Chapter 223 – Banquet Storm 2
Chapter 223 – Banquet Fiasco 2
“Now, does anyone have any objections?”
The Duke said with a sour face, and several Ferdinand family members immediately retreated coyly.
The hall quickly fell into dead silence, whoever got involved in this kind of thing had bad luck.
After a few seconds of time, a person stood out, it was Count Maltz Kent who was designated as the heir by the Duke.
“Lord Duke, my talents are dull, I really can’t afford to be this Duke’s position.”
Maltz Kent’s voice was as sincere as it could be, “Your Excellency should find another suitable candidate.”
“No!”
The Duke waved his hand at him, “I have already decided that the dukedom will be inherited by you, as long as your Kent family restores the Ferdinand surname.”
“That ……”
Maltz Kent looked a little hesitant.
The Duke went so far as to say in a slightly pleading voice, “The current members of the Ferdinand family are beyond use, and I am afraid that after I have been called by the Lord’s grace, the family will decline.”
The men who were of the same family as the Duke became at once ashamed to hear this.
“What, Maltz Kent? Our two families have a common ancestor; won’t you do your part for the honor of your ancestors?”
“I ……”
Maltz Kent was still hesitating.
His appearance even made Paul’s heart grow frantic, “Holy shit, pie in the sky, this guy is still hesitating my ass. It looks like he’s just faking it at first glance.”
Although this Maltz Kent has a gap with him, but the good luck can be handed over to this, let Paul are envious.
How come this kind of good thing didn’t go to his head?
“Alright!” Maltz Kent looked like he had made up his mind.
“Since Your Excellency the Duke doesn’t mind me, then I will accept your arrangement without any self-consciousness. Your Excellency the Duke, I will definitely develop and grow the Ferdinand family.”
Hearing Earl Kent say this, the Duke’s face seemed to be smiling, but just kept saying, “Good! Good! Good!”
He seemed to immediately return to his previous weak appearance, trembling and raising his cup – just now the servants instantly cleaned up the mess on the floor and rearranged the wine and food.
“Gentlemen! Celebrate the birth of a new successor to the Ferdinand family!”
The hall was instantly buzzing again as the guests pushed their glasses back up, no one remembering Viscount Henry, who had just been dragged out of the room.
The crowd took turns to flatter the future Duke Ferdinand.
In an effort to make nice, Paul and Myron also came to Maltz Kent with their glasses.
“Count Kent, congratulations!”
Paul resisted the nausea and the urge to spit in his face and congratulated Count Kent, even though his heart was filled with old grudges and jealousy.
“Hahaha! Well said, I’ll have to rely on the help of the two neighbors in the future!”
Maltz Kent, on the contrary, laughed boisterously and then drank a large glass of wine with Paul and Myron, as if nothing unpleasant had ever happened between their people.
After going through the motions, Paul went back to his seat and ate and drank to himself.
Earl Kent looked at Paul’s back as he left, revealing a smug look.
The ‘valet’ beside him, on the other hand, didn’t say a word.
After the banquet was over, the Duke announced that he would hold a martial arts tournament, so that the nobles and knights who were more confident in their own stances could show off their skills on the field.
“Are you guys interested in participating?”
Paul asked Bryce and Victor.
Bryce laughed to himself, “Haha, forget it. Lord Earl, unofficial knights like us are not qualified to take part. It would be possible to participate if Lord Schroeder was here.” Paul shrugged his shoulders, “Well, I’m not interested in watching either, so why don’t we go back.”
Mellon, however, looked very interested, “Although we won’t participate, it’s always okay to watch.”
Victor on the side shared his expression.
“Alright, Myron, you and Victor both go to the arena to watch the action, and Bryce and I will pay a visit to Bishop Leonard.”
So the four of them went their separate ways, with Paul being guided by Bryce toward the cathedral.
After riding around for nearly half an hour, they arrived at the cathedral in the city of Centennial-the bishop’s quarters of the Northwest Bay Church.
Bishop Leonard received them in the parlor.
His Grace the Bishop’s body didn’t look like he was sick, and it was true, as the priest had said, that he was excusing himself from going to Duke Ferdinand’s banquet.
“Old Abbot, it’s been a long time.”
“His Excellency the Count, it’s been a long time.”
Leonard still had that same old-fashioned expression, but he still showed a very rare smile when he saw his deceased friends.
The two sides chatted idly, Paul told him about some of the things that had happened in Arda recently, and the smile on Leonard’s face grew.
The two chatted about the banquet just now, Leonard again denounced some of the nobles’ extravagance, he spoke out without fear because he knew that Paul’s personal life is also considered simple – compared to other nobles.
“Speaking of which, there was an episode at the banquet just now.”
“Hm? What was the episode?”
“Duke Ferdinand announced his successor.”
“It’s finally that day, and it looks like the Duke has given up on the idea of having a son. Is it his eldest brother, Viscount Henry?”
It was widely known how hard Duke Ferdinand had tried to have a son.
“No, you have guessed wrong. The heir is that fellow Maltzkent.”
Hearing Paul say that, Bishop Leonard’s face turned grim.
“Is it Maltzkent? It’s true that his family and the Ferdinand family have a few connections, but it doesn’t make sense for the Duke to pick such a side line, right? I remember him last …… year.”
“That’s right, he even threatened us Alda last year, though I don’t know what kind of drugs he took wrong later on and ‘let us off the hook’.”
“Alas ……”
The old dean sighed, the expression on his face growing more and more grave.
“I’m afraid something will go wrong, Maltzkent is not someone to be trifled with. You should be careful and watch out for him, Lord Earl, after he has taken charge of the Duke’s authority, there will be even less things that can restrain him in this land of the Northwest.”
Although Leonard was now high up in the bishop’s chair, the old abbot was more of a rule-follower, and in his creed the church should not interfere in affairs between secular lords unless it was involved with ecclesiastical matters.
Therefore, all he could do was to verbally remind Paul in his private capacity.
“Thank you for the reminder, but the Alda of now is no longer a soft target for anyone to pinch.”
Paul had a very confident look on his face.
Leonard was quite agreeable to his words, and through correspondence and exchanges with his student, Father Anderson, he also knew that the recent Arda was developing at a high speed, and it was no longer the barren and weak Earl’s territory from before.
For the place where he was born and lived and worked for a long time, he still had a lot of feelings, and the changes in the past year made him very pleased, and incidentally, he respected Paul, who made these changes possible.
After spending nearly two hours in the church, Paul and Bryce bade farewell to Bishop Leonard and returned to their lodgings.
Recently, because of work reasons, the update may not be too stable, but also please readers lord bear with me.
(End of chapter)