Fatty went to the royal capital to offer condolences, but Lorence didn't. He claimed he wasn't on Shilovas Island and sent Fatty to receive the envoy and head to the royal capital in his stead to pay respects.
As if he'd go to the royal capital at a time like this. Setting aside the awkwardness that would arise from meeting the
What if he left for the royal capital and the Chikde Trading Company attacked? Lorence figured he'd better stay on Shilovas Island and wait for the enemy to come. This time, he intended to leave the Chikde Trading Company with a lesson they'd never forget.
Preparations for war proceeded in an orderly fashion, and everyone who needed to be evacuated was evacuated. Patty, however, had quietly sought him out privately, asking him to write a letter of introduction for Lady Thrissy. It turned out the fellow had already won over the beautiful Martha from the White Bird Restaurant, and after much persuasion he'd finally convinced mother and daughter to head to the Northland to open a restaurant in the newly built port city. Business on the island wasn't great anyway — they weren't making much money.
But Martha's mother, Aunt Natasha, hoped that the neighboring Professor Hugo and his family would come along as well, so they could look out for one another. Patty had learned that Professor Hugo was formerly a professor of literature and history at the Imperial Capital's Royal Knight Academy, and had fled back to his hometown with his family to escape the war. Patty remembered that Lady Thrissy was in the process of establishing the Nico Academy, so he ran to Lorence and asked him to write a letter introducing Professor Hugo for a teaching position.
While writing the letter, Lorence asked a few questions and realized he actually knew this Professor Hugo — he was the chubby, red-nosed old man who'd had a bit too much to drink that very first time Lorence visited the White Bird Restaurant. No wonder the old man hadn't shown the slightest fear of him as lord, even going on about how all lords were a bunch of lechers. He must have seen plenty back in the imperial capital and knew exactly what kind of people those self-righteous nobles really were.
Not many residents of White Bird Town chose to evacuate. For one thing, they were accustomed to life on the island and didn't want to leave. For another, just as Lorence had predicted, they couldn't care less who their lord was. The
If anything, the arrival of Lorence and his people had actually given the island residents more to complain about. They grumbled that the lord wanted to develop this and construct that, launching all sorts of major projects. Sure, it brought more opportunities to earn money, but it also brought a lot of hassle and disrupted their peaceful lives.
It was the departure of Martha's family from the White Bird Restaurant that inspired quite a few surrounding residents to head to the Northland as well — several dozen households, nearly a hundred people in all. These were relatively well-off families who worried that they'd be robbed once the coming war broke out, so they decided to go to the Northland outright.
The staff sent to urge them to evacuate promised that there was no need to worry about housing or work — the newly developed port city in the Northland already had completed residential areas where they could exchange their properties on a one-to-one basis, with surplus subsidies to boot. As for work, there was even less reason for concern. The family's northern territories were flourishing and in need of all kinds of talent. As long as you had a skill to offer, there was no need to worry about finding a good job.
During his conversation with Pat, Lorence learned that the lame Garrison Captain Victor, back in White Bird Town, was also a suitor of the beautiful Martha. But compared to the young, handsome, tall, and fit — (note: the above is Pat's own boasting and does not represent Lorence's endorsement of his views) — and fully-legged Pat, Martha's choice was self-evident.
This was also the main reason the White Bird Town garrison had been inciting residents to oppose the Third Guards Battalion's plan to build a fortress-castle between the commercial district and White Bird Town. One was the Garrison Captain, the other the commander of the Third Guards Battalion. For the sake of one beautiful Martha, the two were like fire and water — utterly irreconcilable. Pat simply wore a face full of smug satisfaction, brimming with the superiority of a victor.
Damn it! Lorence barely avoided flying into a rage. Two idiots were squabbling over a woman and treating the family's development plans as child's play. He had genuinely believed the residents of White Bird Town were collectively opposing the construction — turns out it was these two scheming behind the scenes. As for that lame Victor, he wasn't even part of the family to begin with, so there would be plenty of time to deal with him once the family had firmly established its footing.
Pat, as a Family Knight, couldn't even tell what was important from what wasn't! Of course, Lorence wasn't asking him to simply hand Martha over — he wanted Pat to have informed him earlier of the real reason behind the residents' opposition to the fortress-castle construction. That way, he wouldn't have assigned the Third Guards Battalion to the abandoned Farama Village. Relying on Victor's five hundred minimally-trained garrison soldiers to defend White Bird Town was frankly nerve-wracking.
Days slipped by one after another, but when would the enemy finally arrive? To Lorence, each day felt like a year. He was so eager for the Chickerde Trading Company to attack Shilovas Island that he'd practically turned into a rock of longing.
During this period, Faleya organized two naval convoys and then sent Semba Wood back to the Northland with an armed fleet — first to deliver the evacuees, and second to transport food and supplies back. Semba Wood spent five days in the Northland, and upon his return it was a string of surprises. His demeanor toward Lorence became even more respectful.
"I had no idea the Lord's family was this powerful…" Semba Wood finally understood why Lorence was confident enough to go to war with the Chickerde Trading Company. This trip to the Northland had truly opened his eyes. However, he was genuinely puzzled — both were Counts, so why did the Shelaher Count he'd originally wanted to serve seem like a beggar compared to this Norton Count? Whether it was territory or family forces, there was simply no comparison. To be precise, the strength the Norton Family displayed on the surface alone already surpassed that of a duchy.
Popular. But in the Norton Family, it wasn't that simple. Everything depended on merit — even diligent service without dramatic results would do — otherwise, it was impossible to be recruited as a Family Knight.
After just one tour around the Norton Family's territories in the Northland, Semba Wood made up his mind — even if other families came inviting him, he wouldn't go. The eight Golden Knight estates and manors in Xing'an Plain alone had turned his eyes green with envy. They came fully equipped, with butlers, hired hands, and servants all in place, each generating annual revenues of five hundred to eight hundred gold Fordes.
After all, back when Semba Wood was a pirate, risking his life every day, he only managed to squirrel away about a hundred gold Fordes a year. And now, before even becoming a Golden Knight, just one month's salary and position allowance came to ten gold Fordes — more than enough for his wife and children to live comfortable, luxurious, and happy lives in the Northland.
He absolutely had to become a Golden Knight of the Norton Family and earn his wife and children a manor castle just like those. This was the grand vow Semba Wood had just made.
On January 22nd,
Speaking of the trip to the royal capital for the funeral, Fatty Shi drew a sharp breath: "The Second Prince is truly ruthless. He cut off the head of the Second Prince Iberia and placed it on a large silver platter in front of the Third Prince's coffin as a sacrificial offering. The poor Second Prince never could have imagined he'd die at the hands of his own nephew. The eyes on that severed head weren't even closed — the horror still lingered. He truly died with grievances unleft…"
Fatty Shi also recounted how the Second Prince had delivered an impassioned speech in the great plaza before the palace gates, declaring that the war to restore the former Krisen Empire was about to begin. No one could stop the people's longing for a powerful empire's rule, and any obstacles standing in the path of this war of unification would be crushed by the mighty army under his command…
The Second Prince's speech had ignited the cheers and shouts of nearly ten thousand people gathered in the great plaza, their voices shaking the royal capital. Fatty Shi said that back in the capital, whether civilians or soldiers, everyone shared a feeling that they had finally endured through the worst and could now breathe free. The death of the Third Prince had lifted a tremendous burden. Now, the three hundred thousand troops under the Second Prince's command were making their final war preparations. Fatty Shi estimated that war with the Kingdom of Redelice would likely erupt in April, after the winter wheat harvest.
Lorence continued to wait on the island for the Chickerde Trading Company's attack. He waited all the way until February 11th, when two large oceangoing merchant ships from the Peterson Trading Company arrived at Sylovas Island. Disembarking were a vice president of the Peterson Trading Company along with his entourage, as well as Dolles and the forty-odd talents he had recruited from
The news Dolles brought to Lorence was this: My Lord, stop foolishly waiting here. The Commercial Alliance is now locked in a chaotic brawl with the Kingdom of Trinbo, both sides having beaten each other bloody. They simply can't be bothered with our Norton Family's territory on Sylovas Island.
Only after the Peterson Trading Company vice president and Dolles explained the situation did Lorence understand — it was the idle chess pieces he'd casually set in motion when leaving Morant City. Those two letters had played an unexpectedly pivotal role, catalyzing the conflict between the Kingdom of Trinbo and the Commercial Alliance. Minor skirmishes along the border had one by one escalated into a full-blown war.
Lorence was overjoyed. When he had originally thrown out those two letters, he'd certainly intended to cause trouble for the Commercial Alliance, but he'd thought at most it would create some friction between the Kingdom of Trinbo and the Alliance — enough to drive a wedge between their so-called sincere and unbreakable alliance of friendship. He never anticipated that it would directly ignite a war between them. What a delightful surprise.
Truthfully, the fact that those two letters played such a crucial role was entirely thanks to the wholehearted cooperation of that simple-minded Trinbo VII. After the Mayflower Trading Company attack, given that a full third of Morant City's inner district had been destroyed, the number of casualties among executives and their families from various trading companies caught in the crossfire was staggering — and that wasn't limited to the Seven Giants. Even those mid-tier and lower-tier trading companies based in the inner district suffered countless losses.
The entire city of Morant was engulfed in public outrage, and the Seven Giants simply couldn't contain the wave of public sentiment. The mid-tier and lower-tier trading companies, in particular, were fanning the flames at every turn. Alliance Council members one after another took to the streets and public squares to give speeches, arguing that the Kingdom of Trinbo must be punished and that the murderers whose hands were stained with innocent blood could not be allowed to go free. Some even shouted slogans about marching on Feis City and capturing Trinbo VII alive.
However, the Seven Giants of the Commercial Alliance were still relatively clear-headed. Even the Mayflower Trading Company, which had suffered enormous losses, forcibly suppressed its desire for revenge. They dispatched an envoy to Feis City, the royal capital of the Kingdom of Trinbo, to meet with Trinbo VII and demand the handover of the two fugitive Third-rank Great Swordmasters and the Second-rank Great Swordmaster to the Commercial Alliance for punishment as the perpetrators — so that the citizens of Morant City could be given an accounting. They further demanded that the Kingdom of Trinbo offer a formal apology and reparations for the consequences of the attack, and while they were at it, reopen negotiations on the preferential tax-free glass treatment previously afforded to the Kingdom of Trinbo...
The Seven Giants of the Commercial Alliance already felt they were being remarkably restrained, but they never expected that Trinbo VII would resort to outright shamelessness. He flatly rejected the Commercial Alliance's proposal and insisted that the attack on the Mayflower Trading Company was neither his responsibility nor carried out under his orders.
Two letters.
Therefore, this incident should be regarded as a spontaneous heroic act by righteous individuals, entirely unrelated to the Kingdom of Trinbo or its royal family. The Commercial Alliance's envoy demanding that he take responsibility for this was simply baffling.
The Commercial Alliance's envoy nearly coughed up blood from Trinbo VII's response. The evidence was ironclad, yet the man shamelessly denied everything to the bitter end. This was a matter of state that concerned the future relationship between the Kingdom of Trinbo and the Commercial Alliance — was this any way to handle it? It was simply unheard of.
The envoy, his face dark as a storm cloud, threw down a warning about bearing the consequences and turned to leave. But the clueless Trinbo VII drove the knife in even deeper, declaring with immense self-satisfaction that, out of respect for the attackers' earth-shaking, soul-stirring sacrifice for the sake of their nation, he would officially bestow upon them the glorious title of heroes of the Kingdom of Trinbo. Furthermore, a grand memorial ceremony would be held in the royal capital of Feis City to honor those heroes who had shed their blood and willingly sacrificed their lives to defend the interests of the kingdom...
The Commercial Alliance's envoy finally spat blood on the spot from sheer fury...
Upon receiving word that their envoy had been humiliated and obtaining Trinbo VII's formal response regarding the Mayflower Trading Company attack, the Seven Giants of the Commercial Alliance felt as though their faces had been slapped soundly. And so they made a decision. At the auction held on December fifteenth, the Mayflower Association purchased the two letters through a self-bidding scheme for the staggering sum of twenty-three million gold Forde, thereby obtaining the formulas and production processes for green glass and oil glass.
In truth, Dean Levins of
Once they obtained the formulas and production processes for the two types of glass, the Commercial Alliance immediately announced that it would produce and sell them independently, refusing to allow the Trinbo Kingdom's specialty glass to pass through its territory and revoking the preferential tax-free treatment previously granted to Trinbo glass.
The moment word reached the Kingdom of Trinbo, Trinbo VII went ballistic. What? All those Great Swordmasters and Golden Knights had died, and it turned out the two letters they had destroyed were fakes? The Commercial Alliance was absolutely devious — no wonder the nobles always got the short end of the stick when dealing with merchants. It was all because those merchants had too many tricks up their sleeves, using fake letters to brush us off, making fools of us while we suffered catastrophic losses…
Having automatically cast himself in the role of the victim, Trinbo VII seethed with rage. It was no longer feasible to assemble another team of Great Swordmasters and Golden Knights to assault the Commercial Alliance and seize the two letters, so Trinbo VII ordered the fifty thousand troops stationed along the border to advance toward the Commercial Alliance's frontier, preparing to use overwhelming military force to compel the Alliance to hand over the letters and pledge never to produce the two types of glass…
Only, Trinbo VII forgot one thing. The once-mighty Krisen Empire, with two to three hundred thousand soldiers, had never managed to bring the Forde Commercial Alliance to its knees. Nobody took Trinbo Kingdom's fifty thousand troops seriously. When the Alliance's garrison patrols encountered Trinbo scouts along the border, they would trade insults and be on their way — both sides generally exercised enough restraint to avoid drawing blades. Fistfights, however, were growing more frequent by the day.
Eventually, the villages along the border belonging to the Commercial Alliance bore the brunt. A squad of Trinbo soldiers snuck into one village looking to rest their legs, helping themselves to food and provisions while also demonstrating to the village women and young girls exactly what Trinbo men's "strength" looked like.
As it happened, they stumbled right into a mercenary company from Morant City passing through the area. Mercenaries did not have nearly as many rules as the garrison forces. Had it been garrison soldiers, they would have disarmed the Trinbo troops, marched them to the opposing camp as a formal protest, and awaited disciplinary action against the soldiers who had violated military orders.
But when the mercenaries discovered that the village, though no one had been killed, had been thoroughly desecrated, they drew their weapons on the spot. A handful of wounded Trinbo soldiers escaped back and raised the alarm about being ambushed, drawing several reinforcement squads. When those reinforcements saw the bodies of their comrades, they too flew into a rage and began hunting down the mercenaries. The ensuing skirmish attracted the Commercial Alliance's garrison forces as well, and the scale of the battle began to escalate.
The single-minded Trinbo VII, upon learning that fighting had broken out on the border with significant casualties, was actually overjoyed. He believed he could use this as a pretext to expand the war and teach those Commercial Alliance merchants a lesson about proper conduct. So he ordered the fifty thousand troops on the border to launch an assault on Morant City, planning to bring his army to the city's gates and then force the Commercial Alliance into signing a dictated peace…
At first, the war progressed smoothly. The Commercial Alliance had never anticipated that the Kingdom of Trinbo would actually dare to launch a full-scale attack. Caught completely off guard, they watched helplessly as Trinbo's fifty thousand troops seized the two foremost cities on the Mana Hill Plains. This was like kicking a hornet's nest — the Commercial Alliance immediately declared war on the Kingdom of Trinbo, proclaiming a war of self-defense and counterattack, determined to make Trinbo VII taste the consequences of starting a war.
The moment the Commercial Alliance flexed its muscle, the Kingdom of Trinbo learned what it meant when they say a dog that bites doesn't bark. Before Dolores even boarded a Peterson Trading Company merchant ship and headed over with his men, the Commercial Alliance's self-defense counterattack force had not only retaken the two occupied cities, but had also pursued the remnants and swept through seven of Trinbo's counties, nearly conquering half the kingdom's territory.
The Kingdom of Trinbo was roughly the size of four provinces of the former Krisen Empire, but it was divided into fifteen counties rather than provinces.
"...will fight to the death against the ungrateful Commercial Alliance forces that betrayed the bond of brotherhood forged in iron and blood, and dared to invade our kingdom against all justice and reason..."
Dolores said with a grin.
... (To be continued.)