge allegiance to you without asking for anything, no one would believe that!

Of course, the Counts Mansion could not trust them immediately; for the first few years, they would likely only be given simple guard duties, being kept like honored guests.

Additionally, because the Counts Mansion kept the news of the five pledging allegiance a secret, it did not stir up any commotion.

On the very first day the five entered the Counts Mansion, Arthur secretly took 2 million gold coins from them, and as for the remaining 500,000, he left it for the five of them to handle themselves.

After obtaining the 2 million gold coins, Arthur's savings reached 11.35 million gold coins; after buying a Sky Knight, he would still have over 1 million left!

Early the next morning, Arthur left the Counts Mansion castle, found an uninhabited spot in the city, and purchased the Sky Knight.

Arthur did not need the Sky Knight's personal protection right now, because as long as his identity as the supplier for Golden Knight Kai was not exposed, Arthur was safe.

Therefore, Arthur's order to the Sky Knight was to hide in the shadows and protect Matt, taking out those who discovered something amiss and coveted Matt.

Matt's identity had not been exposed yet, but he still had to take precautions.

Besides that, Arthur also decided that he would no longer have direct contact with Matt in the future, but would instead conduct money and goods exchanges with Matt through the Sky Knight.

This added another layer of insurance!

With the secret protection of the Sky Knight, Arthur's somewhat uneasy heart finally calmed down again.

Another ten days passed, and Matt conducted another transaction with the Dawn Merchant Guild; just when Arthur thought everything was as usual, Matt brought him a piece of news.

The Dawn Merchant Guild had previously considered Matt's request for discretion, and most of those gold knight armors had been secretly transferred to other provinces for sale.