Chapter 199: Return 3
Chapter 199: Returning 3
Lardy led the two to Quake, who had already fallen into a petrified state, and formally introduced both parties, “Your Majesty, this is Quake, the captain of the Southern ship. Mr. Captain, this is His Majesty, the Grand Duke of the Duchy of Eaton.”
After saying that, he pulled Quake’s sleeve.
Captain Quake reacted with a jolt, and like a mechanical villain with tightened clockwork, he moved stiffly and half-kneeled, recalling the episodes of those third-rate dramas he had watched in which foreign envoys had an audience with the king, and lamely performed a salute.
“Your Majesty, please forgive me for my rudeness …… I would like to honor you on behalf of Count Gleiman of the Kingdom of Aldo.”
“Exempt, exempt. You can all be my heroes.”
Archduke Eaton helped him up with his own hands.
“You went deep into the midst of the wolves without regard for your safety and saved my wife and sister-in-law, so on behalf of the Eton royal family, I salute you.”
The Archduke thanked them kindly, interspersed with some special grammar for nobles that Quake didn’t even understand, while Quake just responded with a “hmmmm” for fear of saying something wrong.
Damn it, Lord Greymane, what am I supposed to do now? ？？？？
“Please also convey my respect to Earl Gleiman that Alda has earned the friendship of the Duchy of Eton, and if he or his emissary comes to Horn Bay in the future, the Duchy of Eton will certainly extend hospitality.”
“Aye, aye, Grand Duke, I will certainly convey it as such.”
“Then, please accept our thanks.”
The Archduke clapped his hands and two attendants carried a wooden box and placed it in front of Quirk.
When the wooden box was opened, there was a gasp from the surrounding people.
The golden light was brilliant, and inside was actually a box full of gold ingots.
“No, no, no, this can never be allowed ……”
Quake’s tongue was tied in knots, he hadn’t seen so much gold, this could buy the manufacture of how many southern ships ah.
But the Archduke said with a firm face, “No, please do take it, half of it is given to the warriors on the ship, and half is given to Earl Graiman.”
The two men pushed back and forth several times, and Quirk, who couldn’t speak well, finally couldn’t argue with the Archduke and took the gold.
“This is to dig into my Foster family’s corner!”
The Foster family’s second duke had alarm bells ringing in his heart.
“Uh-huh!!!”
Quiller cleared his throat loudly and said with a serious look on his face, “Grand Duke.”
“You are?”
Archduke Eaton asked suspiciously, looking at the other party’s dress, he should be a native of Horn Bay.
“My humble self is the second son of Marquis Foster of the Horned Bay Alliance Convocation – Quiller Foster.”
“Oh, so it’s Marquis Foster’s child, I know your father, he’s a kind and open-minded person ah. I had a very pleasant exchange with him.”
“Thank you Archduke, my father will be honored to hear your comments about him I’m sure.”
“So, what is Young Master Foster here for?”
“Oh, the Archduke may not know, but the Foster family and the Gleeman family are business partners, and we are the Count’s exclusive agents in Horn Bay. As my friend is leaving, it is only right that I come to see him off.”
Quiller aggravated the “exclusive agent”.
“Does Count Greiman still do business with Horn Bay?”
The Archduke hadn’t realized that the porcelain he’d paid so heavily for at his court had been shipped from the Northwest Bay by the Fosters.
But he soon realized Quiller’s veiled reference.
The Archduke smiled and patted Queller’s shoulder and said: ”I also cherish the friendship with the Marquis, naturally I won’t do anything to jeopardize it. This visit is simply to express my gratitude.”
Only then did Queller let out a sigh of relief and smiled with the Archduke.
However, he muttered in his heart: it looks like Paul’s path in the Horned Bay will become wider and wider, he has to remind his old man to raise the level of attention to the Northwest Bay.
…… Grand Duchess Helen pulled her schoolmate over and spoke quietly.
“Where’s your adventurer friend?”
“After the gathering last night, the local adventurer’s guild sent a letter, as there was an emergency they left overnight.”
“Speaking of which, how is that Earl Gleeman treating you?”
“Lord Earl treats me very well, you know, with the conditions of the Northwest Bay, there’s still a shortage of all types of manpower, so people like me who are hard to use are also highly valued.”
“Hard to use? I finally heard you tell a joke, Lardy.”
“Hokage, I remembered something, what’s the reaction from the church side ……”
Helen didn’t have the heart to say, “Hmph, now that they don’t have the means to forcefully show the ‘evidence’ to the public, it looks like they know they’re in the wrong and haven’t disclosed the matter to the outside world.”
After all, without direct evidence, unauthorized seizure of a female noble is a major crime, and the church would not dare to commit public anger in this regard even if they dragged their feet.
“Has there been any negotiation with you?”
“No, they probably want to just let it go.”
“So what do you have in mind?”
“How in the world can anything be so cheap? My husband has decided to strongly facilitate and join the anti-church alliance, the reason why he hasn’t vocalized this incident either is because the time is not yet ripe. Once the time is ripe, this will be one of the sins of the Church.”
“This …… won’t break out into a war, will it.”
The rulers of the countries joining together to suppress the Church was something that Lardy, who was a mage, would be happy to see, but if it led to a war, then again, that was something she didn’t want to see.
“War? It can’t be, the church only has some self-defense paladins, if the countries unite, do they have the guts to fight back with armed resistance?”
The Grand Duchess was clearly optimistic.
“Let’s hope that’s really the case.”
Having said that, Lardy was not as optimistic as Helen inside, not to mention the influence of the Church in the civil society, there were quite a number of people in the ruling class of each country who were loyal followers of the Church.
I hope that war won’t break out because of this, Lardy, who was familiar with history books, knew very well the history of several religious wars, unlike wars between countries that broke out due to interests, these kinds of wars under the banner of faith are more likely to break through the lower limit.
She didn’t want to see such a prosperous Corner Bay reduced to rubble.
……
After the group had spoken for a while on the docks, it was finally time for the scheduled departure, and under the watchful eyes of Quiller Foster and the Archduke and Duke of Eaton, Quirk and Lardy and the others boarded the Southern.
The departure of the strange ship attracted a number of people in the dock area to cast their eyes here, and they would have flocked together if it weren’t for the fact that the Duchy of Eaton’s guards had blocked off the area around the berth.
One of the harbor staff on shore untied the cables tied to the dock piles, and the sailors on the Southern received the cables aboard the ship.
Quiller shouted the order, “Raise the anchor!”
“One, two, three ……”
Numerous crewmen shouted the call and pushed hard on the anchor winch.
The huge and heavy anchor was slowly pulled up from the water under the action of the winch.
Since there were no oars on the Southern, several small paddleboats in the harbor were employed as tugs to help pull it away from its moorings.
The sailor signaled to the tugboat, and the men on top of it began to paddle, and by means of the cables the Southern was slowly set in motion.
Quirk, Laddie, and the others stood at the side of the ship and waved goodbye to the shore, and Quiller and the Archduke and his wife, who stood on the dock, waved in response.
The Southern slowly moved away from the harbor and out into open water, where it untied the cables attached to the tugboat, hoisted the sails, and with the help of the wind headed out to sea on a voyage back to the Northwest Bay.
(End of chapter)