Sunlight shone through the glass of the dome, illuminating the spacious hall, and Lijie reached out and carefully fiddled with the murals hanging on the wall, then she took two steps back, looked at the landscape in front of her with satisfaction, and then smiled and nodded.

"Well, no problem, good."

While talking to herself, Lijie turned around and stretched out her hand, gently stroking the head of the girl standing beside her.

"Christie is really talented, such a beautiful painting, not everyone can draw it, right? It's a great idea to decorate it. ”

“…………………”

Hearing Lijie's words, standing beside her, the girl in a plain robe showed a happy smile, her hands tightly wrapped around the drawing board on her chest, she lowered her head a little embarrassedly, and a slight flush flashed on her white cheeks. Lijie quickly noticed Christie's shyness, smiled softly, and then looked up again.

"But......... It's really beautiful..............."

Looking at the paintings in the corridor, Lijie couldn't help but whisper to herself. Christie is now more and more proficient at drawing, and her range of paintings is getting wider. In the beginning, the girl would only draw portraits of people and landscapes. But now, Christie has begun to paint scenes of stories and legends, especially those of heroes who are not afraid of power and evil, fighting devils and terrible undead creatures, and depicting them so vividly that Christie often makes people think that they have witnessed these scenes.

However, this is not what worries Lijie.

“………… Rod............ Haven't come back yet? ”

The girl hugged the drawing board on her chest, lowered her head, and after a moment hesitated to raise her head again, and hearing Christie's inquiry, Lijie sighed helplessly. It's no wonder that everyone has been busy since the fort was built, although Rhodes planned everything before leaving. But each of them has a lot of responsibilities. Marlene is in charge of the fortress and has to be busy until the early hours of the morning to rest. The canary and the little bubblegum practiced the mercenaries all day long, and occasionally took them out and about, sometimes for days without seeing a shadow. Lijie herself is also very busy because she has to take on the housekeeping of the fortress and the management of the spirit master. Not to mention Labis as far as she goes. Since that day Rhodes gave her the task. The girl shut herself up in the alchemy workshop and never came out again. There was a steady stream of expensive magic materials and materials being sent in, but nothing came out. Lijie herself had taken the time to visit Labis, obviously. Her task was not an easy one, either.

In such a situation, Christie is very lonely. If in the past, in Deep Rock City, everyone would occasionally accompany the girl out to go shopping in their spare time, but now everyone is so busy that they don't even have this leisure time. Thankfully, Christie is obedient and sensible, but even so. Lijie can still feel that the girl is actually very lonely.

But when will Mr. Rhodes return? It's been almost a month since they left the Land of Atonement, and there hasn't been any news of them, but it's time for them to return............ Thinking of this, Lijie couldn't help but squat down and gently stroke Christie's head.

"Don't worry. Christie, I think they'll be back soon, just wait a little longer, Mr. Rhodes they'll be ..............."

Lijie's words were not finished, because at this moment. Christie's gaze had already bypassed her, looking behind Lijie, and then, the girl's gaze immediately became hot.

“………… Rhodes ..............."

Christie put down the sketchpad in her hand. Whispered Rhodes' name, and then. Li Jie heard a figure from behind her that she was no longer familiar with.

"I'm back, Christie, Lizzie, looks like you're doing well?"

“……… Rhodes ........."

Christie whispered Rode's name, and the whole person sped away, throwing himself into Rode's arms. Rod smiled and stroked Christie's long hair, and then he looked up at Lizzie. Looking at the black-haired man in front of her, Li Jie suddenly felt that her nose was a little sour, and the scene that was originally clear in front of her was now distorted and blurred as if it was shrouded in something. But soon, Lijie blinked her eyes and forcibly wiped the moisture from her eyes.

"Mr. Rod, you're finally back............"

"And Annie, Lijie, Christie~!"

At this time, Anne suddenly came out from behind Rod, she waved at Lijie with a smile, and then immediately squatted down, hugged Christie tightly, and kept rubbing the girl's white and delicate face.

"Ah............ Christie, it's been a long time, do you miss Annie? ”

“………… Well............ Of course, Sister Anne isn't here, and I find it boring........."

"Very well, then Anne will take you to see something fun, okay?"

“………… Well............!! ”

"Ahem."

Seeing that the more the two talked about it, the more outrageous it became, Lijie couldn't help coughing, and then she realized that behind Rod, in addition to the seven loves who were always inseparable from him on weekdays, there was another pair of young men and women, who also looked like mercenaries, but they didn't have to be much older than Rod. At this moment, they were staring at the wide hall with a stunned appearance, as if they had come out of the country.

"Mr. Rhodes, ............ they?"

"Two recruits, you let Kavos arrange it, and from today, they will join our guild."

As he spoke, Rod snapped his fingers at the two of them, and then he turned around and led Christie and Anne up the stairs.

"By the way, Marlene should be in her room."

Hearing Rod's inquiry, a wry smile appeared on Lijie's face.

"This.................. She is, but I think it's better for you not to bother her now, Mr. Rhodes. ”

"Oh?"

Hearing Lijie's answer, a little doubt flashed on Rod's face.

"What's going on?"

Marlene was very irritable at the moment.

She looked at the two swaggering nobles sitting in front of her, gorgeously dressed and pot-bellied, and almost exhausted her restraint, which forced her to directly blast the other party out of the fortress without using a spell in the first place. But by now, Marlene felt that her patience was almost over.

"I'm very sorry to inform both of you. We, the Starlight Guild, have signed a contract with the Silver Celestial Chamber of Commerce and the Keller Chamber of Commerce, and we will never allow other chambers of commerce to enter without our review during the contract period. And the formalities are not entirely in order, so I hope you both understand that........."

"Of course we understand. Miss Shania. ”

Facing Marlene's words. One of them smiled a little sarcastically, straightened his beer belly, and lifted the belt with both hands, which was already a little too wide to support his waistline, before he continued.

"But rules are dead. People are alive, aren't they? We were new to your land, and we didn't know about it, and we ......... We've got everything here. Now you're telling us to move back in, which isn't good. After all, we came with good intentions. And if we can't make any trades and trades this time, then we will lose a lot of money........."

“……………………”

Hearing this, Marlene gritted her teeth, she really wanted to do it, but right now, Marlene had no way to do it.

These two noble merchants came to the fortress half a month ago and wanted to expand their business here, but they were immediately stopped by Marlene. After all, in her opinion, these two aristocratic businessmen were really suspicious. They themselves say that they are merchants from afar and want to operate here. But this is what makes Marlene find strange, because in general, merchants do not choose to do business too far from their base. In the case of a traveling merchant, it is not impossible to do so. But that's just a liquid transaction, and it's definitely not a fixed transaction. Even the local chambers of commerce in Parfield have not been able to get accurate information about the current Land of Atonement, but these two foreign merchants thousands of miles away know so much about the situation in the Land of Atonement. There's got to be a problem.

But what Marlene didn't expect was that after tearing her face. These two guys not only retreated without knowing the difficulty, but on the contrary, they rubbed up shamelessly. A rogue face that if you don't let me build here, I won't leave. The so-called those who are not afraid of not wanting to die, are afraid of being shameless. Marlene had warned them many times, but the two of them refused to leave. And what makes Marlene even more unhappy is that these people are trying to carry out business activities in the fortress while trying to figure out their own troubles!

If it was ordinary people, then Marlene would have sent someone to blast them out of the fortress a long time ago. But in the face of these two nobles, she had no way to do so, because they were not merchants of the Duchy of Moon——— on the contrary, they were the Solomon Consortium from the Land of Light, and they also held officially certified regulations. The Solomon Consortium is one of the five major consortia that dominate the Land of Light, and they also have a certain degree of business dealings with the Principality of Moon.

Originally, Marlene didn't think about agreeing to their request, and then observed. However, considering that the fortress was only beginning to develop, it did not bode well for internal instability at this time. Moreover, the relationship between Rhodes and the Land of Light is definitely not friendly, and this kind of problem at this time is really very difficult for Marlene.

"Miss Shania, I want you to think it through."

At this moment, the other nobleman stood up, he showed a wolf-like hideous smile, and his whole body came to Marlene's face.

"The strength of our Solomon consortium............... We're here because we've seen the potential of your guild, and that's a good thing for your guild, isn't it? Moreover, we hold the Sycamore Tree Treaty, and according to the content of the treaty, we have the right to protect our legitimate interests, don't we? Or are you going to oppose our Solomonic consortium? Do you know the consequences of the Tao? ”

“………………………………”

Hearing this, Marlene raised her eyebrows, but before she could speak, a voice came from the door.

"The Solomon Consortium, the tone is not small, I want to see, what can you do?"