Lorist told Els that this was actually a fine line of business — befriend the academies' armory stewards in peacetime, and every year you could turn up huge quantities of scrapped weaponry and equipment. Look here, Lorist said, picking up a piece of plate armor — it looked battered, but a little polishing and refurbishing would restore it to near-new condition, and in bulk you could put it up for auction, with many mercenary corps willing to pay top prices.
Money flowed like water. Lorist quickly realized that the nearly three thousand gold coins he had on hand would soon be gone, yet he could not bring himself to abandon the plan of buying up more of those academies' so-called scrapped weapons. The connections had already been opened up, the academy armory stewards' purses already stuffed full of Gold Forde, and he was just on the verge of reaping a bountiful harvest — how could he let the chain break at this critical moment?
Thinking it over and over, Lorist decided to take a small risk and put his prized treasures up for auction. In fact Lorist's treasures were mirrors, which Lorist had made himself. Back when Lorist was designing the décor of that fine ladies' clothing boutique for his sweetheart, the Eldest Miss Windsor, he had spent more than ten Gold Forde on a batch of transparent clear-white crystal. From among them Lorist had picked out a dozen or so small colorless pieces, had them polished by craftsmen, and kept them by him ever since. He had originally meant to grind them into convex and concave lenses to make a telescope, but had ruined several pieces in the attempt, and had set the rest aside.
Later, when Big Sister Louise was going to marry Old Gar, Lorist wanted to give them an unusual gift, and so he used these crystal pieces to make nine mirrors. In his previous life, as the head of a small handicraft workshop, Lorist had been very well-versed in making decorative glass art objects — this was nothing like as difficult as grinding lenses. Once the mirrors were finished, he gave one to Louise; later he gave one to Anfia, and he still had seven mirrors left.
The craft of making mirrors was not complicated, and the materials were simple. What Lorist worried about was that if these mirrors slipped out onto the market, they would attract the attention of certain interested parties and bring him unnecessary trouble — and so he had kept the matter quiet. But now, in need of money, he was no longer in a position to mind the risk, and so Lorist sent Reidi to bring Els over.
Lorist had decided to auction off four mirrors. When Els came in and saw the four mirrors arrayed on the desk, he was astonished. "So that mirror Louise treasures like a jewel — that was a gift from you?"
"You know Big Sister Louise has a mirror?" Lorist asked.
"Of course. Louise treats that mirror as a treasure and won't let anyone look at it. But who am I? I'm Els — I've already had my fill playing with it. The day before yesterday I even shaved my beard in front of it, and it's far sharper than a silver plate. But after I'm done, I always slip it back where I found it. Louise has no idea." Els admitted, quite unashamedly, that he was constantly sneaking off with Louise's mirror to play with.
Lorist told Els why he had sent for him: he wanted Els to find someone to put these four mirrors up for auction on his behalf. The story would be that the four mirrors had been unearthed at some ruin, that they were suspected to be magic mirrors that had lost their power, and that they had subsequently been kept in the collection of a certain family for nearly a hundred years. Now, with some misfortune having befallen that family, the four mirrors were being put up for auction.
Lorist's four mirrors each had its own character. The first was round, half a foot in diameter, and the mirror was set tightly within a circular silver plate. As a special touch, Lorist had engraved the silver plate and the silver rim around the mirror with seemingly random English and Latin letters — simple yet very mysterious in feeling.
The second mirror was square, the size of a book. Lorist had wrapped a book in gold leaf, hollowed out its center, and set the mirror inside; on the page in front of the mirror he had used liquid gold to write out, in Chinese characters, the poem "Before my bed, the bright moonlight…" Surely someone would become fascinated by those square Chinese characters and spend a lifetime studying them in depth.
The third mirror was oval, made into a hand mirror with a grip. The material was a special black wood from Galentea — Lorist had obtained it by destroying a black-wood chest said to have been passed down for a thousand years. Since the chest itself wasn't particularly valuable, Lorist had bought it in the market for a few gold coins and then dismantled it, carving the wood into the mirror's base and handle. He had also carved into the base and handle traditional Chinese folk motifs — the "Five Blessings Descending Upon the Door" pattern — along with intricate floral scrollwork.
The fourth mirror had taken the most labor. Lorist cast a Chinese-style ancient bronze mirror, then mounted the glass mirror onto its face. He had artificially aged the bronze mirror so that it looked spotted with verdigris, with an antique air, and on the back of the base he had engraved the four characters "Mirror of the Bright Moon" in clerical script.
Els agreed to Lorist's request, fondling the mirrors for a long time before he could bring himself to put the four glass mirrors into a casket and take them away.
Ten days later, the four glass mirrors were successfully auctioned off without any incident. The total auction price came to over thirteen thousand Gold Forde; after auction fees and commissions were deducted, Lorist still pocketed more than ten thousand Gold Forde.
When Els brought the money over, he told Lorist that the four glass mirrors had caused a sensation in
mirrors had had their prices driven up steadily through the bidding, and Els said he himself had helped raise the bids several times in the middle of it.
Lorist was very pleased — he was rich again. But such a thing could be done once and not twice. He shook his head and refused Els's suggestion that he make a few more mirrors to put up for auction.
With money in hand, Lorist went on a major buying spree of scrapped weaponry from the various academy armories. By the time
He had over five thousand long spears, nearly two thousand training-grade sharpened long swords, close to a thousand two-handed greatswords, heavy swords, and short swords. He had over six hundred standard training-issue square obelisk shields, more than eight hundred shields of other kinds, over seven hundred crossbows, around two thousand cavalry lances, over fifteen hundred javelins, seventy-one sets of full-body knight's armor, five hundred and eighty-three sets of training plate armor for heavy swordsmen, close to a thousand sets of chain and scale mail, plus over two thousand pieces of various leather armor, and finally twelve war wagons fitted with small mounted ballistae.
All these weapons and equipment had been refurbished and repaired; the cost of the repair materials alone had come to nearly two thousand Gold Forde. The shields and metal armor had all been emblazoned with the
Lorist sometimes thought that if he sold all this weaponry and equipment, the profit would not be less than a hundred thousand Gold Forde. But the thought was no more than a thought. He had just received a letter delivered by one of
What did Fatty Shi want them for? Lorist could not figure it out. Back when Fatty Shi had first seen the hollow turning-wheel, he had tried it once, and when he came down he had been bawling like a baby, hadn't he? No matter how much Lorist had explained that training with these two devices would give him the ability of Dynamic Vision, and that his swordsmanship would advance by leaps and bounds, Fatty Shi had absolutely refused, even swearing that even if these two things could train a man to fly, he would not try them again. Now what was he up to? Maybe he intended to train with them on the road north? But then how would he keep up with the march? Forget it — there was no use trying to figure it out. They would deal with it when the time came. Transporting these two things just meant one more wagon, after all.
Pat had now recovered, and had a preliminary grasp of Dynamic Vision. But it was, after all, an ability cultivated by training rather than innate — though his reactions were faster than an ordinary person's, compared to Lorist's body, which had been born with Dynamic Vision, he was still very slow. Whenever Pat brought up his training, he still had palpitations — it had been almost two months of hellish ordeal. He said there had been many times when he had wanted to die. Day after day Reidi would drag him onto those two contraptions and spin him round and round — the days had been unbearable.
Counting the days, it was about time to set out. Lorist went to see President Petersen, and through the Petersen Chamber of Commerce arranged three large ocean-going ships to transport the weapons, equipment, men and horses, along with the thousands of garments Fatty Shi had ordered tailored in Morant City and the nearly thousand sets of old leather coats and trousers he had bought up from the secondhand clothing shops. Although the garments were many in number, they had cost the least — only just over seven hundred Gold Forde. Over these past few days,
They still had to wait two more days, because the three hundred horses Yuri had bought needed saddles, stirrups, and horseshoes fitted, which had cost Lorist nearly another thousand gold coins. It made Lorist sigh — the cost of raising an armed force was truly staggering. In the blink of an eye, his investment had already reached forty thousand Gold Forde. Now he was left with less than two thousand gold coins on hand, and the two hundred and forty gold-coin shipping fee for the three large vessels — at an 80% discount, no less — had not yet been paid.
On the day before departure, Lorist paid a visit to Instructor Kruder, who had now become a Great Swordmaster, and entrusted to him the nearly one thousand books from his personal collection. For this trip north, Lorist had picked out the hundred books he considered most important to bring with him; the rest he had decided to leave with Instructor Kruder for safekeeping, until conditions allowed for them to be shipped to the Northland. Instructor Kruder and his wife, Instructor Anfia, gladly agreed to Lorist's request.
At last the time of departure came. The three large vessels of the Petersen Chamber of Commerce slowly slid out of Hidden Gold Bay along the channel, then raised their great sails and drove north.
Watching Hidden Gold Bay recede into the distance and Morant City grow smaller and smaller, Lorist felt a great many emotions stirring at once. At last he was leaving this city he had come to regard as his second hometown, and he had no idea when he might be able to come back. The road ahead was a fog of uncertainty — would he and his companions be able to accomplish anything in the Northland?… Lorist let out a long sigh.
From beside him came Eliza's cheerful laughter. The little girl thought this was a trip to play far from home — hearing she was going to see her father, she was overjoyed, and was prancing about happily on the deck.
Seeing that Lorist seemed a little melancholy, Shvarder asked, "Teacher, what's wrong? You look a bit unhappy."
Lorist laughed a little. "It's nothing. It's just that today we're setting off, and your Uncle Els hasn't come to see us off — Teacher finds it puzzling."
No sooner had he spoken than a familiar voice rang out: "My lord, your knight Brennan Evanport reports for duty."
A figure dropped lightly down from the mast, landing on one knee before Lorist. "I, Brennan Evanport, hereby swear loyalty to Lord Norton Lorist, to become a knight of the Norton
Family, to charge into battle beneath the banner of the Furious Bear, even unto the final moment of my life."
Lorist was both startled and delighted. "How did you get here, Els?"
Els kept silent, only pointing at his shoulder — meaning that Lorist had not yet formally invested him as a Family Knight.
All right, then. Lorist drew his sword and tapped Els twice on each shoulder, then tossed the sword aside, pulled Els up and pulled him into a tight embrace. "Welcome to the family, my knight and my brother."
Els groped at Lorist's body. "Where's the emblem? You should be giving me the knight's emblem already."
Lorist shoved Els away. "Damn it, where would I have an emblem on me? Stop groping me — what, do you like men?"
"You're the one who likes men. I was just checking whether you had an emblem on you — I didn't mean anything else. Don't talk rubbish and ruin my good name." The moment he heard Lorist say he liked men, Els jumped a yard into the air.
"All right, all right. Setterkamp, go and fetch a knight's emblem for Sir Els," Lorist ordered.
"How did you get away? Did Old Gar agree to let you out?" Lorist asked.
"He doesn't know — I snuck out. But I left a letter for the old codger. After I'm gone, Ledos will take over as head of the Society, and the old codger won't have to bother with such trifles anymore — from now on staying at home and raising his son is the proper thing. Ledos is much cleverer than him, and I trust the Society will do very well under his management. As for me, I still feel that going north with you to make a name for ourselves is my best choice." As Els spoke, he kept glancing at the hatchway, grumbling at how slow Setterkamp was being.
Fortunately, in no great time Setterkamp brought the Norton Family knight's emblem over. As Els pinned it on, he asked Lorist, "Why don't I see Terman and Yuri?"
Lorist pointed at the two large ships behind them. "On those two ships — one is in charge of escorting the weapons, the other the horses. In a few days when we reach the port of Yamterlin, we'll all meet up. I'm sure they'll be flabbergasted to see you."
Els finally finished pinning on the emblem, looking down at it from this side and that, very satisfied. "I don't care if they're flabbergasted. The one I care about is that fat dead weight — let's see who calls who 'Sir Knight' now."
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