Chapter 346 – An audience with the King

Chapter 346 – An Audience with the King
An exquisitely decorated carriage slowly traveled on the road leading to the Jingyao Royal Palace, Baron Hansel Abbott was sitting in the carriage with his eyes closed, but his head was spinning at breakneck speed.

He was going to meet His Majesty the King in a while, and he had to be cautious.

“My boy, no need to be nervous, His Majesty is a generous and benevolent king, I have already instructed you on etiquette, just say whatever you …… have to say for the rest.”

Sitting beside him was a man in his forties, none other than Hansel’s father, the old Count Abbott.

“Yes, father.”

Nonetheless, Hansel still had a complicated look on his face.

Old Abbott was instead very relieved, just yesterday, his youngest son Hansel suddenly returned home to Jingyao, and before the family could recover from their joy, Hansel was eager to have an audience with His Majesty the King.

Old Abbott asked the original reason, it is because the west harbor pirate invasion thing spread to the northwest bay, to the count of Gleiman as the leader of the northwestern lords intend to send troops to the king, their fleet has already set sail to the south. And his youngest son is as the envoy of the Northwest Lords to return to Jingyao, contact the Royal Government to join forces to fight against the pirates.

Ah, Hansel, you will finally be able to serve the kingdom with honor like your brother and realize your long-cherished wish.

The old father was very relieved, and given that it was the first time his youngest son had an audience with the king, he decided to personally accompany him to the palace, lest Hansel’s inexperience cause any disrespectful behavior and leave a bad impression on His Majesty.

The carriage slowly drove into the gates of the royal palace, Hansel took the initiative to step down from the carriage and identified himself to the royal guards standing guard, “I am Hansel Abbott of the Abbott family, and I have come to have an audience with His Majesty the King on behalf of all the northwestern lords.”

Hansel Abbott? The guards felt as if they had heard this name somewhere.

Huh? Isn’t this the son of that whore? The son of the whore who was taken in by Count Abbott at the risk of universal condemnation, and according to his parents, it was a big deal at the time, and it also killed the Count’s future.

The contempt in the eyes of the guards flashed away, the royal guards are all young talents selected from the noble children of pure and noble blood, for Hansel this kind of [polluted] noble blood naturally has no good feelings.

He carefully examined the token that Hansel handed over.

“Go in!” The guard said in a jarred voice.

The flash of contempt and the contempt in his tone stung Hansel deeply.

For a moment he suddenly missed the Northwest Bay a little; at least the people there wouldn’t look down on him because of his blood.

Hansel held back the intense discomfort within him, his face did not move as he turned around and entered the carriage, and the carriage moved again, slowly passing through the gates of the royal palace.

This scene was taken in by the people in the other carriage not far from the gate.

“Hansel Abbott?”

The name came out of the mouth of Erin in the carriage as she looked at the approaching palace.

“What’s he doing back at Crystal Flare? Did Paul send him?”

“Baron Abbott? The same Baron Hansel Abbott who was the royal commissioner in Arda? Your Highness isn’t mistaken, is she?”

Servant Leah lightly covered her cherry mouth and let out a surprised question.

“Yes, I’m sure I’m not mistaken.”

Erin replied confidently.

When they reached the entrance of the royal palace, the carriage was stopped by the guards.

“What kind of people? Come out for inspection!” Because this carriage was extremely simple and did not have any heraldic markings, it looked like it was ridden by a commoner, so the guards’ tone was very nonchalant, and a large group of people hollered and surrounded the carriage.

“It’s me.” Ayrin pulled back the curtains covering the carriage window and turned towards the leading captain with a displeased face.

“Your Highness Ayrin!”

A group of royal family guards were collectively shocked that the one sitting in the car was the little princess who hadn’t shown her face for a long time.

They didn’t know that Irene had run away from home, and thought that the princess had slipped out of the other doors of the royal palace to go on a visit in disguise and then came back through this door.

“Disrespectful!” The captain led his men to bow in unison, then hurriedly made way for the carriage to pass.

……

Inside one of the palace’s side halls, Hansel respectfully bowed to the king, then held a letter in both hands and handed it over to the attendant next to him, who then walked to Rodney’s front to pass it to him. If he was one of Rodney’s closest ministers, he wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble, but Hansel wasn’t one of them, not even his father, who had been sitting next to him for years, so he had to follow the rules honestly.

The white-haired king unfolded the letter and read it carefully.

The content of the letter to Paul Gleiman, led by the Northwest Bay Lords request to send troops to cooperate with the royal army to eliminate the pirates in one fell swoop. Yes, Paul felt that his share is not quite enough, and then pulled with his good friends Parker, Heller, Ferdinand and other families to write a joint letter to the king.

“Well …… Northwest ministers are really loyal and courageous ah, once again want the kingdom to share the worry.”

First it was Paul Gleeman who took the initiative to send food to the kingdom’s army when it was short of food, and later it was Gleeman who pulled in other lords to supply a large quantity of good and inexpensive ordnance when the king’s army was confronting the rebels, making Rodney look high and low at the lords in the nooks and crannies of the kingdom in the Northwest Bay.

Gryman in particular, the king had made it a point to have the official in charge of the heraldic court look into it and learn the ins and outs of the family, and he sometimes wondered if he shouldn’t just wipe the slate clean and restore the family’s honor to its history.

The king sighed: “Alas, if the lords of other places are like the northwestern lords who rush to serve the country, why worry about Jarls can not be pacified?”

“Ah …… right, Hansel also has a lot of credit, hard work. It looks like Catherine’s decision of arranging you as royal commissioners to liaise with the local lords was right in the first place.”

“Where where, serving the kingdom is our part.” Hansel hastily expressed his humility.

He then said, “Your Majesty, before launching an attack in coordination with the kingdom’s army, the fleet in the Northwest Bay needs a port to land in for refurbishment and supplies, please rule on this, Your Majesty.”

“Well …… harbor.”

Rodney stroked his beard, this request was reasonable.

“Hansel, will the generals of the Northwest Gulf be able to discipline the soldiers under their command not to run amok?”

The king knew all about the urbane nature of armies in this era, and was afraid that this group of guest soldiers from out of town would cause any trouble for him.

“Your Majesty, as far as I know, the discipline of the Northwest Army is …… second only to the regular army of the kingdom, please rest assured that they will not harass the place.”

Hansel stayed in Alda for so long, of course understand the army under Paul’s command, he originally wanted to say that it is “second to none”, but was afraid to brush off the king’s face.

“Well, I trust your judgment. So, let’s choose Kiel harbor as the landing place of the Northwest Fleet. This harbor is the closest to your brother Harrison’s garrison, and it is also convenient for liaison.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Hansel bowed to the king, having already learned from his father that his brother had been appointed commander of the crusade against the pirates.

(End of chapter)