Two days later,
Since Princess Sylvia, Fenagali, and Daisy all attended the welcoming banquet, Duchess Windsor had no opportunity to get Lorist alone, which led her to cast lingering, reproachful glances his way from time to time. Lorist pretended not to notice any of it, and instead spent a good while discussing with Grand Duke Fosta how the Qigeda Kingdom had seized the opportunity to annex six neighboring nations under the cover of the Commercial Alliance during the three-year war between the Commercial Alliance and the allied forces of the Central-Southern Kingdoms.
Grand Duke Fosta openly admitted that all of it had been his own mastermind. Under the circumstances of the Commercial Alliance pressuring the twenty-five nations of the continent's central and southern regions with overwhelming force, the Qigeda Kingdom had no choice but to leverage the Commercial Alliance to carry out its annexation strategy. This was because the Qigeda Kingdom faced the threat of invasion from both the Roman Empire and the Havistan Khanate, and only by growing strong itself could it fend off the incursions of those two great powers into the central and southern parts of the continent. For that reason, they had become allies with the Commercial Alliance. But now, thanks to Lorist's interference, that alliance had collapsed.
Thanks to Grand Duke Fosta's pragmatism, his family's armed forces — the Firebird Legion — and the
The banquet concluded in a peaceful and pleasant atmosphere, with both hosts and guests thoroughly enjoying themselves. Princess Sylvia and the others arranged with Duchess Windsor to spend the next two days touring
Three days later, Fatty Shi and Grand Duke Fosta reached an arms trade agreement of staggering proportions. The Fosta Family would purchase over one hundred thousand sets of standard equipment from the Norton Family over a five-year period for ten million gold Fordes, to equip two of the family's legions. In addition, the Norton Family provided them with two battalions of Thunderbolt catapults and two battalions of chariot steel crossbows. These catapults and crossbows would become formidable defensive weapons for the Qigeda Kingdom against invasion by the two great powers of the continent's south.
The first thought that crossed Lorist's mind upon receiving the agreement was that the Fosta Family truly was wealthy — to be able to produce ten million gold Fordes. His second question was why Grand Duke Fosta was willing to part with such an enormous sum to purchase military hardware from the Norton Family. After all, judging by the quality of the Firebird Legion's equipment, while it was all made of refined iron, it was still considered among the best in the central and southern nations. Otherwise, Lorist wouldn't have seized it after disarming them and used it to equip the two newly formed city defense regiments of Morant City.
Fatty Shi answered this question. According to what Grand Duke Fosta had revealed, the truth was that over the preceding decades, the Vesia Chamber of Commerce — the one that had been destroyed by the Norton Family's forces — had controlled the largest share of the arms trade across the thirty-four nations of the central and southern regions. For those thirty-four nations, the greatest shortcoming was their lack of quality iron ore resources. They had only a few poor-quality small iron mines, and the mining rights to the only two medium-sized iron deposits were both held by the Vesia Chamber of Commerce.
This was also the main reason the Vesia Chamber of Commerce had been so determined to seize the trading post territories with large iron ore veins from the former Krisen Empire. Beyond controlling the iron mining rights of the central and southern nations, the Vesia Chamber of Commerce also guarded its smelting and forging technologies against any leak. Whenever a blacksmith in another nation achieved some breakthrough in smelting or forging, the Vesia Chamber of Commerce would invariably find a way to either recruit that blacksmith into the chamber or eliminate them entirely. It was precisely this commercial and technological monopoly by the Vesia Chamber of Commerce that had caused the nations of the central and southern regions to fall comprehensively behind in the fields of smelting and forging.
The equipment that armed the Fosta Family's Firebird Legion had cost over four million gold Fordes and taken four years to purchase at premium prices from the Vesia Chamber of Commerce — and even that was a discounted rate granted only because the Fosta Family was a staunch ally of the Commercial Alliance. The Fosta Family had a total of two private military legions, and now that the Vesia Chamber of Commerce had been destroyed, the blow to the Commercial Alliance went without saying, but it had also deprived the Fosta Family of its source for military procurement.
Lorist immediately understood. Back then, he had actually hoped to use the Peterson Chamber of Commerce to sell the Norton Family's manufactured weapons and equipment, opening up a new revenue stream for the family. He had even had someone carefully produce an exquisite catalog of standardized equipment designs along with a price list and send it to the Peterson Chamber of Commerce. The result was that aside from the Peterson Chamber of Commerce purchasing a regiment's worth of weaponry at cheap and favorable prices, and the Qigeda Chamber of Commerce buying a legion's worth of standard equipment as a form of apology — nobody else had come knocking.
Back then, Lorist had been thoroughly puzzled — the Commercial Alliance and those central-southern nations were in a state of hostility and war could erupt at any time, so why couldn't his family's high-quality military equipment find buyers? Now he understood: the arms markets of both the Commercial Alliance and the central-southern nations had been firmly under the control of the Vesia Chamber of Commerce. The Peterson Chamber of Commerce would never have risked offending the Vesia Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the Norton Family; they had simply never bothered to conduct any promotional efforts.
The military equipment agreement reached with Grand Duke Fosta also included many concessions, and with Lorist's approval, a batch of thunderbolt catapults and war chariot steel crossbows had been sold to him as well. The current situation was clear — after the Fosta Family had torn off the mask with the Commercial Alliance, they had no choice but to change course and ease their relations with other central-southern nations, so that they could receive reinforcements when facing invasion by the two great powers of the continent's south.
Fatty Shi believed that the military equipment agreement with the Fosta Family could potentially open a trade route for the Norton Family's weapons and standard equipment in the central-southern nations of the continent, squeezing into the arms market that the Commercial Alliance had monopolized. Although the Commercial Alliance, following the destruction of the Vesia Chamber of Commerce, had decided to cultivate a new replacement, the Norton Family could take full advantage of this window to use arms deals to win over those central-southern nations hostile to the Alliance, applying continuous pressure on every front until the Commercial Alliance could no longer pose a threat.
Lorist agreed with Fatty Shi's assessment and signed the agreement, signifying that the military procurement contract between the Norton Family and the Fosta Family took effect immediately. However, shortly afterward, Duchess Windsor requested an audience with Lorist through Princess Celivia, having discovered a business opportunity in Morant City. She wished to reach an agreement with the Norton Family for the Mermaid Chamber of Commerce to serve as the exclusive distributor of all goods produced in Norton Family territory across the central-southern and southern regions of the continent.
Since it was a matter of business, Lorist declined Duchess Windsor's request for an audience but sent Fatty Shi to conduct trade negotiations with her instead. He agreed to let the Mermaid Chamber of Commerce, represented by Duchess Windsor, sign an exclusive distribution agreement with the Norton Family, but limited to the territory of the Qigeda Kingdom only. The markets of the other central-southern nations and the two great powers of the continent's south would be shared among the private ship owners who had come to Morant City for large-scale purchasing.
At present, while the Norton Family's Northern Sea Fleet could only exert military control over the southern waters, it still lacked the capability to establish several large merchant fleets to dump and monopolize goods along the nations of the Sunshine Coast on the Sunlit Sea. That would require time and personal connections to develop markets in each country. Lorist had no desire to adopt the Commercial Alliance's approach of monopolistic trade — while it could bring greater revenue to the family, in the long run it would have a severely detrimental effect on the commercial revival of Morant City.
It was better to share the wealth than to enjoy it alone, and Lorist had no objection to letting the private ship owners take their cut. When it came to the markets of those central-southern and southern nations, these private ship owners were the true masters of their domains — well-informed, with extensive networks. Only through them could the Norton Family effectively seize the market share controlled by the Commercial Alliance, while simultaneously receiving accurate and timely intelligence. In the end, this would also enliven the commercial atmosphere of Morant City and attract greater business investment. From all these perspectives, while the Norton Family gave up a portion of the revenue, it gained far greater benefits in return.
Duchess Windsor had a keen eye — she had truly honed her skills. She could see the enormous profits to be had from exclusive distribution of the Norton Family's territorial products, but what she failed to understand was that monopolizing those profits would make her Mermaid Chamber of Commerce a target for everyone else. At Fatty Shi's insistence, she had no choice but to sign an agreement limiting her exclusive distribution rights to the Qigeda Kingdom market only.
Before departing Morant City and setting sail on the return voyage with Grand Duke Fawstas, Duchess Windsor penned a lengthy letter and entrusted Fatty Shi to deliver it to Lorist. In the letter, Duchess Windsor complained of Lorist's coldness and heartlessness, and reminisced about the wonderful times they had shared in Morant City long ago. She said she would always cherish those romantic days, and that if she could turn back time, she would have stayed by Lorist's side without hesitation — even if it meant giving up her own family's territories. In Princess Sylvia, she saw overflowing happiness and contentment, and she confessed how desperately she envied the joy that Sylvia had found with Lorist...
At the letter's close, Duchess Windsor dwelled on the losses Grand Duke Fawstas's military intervention had inflicted upon the Fawstas family and the negative repercussions within the Qigeda Kingdom, while once again grumbling about Lorist's lack of empathy and the restrictions he had placed on the Mermaid Chamber of Commerce's growth. Still, she expressed confidence that within the next two or three years she would complete the Mermaid Chamber's period of accumulation, and by then she would open a branch in Morant City — and she hoped she might also open one within the Norton Family's territories...
Women... Lorist smiled bitterly as he held Duchess Windsor's letter over a candle flame and watched it burn. If regret-elixir could be bought anywhere in this world, women would surely be its greatest clientele. In Lorist's heart, his first love was that elfin girl who had danced gracefully beneath the silver moonlight — not this grand, elegant, and voluptuous Duchess Windsor. Time was truly the greatest unseen hand behind the fading of all beautiful memories.
As a flood of private merchant ships from the southern seas arrived at Hidden Gold Bay, the commercial atmosphere of Morant City surged in precisely the way Lorist had anticipated. In just half a month, nearly twenty new taverns, brothels, and other service establishments sprang up catering to the private shipowners and their sailors, adding a handsome sum in tax revenue to the Morant City self-governing council. More and more city residents threw themselves into the commercial tide.
...an important forward base.
Accompanying the letter was a list of construction materials. From the scale of it, it was clear that Schwartze intended to build a fortress-castle that would stand the test of time. Lorist was more than happy to let Schwartze realize that ambition — besides, the procurement of these construction materials would elevate Morant City's commercial atmosphere yet another notch and spur more residents to become suppliers. With a sweep of his pen, Lorist struck through the originally designated name of Romany Castle and renamed it Schwartze Fortress. It was a recognition and reward for Schwartze's tireless efforts.
Three months passed swiftly, and the front along the Mana Hill Plains remained utterly quiet. Though the Commercial Alliance had reached no ceasefire agreement with the Norton Family, no clashes had broken out along the front. Aside from reports that the Commercial Alliance's forces were still recruiting and training, the Norton Family's armed forces and the Commercial Alliance's forces had strangely settled into a state of standoff peace.
The Commercial Alliance's forces had adopted a deep-trench, strong-rampart defensive strategy across Mawefolin Province and several surrounding provinces of the Mana Hill Plains. The Norton Family's forces, in turn, held firm behind the walls of their six fortress cities on the Mana Hill Plains, with the Hunt Cavalry Legion patrolling and standing watch across the plains — with no intention of attacking the defensive positions the Commercial Alliance had set up in the neighboring provinces. Each side simply mirrored the other's defense, and neither was willing to strike first.
Lorist had no mind to dwell on what scheming the Commercial Alliance might be hatching. Two months ago, the Alliance had launched a massive propaganda campaign across the central-southern and southern nations, decrying the Norton Family's bloody massacre in Morant City. They accused the Norton forces of killing nearly a million residents, claiming that Morant City — once the number-one commercial metropolis of the Galentea Continent — was now shrouded in blood and horror, reduced to a ghost town. Before long, the sensational news had spread across the entire Galentea Continent, and the Norton Family's name became infamous overnight.
In Morant City, all the newspapers had belonged to the various merchant guilds. After the Norton Family's forces captured Morant City and the Mana Hill Plains, every one of those newspapers had shut down just like the guild shops. All the newspaper staff, being Inner District residents, had been placed in prisoner-of-war camps until the Commercial Alliance ransomed them back. Many of the reporters retained vivid memories of the treatment they received in those camps, and they harbored deep resentment toward the Norton Family's creative methods of squeezing every last gold coin from them. So, upon returning to their respective guild territories, they put their considerable experience to work fabricating tales of the Norton Family's atrocities — concocting escape accounts of supposed survivors who had narrowly escaped the slaughter...
What was laughable was that the residents of Morant City had no idea they had already been reduced to scattered bones and rotting corpses in the Commercial Alliance's propaganda. This news was actually brought to Morant City by private ship owners from the Southern Seas. Before Lorist and the Norton Family could even react, the lie about the atrocities of the city massacre fabricated by the Commercial Alliance had already been exposed by those private ship owners. More and more goods and merchandise from Morant City served as proof that the Commercial Alliance had been lying, and Grand Duke Faust himself came forward to explain the current state of Morant City, praising the Norton Family for turning it into a vibrant city with boundless prospects for development.
The Commercial Alliance's lie about the Norton Family's armed massacre of the city collapsed under its own weight, producing no effect other than intensifying the hatred that Lorist and the Norton Family's forces already harbored toward them. Now Lorist and the Norton Family's upper echelons were busy guiding the Morant City Autonomous Committee in organizing a garrison force responsible for maintaining and handling the entire city's order and public security, as well as deliberating on the Committee's request to capture Kristo Hills. At this moment, Lorist received an unexpected piece of news — the
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