HTLCCBFT Chapter 81

Has The Lord’s Career Chart Been Filled Today? – Chapter 81

After the city gate guards inspected Arte’s party’s passes, they immediately bowed respectfully to him: “May God bless you, Honorable Lord Studio.”

Since each city might worship different deities, to avoid offense, they simply used “God” in greetings.

“Hmm.” Arte gave a reserved slight nod: “If I wish to visit Lord McKenna, is there someone to guide me?”

Even though he detested Count McKenna, as a baron with proper upbringing, he absolutely couldn’t pass through the other’s territory without requesting an audience and offering greetings.

If the other party were to find out, it would be an extremely serious slight—almost equivalent to severing ties and declaring war.

However, the guard’s reply quickly improved Arte’s mood.

The guard apologized: “Very sorry, my lord, our honorable Lord went out hunting yesterday and won’t be in the castle for several days.”

“Ah, what a pity.”

Arte said hypocritically, the corners of his lips curling upward without concealment.

Although this was his first time in Gregor City, finding suitable accommodation posed no difficulty for him.

The moment he stepped into Gregor City followed by servants and a luxurious carriage, he was surrounded by a group of thin, barefoot boys wearing patched old clothes.

Arte was straightforward, directly tossing out a silver coin and saying lazily: “Take me to the city’s best inn.”

If Count McKenna had been in the city, etiquette would have required him to stay at the castle.

Now he was happily free of that obligation.

The group of boys instantly backed away, fighting desperately over the silver coin.

The lucky one who finally grabbed the coin tightly hurried back panting to the young noble’s side, his childish face wearing an ingratiating smile: “Honorable lord, I’ll take you right away…”

The best inn in Gregor City was naturally much better than those in Laina City.

After taking his time bathing and changing clothes, Arte prepared to have dinner.

But before he could pick up his cutlery, he frowned at the cup of inferior wine full of sediment at the bottom: “What is this? Don’t joke with me!”

The only aspect where Gregor City fell short of Laina was its lack of a nearby river—all water for the city’s residents depended on wells.

And the cleanliness of water sources varied from household to household.

In fact, because people frequently suffered painful vomiting and diarrhea—or even died—from drinking unclean water, the innkeeper provided only light beer to valuable guests for safety reasons.

Especially with minor nobles and wealthy merchants—if anything happened to them here, the responsibility would be enormous.

Seeing the baron’s displeased expression, the innkeeper who had received the news panicked, thinking there was something wrong with the alcohol, and immediately sent staff to find the supplier of this batch of wine.

With a dark expression, Arte waited patiently while listening to conversations of other guests in the inn’s main hall.

But soon, he lost interest.

Most topics revolved around money and women—filthy, utterly uncultured discussions.

However, the very next moment he closed his eyes to suppress this displeasure, a familiar name unexpectedly reached his ears—

“Bad luck,” Wynn was telling his companion Bir. “We couldn’t sell a single barrel of wine in Laina, and when we thought we’d find buyers in Gregor City, that lord happened to be out hunting.”

The usually taciturn Bir disagreed: “That’s because we used up all our luck on this trip back in Laina.”

He had truly never seen such a beautiful and kind noble lord before—and a Duke at that!

Moreover, so magnanimous—after his rude behavior at the banquet, not only did the Duke not become enraged and punish him, but gently comforted him and even let him eat incredibly delicious food…

“You’re right.”

Wynn quickly corrected himself.

Recalling the Duke’s beautiful and elegant figure, his smile as lovely as moonlight, he couldn’t help falling into a intoxicated state, fantasizing: “If only the people of Laina weren’t so poor, I’d love to stay by that wonderful Angel Duke’s side.”

Even if he could only sell half the goods he would in a big city, he would definitely stay.

“I hope Lord Oliver will soon leave Laina for—”

A voice suddenly spoke up behind them.

“You’ve just been to Laina?”

Wynn and Bir jumped in surprise, quickly turning around to see a young nobleman looking down at them with cold, emotionless smoke-gray eyes.

“Yes, honorable sir.”

The two quickly bowed.

Arrogant, indifferent.

Compared to that radiant and bright Duke who resembled the flowers he planted himself, this person before them represented the noble demeanor they were most familiar with from their dealings.

Arte narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at these two plain-looking merchants for a moment before issuing a concise order: “Come with me to my room. Then… tell me everything you saw and heard in Laina City.”

——

Not too far away in Laina City, the lord by the Laina River was once again nearly depleting his stamina bar.

The little energy recovered from lunch was certainly not enough.

Seeing that there probably wouldn’t be any bandit attacks in the short term, and there was still a large stock of cheese left from last time, Oliver simply took advantage of Butler Fosse inspecting his fish catch to quickly stuff cheese into his mouth like he was stealing food.

After eating three pieces of cheese, his stamina bar had recovered significantly, but his mouth felt unbearably greasy.

No more eating—that’s enough for today.

Oliver made up his mind.

While fishing, he carefully observed the subtle changes in his stamina bar, calculating how many times he could still fish.

—At most three more catches.

He had quite a good catch this afternoon, but unfortunately didn’t get many treasure chests or see any rare materials.

Indeed, luck is limited.

Oliver sighed, casually throwing the newly caught fierce pike into the fish basket before continuing to fish absentmindedly.

The second-to-last cast yielded a smallmouth bass.

The last one… hmm?

Looking at the lazily sinking fishing progress bar that resembled a sinking golden bell, and the treasure chest symbol beside it, Oliver couldn’t help but blink.

For a novice fisherman, this combination was simply perfect—the carp that put up the least resistance, and a treasure chest practically handed out for free.

For Oliver, whose fishing skills were quite decent, it made little difference.

Oh, dear Cat God.

Oliver lazily freed his left hand to cover his mouth, which was yawning out of sheer boredom from the lack of challenge.

In his heart, he continued to pray in a joking manner.

This was the last cast of the day, a reward or compensation for not wearing the [Defense Ring] himself but giving it to Fosse instead… How about something a little better?

Splash.

Under Oliver’s lazy gaze, alongside the splashing snow-white water and the flapping brown carp leaping out of the water, emerged something small and exquisite, yet reflecting a blindingly bright sunlight…

Before the attendants behind him could get a clear look at the fleeting golden glow, Oliver swiftly stored it in his game backpack.

When he saw the item that felt endlessly familiar, Oliver widened his eyes in stunned silence, rendered speechless for once.

He had actually managed to fish up another… [Ring of the Cat God].

Upon closer inspection, although this ring looked identical to the previous one, its description had a slight difference.

Just like the earlier [Defense Ring], it had a dual description.

Oliver checked it with utter bewilderment.

Description 1: Under the protection of the great and generous Cat God, you who are deeply loved by Him will shine brilliantly and be invincible in battle! (Comes with a lighting effect, Attractiveness +20%, Attack Power +10%)

After repeated comparisons, he confirmed that this description was exactly the same as the one on the first ring.

He looked at the next one.

Description 2, however, was thought-provoking: The Cat God is very happy. (Comes with Defense +20%)

Oliver: “……”

The second description was abrupt and nonsensical, yet it carried an adorable charm that made him chuckle.

The Cat God… If he weren’t absolutely certain that it was just a dream, and that even the “Cat God” itself was something he had randomly made up, he might have truly believed that deities existed in the world.

Don’t be silly.

How could there be such an adorable deity?

Oliver smirked faintly.

One who would let him rub its ears, hold it in his arms, and when angry, would only use that enchanting fluffy… oh, tail to swat him.

And even then, only once.

Even when negotiating terms, it was cautious, soft, and completely at his mercy.

If the Cat God from his dreams were a real deity… it should have been furious and unleashed divine punishment on him long ago for always fooling around.

This description was the same.

Although he wasn’t sure why the system gave the second ring a new attribute, the explanation that “because the deity is very happy, it decided to grant your ring greater power” was just too absurd.

Perhaps it was just part of the game’s design.

Oliver thought to himself.

After all, when he played games before, he had never been this lucky: not only fishing out a top-tier ring but also catching two in such a short time.

Maybe when you fish up the second one, it activates an additional achievement system, granting extra attributes?

Perhaps the game system, like the lucky cat statue that had inexplicably grown heavier after being placed outside too often, had also developed an unexplainable bug.

Otherwise……

Despite finding countless explanations to convince himself, Oliver, who still couldn’t feel completely at ease, couldn’t help but think of a new approach.

“Oh, my dear Cat God.”

He absentmindedly played with the fishing rod and finally made up his mind, silently praying in his heart.

—If you truly exist, please respond to me.

The deity, who had exhausted all divine power during last night’s encounter and had fallen into a deep slumber, clearly heard the call from his beloved believer.

He slowly opened his dazed golden eyes.

……

…… Oliver……

……

“Your Highness?”

Unable to hear any response from the distant divine realm, after waiting quietly for a while, Oliver finally showed a relieved smile upon hearing Fosse’s concerned inquiry.

“It’s nothing.”

Oliver replied casually.

Perhaps out of instinct, wanting to hide the embarrassment of his foolish attempt to summon the deity earlier, he cast his fishing line without thinking: “After catching one more—”

His voice abruptly cut off.

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