Chapter 63: Coming Out
Chapter 63: Coming Out
After nearly 10 days of long-distance traveling, Hansel and Alda’s grain transportation team finally arrived at the royal capital Jingyao.
He first led the team to the warehouse area that was still under repair, handed over the grain to the management, and then arranged food and lodging for the people in the team before saying goodbye and leaving. The food transportation team would return to the northwest bay on their own after some sightseeing in the royal capital, while Hansel hurriedly returned to his long-awaited home with his servant Toman.
Although he had learned through letters that his family was safe and had returned to the royal capital from their relatives, he missed them very much after being separated for so long.
At this time it was already close to evening, after entering the Abbott family mansion, the servants saw that the second young master had returned and saluted him. Upon entering the hall, there were already three people waiting for him inside – two middle-aged women and a young girl.
All three women revealed delighted looks, and the young girl said happily, “Brother is back.”
His first glance was towards his own mother of the three.
The woman already had crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes flashed with crystal tears, after being informed of the news of the City Guard’s rebellion at her relatives’ home, she teared up and couldn’t sleep at night worrying about her son’s well-being, and then she finally looked forward to a letter of peace, but it said that she was stationed in the Northwest Bay as a royal commissioner.
In the Jingyao noblewomen’s circle’s legend, the kingdom’s northwestern area is a poor place full of unruly people, the civilization degree is only a little higher than the eastern highland barbarian tribes, merciful heavenly father ah, how can you let the little hansel to go there.
Hansel could not conceal the excitement of his heart, and wanted to greet his mother at once, but before doing so he had to do another thing. He turned to the other woman and curtsied, “Mother Mary, it has been a long time, I hope you are well.” That was his first mother, his father’s rightful wife.
Mrs. Abbott gracefully nodded slightly to Hansel and smiled, “Hansel, it is so good to have you back safe and sound, your mother has lost a lot of weight from missing you.”
Hansel then turned to his own mother, Miranda, and said, “Mother, I’m back.” He was then hugged tightly by his excited birth mother. “It’s good to be back, it’s good to be back ……,” Miranda hugged her own son as tears flowed uncontrollably.
After being released by his mother, Hansel hugged his sister Julie again, and the sweet girl was also very happy to have her brother home.
Before dinner, his father, Count Abbott, who served in the kingdom’s government, returned, while his brother, who was born to his first mother, was not able to return home because he served in the royal personal guard.
The family ate dinner happily, listening to Hansel’s account of what they had seen around the northwest, and enjoying their family.
After dinner, Count Abbott led his son into his study and again talked to him about his Northwest experiences, but this time the content centered around his son’s new position as Commissioner of the Crown. Hansel told his father about his experiences as a royal commissioner, but of course he omitted the fact that he had been frightened off by pirates.
When he said that he intended to cooperate with the local lords in order to produce more war materials to be used for the royal counter-insurgency, Earl Abbott shook his head, “It’s hard, the people’s livelihoods in that area of the northwest are so poor that it’s impossible to scrape off any oil, and it’s good enough for the lords there to feed their own people.”
Hansel intended to stick to it, “How do we know if we don’t try?”
Count Abbott considered for a moment and said to Hansel, “Why don’t …… I go to the royal family and say something, and see if I can transfer you back to Jingyao, there are always more opportunities in the royal capital.” He understood that his second son had some ambition in his heart, but was bound by the other half of the bloodline on his body.
Not to mention a month ago, even 10 days ago when Hansel had just led a grain transportation team from Lakeheart Town, when he heard that he had the opportunity to transfer back to the royal capital, he would have grabbed it without hesitation. But on the way back to the king’s capital this time, he considered a lot, instead of squeezing a one-way bridge in the king’s capital which was filled with nobles, he would rather go to the vast frontier of the kingdom to show his skills.
He told his father what he thought, and the earl said no more when he saw how insistent he was. Father and son continued to talk about the current situation for a while, Hansel then excused himself and went out to find his mother and sister, they also have a lot of things to say to him. Count Abbott watched his son leave with a guilty look on his face.
Twenty-eight years ago, he and a group of friends got drunk and stayed in a brothel at night, a year later a woman who could not even recall her appearance held a child and came to the door of the house, just when he was going to blow her out of the house as an extortionist, the other party accurately and accurately said some of the intimate features of his body.
According to the general practice of nobles, either continue to bite the other party is a liar to blow out, or shell out a sum of money to support the person to send away, but Count Abbott did a thing to let the royal capital of the circle of nobles to fall into a big surprise – to take a prostitute as a side room.
This matter is a big deal, a time to spread as a joke, a prostitute just to play, even because a child do not know if they are not their own seed to let her enter the house.
The matter reached the king’s ears, and Rodney XVI personally summoned Earl Abbott and severely reprimanded him for disgracing the nobility of the kingdom, telling him to think carefully about the severity of the consequences.
After the king forced the matter to no avail, a noble youth who had a great future was kicked to the bench in a clear water court like the Heraldry Court.
The good thing is that the Count’s wife, who was from a famous family, didn’t make a big fuss as the onlookers guessed, and this kind-hearted lady finally accepted the mother and son after the initial anger, disbelief, and a long period of cold war with her husband.
There is no doubt that Hansel was often viewed through tinted glasses when he was growing up, especially by his peers of high and noble blood, and that nicknames such as “son of a whore” and “son of a whore” were always attached to him.
Although with the help of the family’s shade, coupled with money, Count Abbott finally got a baronet for his son, but the other half of Hansel’s blood still let him in the career field has been repeatedly frustrated, in the end of his own education, he as the count’s son, only as a small tax collector, responsible for the place is still the suburb of the king’s capital of the area around the farms.
However, because of this, Hansel was able to mix well with those low-level nobles and officials of commoner origin.
Count Abbott can only give this commoner son so much, as a count, he enjoys the power, honor and wealth brought by this system of nobility, but also firmly bound by this system, the prostitute as a concubine has already made him a target, and continue to do things to break the rules, can only let the whole Abbott family be dragged down by him.
……
After exchanging goodnights with his mother and sister, Hansel returned to his room and carefully considered the task Paul had given him, pulling out a piece of paper filled with the groups Paul was trying to recruit.
“So much for people who can read and write and know arithmetic, teachers, chimeras, alchemists, this Lord Earl has a big appetite.”
He spread out another piece of paper on his desk, planning to first look for suitable candidates from those he knew. Who should be the first people to look for? After some thought, he picked up the quill from the ink bottle and wrote the first name on the paper ……
At the beginning of writing this book, I planned to arrange a family background for Hansel that was a bit more sad, such as a cold father, a mean first mother, and an elder brother who suppressed him, but I changed my mind temporarily when I was writing this chapter, after all, there is also a need for warmth in a novel.
(End of chapter)