This Heroine's Friend Has the Power of Botany

Chapter 254

Elevating Luke

In Jason’s heart, confusion reigned. On one hand, he wanted to know what the matter was, especially since it came from the Setter family. Even if there was no evidence yet, he trusted they wouldn’t speak nonsense. However, the idea of hiding like a coward was simply unacceptable to him.

“Your Highness, what the Setter family mentioned might be related to what Eldest Young Lord Owen spoke about earlier. I heard him talk about treacherous soldiers. Maybe...”

“You don’t need to persuade me,” Jason waved off Ryker. He knew the other’s intentions well, which made Ryker sigh. Having been his attendant since childhood, Ryker knew this prince would never accept help from anyone, especially when it came to completing missions in his place. If it were Prince Joseph, he wouldn’t wait for an offer; he would ask the noble families himself.

However, this time, Ryker astonishingly misjudged his prince.

“Alright, then take me to the Jarlon family. But if the news you mentioned turns out to be useless, I will consider that you’ve deceived me and act as if this agreement never happened. I will return to complete the mission myself.”

“Yes, I am certain that the information will be invaluable to you, Your Highness,” Vida said confidently. Once she regained her composure and no longer uneasy, she resumed her usual high and mighty demeanor of Duchess Vida. Seeing her act this way, Jason couldn’t help but sigh.

If she could be more relaxed, Vida might be someone everyone would want to approach. Unfortunately, the girl always wore the collar of “perfection,” hiding her true self.

As the prince and the Jarlon family departed, no one expected such cooperation to occur. Not even the Emperor, his father, who initially intended to teach his son the lesson that overreaching himself and inflexibility were detrimental. But it seemed that lesson was no longer necessary.

Though he didn’t know what happened in the life-threatening incident, if he had known that his son experiencing failure in life would change his stubborn nature, he would have thrown him into battle earlier. He wouldn’t let time pass and cause his headache like this.

While the prince and other noble families were in chaos, the Setter family in Set City was also making grand preparations for Duchess Ellie.

The eldest young lord ordered the servants to prepare herbs, potions, weapons, and various equipment, as if Duchess Ellie were going to war herself, though he claimed she would only be training in her city. But well...since this was his order, the scale of the preparations was immense. The extravagant activities of the Setter family left the merchants and vendors confused. All the best goods were bought up at high prices in one go, leading many to worry if the Setter family would start a war with someone.

Now, the nobles in Set City faced a sudden scarcity of high-end food items overnight. Be it meat, vegetables, or fruits, all premium goods were bought out. This prompted the nobles to rush to the Setter family to inquire about the situation, only to find out that “the eldest young lord is pampering his future fiancée.”

The eldest young lord’s generosity quickly became a topic of wide discussion. No one in the kingdom could help but envy the lucky girl, Ellie. However, she, who woke up at noon the next day, was oblivious to all of this. Upon waking, she found herself with a new dimensional ring that had yet to be bound. Initially uninterested in its contents, she later checked it while at the association’s camp and felt like returning it immediately.

Who would have thought so many precious items and a large amount of gold coins would be stored inside? Though she knew the eldest young lord of the family had ample resources and wealth, she really wished that...he wouldn’t throw all this luxury at her!

But...by the time she realized she had been given a bomb of treasures, Ellie was already in the role of Luke...

It was the eldest young lord who left a family meeting to escort her. He allowed Ellie to disguise herself as Luke and use his teleportation device, knowing that their next meeting might be difficult. Ellie wanted to remain a hunter until the war ended. Since she didn’t need switching back to her true identity, it might take months before they could meet again, so Owen wanted to take good care of her.

When Ellie, returned to the mercenary camp, she found that they had increased security after learning of the Rhea Kingdom’s secretly attack on the students’ camp. This led to a decrease in beast-hunting activities. Her return was met with cheers, a truly warm welcome...

“You’re here at last. We’ve got plenty of beast carcasses waiting for you. If you hadn’t shown up today...we’d have thought you were one of the students attacked! You disappeared for days, you know. Haha,” one hunter laughed heartily. Luke nodded and followed him to collect the beast carcasses.

When Emma saw Luke had returned, she ran up with a sad expression. She had received orders from her family to return and no longer participate in missions. Although she was happy, she was sad about not seeing Luke again.

“Senior, we have to go back. The institute has canceled the students’ missions,” Emma said sadly.

“Senior Luke, take good care of yourself. The soldiers from the Rhea Kingdom are really cunning.”

“Indeed, even though you’re very skilled, Senior, it’s still dangerous,” both Mirin and Lucy chimed in. They hadn’t returned home yet because they wanted to bid farewell to their kind senior first. They might collaborate again in the future. After graduation, they could use the services of the association’s hunters.

Among the siblings in the noble families, those close to high-ranking hunters often received great respect. That’s because many hunters had skills superior to those of the family soldiers.

For these girls, Senior Luke would soon reach such a rank. One of the first tasks they might call on him for would be cleaning up the problematic corpses. Many times, families must dig pits to discard the remains, similar to what the association did. However, families didn’t often hunt beasts; they preferred to pay or hire the association to disassemble the beasts, receiving only the useful parts. The rest was left with the association. If they invited their senior to handle it, they might gain favor.

Nara was the last to speak. She didn’t hold a high opinion of poor hunters. Clearly, he had no background; otherwise, he wouldn’t have to go back and forth by himself like this. Moreover, if he came from a great family, he would stay there during wartime. Living here and risking his life wasn’t something she wanted to advance beyond being merely senior and junior. Just being acquaintances was enough.

“Take care of yourself, Senior. If you get injured...Lady Emma might be very sad.”

Emma blushed immediately at this. Nara successfully used Luke to flatter her, leading Emma to invite Nara to stay with her family as a guest instead of returning to her rundown village.

“Mmm,” Ellie didn’t pay much attention to the 4 of them. She just found Nara’s act amusing. This scheming girl always managed to survive.

“Then, we’ll be leaving now. If you finish your mission and want to visit our family, you’re sincerely welcome,” Emma concluded, believing her senior understood her feelings. It was just a matter of whether he would accept.

Nara smirked behind them. If she were in his place, she wouldn’t let this opportunity slip. Marrying into a noble family was incredibly difficult. Normally, commoners and nobles rarely met, with chances being one in a hundred thousand. If he didn’t seize it, he would be a complete fool.

However, Luke didn’t respond, ignoring the four girls. He turned his attention to the newcomer, the leader of the Hunter’s Association.

“You’ve returned?”

“Yes.”

“Good. After the incident on the 1st floor, we need to be more vigilant. The association’s surveillance units need to increase their efforts, and at the same time, we must bolster the camp’s defenses. This has reduced the number of teams available to handle the surrounding beasts. Just the other day, a pack of 5 beasts broke in and caused a lot of trouble in the camp. Luckily, it wasn’t a large pack, or there would have been casualties.”

“Now that you’re back, I can rest easy. I reviewed your past mission results, and it seems you performed very well. Initially, you aimed to be promoted to rank 2, correct? After this, the association will consider promoting you to rank 3 immediately. But...if you continue to excel, I’ll elevate you to rank 4, a rank only a few hunters in the entire kingdom hold.”

“Fron now on, I’m counting on you,” the association leader said happily. It was right that he had trusted Luke to handle the beasts alone, because after reviewing the mission results, he saw that Luke had killed more beasts on his own than groups of hunters combined, 10 times over! Although the resources weren’t retrieved since Luke’s beast companion seemed to have a voracious appetite, in this situation, they didn’t need much of the resources; the primary concern was eliminating beast nests without causing further trouble.

The war would continue for a long time; there could be no mistakes!

“Senior! Congratulations! If you reach 4-star rank, the chance to complete missions and advance to 5-star rank isn’t far off, right? Do you know how rare 4-star rank hunters are? And 5-star rank hunters are even harder to find!”

“My family once hired a 5-star rank hunter for a mission. It cost a hundred thousand gold coins.”

“That’s right. Some 4-star rank hunters also earn a hundred thousand gold coins, and that’s 1-time fee. If you really become a hunter at that level, you could make your family incredibly wealthy. Even if you’re not from noble family, you can even be wealthier than some noble families!”

The three girls were very excited. They knew the significance of high-ranking hunters. Sometimes, their families had to plead with hunters to complete missions. Moreover...not all families in the kingdom specialized in hunting like the powerful Setter family. Some excelled in potion concocting, stratagem-making, selling meat, or other trades. Didn’t this mean there were numerous opportunities for high-ranking hunters to earn money?

Initially, Nara hadn’t been interested in Luke. She saw him as someone who couldn’t provide the happiness she desired. Her dream was to live in a grand mansion, served by numerous servants, with money to spend as she wished. She wanted clothes, jewelry—her husband would have to provide all of that.

And could Senior Luke fulfill that? Absolutely not!

Becoming a hunter and completing each mission involved a lot of risks. Each mission only earned a few copper coins. To live comfortably, one might die before achieving that. However, Nara’s thoughts changed immediately after hearing this.

“A-A hundred thousand gold coins?” Nara exclaimed in shock.

“That’s right, a hundred thousand gold coins for just one mission. If he takes on many missions...he could earn more in a year than a noble family,” Emma said proudly. If her senior rose to a higher hunter rank, it would benefit her too. Her family might accept him more and stop forcing her to engage with other nobles.

While Emma was happy, Nara felt foolish for trying to hand over this valuable gem to Emma. She had made a mistake, wasting too much time with the other girl. If she had known how capable he was in generating such wealth, she would have grabbed him herself from the start!

“Exactly, Senior Luke is incredibly strong.” Nara smiled, displaying her sweet charm without any intention to hide it anymore.

Comparing herself to Emma, Nara was confident she was more attractive than the unlucky Emma. Though she came from a small village, she took great care of herself, appearing no different from a young noblewoman.

“Of course, the person I like is very strong.”

“Indeed, Lady Emma. How could someone we admire be weak?”

Initially, Emma didn’t suspect anything. She thought Nara was trying to help her speak to Senior Luke. Besides, love had clouded her judgment, leading her to not hear or see anything. But...Mirin, Lucy, and Ellie herself noticed that Nara’s demeanor had drastically changed!

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