"So in less than ten days, the Commercial Alliance went from losing two cities to completely crushing the five-hundred-thousand-strong army of the Therlinb Kingdom and reclaiming all its territory, even going on the offensive to seize two of their commanderies. Then, given that over a month has passed, the Therlinb Kingdom should be extinct by now, right?" Er asked from the side.
Dorlis pursed his lips. "Heck if I know, I can't even follow this war anymore. When I left, the Alliance army was in a standoff with a four-nation coalition. Those four nations had responded to King Therlinb VII's plea for help, arriving to rescue him and drive the Alliance forces out of their borders.
But that coalition claimed they were only there to mediate. They blocked the Alliance army's advance to 'separate the two armies and prevent further bloodshed that might damage relations.' What a blatant load of crock. Everyone knows the Therlinb Kingdom's forces were hopelessly outmatched. If not for the king paying an exorbitant price, who would have bothered offending the Commercial Alliance?"
"So nothing happened between the two armies? No clashes at all?" Jostock interjected. He was learning something new every day; he'd never heard of such a ridiculous war.
"You think that's possible? The Alliance's rabble was okay at defense, but nobody wanted to attack an enemy in a well-fortified position. They went to Therlinb to earn military merit, sure, and to loot the estates, manors, and castles of those filthy rich Therlinb nobles. But nobody's a fool—no one's eager to die. Right now, President Comberland of the Twin Dragon Trading Company is in emergency talks with the coalition commanders, trying to figure out what conditions would make them withdraw and stop caring about the war between Therlinb and the Alliance..."
"My lord, you should know, by the time I left, the Alliance army had already occupied seven of Therlinb's commanderies—almost half the kingdom's territory—without fighting a single proper battle. Either the Therlinb garrisons scattered at the first sight of the Alliance banners, or the local nobles raised white flags and surrendered. There was even one commandery's Garrison Captain who sent word to President Comberland that if the Alliance would reward him with the lord's pretty daughter, he'd open the gates and let the army in. The president agreed..."
Dorlis paused, his throat dry, and lifted the large mug of water from the table, gulping it down in huge swallows.
Dorlis understood without needing it spelled out. Before Fatty Shi could even open his mouth, he said, "Relax, Brother Shi. Your whole family is fine. Your father's a crafty old fox; he'd already slipped away and moved the entire family into
When Fatty Shi heard his family was safe, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. But then he learned his father was planning to go make money in their ancestral territory, and his face turned red, his expression awkward as he didn't know what to say.
Everyone in the room laughed.
Dorlis patted Fatty Shi on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry about it. Your father's quite the character. I welcome him to set up shop and do business in our family's territory. As long as he doesn't break the family rules or use his connections to bully anyone, however much money he makes is his own skill. If he does well, I might even let him serve as our agent for selling our family's specialty products abroad."
"Alright, Dorlis, carry on with the war in the Therlinb Kingdom."
"Yes, my lord." Dorlis thought for a moment. "The Commercial Alliance forces that have invaded the Therlinb Kingdom have already grown to over a hundred thousand strong. Once they discovered Therlinb was nothing but a hollow shell—all fat and no bone—everyone wanted to take a bite. The mercenaries from
"Therlinb VII, that stubborn fool who only has one thought in his head, finally realized he'd overplayed his hand. Facing the prospect of total annihilation with enemy forces bearing down on every front, he finally snapped to his senses. On one hand, he ordered that the famous general of the Therlinb Kingdom—the pride of the realm, Count Edmond—be hanged the moment he came crawling back in disgrace. On the other, he dispatched envoys to beg for aid from neighboring nations, pleading with them to rescue the Therlinb Kingdom."
"While Therlinb VII was showering gold coins to secure reinforcements, he also instructed his envoys to spread what he called the Commercial Alliance Threat Theory in neighboring countries. He accused the Alliance of having lost their northern rival in the former Krisen Empire, and now turned their expansionist gaze toward the surrounding nations. Therlinb Kingdom, he claimed, was merely the first victim. All neighboring countries must remain vigilant and unite to curb the Alliance's ambitions, or the next to face invasion would be them."
"Honestly, when Therlinb VII actually gets serious, he's no pushover. Twenty-some years on the throne weren't spent eating rice for nothing. Once the four neighboring nations sent reinforcements that formed a coalition army and halted the Alliance's advance, Therlinb VII finally let out a breath and could sleep soundly at night."
"The glass tax exemption and preferential treatment for the Therlinb Kingdom will remain as before..."
"Damn, and he calls that a minor request? This Therlinb VII really does only have one thought in his head. Look at the state of things and he still won't let go of the glass," Earl commented.
"Who could argue with that..." Dolores agreed and continued: "This demand left the relief coalition dumbfounded. The Forde Commercial Alliance had already made it crystal clear that they rejected Therlinb VII's request. They proposed that both sides could agree to a ceasefire, but Therlinb VII must apologize and pay reparations for the Mayflower Trading Company raid and the invasion of the Commercial Alliance. Most importantly, he must recognize the Alliance's territorial sovereignty over the seven counties of the Therlinb Kingdom they had already seized — which meant the Alliance had no intention of returning those seven counties and planned to bring them under their own administration...
Right now, the commanders of the four-nation coalition army were suffering terrible headaches. They had a combined force of only forty-seven thousand men facing the Alliance's hundred-thousand-strong army, and the pressure was immense. Though they had received generous payments from Therlinb VII, that didn't mean they were willing to fight the Alliance's main army to the death. Therlinb VII's hope that they would counterattack all the way to Morant City was nothing but a pipe dream. They were negotiating with Chairman Comberlate of the Twin-Headed Dragon Trading Company precisely because they wanted to end this war as quickly as possible and head home with their haul of benefits.
What they didn't know was that Chairman Comberlate was also troubled. He had over a hundred thousand men under his command, but more than half of them refused to follow orders. All they knew was to cause a ruckus throughout the seven counties of the Therlinb Kingdom that had already been occupied. The Commercial Alliance's army consisted only of the seven trading companies' armed battalions and the city defense battalion. The light cavalry patrol battalion was reliable, but all of them combined still numbered less than thirty thousand. Fearing a surprise attack from the four-nation coalition, they had also adopted a defensive posture...
The current situation in the Therlinb Kingdom was defense facing defense, and negotiations facing negotiations. The Morant Daily was already mocking this war as a sitzkrieg, wondering how long it would drag on."
No one had expected this sitzkrieg to last a full three months. When Dolores left Morant City, it had only been going on for a little over two weeks.
"Are you certain all seven of the Commercial Alliance's Giants have their eyes fixed on the Therlinb Kingdom, including the Chicked Trading Company as well? They won't be making a move against our family's Shilovas Island holdings anytime soon?" Lorište asked.
"Yes, my lord," Dolores replied. "When I was boarding the ship, I had just seen the Twin-Headed Dragon, Mayflower, Peterson, and Chicked trading companies each dispatch an additional reinforcement battalion to the Therlinb Kingdom. As for the remaining three of the Seven Giants — the Forde Trading Company was in the process of receiving the Porigas Province of the Luorm Duchy, the Livord Trading Company was working hard to convince the Mobian Duchy to follow the Luorm Duchy's example and join the Commercial Alliance, and the Vesia Trading Company was still wavering. They had invested too heavily in the Redelis Kingdom, and it was hard for them to give up just like that."
"Oh, and my lord, when I was leaving, Chairman Peterson secretly told me some news — the Chicked Trading Company had originally planned to invite eight Great Swordmasters of the second rank or above to assassinate you. But when you unleashed your fearsome power on the sea and wiped out every expert on one of their ships, it scared them witless..." Dolores suddenly remembered an important piece of information.
"What did you say?" Er, Josk, and the others were horrified and jumped to their feet. "This is something incredibly important — you should have said so earlier..."
"Heh, it's nothing now." Dolores waved his hand and smiled. "The Chicked Trading Company's plot will never come to fruition. Because the Commercial Alliance's top-tier fighting forces are all converging on the Therlinb Kingdom — even the Chicked Trading Company's Great Swordmasters are no exception."
"Are you sure?" Fatty Shi frowned. "What does the war in the Therlinb Kingdom have to do with those Great Swordmasters? Besides, Chairman Combellette of the Twin-Headed Dragon Trading Company brought plenty of high-end fighters with him, didn't he? Could the Chicked Trading Company be trying a diversion tactic? My lord, you must pay attention to your own safety from now on. A single Great Swordmaster is manageable, but the real danger is if they all attack at once. Even a mighty tiger fears a pack of wolves..."
"Mm," Dolores nodded. "Speaking of which, this is all the doing of Therlinb VII. With the four-nation coalition blocking the Commercial Alliance's armies, he's been planning to rebuild the Therlinb Kingdom's military forces. The problem is, the Kingdom has enjoyed nearly two hundred years of peace, and its army is extremely timid and practically useless. Moreover, the Kingdom's Golden Knights, the core of its military strength, were concentrated and almost entirely wiped out in the ambush on the Mayflower Trading Company."
"Without these brave and capable military nobles to lead them, even a group of lions, if handed over to those cowardly nobles, would be led as a flock of sheep. Realizing his mistake, Therlinb VII changed tactics and came up with a clever plan: if my army can't match the enemy's strength, why not drag the enemy's strength down to my army's level?"
"So Therlinb VII hired agents to recruit high-tier fighters from surrounding countries—not to join the Therlinb Kingdom's army, but to come and assassinate the Golden Knights and Great Swordmasters within the Commercial Alliance's forces. He offered sky-high bounties: ten thousand gold Fordes for killing a Golden Knight, one hundred thousand for a first-rank Great Swordmaster, two hundred thousand for a second-rank, and five hundred thousand for a third-rank..."
Good lord, those bounties were terrifyingly high. Even
"Did it work?" Er asked skeptically.
It implicated the forces they brought along; aside from a few lucky survivors, everyone else was killed.
Besides that, a first-rank Great Swordmaster from the Livord Trading Company, who was stationed as their armed contingent's commander, was also assassinated. According to a Therlinb Kingdom announcement, it was done by two Great Swordmasters from the surrounding Delia Grand Duchy, who had already collected their hundred-thousand-gold-Fordes bounty.
Chairman Combellette of the Twin-Headed Dragon Trading Company was furious and sent someone to the four-nation coalition's camp to confront the commander of the Delia forces. That commander smiled bitterly and said he had no idea two of his Grand Duchy's Great Swordmasters had ended up here. He couldn't be blamed; if anyone was, it was Therlinb VII for carelessly issuing those bounties. After all, the annual income of a first-rank Great Swordmaster serving as a Grand Duchy's enforcer was only five or six thousand gold Fordes at most. No wonder they were tempted by Therlinb VII's offer.
The day before I left, the Morant Daily reported that Chairman Combellette himself had been the target of an assassination attempt. He was lucky and wasn't injured; instead, he killed three of the Great Swordmasters who came for him. Because Therlinb VII had offered a bounty of a million gold Fordes for the seven top leaders, and as the commander of the Commercial Alliance's army, Combellette's bounty was the highest: one and a half million gold Fordes. The identities of the three slain assassins had been uncovered—they were also Great Swordmasters from neighboring countries..."
"I'm worried about my stubborn old uncle..." Aira said.
Dores laughed: "Don't worry, Old Ga may be old but his mind isn't muddled. He's sharper than anyone. The moment Therlinb VII put out those bounties, he knew things were going south, so he grabbed Ledos and the others and hightailed it back to Morant City. This time they raided two manors, made off with a huge stock of fine wine, and made a fortune off ill-gotten gains. Now he's cheerfully continuing to run the Red Crow Tavern."
"So didn't the Commercial Alliance take any countermeasures against Therlinb VII's move?" Fatty Shi asked.
"No choice..." Dores shook his head. "I spent several days thinking about it on the boat back, and I have to admit that figuring out a countermeasure really is extremely difficult. If they offered bounties in return, the Therlinb Kingdom doesn't have much high-end combat power left besides that third-rank and second-rank Great Swordmaster — they wouldn't even know who to put bounties on. As for Therlinb VII, the Commercial Alliance people feel it would be beneath them to haggle with a single-minded fool like him. Putting a bounty of a million and a half gold Fordes on his head would be a laughingstock. Besides, in the eyes of the Commercial Alliance, Therlinb VII has gone completely mad — he's worthless, and nobody's willing to spend that kind of money...
As for the people coming to assassinate the Commercial Alliance's high-end combat power, they were all from neighboring countries. The Commercial Alliance can't just put bounties on them without evidence — wouldn't that just be adding enemies to their list? Even with evidence it wouldn't work; one word that these Great Swordmasters acted on their own initiative and they'd wash their hands of the whole thing. So Therlinb VII stumbled into a winning move that left the Commercial Alliance in a terrible bind, with no recourse except to recall their high-end combat power to the front lines and maintain heightened vigilance.
It's said that a neighboring Grand Duke who came to mediate accused Therlinb VII of escalating the conflict, and the Commercial Alliance has already declared they won't rest until the Therlinb Kingdom is destroyed. Yet Therlinb VII triumphantly proclaimed that as long as he spent twenty million gold Fordes, he could wipe out the Commercial Alliance's entire high-end combat force in one sweep. By then it would be the Commercial Alliance begging for peace — so how could they possibly destroy the Therlinb Kingdom..."
"Holy hell! That's just brute-forcing it with money!" Aira sighed with regret. "Too bad I'm not a Great Swordmaster, otherwise I'd go to the Therlinb Kingdom and cash in too..."
Later, the military scholars who compiled the war histories of the Galentea Continent criticized both the Forde Commercial Alliance and the Therlinb Kingdom for their conduct during the eight-month-long Glass War, saying it resembled a village brawl rather than a proper war — not a single formal siege or defensive battle was fought, and the field engagements and grand battles were deeply unfair.
They overlooked the assassinations, ambushes, lures, and exterminations that erupted among the few high-end combatants. By the time the Therlinb Kingdom fell, the number of high-end fighters who had perished in the Glass War had reached seventy-six — more than ten times the normal losses in a large-scale battle. Fifty-two Gold Swordsmen had fallen, the majority belonging to the Commercial Alliance, while twenty-four Great Swordmasters had died; the Commercial Alliance held the advantage there, having lost only seven.
In truth, during the Glass War, the contest between high-end combatants had become the mainstream of the war, driven inadvertently by Therlinb VII's actions. The opposing sides were the Commercial Alliance's high-end combat power pitted against that of the Therlinb Kingdom and its neighboring countries. This was a contest that lasted over half a year, and ultimately the Commercial Alliance emerged victorious.
Lost these high-end combat forces, the Therlinb Kingdom and its seven neighboring countries were like a dam hollowed out by termites — with the Commercial Alliance's hundred-thousand-strong army crashing against them like a flood, they toppled and crumbled, collapsing into ruin.
"It's perfectly normal for you and the talents who joined the family to have come back on the Peterson Society's ship, but why did the Society also send a vice president with a group of people along? What are they after? Did you talk with them on board?"
After finishing the discussion of the war between the Commercial Alliance and the Therlinb Kingdom, Lorist turned to Dorles with his questions. He had already ordered the Peterson Society's party to be settled into the guest rooms at the Sea-View Estate to rest for now, with a formal banquet to be hosted that evening.
"I don't know," Dorles recalled after a moment. "The Peterson Society president was most interested in what specialties the Northland had and what goods we needed. Since he didn't probe into our family's military preparations and equipment, I just talked with him about the magic beast tides and the iron-spine bay crocodiles from the Black Mud Swamp. I got the feeling he wants to monopolize the sea trade route between his Society and our family."
He also told me that the Society couldn't trade directly with our family, since we're nobles of the Andinark Kingdom. They've been covertly boycotting and blockading trade with the Andinark Kingdom, though it seems they may have changed their minds now. Well, no use overthinking it — I'll have a talk with that vice president after tonight's banquet and find out what this is all about." Lorist shook his head, as if that could cast all his unanswered questions out of his mind.
...(To be continued.)