Once Iris returned to her bedroom, the first thing that she did was take a bath. This room had a huge bathroom and when Hanna finished filling the wooden bathtub with warm water, Iris happily proceeded to take a dip in it. She breathed in relief when the warmth engulfed her.
This wooden bathtub was big enough for three people.
Hanna wanted to help her, but she turned her offer down, because she needed to be alone. There was something that was bothering her.
Iris read the documents from the Andelus continent and from what she read, she could tell that the Howling Wolf pack had started exchanging magic stones for rations. It was understandable, knowing how dire the situation in this pack was.
If this pack didn’t want to be so dependent on the Blue Moon pack, they needed to find a way to meet their necessities and right now, magic stones were the only valuable commodity that they could rely on.
Winter would come and if they couldn’t acquire enough rations, they would face great trouble during the harsh winter.
However, the people in the Howling Wolf pack had to return to their pack because this place would be so vacant and it wouldn’t be able to defend themselves if there was a monster attack, which happened so frequently during winter.
If they didn’t return, this place would be destroyed and all the people that moved here first after regaining their freedom would be killed, not to mention all the progress that Cane had made to make this place as livable as possible would go to the drain.
However, it seemed the merchants from the Andelus continent knew their plight and wanted to use it to their benefit, because they were bargaining for way cheaper exchange than the market price.
Cane just became an alpha for less than six months, thus his connections were not so great and he needed to build some. In that case, he didn’t have many options, especially when their time was limited.
The Andelus continent was the place where magic was born and they were in a great need of magic stones, which could only be acquired from this Ogregon continent, in other words, there were only two magic stone mines in this realm.
No wonder the king salivated so much upon the thought of devouring both the Howling Wolf pack and the Blue Moon pack. He wanted the two packs under his control so badly.
When Iris was in deep thought, she caught a glimpse of someone entering the bathroom and because there was mist from the warm bath, which obscured her sight, she didn’t realize it until the person came closer.
"Argh!" Iris shrieked when she saw Cane there, walking closer to her with only a towel hanging loosely around his waist. She immediately dived into the water, only raising her head until her eyes were just above the water surface to see the alpha’s expression, who was as surprised as her.
"I didn’t know you were here," Cane finally spoke after he collected himself.
"H- how can you come here?" Iris thought it was Hanna, who entered the bathroom, since she was in her room. But who would have thought that it would be the alpha? Did Hanna let him in?
Cane frowned slightly, but then he shook his head. "You must not have realized that this bathroom is also connected to my room."
"Ah!" Iris remembered that she saw another door inside this bathroom earlier. But at that time, she didn’t pay any mind to it, because she really wanted to get rid of the dirt that felt like it had turned into her second skin.
So, that was the door to Cane’s bedroom?
"I will return an hour from now," Cane said, as he turned around. He didn’t see anything because she was hiding under the water, but still, her face was so red, though they had been intimate before.
"Wait!" Iris said urgently, but then when Cane turned around again and gave her a questioning look, she wanted to kick herself for meddling in his business. However, if drought befell on this pack, she would be in misery too, right?
"What is it?"
He was as cold as ever.
"I read the documents," she stated, but immediately felt so stupid, because how could she translate something if she didn’t read it.
However, Cane said nothing and waited until she spoke again.
"There is this place near the Moon Dew pack, where the merchants usually trade their commodities." Iris then continued when she saw Cane’s expression didn’t change. "I think you can get enough food for winter."
"What place is that?" Cane looked interested in this new information. Ten years of slavery left him in the dark about how the world worked, but it was never too late to learn.
"A black market."
Cane knitted his brows, he had heard about this place before, but he never thought to go there. It was the place where the most vicious and the most cunning merchants would gather. It was a dirty transactional place.
On top of that, there was another thing that didn’t settle well with him.
"How do you know about such a place?"
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