My Castle, My Castellan - Chapter 7 - The Future of Toss City
The hall of the city"s main house was filled with delicious dishes. The lord of the city, McQueen, asked the knights and veterans to drink. Then, he moved to the side of Garcia.
"Garcia, didn"t you say that we have no money left? Where did all these delicious dishes come from?" McQueen was still smiling, but he whispered with a bit of anger.
"Castellan, this is all by good means of the people in Toss City. Your old servant is taking care of every area in the city, and I haven"t hide even one coin." Garcia was smiling widely. As a magician, he had a relatively high status. People were coming to toast with him from time to time.
"You"d better not lie to your castellan, Garcia." McQueen smiled, but he felt resented. Garcia, it"d be better not to let me discover your hidden money. Otherwise, I"d finish you. Garcia, although you"re a magician, you"re still my servant. Why isn"t there anyone coming to toast to me? And aren"t I the city owner? Do I have a frightening character that even the people fear me?
"Well, haha, Lord Linda, thank you for bringing people to come and rescue my city. If it weren"t for Linda and your knights, how could our city be able to survive?" McQueen held his gla.s.s of wine and greeted Linda with a humble smile. He was feeling quite good, as such beauty came from far to rescue Toss City. How was he supposed to pay her back?
"Bruce, I would like to toast you. Your heroism impressed me; you"re not young anymore but very strong. No wonder you were the team leader before." Linda stood up and toasted Bruce, she finished her gla.s.s of wine without even looking at McQueen.
Bruce stood up with the right gesture, drinking the same gla.s.s of wine, he calmly said, "you"ve overly praised me, Lord Linda. I am just someone enthusiastic. Lord Linda is a true hero since you led 6000 knights to attack a 70,000-people army. Only Lord Linda has this kind of talents."
The two people were having such a friendly conversation. They utterly ignored the lord of Toss City. McQueen, while still holding up his gla.s.s in the air, was dumbfounded. It was like someone slapped him right on his face. This little beauty Linda, she couldn"t care less about me! As the lord of the city, I am someone prestigious, yet I am treated this way. It"s not tolerable!
"Well, Bruce and Linda are the heroes of Toss City. Haha… the city lord will toast you both." McQueen adjusted his mood, laughed a bit, then again raised his gla.s.s. It"s only a small thing, as a gentleman, he shouldn"t sweat about the small stuff.
"McQueen, I do not belong to Toss City. I came to help, all because of the relationship between the previous castellan and our city." Linda"s expression suddenly turned cold, and she replied calmly. She didn"t even look at McQueen.
"Haha, that"s a very nice gift of you, my lord. Your old servant has only done his best." Although Bruce seemed a tough guy, he knew very well how to be courteous, seeing that the atmosphere seemed a bit embarra.s.sing, he tried to say something.
d.a.m.n…how shameful. Ok, don"t be overly excited. Linda, there"s going to be one day when you have to beg me. McQueen thought to himself. He was so p.i.s.sed off, but still, he had to pretend that he wasn"t bothered at all. He tried not to care too much, "haha…let"s drink! There"s so much wine, drink as much as you want."
Although McQueen was thick-skinned, he became too embarra.s.sed to go on toasting. After calling Garcia, he found a table and sat there by himself. Since that morning, he hadn"t even sipped soup. And after the heavy rain, it was time to have something nutritious. "Come on, guys, you"ve got to stuff yourself with good food and wine today!"
After Linda and the others had eaten enough, she told Bruce and Garcia that she"s leaving. She didn"t care where McQueen was. After getting on her horse, she ran off like the wind. The people of Toss City watched her leave.
"What"s the big deal? Later, I am going to form a team of 100 knights. We will walk around Moore City every day. There"s nothing to be proud of, Linda. You shouldn"t have rejected our marriage contract after all. You will pay back for this one day." McQueen wiped his mouth and had this evil thought in his head.
"Garcia, at 2 o"clock in the afternoon, summon all the people and have them meet me in the main castle. I am going to hold an important meeting!" McQueen yelled at Garcia. Did he think, how come Garcia even had a higher status than himself? And at the party, he didn"t seem like a servant but someone with high prestige. Linda was disrespecting McQueen, yet no one saved his face, and he even had to bow down to Linda at the end. That"s unbelievable!
"Okay, my castellan. Where are you going now? What about cleaning the mess after the battle, what are your arrangements?" Garcia tried to follow McQueen"s footsteps.
"I am going to take a nap! For other things, you will make proper arrangements. And we shall see further during the meeting this afternoon." McQueen waved, before going up to the bedroom on the third floor. Hey, maybe he"d be transmigrated back to where he was after the nap.
It was still a broken bedroom and the filthy bed and quilt. And much other broken stuff. McQueen fell instantly on his couch. He felt that all these were so surreal. This world was not that world. And this McQueen was not that castellan. It might be just an illusion after all. After one nap and here he was with this trouble.
"Is it now impossible to go back? Dad, mom, and sis, will you miss me? Your son has lived this far and yet he is still too broke to buy an iphone4s for his sister. Maybe I am a tragedy in that world. And now…now I am living my own life in this world. And although you might never see me again, I am not willing to go back and live like garbage. I"ve had dreams too. I have wanted to be rich and make you proud, yet this is something I am unable to achieve in my first world. Here, I am going to live differently!"
"I, McQueen Thomas Arathi, am going to lead the Toss City. I am going to create my glory, an almighty immortal fate!"
With all the alcohol, McQueen slowly fell asleep…
He had a dream. In his vision, he was standing high on the clouds and overlooking the people on the ground. How awesome it is! Linda was just like a loyal dog, right under his feet.
"Hey, bark once to me. I want you to be sweet, okay?" McQueen turned over on his bed and said faintly.
When Garcia entered the bedroom, he just heard what was said. He had gooseb.u.mps all over his wrinkled skin. He looked at McQueen strangely and felt very uncomfortable. He pushed McQueen lightly, "Castellan, it"s pretty late. Aren"t we going to have a meeting?"
"Don"t be a fuss, my little Linda; I am going to spank you if you mess around!" McQueen moved away Garcia"s arm and muttered. Then, he knew what was happening and suddenly woke up. His face became stiff. Garcia"s old, ugly face ruthlessly shattered McQueen"s beautiful dream.
"Uh, what have you heard?!" McQueen"s face suddenly turned red, and he thought he might have heard something.
"The old servant did not hear anything." Garcia tried to resist the disgusted feeling he was having.
"It"d best if you didn"t hear anything. Remember, you haven"t heard anything!" McQueen gave Garcia an angry stare. He patted the folds on his clothes and fiddled with his hair. Trying to wear a friendly smile, he followed Garcia downstairs.
The main room had already been neatly arranged. Aside from one of the seats facing the south and the north, the two rows of chairs were occupied by a bunch of old men.
All the healthy, young guys in Toss City were trapped in the magical cave after the Northern and Southern camps were taken over. Who was left behind were only children, women and the old men.
McQueen sat on the main seat with a broad smile. He felt so proud as if he owned the whole world. "Everyone, there is only one reason why I gather you all here today. I am going to brief you with the development of Toss City from now on. Well, perhaps I will let you all introduce yourself first."
This McQueen is not the same as that McQueen. In this place, aside from Bruce and Garcia, he didn"t recognize anyone. It was the only thing he could do. Luckily, it seemed that no one had noticed anything strange.
"Well, castellan, let me begin." Bruce eagerly spoke, being the first one meeting with McQueen"s request. "I am Bruce Macdonald, former head of the Knights of Toss City, and I was a senior warrior with no other skills. I could be used for fighting and attacking though."
After the first introduction of Bruce, everyone else made his self-introduction, eliminating McQueen"s feelings of the embarra.s.sment of not knowing anyone.
"I am Cook Brown, and I run a bow and arrow shop. It"s a small business. All depending on my castellan to buy our arrows, our shop can still get to continue running." The old man seemed st.u.r.dy, and he didn"t have a lot of grey hair. His voice was not too high or not too low, and it"s very decent.
"Castellan, I am Randolph Bryant, who served as the history official of Toss City in the Government Offices. I am dedicated to truly recording the city"s story." The old man"s face appeared to be yellow and hollow, and he seemed to be acutely malnourished. But he looked a righteous guy.
"My name is Sith Ramaya; I am running a rice business. In the past few years, thanks to my castellan, my business has been quite prosperous." Sith smiled with respect. His chubby size reflected his wealth.
"Well, all of you have finished introducing yourself. You should have also found out that you"re the key people that I"ve been looking for. With your help, I am much more confident in what I am going to implement!" McQueen was delighted at their introduction. In his smile, there was a hint of heroism. He was as confident as someone who dared to fight with G.o.d. "Garcia, give me the map!"
"Map? I didn"t prepare it." Garcia was stunned. His reaction had crushed McQueen"s confidence.
Gosh, this old man didn"t even have a little sense of cooperation. The castellan didn"t mention map, and so he couldn"t remind himself to bring it? What"s the point of keeping him as a servant?
"Then why don"t you hurry up?!"