While
"I simply don't understand why the company has set its sights on Shilovas Island as the family's territory. Apart from its size, what benefit does it offer for the family and the company's development? Are we going to turn ourselves into those backwater imperial nobles we've always looked down upon? Or are we going to surrender our dominance over the trade routes along the Golden Coast in the southern seas?"
The one speaking with such vehemence was the Qikede Trading Company's Second Young Master, Seboyef. He had always been in charge of leading the company's armed fleet to eliminate pirates of every size across the Sunlight Sea, safeguarding the five southern long-distance merchant fleets' sea lanes. Having seen years of battle, he carried the straightforward boldness of a hardened soldier—a temperament starkly at odds with the calculating, profit-driven merchant air of the senior members seated around him.
Second Young Master Seboyef was the most vocal opponent of making Shilovas Island the family's territory. He believed it would cause the family to lose its grip on the southern seas and significantly disrupt their influence over the coastal nations along the Golden Coast. Shilovas Island sat isolated in the north. If the family took it as their territory, then whenever conditions changed in the southern seas, by the time word reached Shilovas Island and the family reacted, it would be far too late.
"I hope everyone here can see the situation clearly. The family currently has seven fleets. Aside from my armed fleet, five of the remaining six merchant fleets handle sea trade in the southern seas, accounting for eighty percent of the company's revenue. The north has only a single fleet, responsible for the spice trade with the Kingdom of Shaisilan and the material transport trade with the Kingdom of Haneabada, making up twenty percent of total revenue."
Second Young Master Seboyef picked up a small wooden pointer and jabbed at the large nautical chart on the wall. "Although northern sea trade revenue may currently look slightly better than the south's, please don't forget that our company's dominance over the southern seas was won over a hundred and seventy years by our ancestors through blood and fire, at tremendous cost and sacrifice. Without our status as overlord of the southern seas, we would never have been able to monopolize the northern sea trade routes with the Kingdoms of Shaisilan and Haneabada..."
Third Young Master Moriback shot to his feet. He hated this second brother above all else. In terms of ability, how was he any inferior to the eldest, Serriham? As the second son, if you didn't want to compete for the position of family head, that was one thing—but why did you have to help that good-for-nothing eldest brother become the company's successor? The northern strategy had been his suggestion, and the seizure of Shilovas Island had been approved by a vote among the company's senior leadership. Now that something had gone wrong, you wanted to overturn the entire strategy? The nerve!
"Second Brother, that's not how it is. We all know the company has already become the dominant maritime power in the south. That's precisely why we need to open up new northern sea trade routes and secure fresh revenue streams for the family. And Shilovas Island will serve as the family's territory and a strategic naval foothold. Once we control Shilovas Island, it's as good as the company owning the entire northern coastline of the former Krisen Empire. The increased revenue would be at least half of what we earn in the south—I believe the company would need to establish three more northern merchant fleets to meet the demands of expanded trade..."
Third Young Master Moriback raised his voice in rebuttal, invoking the promise of future northern profits to steel the senior leadership's resolve to carry out the northern strategy.
"Heh heh..." Second Young Master Seboyef let out a cold laugh. "No matter how pretty a bubble looks, it's still just a bubble. You see the profits, but have you considered the risks and the costs? To say nothing of the fact that the northern seas are rough and tempestuous, with bad weather striking at any moment. And can the Cursed Coastline up north compare to the calm waters of the southern seas and the Golden Coast? Just filling in the shallow reefs to build a port would consume an inordinate amount of capital, manpower, and resources.
You want to seize Shilovas Island as the family's territory? A fine notion—so take a good look at the wreckage of those two interception fleets. The company spent years and enormous resources painstakingly training four Great Swordmasters. A single interception operation and one of them was lost for nothing. That was our martial foundation—the very pillar that let us stand among the Seven Giants of the Commercial Alliance!
I said it before: don't be fooled by the fact that the former Krisen Empire has collapsed and fought such a prolonged civil war. That outcome was achieved through over a decade of meticulous planning, recruitment of elites, and strenuous maneuvering by our Seven Giants—not because the former empire was some decrepit shack that fell apart on its own.
Just look at this time: every trading company under the sun schemed to seize territory from the Kingdom of Redelis and the Kingdom of Andinak for themselves. Not one of them wanted to face the
A starved camel is still bigger than a horse—understand that principle. The fall of the former empire doesn't mean those former imperial nobles have lost all their strength. You rashly declared someone an enemy without even investigating their background, and look where it got us—running straight into an iron wall. Shilovas Island was originally the Second Prince's personal appanage, yet he bestowed it upon another as territory. Given the Second Prince's forceful personality, he must have had his reasons. And you blithely assumed this count was just another incompetent noble, even trying to kidnap and coerce him into handing over Shilovas Island to the company. What a lovely fantasy..."
"Enough, Seboyef, that's enough..." The Qikede Trading Company's chairman, seated at the head of the table, cut him off. "Your brother is also thinking of the company's interests and future development. These are only temporary difficulties. Our Qikede Trading Company is, after all, one of the Seven Giants of the Commercial Alliance. We can't simply back down like cowards. We might not have the strength and confidence to take on an entire kingdom, but dealing with a former imperial noble should still be within our means."
"Father, hasn't the failure of the two interception fleets and the sacrifice of Great Swordmaster Kumori made you see reason yet?" Second Young Master Seboyef pressed, still unconvinced. "I'm not even considering commerce or future development—analyzing this purely from a military perspective, the conclusion is unmistakable: you've provoked a most formidable enemy. The Peterson Company has done their best to mediate, indicating that we can purchase Shilovas Island from Count
If this count were like the greedy nobles we usually deal with, we could have sat down long ago to hammer out a price. But this count wouldn't even discuss it, didn't even bother to reply to the Peterson Company, and set sail in the dead of night. That tells us that in his heart, Shilovas Island is not for sale. To obtain this island, we'll have to pay in blood and fire.
I'll admit my younger brother's arrangements were quite thorough. Although the first interception missed its chance due to negligence by the surveillance scouts, the commanders of the second and third interception fleets—Admiral Pankide and Old Yali respectively—were both seasoned veterans with extensive naval combat experience. I even ran through the tactical scenarios afterward, and their handling was beyond reproach. Moreover, the third fleet had Great Swordmaster Kumori aboard. We had placed enormous hope in these two fleets...
Just when we thought Count Norton had nowhere left to flee, he taught us a bitter lesson with his decisiveness and resolve. Facing Admiral Pankide's second interception fleet, the count leveraged his fast ship's superior performance and an unexpected Gold-tier Divine Archer to break through the blockade and sail away, while we lost the entire crew of a medium-sized armed merchant vessel.
Admiral Pankide immediately dispatched a messenger petrel to relay every detail of the encounter to Old Yali aboard the third interception fleet. Despite the surprise, Old Yali made thorough preparations—he linked the ships of the interception fleet together with iron chains, and he and Great Swordmaster Kumori each took up position aboard one of the two large merchant vessels, specifically to counter that Gold-tier Divine Archer. To prevent Count Norton from pulling the same trick twice, Great Swordmaster Kumori even moved to the large vessel on the left.
Surely this arrangement was foolproof—but Count Norton still had cards to spare. Who among you could have guessed that he himself was a third-rank Great Swordmaster? In the end, we lost nearly five hundred sailors, three experienced captains, eleven Silver-tier Swordsmen, two Gold-tier Swordsmen, and one Great Swordmaster. In three years of hunting pirates across the Sunlight Sea, I never suffered losses half as catastrophic!"
Second Young Master Seboyef accused furiously: "The results speak for themselves—Moriback never bothered to properly investigate this Count Norton's true strength. He rashly treated a third-rank Great Swordmaster as just another incompetent noble, causing devastating and grievous losses to the company. He must be held accountable!"
"What proof do you have that the count is a third-rank Great Swordmaster?" Third Young Master Moriback's face flushed crimson with anger.
"He slaughtered three hundred and forty-seven people aboard a large merchant vessel in under half an hour!" Second Young Master Seboyef shot back at an even louder volume, jabbing a finger at a stern-faced elder in the room. "Go ask Grandpa Udi—he's a second-rank Great Swordmaster. Could he accomplish all that in half an hour? And this happened before nearly a thousand witnesses—there's no room for fabrication!"
The old second-rank Great Swordmaster smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"You've gone and found our family and company a truly fearsome enemy!" Second Young Master Seboyef turned to his younger brother and said with biting sarcasm. "Father entrusted this matter to you—and this is how you handle it, so carelessly? Did you even bother to conduct a proper investigation into Count Norton's background?"
"Of course I investigated! What sets that Count Norton apart from any other noble? He just happens to be slightly better with a sword..." Third Young Master Moriback's gaze began to waver.
"Idiot! Is this how you do things? Self-righteous guesswork and half-hearted efforts! You couldn't even be bothered to spend a pittance to have someone at the Peterson Company dig into Count Norton's history!" Second Young Master Seboyef exploded with fury. He strode to the corner of the room and grabbed a satchel stuffed with documents on beast-hide parchment. "Here—let me show you what a thorough investigation looks like!"
He tossed the satchel onto the table. The documents spilled out across the polished wood, and the assembled elders leaned in, their expressions shifting from irritation to curiosity.
Seboyef picked up a document and scanned it for a moment before reading aloud: "Those challenge tournaments at the academy more than seven years ago, right? A
The room immediately came alive. The events of over seven years ago had taken on a legendary aura, and quite a few Silver-tier Swordsmen from the Qikede Trading Company had gone to take up the challenge—yet not a single one had prevailed. Those who returned from the tournament spoke of that Black Iron Instructor named Rock with genuine admiration, conceding that his swordsmanship was in a class above their own.
"That Black Iron Instructor is the present-day Count Norton..." Second Young Master Seboyef was visibly satisfied to see the looks of shock spreading across the room. "There was a rumor at the time that two Gold-tier Swordsmen wanted to teach that Black Iron Instructor a lesson, hoping to soften him up so their junior brother could easily defeat him the next day. So those two Gold Swordsmen went to intercept the Black Iron Instructor that night. By the next morning, their unidentified bodies had turned up at the watch station.
If the Black Iron Instructor hadn't possessed the strength to defeat Gold-tier Swordsmen, that old fox from Dawn Academy would never have let him go out and challenge Silver-tier competitors—that whole affair was itself a setup. In the seven years since, Count Norton's swordsmanship has improved even further, as the interception fleet's encounter made abundantly clear.
However, this count left Morant City seven years ago to return to the Northland and inherit his family's territory and title. According to intelligence from the Peterson Company, he was still a baron at the time. He organized a caravan with some academy friends to return to the Northland, defeated the armed forces of the local nobles in the Kingdom of Redelis, and brokered a deal that gave the Peterson Company access to the sea trade routes heading there.
The subsequent intelligence becomes somewhat fragmented. Our company has no intelligence operatives stationed in the Kingdom of Andinak, so we couldn't gather complete information. However, there are indications that the Second Prince of Andinak rose to power and reclaimed his governing authority with this count's assistance. For this, the count was enfeoffed as a count, and Shilovas Island was granted to him as his family's territory by the Second Prince.
According to intelligence from the Wixia Trading Company, in the Northland this count is known as 'the raging bear'—provoke him at your peril. The Northland's Grand Duke was defeated by the count's family forces and stripped of his Grand Ducal territory. It's said that the count even let his family's soldiers plunder the Grand Ducal lands for seven days and seven nights, committing countless atrocities. Then the King of Iblia Kingdom—the former Krisen Empire's Second Prince—led a hundred thousand troops to suppress him, only to see his entire army annihilated in a single battle while the Second Prince fled the royal capital in disgrace.
"Now here's the really exciting part..." Second Young Master Seboyef held up a document and read aloud. "After his defeat, the Second Prince was livid and dispatched the third-rank Great Swordmaster Jalinan, who was at his side, to assassinate Count Norton. You've all heard of Great Swordmaster Jalinan's reputation—he was known as half a step from the pinnacle, just one more half-step and he'd have been a Sword Saint. Six months later, soldiers of the Norton family hung Great Swordmaster Jalinan's corpse from a cross, carted it into the royal capital they had conquered, and dragged the Second Prince back out. It was retribution for the dishonorable act of hiring an assassin while sitting on a king's throne..."
"Wait—did all this intelligence come from the Wixia Trading Company?" Chairman Qikede asked.
"Yes. The Wixia Trading Company holds the mining contracts for those two iron mines in the Iblia Kingdom, so they keep a very close eye on developments in the Northland. Currently in the Iblia Kingdom, the queen holds power, and everyone treats the captured former king as though he doesn't exist. Count Norton, meanwhile, has consolidated the Northland into an impenetrable fortress together with three allied noble families, making it extremely difficult for outsiders to penetrate his family's territory and investigate his background. What is known is that this count has been undertaking large-scale development and construction across his family's lands—which now appears to be true. At the very least, he has already opened up a sea route from the Northland to Shilovas Island, which is how he ended up here in Morant City."
Second Young Master Seboyef set down the documents in his hand. "Now do you realize the magnitude of your mistake? My dear brother, you treated a count from a distinguished military family—no different from those parasitic, rotting nobles. And you wanted to seize his family's territory of Shilovas Island? Have you considered the price the company would have to pay? Even if we somehow emerged victorious in the end, it would shake the very foundations of our enterprise. We might hand over our southern maritime hegemony to rival companies and send our own tumbling from its seat among the Seven Giants, to be ground underfoot by those second- and third-rate firms that used to look up to us in awe. Only then would you finally be satisfied, wouldn't you? My dear brother..."
... (To be continued.)