A Vision for the Future

Chapter 20: A Look Towards the Future (Please Read On)

"Is that so? Does that mean he'll die too?" Alphonse had seen the terms of that slave contract scroll; if the master died, the slave would immediately suffer a fatal magical backlash.

"Hmph." Mia snorted coldly, "Once you're a slave and have completely lost your freedom, why would he care so much? Don't treat slave contracts as a panacea. The contract that fat bastard Valen gave you wasn't a very high-level one. If it were a contract scroll made by a Grand Magister, it would cost far more than this."

"Moreover, if that dwarf makes a breakthrough in his fighting spirit, he has a great chance of breaking free from the bondage of slavery. You'd better be careful," Mia said coldly.

"Now that you put it that way, I understand." Alphonse also made a judgment, which meant that the magic contained in the contract scroll could only suppress Tessi in the present moment, but that didn't matter. As long as he became stronger, he would naturally have the means to control Tessi.

Speaking of which, the slave contract in this other world is quite peculiar. After the contract is established, I can sense the location of Taisi at any time and give him commands through telepathy over short distances.

After waiting for a while, and with the food and drinks served for quite some time, Taixi finally came out with her backpack.

The big head still had that horned helmet on it, but it had been washed and groomed. Its beard was still a little damp, no longer fluffy and curly, but straight.

He changed his clothes; although they were old, at least he no longer smelled bad.

Alphonse gestured for him to sit down, gesturing with his hand, "You're probably not full yet, are you? Eat up."

Looking at the food and beer on the table, Taisi unconsciously swallowed. Locked in a cell, there was no good treatment. Being given a few pieces of dark bread and being able to eat half full was already considered good.

With a determined heart, he grabbed a spoon and began to devour the beef stew with potatoes in front of him, occasionally picking up a glass of beer and gulping down several mouthfuls of ale.

"From now on, you'll be with me, and I'll provide you with plenty of food and ale. You won't go hungry." Alphonse still held onto the preconceived notion from Western fantasy novels that dwarves loved alcohol. If he drank his fill, he might just agree with whatever he said.

That's certainly true; the dwarves of this world are also heavy drinkers, but Tessie's response was simply to bury her head in her food.

Alphonse didn't care. He grabbed the small wooden barrel of wine and filled it up for Tessie again. "Speaking of which, just hypothetically speaking, if you, Tessie, were to return to your tribe, could you help me persuade a few blacksmiths to come back? We can discuss the terms."

There is a clause in the slave contract that states that slaves cannot leave their masters for more than thirty days, otherwise they will suffer a magical backlash.

But as long as you can make it back and forth within thirty days, it won't be a problem.

Upon hearing Alphonse's words, Mia couldn't help but scoff.

Taisi also raised her head. "I can't do it!"

Before Alphonse could even ask, Mia provided the answer, "Don't you know exactly how far the dwarves' country is from the Kingdom of Bastian?"

Alphonse nodded silently, having no recollection of such an image.

"The dwarven kingdom of Tebas is in the northwest of the continent, which is very far away. It is separated by the kingdoms of Bozak and Izmer. Even if he had twice as much time, let alone thirty days, he still wouldn't be able to return." Mia was embarrassed to laugh at Alphonse for being so ignorant as to say such stupid things.

Alphonse felt a headache coming on. He was originally a farmer, and although he had some education and could read, he had no problem with this kind of content.

On second thought, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Since your country is so far away, how did you end up here and get caught, Taisi?"

"I'm a traveler, I love adventure," Tessie replied, licking the bowl clean, looking like she hadn't had enough.

Hearing Tessie say that he was an adventurous traveler instantly brought back bad memories for Alphonse.

That damned mob-pulling maniac, Brian Bronzebeard.

The Hall of Curses.

Those are such distant memories.

Alphonse snapped his fingers and called to the hotel owner, "Bring another pot of beef stew with potatoes, and another barrel of wine."

While waiting, Alphonse pondered what he should get Tessie to do for the time being. He couldn't just buy a big eater and let him sit idle all day.

It seems like I have quite a lot to do next.

There are some things that need to be addressed.

For no other reason than to put her mother at ease, Mia would only obediently follow orders because of her mother's presence.

For now, we still need Mia's help.

However, the most important thing is still the cultivation of one's own internal strength. With the aid of the Refining Spirit Incense, the progress will not be slow.

However, there is another issue: the improvement of physical fitness should not be neglected and should be carried out simultaneously.

As for Tessie's other intentions, they were not within Alphonse's consideration. Although he was only stronger than a warrior with first-level battle qi at the moment, given more time, a mere second-level battle qi warrior would be easy to deal with.

Even now, they are not without the power to fight. Do you know what the acupoint striking technique is? This is a technique that does not exist in this other world!

At that time, we also need to take care of the potential threat posed by the territory guards.

Alphonse is fully confident that he can make his territory a unified whole.

What's lacking is money and time.

No rush, take your time, the problems will be solved one by one.

Once everything is settled, I can live peacefully as a village lord until I achieve mastery of my divine skills.

Well.

What's the point of mastering such a powerful skill?

To conquer the world?

It seems pretty boring. I did it once in my previous life. The greater the power, the more things become uncontrollable, and the more troubles arise. In the end, I even got myself involved.

Why not try traveling around on adventures?

Having been reborn into another world, I should at least go and see all sorts of different races, right?

Maybe I can even try it out.

That legendary creature, the dragon, I have to take a look at it, no matter what.

Perhaps we can even try the feat of slaying a dragon.

Hmm, that's a great idea!

Alphonse looked up and saw Mia still staring coldly at Tessie, who was wolfing down her food.

"Miya, how many countries are there on the continent in total?"

It's always good to find out first; I'll have to ask Mia for advice on this.

Mia's expression remained indifferent, but she had grown accustomed to speaking with Alphonse, and began to recount her story in response to his questions.

"I'm not too familiar with some of the smaller principalities, but there are a total of eight powerful nations, and our Kingdom of Bastian is one of them. Our neighbor is the orcish kingdom of Berzak in the Forest. Above us, beyond the mountains, lies the Kingdom of Hailant, a religious state founded on the religion of the God of Light."

Upon hearing this, Alphonse took note.

Unfortunately, no matter which Western fantasy novel the Cult of Light appears in, it always represents a hypocritical evil force; it's hard to find a good one among them.

Moreover, speaking of the Kingdom of Bastian, isn't it just behind that vast mountain range above the Coldwind Territory?

On a slightly different note, I recently checked out a book on the bestseller list, the one currently number one on the fantasy new releases list, "My Undead Are Strange." It's a really good book that I couldn't help but recommend to my friends after reading it; it's very interesting.

I don't know this author, but I still want to recommend them to all you readers—they're so interesting!

(End of this chapter)