Usually, quests will be issued by a client to the guild and have a reward decided on beforehand. But... the quest Leon picked up was different, even when compared to regular gathering quests. The client was the guild itself, and that quest's main job was so that adventurers could get rid of whatever junk materials they accumulated during other quests.
Since there is no immediate buyer for the materials, and since the risk of them rotting and spoiling was real, the guild won't pay a lot for any materials that the adventurers bring.
But to Leon, this quest was money printing machine. Because he knew the region better than anyone else.
As they submitted the quest, the receptionist looked at them with a worried face. "Are you sure? We'll buy anything you gather, but usually at a lower price than market value. You'd better take a perpaid quest. Like that one for Life Flowers."
Leon shook his head, gave the others quests a quick glance, and smiled. "This one would be enough." As she registered it, Noel approached Leon with a worried face.
"Master, I don't have a weapon. I didn't get the chance to pick up my sword before we got kicked out." She whispered into his ear so no one could hear them, and he just patted her head, even though she was older than him by five whole years.
His father had assigned her to be his maid when he was five and she was ten, just a maid-in-training, and now he is barely sixteen. He was the youngest of his brothers after all.
"We won't need a weapon. Let's go." The two of them immediately headed out of the guild and rushed out of the city. Time was against them as the sun had already passed noon, and if they didn't hurry, they wouldn't reach the forest before it starts getting dark.
As they walked outside the city's walls, Leon stood at the edge of the road, and Noel waited behind him, confused. She expected them to be running directly toward the forest, so what was her master waiting for?
"Master... shouldn't we start moving?"
Leon smiled, "They should be here any moment now..." Then, before he could even finish talking, a whole caravan of more than ten carriages strolled out of the city's gate. It was one of the local merchants heading out to trade with neighboring villages and cities.
Leon waved his hand, and the first carriage immediately froze in place as an old man looked out with a confused face. "That white hair and red eyes. Are you Lord Leon?"
"Who else?" Leon approached, "Can you drop us by the forest?"
The merchant gave him and Noel one look and could already guess that they were kicked out of the Lord's family. "Nah, I don't want any trouble with your father. Leave me alone. You're not even a lord anymore."
"You're right, I'm not a lord anymore." Leon looked at the merchant with a smile. "I'm just a commoner now, so how about it? Want to listen to me cry?"
The merchant smiled, "Fine, you're a failure anyway. I'll drop you by the forest so the wolves can eat you. Hop up, and that angry-looking lass as well."
Noel was a bit confused, but if her master said it would be fine, she should trust him for now. So as the two of them jumped into the carriage and sat beside the merchant, Leon closed the window and sighed.
For the whole trip, Leon and the Merchant only talked about the local women, their beauty, and gossiped about the nobles to the point that Noel was about to ask them to shut up, but she kept her mouth shut. The first rule she learned as a maid was to never question what her master was talking about with another noble.
When they reached the forest, the merchant kicked them out, laughed at them with his men, and then left immediately. Noel was fuming and wanted nothing more than to cut that arrogant fool into pieces, but unlike her, Leon was happy.
"Calm down, he is our friend. We were talking in a cryptic language that was designed to sound like just two nosy fools. I gave him insider information about the silver trade, the politics among the nobles, and the current policies about the fight against the monsters and demons. In exchange, he promised to search for a piece of cheap land or a home outside my father's domain that we could buy later on."
Noel's eyes opened wide as they started glittering. "Wait, you two were talking about that? When did you learn that language?"
"It's not something you learn, but it depends solely on the intelligence of the two parties talking and how far they can read between the lines. For example, if I said that a noble lady is looking for new jewellery and didn't find what she was looking for, he'll interpret it as a lack of supply. I'll then quickly follow it by talking about a noble that is involved in the silver trade, and the listener can connect the dots on their own."
Leon started jogging, and Noel rushed after him, gently lifting her maid's skirt to avoid it getting snagged on the bushes and shrubs. Soon, they were getting pretty deep into the unforgiving and monster-infested forest.
"Master, aren't we going too deep? Monsters would start showing up. I don't have my sword to protect you." She called to him with a worried voice, and he looked back at her with a smile. "Don't worry, unless something major happens, only slimes and small bug-type monsters should show up around here. They are our aim."
He soon saw it, a large, black beetle that was the size of a cat. It was crawling up the trunk of a tree, feeding on its sap. "That's our first target. Pick up two sticks and use them as weapons. Make the beetle bite one stick to arouse its poison glands, then smack it on the head with the other stick. That would kill it while the gland is full. We can then extract it and sell the poison on the black market."
"What?" Noel gasped. "Where did you learn that?" She had never heard of such a method before.
"An A-ranker once stopped by our mansion and talked with father about some high-ranked quests. In the conversation, he mentioned this as a lesser-known method, but I'm certain my father wasn't even listening to him." Leon picked four large and thick sticks, two for him and two for Noel. "Also, the sap those beetles eat can be used as a coagulant to stop bleeding. It is hard to extract, but since we're hunting the beetles, we can scrape the sap inside their mouths and mandibles. It'll fetch us a few extra coins."
Noel had no idea that Leon knew about all of that, but for now, she had to focus on her job. Her master had given her an order, and she was going to start working without wasting a second of his time.