The Devil's Betrothed novel Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Black Nightshade

The carts soon arrived in a walled storage house a distance away from the market.

’This seems to be the place where they will meet that Connor guy. Tsk. Is there no way to see him before he comes here?’

Oriana was worried. From her understanding so far, Ron and his group were amassing all kinds of precious herbs. If she failed here, even if she were to travel to other cities, she probably would never find even a single stalk of black nightshade. Ron’s group was supported by a large merchant group and by corrupt nobles. More guards would be deployed once they secured the banned herbs. It would be impossible to steal directly from them.

Her only option was to get black nightshade from Connor, the source.

The carts entered inside the huge wooden double-sided doors which opened into a two-storey storage house.

Since the sun had set, Oriana skillfully climbed through the walls unnoticed and found a place to hide inside.

Soon, a man in his late thirties arrived. He looked like any ordinary merchant, his clothing luxurious but not ostentatious. He looked servile even, the kind of face no one would think would do shady business.

"Welcome to Port Hope, Mister Ron," the man greeted. "Is Merchant Finn doing well?"

"Of course. Mister Finn sent over a gift for you, Mister Conor," Ron informed and signaled his men to bring something out. "He said the last transaction made him very satisfied."

At this point, Oriana had approached them, hiding behind the stacks of crates within the storage house.

She saw Ron’s men opening the crates unloaded from their cargo. They removed the animal hides and pelts, and Oriana’s eyes widened at what came after.

Under all those tanned leather, there were smaller boxes which contained... gold coins! And there were dozens of such boxes!

’What the hell? For so long, I was sitting on the pile of gold and I didn’t even know it? This is what we call rotten luck!’

Not copper, not silver but real gold coins! A commoner could live through his entire life without even touching a single gold coin, but within those boxes, there were hundreds upon hundreds of them.

’No wonder the escorts guard the wagons so strictly! How dumb I was to not think there must be something more valuable than leather inside those crates.

’Grandpa, I am such a disappointment to your teaching! No wonder you said I am not fit to be a mercenary. If I was a little smarter, we could have been spending the rest of our lives in some small villa without needing to work till we die.’

She felt like crying over the loss of something which didn’t belong to her in the first place.

Ron rubbed his hands. "Mister Finn looks forward to more business in the future."