"Shadow Garden?" I repeated before asking in a confused voice, "What is that?"
The noble raised a brow when he heard this before saying, "You don't even know what the Shadow Garden is? What kind of things have they been teaching you when you became a noble?"
I had a confused look when I heard this.
He was speaking in such a confident voice, as if I should have recognized what he said the moment that I heard it.
But I really had never heard of this thing before, even back when I had been playing the game, I hadn't heard anything about this Shadow Garden before.
That was until I suddenly remembered a tiny bit of lore that I read.
It was a part of a random drop that I had found and there was only a tiny passage about it, but Shadow Garden was supposedly a spy organization that reported directly to the king. This was an organization that had a large influence in the kingdom and could even be considered the secret police with how much power they had.
But like any other organization that had too much power, they had been destroyed because of a power struggle.
After it had been destroyed, all traces of it had been erased because the nobles didn't want something like Shadow Garden rising up ever again.
So Shadow Garden was forgotten in time and was considered a taboo in the kingdom.
If I remember correctly, the year that it was destroyed was the year 643 and currently it was the year 641…
That meant that in just two years, this Shadow Garden organization would be destroyed…
No matter how you looked at it, this was a hot potato.
If I joined Shadow Garden, there was no doubt that I would be caught up in the organization's internal struggles. Moreover, with how much power was at this organization's disposal, there was no doubt that this would be a one way trip into an early grave.
This was not something that I could join, especially since I had no idea what even happened to the Shadow Garden.
As far as I remembered, there wasn't a single storyline route that was related to Shadow Garden in the game. This was only a name that had been mentioned in an obscure drop from one of the side quests.
So I had no information going into this!
I wouldn't throw my life away like this!
Seeing the look of recognition on my face, the noble revealed a faint smile as he waited for me to speak.
The look on his face made it clear that he thought that I had just been joking and that I had been pretending not to know so that I would have an advantage in the negotiations.
But what I said next caught him completely off guard.
"Thank you for your goodwill, but I have no intentions of joining Shadow Garden. If that is all, I will be leaving today. I want to thank you for your help and I hope that we can meet again in the future." After saying this in the most polite voice that I can use, I quickly stood up and was about to make my way to the door.
But before I could even take a few steps, Shaka suddenly moved to block me from going any further.
My body immediately tensed up when I saw this, but I didn't keep pushing forward. I looked up at Shaka and asked, "Is there a problem?"
Shake didn't say a thing as he turned to look at the noble, but he also made sure that I wouldn't be able to take a single step forward.
There was an awkward silence that filled the air for a few seconds before the noble suddenly burst out in laughter. This time, the laughter wasn't as innocent as before and I could hear a bit of a dark undertone to it.
The noble laughed for some time before saying, "I think I just misheard what you said. Did you just say that you weren't interested in joining Shadow Garden?"
As he said this, he turned to look at me.
He had the same expression on his face, but I could see that there was a bit of a dim glow in his eyes.
I knew that this was far from over.
But still, I calmly said, "Yes, I don't have any interest in joining Shadow Garden. I am just a simple baron who is in charge of a simple town on the edge of the kingdom, I am not someone who wants fame and fortune. All I want is to live a simple life."
Though I said this in a calm voice, I did make sure that the determination in my voice got across to the noble.
The noble narrowed his eyes to look at me as if he was inspecting me before finally saying in a deep voice, "Sit."
The tone of his voice made it clear that he brokered no argument and there was only a single choice in front of me. I could either sit, or…
I didn't know how far he would take this, but I wasn't willing to find out, so I went forward and sat back down in front of him.
The noble looked at me and said, "You're someone that has caught my attention, few people can do that. If I say that you have the talent to join Shadow Garden, I mean it." He had said this part in a somewhat cheery voice, but then his voice turned darker as he said, "But those talents are dangerous if they are allowed to wander out there, so if you don't join Shadow Garden, there is always the chance that your abilities will be used against us. That is not something that I can allow to happen."
I knitted my brows when I heard this, but I quickly relaxed them and said, "I really have no intentions of getting involved in anything outside of my territory. All I want to do is live a simple life taking care of my people."
The noble gave a snort when he heard this that made it clear that he wasn't going to give up.
But no matter what he said, I was firmly against joining Shadow Garden.
Joining a ship that I already knew was doomed to fail?
That was like asking me to jump onto the Titanic on its maiden voyage!
I would never accept a ride on this kind of risky ship and put the people that I cared about in danger.
So for now, I had to figure out a way out of this.
If I could even delay my answer for a bit, it would still be better than nothing.
It was just too bad that the noble wouldn't even give me that option.
He already had a plan in mind and he was putting it into action.
Seeing that I had once again deflected his threat, the noble gave a sigh and said, "It seems like we have no choice but to use other methods to compel you."
"Other methods?" I repeated as a chill ran down my spine.