Chapter 535 – Overly Popular Bread Fruit
Zhao Hai and Marriott entered inside Marriott’s personal reception area. Although this hotel had just finished being constructed, this reception area was still luxuriously decorated, it even looked much better than back in Sky Water City.
After they sat down, Marriott looked at Zhao Hai and smiled, “Little Hai, why’d you find time to see me today? Do you need something?”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “I want your Sh.e.l.ly Family’s help in a matter.”
Marriott smiled, “Don’t be polite, just tell me.”
Zhao Hai laughed and then said, “Haha, alright, take a look at this first.” Then he handed a stack of papers over to Marriott. The stack contained the events that happened to the Iksa Family. Every detail was carefully written in those papers, this was the thing that Zhao Hai had prepared before.
Marriott received the stack of papers and then carefully read them. Marriott was a very calm and smart man, he grew up in the Sh.e.l.ley Family since he was a child, so he had certain understandings about different struggles in the continent. However, what the Radiant Church did was really quite excessive even to him.
Although only the Iksa Family’s matter was written on the stack of papers, Marriott had already speculated that there was a problem with the Aksu Empire. Otherwise, such a situation wouldn’t have happened. If this was truly the case, the problem was much bigger than he had imagined.
After some time, Marriott placed the papers down and then looked at Zhao Hai, “Is this real? How did the Aksu Empire respond?”
Zhao Hai sighed and said, “Of course it’s true, the Iksa Family is now with me and in a very safe place. The Aksu Empire didn’t have any reactions to what happened. Not only did they not respond, they still went on and dealt with the Purcell Family. The elders of the Purcell Family have now been bought out, restraining the Purcell Family from cooperating with my Buda Clan. Because of this, I suspect that the Aksu Empire had now come into the control of the Radiant Church.”
The conclusion that Zhao Hai reached was the same as the one that Marriott had in mind. Therefore, Marriott nodded, he agreed with what Zhao Hai said.
Then Marriott looked at Zhao Hai and said, “What do you think about this?”
Zhao Hai snorted and said, “The Radiant Church had been too rampant. They actually dared to control a big Empire. Later on, I’m prepared to hand this information over to father-in-law, making him spread the message to the entire continent. The Markey Family shall help with this as well. So I hope the Sh.e.l.ley Family can also aid me in releasing this information. We need to let the continent know what kind of organization the Radiant Church really is.”
When Marriott heard Zhao Hai, his eyes turned bright and then deeply looked into Zhao Hai’s eyes, “Alright, Little Hai, we’ll be giving you a hand.”
The reason why Marriott agreed immediately was because the Radiant Church was also suppressing the Sh.e.l.ley Family quite recently. Even if the family had withstood and was not afraid of the Radiant Church, they cannot deal with the Radiant Church just like how they did with Grand Duke Lionheart.
Zhao Hai laughed and said, “Alright, then that matter is settled. However, don’t release the information immediately. When it’s time, I’ll have Grandpa Kun inform you.”
Marriott nodded, “Then that’s settled. Right, do you want to stay and have a couple of drinks?”
Zhao Hai shook his head and said, “I can’t, I still have some other things to do today. I need to head back and deal with those. Moreover, I’ll be leaving Golden Island immediately.”
Marriott nodded, “alright, then I won’t stop you. But the next time that you come here, you must drink a couple of gla.s.ses with me.” Zhao Hai nodded with a smile, then turned around to leave. Marriott escorted Zhao Hai to his carriage before returning back to the hotel.
After entering the hotel and greeting the guests, Marriott returned to his own room and wrote a long letter regarding the Iksa Family as well as Zhao Hai’s request. He then had it sent to the Sh.e.l.ley Family’s headquarters, he wanted to know the family’s thoughts on this matter.
Marriott has promised Zhao Hai that he’d help, so he wouldn’t renege on his words. Moreover, he also has the authority to make such a decision. But he still need to inform the family about this matter, this still needed to be discussed.
The Sh.e.l.ley Family was the Buda Clan’s ally, it wasn’t a problem if they wanted to help. However, there are many ways to lend a hand, the problem was how to do so.
When Zhao Hai returned to the naval base, he immediately went to the s.p.a.ce to have a rest. Nothing new happened in the Purcell Duchy, Ruyen and the others were also not yet ready.
Honestly, Zhao Hai didn’t want to make contact with Ruyen. First, it was because of the previous events. He feels very embarra.s.sed if they were to meet. The second was because Ruyen had annoyed him before, he didn’t want that event to be repeated in the future.
The next day, Zhao Hai silently paid attention to the Purcell Family. At the same time, he was also observing the events back in the Beastman Prairie.
The Prairie was now fully prepared. They needed to attack the humans no matter how much they had prepared. Because of the food shortage, they needed to go into action, therefore, they didn’t have the time to store up some rations. The only thing that they can do was bring along some Argali while they advanced.
Argalis weren’t quick, so they affected the march of the Beastmen. Moreover, the Argalis would go ill once they enter Human territories. It was because of this reason why Beastmen would generally prefer to have rations.
But unfortunately, they didn’t have the time to prepare rations, they simply didn’t have time.
In this fight, each race prepared their own food and weapons. Then everybody arrived at a certain place before they set out in order to pillage the human territory.
It was because of this solidarity that the Beastmen weren’t afraid of fighting all out. Naturally, if their losses were too high, they would retreat. After all, a race with small numbers would generally be swallowed up.
Seeing how prepared the Beastmen were, Zhao Hai reckoned that it would take less than a month before they arrived at the border of the Purcell Duchy. At that time, the war would truly begin.
He also looked at Ah Tai and the others. Ah Tai’s current situation was very good. The Beastmen knew that the shop had close relations with the Wolf, Bear, Dog, and Cow-headed races. Therefore, n.o.body went to the shop just to cause some trouble.
And there was also one thing that made Ah Tai very popular, it was the Bread Fruit. In this war, the other tribes’ food can only be Argali. It was because it was the most convenient thing they could bring at current time.
However, the Prairie Wolf Tribe, Black Bear Tribe, Dog-headed Race, and the Cow-headed Race had some Bread Fruit. The Bread Fruit was extremely convenient. One could immediately eat it as soon as it was opened, it didn’t even need cooking.
It was the first time that the other Beastmen saw such a fruit, this made them jealous. And when they heard that this fruit was provided by Magic Lily Shop, all of them became impolite, especially the huge Warring Clans, they immediately went to purchase some from Ah Tai.
Among them were the Tiger Clan that Ah Tai intended to contact. There were also a lot of tribes inside the Tiger-headed Race. The one that Ah Tai wanted to come in contact with were the Bali Tiger Tribe.[1]
The Bali Tigers weren’t the biggest tribe in the Tiger-headed Race. But they were deemed to be the most attractive among them. Their appearance also had the general tiger stripes, but the way the stripes were arranged made them very beautiful.
But they should not be underestimated just because they were attractive, their fighting strength wasn’t weak at all. Among the Tiger-headed race, they can me ranked along the middle parts.
Because Ah Tai had prior inquiries with the Bali Tigers, they were the first ones who had gotten some Bread Fruit.
For the Beastmen, this Bread Fruit became very important in this war. The fruit was both convenient and can last a long time. It was not only their convenience that attracted the Beastmen, the most important thing was that the fruits weren’t Argali. Argalis were the most treasured commodity of the Beastmen, so they want to save them as much as possible.
The reason why the Beastmen didn’t bring some Bamboo Rice was because it was very inconvenient. Not only were they hard to bring, they don’t last long either. More importantly, with how much the Beastmen eat, they would need to bring large amounts of pots in order to cook the rice. This would further hinder their advance.
On the other hand, the Bread Fruit can be eaten immediately after it was opened. It expands as well, making one fruit enough for one Beastman. For races with small appet.i.tes like the Wolf-headed race, one fruit could sustain two people. Therefore, the Bread Fruit became the Beastmen’s number one choice for war rations.
Ah Tai didn’t become polite, Zhao Hai had instructed him to use this opportunity to establish his reputation. But he wasn’t prepared to sell too much Bread Fruit. If the Beastmen approached him, he would tell them that Zhao Hai only left him no more than 300 million jin of Bread Fruit.
300 million jin might sound like a lot. But for the entire Beastman Race, it was just akin to pouring a cup of water towards a burning carriage, it was utterly insufficient.
Ah Tai was also smart, he directly asked the Black Bears to come forward and be the ones to inform all of the Beastmen about his meager 300 million jin supply of Bread Fruit. If they wanted to buy some, they needed to divide the amount among themselves.
The Beastmen didn’t embarra.s.s Ah Tai. Moreover, even if the Beastmen always get in disagreement with each other, they were unnaturally in one mind when it came to war. Therefore, the big Warring Clans acquiesced and divided the Bread Fruits among themselves.
Later on, they had found out that the Prairie Wolves had the most supply of Bread Fruit. This made them force the Prairie Wolves to sell some their fruits and trade them for Argali.
The Wolves agreed to this arrangement, they had bought the Bread Fruits for gold, but it was now exchanged for Argali. For the Prairie Wolves, this trade was very cost-effective. In normal times, if they took some gold to other Beastmen to trade for Argali, they would be seen as idiots. Therefore, the Wolves didn’t hesitate and agreed immediately. They left some Bread Fruits for themselves and then sold the other ones.
1. It’s stated in the raws as Li Tiger. But I don’t know what those were, so I went with the closest sounding one.