Lord of the Sky City

On this day, Rocky did something extremely dangerous, the risk level of which far surpassed that of hunting Demons, and also exceeded all missions of the Mercenary Guild, which was sharing the secret of the Mana Rune with Aileen and Monte!

His actions were, to say the least, unexpected by everyone, even Aileen and Monte themselves had not anticipated hearing such explosive news. It was an action of extreme danger, because if either of the two were to leak everything they had heard, there would only be three words to describe the fate of Rocky and Thunderhawk City: utter annihilation!

Yet, at the same time, this move was within reason, because Rocky needed his own foundation!

Only with his own foundation could he then freely develop and become stronger, and the foundation he chose was Liliya, Aileen, and Monte.

There was no need to mention Liliya; Rocky absolutely trusted her, so that was beyond question. As for Aileen and Monte, after interacting with them for a period of time, Rocky also deemed them trustworthy.

This was precisely where his audacity lay because in Rocky's eyes, although Aileen and Monte were trustworthy, they did not reach the level of absolute trust he had in Liliya.

Still, he shared his greatest secret with the two of them, because Rocky knew one thing: excessive caution is tantamount to groundless suspicion, and once you fall into that vicious cycle, there is no one left to trust.

In this situation, he decided to take a gamble; he bet that he had not misjudged these two people, and that his trust had not been misplaced!

......

......

The silence in the research room had become profound at some point; after Rocky had finished speaking, he did not continue, merely watching Aileen and Monte as if waiting for them to digest everything they had heard,

Indeed, Aileen and Monte truly needed time to process everything in their minds, and with their intelligence and experience, they had understood Rocky's intentions as soon as he finished speaking.

However, this was a matter they had to consider very carefully, because once they made their choice, it could potentially affect the rest of their lives. Therefore, neither spoke up immediately, falling into silence together.

As time ticked by, after more than ten minutes had passed, Monte was the first to make his choice. He looked at Rocky, then slowly knelt on one knee before him!

"City Lord, Beastman Monte swears loyalty to you. I am willing to be the spear in your hand, or the shield. I vow to follow you and never betray you!"

Beastman Monte swore loyalty to Rocky!

And after he made his oath, Aileen also made her choice. She too knelt on one knee before Rocky like Monte did and pronounced her vow, "City Lord, Aileen wishes to swear loyalty to you. Your ambitions are my goals, your dreams my desires. I will follow you, never to leave or forsake you."

Aileen, swore loyalty to Rocky!

"City Lord, Liliya swears loyalty to you. I am willing to be by your side forever, to follow your footsteps ceaselessly."

After Aileen and Monte had consecutively sworn loyalty to Rocky, Liliya also knelt before him and spoke her vow.

With this, Liliya, Aileen, and Monte, all three had sworn loyalty to Rocky. They were henceforth known as the most valiant, astute, and loyal trio under the Master of Runes, and at this moment, their legend was born.

At the same time, these three giants would not know that many years later, the vows they made today would come to be known as the Oath of Spear and Shield, the Oath of Heart and Desire, and the Eternal Oath, and would spread to every corner of the skies, becoming the standard for all pledges.

Of course, all of this would happen many years from now, and at the moment, not the three of them, nor Rocky, who would be later honored as the Master of Runes, knew what the future would hold for them.

The current Rocky was simply elated, very much so!

So, he then helped the three who were kneeling before him to their feet, and in turn, gave each one of them an embrace from the City Lord.

"Alright, now it's time to talk about serious matters."

After giving each of the three a big hug, Rocky opened up his floodgates of speech.

He actually had many ideas about their future development, including Thunderhawk City, how they were going to survive in the skies, and even the Mana Rune, in short, Rocky had many thoughts.

But before this, he could only confide in Liliya alone. However, everyone has their expertise, and even though Liliya understood Rocky well, she was not adept at everything, so she couldn't always help Rocky.

But now, things had gotten better; not only did Rocky have Liliya by his side, but he also had Aileen and Monte, so he could share many of his ideas with them.

Therefore, following this, the four of them held a candid conversation in the research lab, without any secrets or schemes, talking from day to night about all sorts of things — immediate plans and long-term goals alike; they chatted about a great many topics.

After this in-depth conversation, Rocky became much clearer about what he needed to do next and how he was going to do it; at the same time, his relationship with Aileen and Monte grew much closer because of the talk.

So when the next day arrived, it might have seemed like nothing had changed in Thunderhawk City, but in fact, changes were silently taking place — for instance, the Guard Corps had a new instructor.

This instructor, naturally, was Monte.

Actually, Rocky's idea was to have Monte take over Liliya's position and become the new Captain of the Guards, which was also what Liliya hoped for, but this needed to happen gradually.

Monte was different from Liliya; while Liliya was the personal guard of the City Lord and her status naturally earned her everyone's respect, coupled with her strength and beauty, which had facilitated a smooth transition when she took over the Guard Corps.

Monte, however, arrived in Thunderhawk City as an outsider. Even though he was stronger than Liliya, he couldn't come close to her in terms of prestige. Appointing him directly as the Captain of the Guards would have caused unnecessary trouble for Monte.

So, Rocky came up with a solution: he let Monte start as an instructor for the Guard Corps. This way, while training the guards, he could simultaneously establish his own prestige in their hearts, paving a natural way for his eventual promotion to Captain.

Meanwhile, as Monte became the new instructor for the Thunderhawk City guards and began training the Guard Corps, the training classes finally started to gain some traction.

Strangely enough, despite the lack of initial interest in the training classes, once Rocky set a registration deadline, people began signing up. Although the number wasn't large, with only a dozen or so participants, the result was still far beyond Aileen's expectations and left her puzzled.

"You could think of this tactic as like a sale."

When Aileen voiced her confusion to Rocky, he responded, "Imagine this: if a product permanently drops in price, people won't rush to buy it because the sale is forever, right? They can buy it any time when they really need it."

"But if a product is on a limited-time sale, people's desire to purchase intensifies, because if they don't buy now, they might not get the chance later."

"The same principle applies to the training classes; setting a deadline for registration naturally boosts the residents' desire to sign up."

"So that's how it works... Why didn't I think of that before."

After Rocky explained, Aileen understood the situation and nodded thoughtfully.

"How are things going with the food?"

At this point, Rocky inquired.

"Oh, everything has been taken care of. We'll start selling food to the residents next month, with the same prices as before. Once all the food is sold to the residents, funds will flow back, and we should have enough money for buying yarn for the next quarter."

A week had passed since they left Eternal City, and the Ruby Chamber of Commerce had already delivered the food to the city, while Aileen had managed all these matters properly.

"Excellent."

Upon hearing Aileen's report, Rocky nodded in satisfaction. Although he had initiated reforms in Thunderhawk City, it would take time to see actual results, so in the meantime, the city needed to continue operating in the old way without any mishaps.

"By the way..." Rocky nodded, then suddenly remembered another matter, "Any news from the Azure Commerce Guild? They should be arriving soon, right?"

"Soon."

Upon mentioning the Azure Commerce Guild, a smile appeared on Aileen's face, "They've already sent word; they should arrive with the food in a week, and the one leading the team is that Jia Xi."

"Good, I'll leave this matter to you then."

After looking at Aileen, Rocky chuckled.