Chapter 95 Meeting
d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n! What a bulls.h.i.+t prince, isn’t he the one who was only thrown into this wilderness out of pity! Cornelius ferociously thought, but when he remembered the two guards with their hands at their swords who were walking behind him, he had to temporarily swallow his mouthful of resentments back into his stomach.
When he was finally out of the castle and saw the two guards leaving, the Baron felt relieved.
He pulled out an already wet handkerchief and wiped his forehead. He resolutely spit out a mouth full of spittle. While imagining the spit directly smas.h.i.+ng into the Prince’s face. Yet this still wasn’t enough to release his anger, so he had to stamp repeatedly onto the spit, until his heart was finally comforted.
Just because you were able to block the invasion of the demonic beasts, you think that you are able to face up against Longsong Stronghold? Just carry on being so proud, after all you don’t have much time left in which to be so proud!
Cornelius thought that if he hadn’t received such reliable information, he would never have dared to come back to Border Town so early. In general, the aristocracy will always return even later than the civilians. After all, mining and hunting was dirty work, it was so hard that the aristocrats would never do them.
Their part was just to supervise the production. And wait until there was enough ore so that it could be transferred. And in their spare time they would go to their hunters’ houses, and ask whether they had any suitable high-quality fur to purchase.
But this year the situation was completely differently, Cornelius had heard from the financial director Sir Reynolds that Duke Ryan was ready to drive the 4th Prince out of Border Town – this wasn’t a betrayal to the King of Graycastle, no instead they were upholding an order from Timothy Wimbledon, the new King: “Roland Wimbledon is no longer the Lord of Border Town, and if he wants to get re-a.s.signed to a new territory he has to return back to the king’s office first.”
Duke Ryan had spoken these revolutionary words in front of Sir Reynolds, who had been able to climb up from a position in the City Hall to the position of financial director in only five short years. If they hadn’t had a distant relations.h.i.+p as relatives, and if he hadn’t sent him two high-quality furs each year, Cornelius would never be able to know what went on in the minds of the people in charge of the west.
“Gaining a new territory after returning to the King” was just an empty statement, even Cornelius knew, that the first Prince without being able to say anything had been sent to the guillotine. So if the 4th Prince went back, would the new king show him mercy?
Without doubt, the west border was under the rule of Duke Ryan, the only question was whether he would wait for the order of King Timothy or if he would act without it. However, when Duke Ryan decided to act, there would be no difference between Roland Wimbledon and a homeless dog.
This was also the reason why Cornelius had rushed to Border Town, the first reason was naturally to get to the furs as early as possible, but his second reason was to put his own house up for sale. The first point he thought was a very smart idea, while in the previous years the civilians fled to the Longsong Stronghold to take refuge, their inventory was naturally empty, so early in the year. But this year they had stayed the whole time in Border Town, surely there were some goods he would receive, right? So not only could he make a small fortune, but he could also offer Reynolds some familial piety.
The second point was that Cornelius had asked Reynold to give him a place within the City Hall, although it was just busy work, but it was still better than living in this d.a.m.ned poor place. And since he wouldn’t need his house any longer, he should sell it as soon as possible. Who knows when Duke Ryan would start his attack, maybe this unruly mercenary would raid and burn his house, giving him a big loss.
But he never imagined that the house wasn’t burned down by mercenaries, but instead it was directly removed by the 4th Prince. When the Baron thought once more about this fact, he gritted his teeth in anger, it was one of my best houses ah! Although one hundred and fifty gold royals were an exaggeration, but it had at least a value of thirty gold royals.
In order to get the money early, he had even bent his back, and had reluctantly accepted twenty gold royals, but then His Highness even treated him in such a crazy way! Instead of giving him his coins, he was even threatened by defection. Doesn’t he know that each year to the beginning of the Months of Demons, all the n.o.bles evacuated towards Longsong Stronghold?
Wait a minute… Cornelius suddenly slowed down, there seemed to be something wrong. Although he had previously heard of the 4th Prince bad character, the Prince was always acting without thinking, he even malicious molested Baron Simon’s wife directly after he had arrived at Border Town. Afterwards this became a private joke for a long time. But today, the impression he received from the Prince didn’t match with what he knew. The Prince had never become angry nor did he act shamelessly, instead it was Cornelius himself who had shown bad character and acted completely without rhyme or reason. During the whole talk, the other side had constantly spoken in the same tone.
So why had he become so scared, even having obediently giving up his own house? If he had said that the house was his own, would the Prince really have killed him, or not?
Right… Cornelius couldn’t help himself from shuddering, sweat on his forehead shrinking back. Now, in retrospect, when he’d faced the prince, he’d had the illusion that he was instead talking with Duke Ryan.
The Baron shook his head hard, trying to search through these unpleasant memory at the back of his mind. Anyway, the 4th Prince will only be proud for a few days longer. Soon Duke Ryan will bring Border Town back under his rule, and then His Highness Roland Wimbledon will also be escorted back to Graycastle, I will have a good laugh at him then. Perhaps those twenty gold royals were lost, but in the end Duke Ryan will still seek out revenge for myself.
Stopping his thinking here, he was finally able to relax again. Since he had received some high-quality pieces of fur, and he didn’t need to sell his house any longer, he could simply sail back to Longsong Stronghold now. Delivering the message to “the member of the aristocracy who had the same misunderstanding,” simply has to be a great act. When I return to Longsong Stronghold, I have to imitate it as good as possible, so that everyone knows what a bluff looks like.
When he finally left the castle area, walking down the road to the harbor, Cornelius pa.s.sed a woman who was wearing a hood.
Originally, there was nothing strange about it, after all the townspeople were coming and going all the time, but the woman was all dressed up. Maybe she was a young lady or an upper-cla.s.s woman, on her way seeing the Prince. But when a gust of wind blew up the corner of her hood, Cornelius felt his heart jump, and he couldn’t catch his breath.
G.o.d, that’s what a woman should look like, with rare green long hair, even just revealing a part of her face for a moment, was enough to get me stunned. Even if the King in Graycastle called for the princesses of other aristocracy he wouldn’t see someone like her, so how is it possible that someone so beautiful is in Border Town?
He turned around, wanting to catch up with her, seeing what she would do, only to discover that she was walking straight into the direction of the castle.
Is this the kind of woman the Prince has access to? The Baron hesitated a bit longer, but in the end he gave up. He just really didn’t want to have anything to do with the 4th Prince, such a wicked person should be left for Duke Ryan to clear up, I still have to get back to Longsong Stronghold.
Arriving at the pier, he entered his own single-masted clipper. The boatmen pulled at the sail, and the boat quickly left the pier, sailing in the direction of Longsong Stronghold.
On the way back, while sitting in the sun, Cornelius saw quite the spectacle.
About five miles away from Border Town in a field of snow, a large group of people entered his field of vision – they were all wearing the same brown leather armor, and a long wooden pikes on their back. Forming a long line, they slowly marched through the snow. Although he was separated from them by a small forest so that he couldn’t clearly see everything, he was still sure that there was at least one hundred people.
Those are… the farmers the 4th Prince used to confront the demonic beasts?
In the early months of the year, when the snow still covered the roads, it was absolutely difficult to walk in the snow, Cornelius couldn’t even imagine it. But the group of people were still moving down the road, and it even looked as if the snow was at least one foot deep, this wasn’t a small matter…
He wanted to laugh at the ridiculous sight, only to discover that he was unable to. A feeling of doubt unconscionably arose in his heart, the knights under Duke Ryan’s command, would they also be able to do this?