Chapter 210 – His Excellency the Duke’s Invitation
Chapter 210 – His Excellency the Duke’s Invitation
Paul was stunned by the contents of the wooden box.
Inside was actually a whole box of gold coins, so golden that it almost blinded his titanium dog eyes.
“Can someone here …… explain to me what’s going on?”
Quake this guy couldn’t be back in his old business at sea, doing a few big jobs, right?
“Uh …… lord, this is from His Majesty, the Grand Duke of the Duchy of Eaton, we don’t dare to deal with it without authorization, so we leave it to you to decide.”
The more Paul listened, the more puzzled he became, “Why would the Grand Duke of Eaton send you a box of gold coins?”
This is a whole box of gold coins, in most countries such as Aldo, although people say how many or so gold coins on their lips when describing the amount of money, but this is for the sake of easy description, in actual life, the commoner class is forbidden to use gold coins, and the most expensive currency for monetary circulation between non-nobles is silver coins.
Gold, in this era is in is too precious, even if it is minted into gold coins, it will be mixed with other metals.
On the side, Lardy stood up.
“My lord, I encountered wolves in the forest with the Grand Duke Consort of Eaton, and it was Captain Quirk who led the men who rescued us, so the Grand Duke of Eaton sent this chest of gold coins to express his gratitude. Half of the gold coins are gifted to you, my lord, and the other half are gifted to all of you on the Southern ship.”
“The Grand Duchess of Eaton? And you? And how did you guys get involved?”
“Her Highness Archduchess Helen and I used to study together, and she is considered my schoolmate. When I arrived at Nisborough, the capital of the Horned Bay Alliance, she happened to be visiting the Alliance with her husband, so I went to visit her.”
Paul was very surprised to hear that, not realizing that his female advisor had this kind of background. Even if it was also like this, she was forced to hide away in another country, how far has the church in Horned Bay gone rampant?
Erin on the side seemed to remember something, ”That Grand Duke Consort of Eton? I’ve heard that he is a beautiful woman who is civilized far and wide.”
Paul once again turned to Quirk, “Since there’s a share for you as well, why don’t you leave half of the gold coins?”
“This …… amount is too big, we are in dare not to deal with it privately, so please decide.”
Paul was satisfied with the approach of the other side of the quirk, now Alda has no regulations on the handling of public and military personnel for gifts from outsiders, it’s time to draw up a standard, those who don’t exceed this standard can leave it on their own, and those who exceed this standard have to be handed over.
Since there was now a blank period, let’s go ahead and do what the gifting party wanted.
“Then I’ll leave this box of gold coins, and I’ll take out the equivalent of half of those gold coins in Aldo silver coins and give them to you.”
Quake quickly waved his hand, “My lord, this is just too much! We wouldn’t dare to accept it.”
“No no, this is what you deserve.”
After a few pushes, Paul still insisted that they take it, “Consider it as a material reward for this voyage.”
Seeing that the lord was so generous, the people on the Southern ship were instantly enveloped in an incredibly great sense of happiness, that was half a box of gold coins ah, after distributing it, all the people who participated in this voyage, no matter the officers or the soldiers, would be very rich.
“Then I will thank you on behalf of all the officers and soldiers on board. There is one more thing …… the Grand Duke of Eaton asked me to convey his friendship to you, if you or your envoys go to Horn Bay, the Duchy of Eaton will definitely provide warm hospitality.”
Paul’s eyebrows twitched, “This is a windfall, all in all you have done well this time, long term reliance on the Foster family is unreliable, the more friends we have in Horn Bay the better. As a reward, do you all have any other wishes you would like me to help fulfill?”
The others, having suddenly gotten a handful of riches, were already free of wishes for the time being, except for Quirk, who wriggled out a wish.
“My lord …… a few of my old brothers from when I used to be a pirate are still serving their sentences, and at that time they missed the opportunity to redeem themselves because they didn’t meet the Navy’s enlistment requirements, but I assure you that none of them are great traitors or evil people. Can you shorten their sentences? I can do without the money.”
I didn’t realize he was a man who remembered old times.
“Fine, I promise you. After the investigation is clear, I will appropriately reduce their sentences, and I can even release them directly.” Quake was overjoyed and thanked Paul one by one.
Paul invited everyone to stay for dinner, and in the midst of all the fun, he invited them to visit the newly constructed “Iron Works” in Lakewood the next day.
The machine shop had already developed an experimental water-driven blast system, and had joined forces with the iron smelters Paul had arranged to build the first blast furnace at a site beside the Wise River, and Guy Burns had informed him that he would be there to watch the first furnace produce iron, which was a moment of great significance.
“We will soon have a monopoly on the supply of steel to the Northwest!”
Paul announced confidently to the crowd.
Xela felt curious as to what had given the lord so much confidence.
“May I also visit your ironworks?”
“Of course, Lady Thothia, you are welcome to visit.
Just stand by and watch the situation of the blast furnace making iron, Paul is not afraid of being watched, just to show off Alda’s “black technology”.
Just as he was about to continue to describe the beautiful blueprint to the crowd, Philip butler came over with two wooden boxes.
“Lord Earl, two invitations have been sent from Duke Ferdinand’s residence, for you and Lord Garnard respectively.”
“Invitations? For me and Myron?”
Paul and Myron looked at each other, both puzzled.
They each opened the wooden box, took out the parchment that had been tied up inside, and unfolded it to look at it.
“It’s Lord Duke’s birthday, inviting us to go ahead and attend the banquet.”
“But this old man’s birthday is still early, isn’t it February? It’s still more than two months away.”
As soon as Paul remembered that he had been blackmailed by Count Kent in the name of Duke Ferdinand, he was furious, and he heard that Maltz Kent was Duke Ferdinand’s most obedient dog, and that these two must have been working together in a lopsided manner and in collusion.
“Uh …… perhaps the Lord Duke wants us to spend more time preparing our gifts.”
“This is an attempt to extort a fortune from us in the name of organizing a birthday party? I knew it, what kind of goods is Maltzkent, and how good can his backstage be?”
Paul was quite indignant, “Not going, let him celebrate his own birthday.”
On the side, Steward Philip became anxious, “Please don’t do that, Lord Earl. Duke Ferdinand is not someone we can offend.”
On the side, Myron also persuaded him.
“Paul, more than half of the lords of the Northwest Bay are from Ferdinand’s line, and although we are direct bannermen of the royal family, we can’t afford to make relations with him too frosty.”
Paul nodded helplessly, “Alright, since you all say so, then I will go to his birthday party. As for the gift, let’s burn a special piece of porcelain for him.”
Butler Philip and Myron then breathed a long sigh of relief.
(End of chapter)