Chapter 433 – The Count’s Banquet

Chapter 433 – The Count’s Banquet

Despite all the ups and downs, Lister finally arrived at Collins without any danger.

After entering the city, the name of the Earl of Bridges came into play, and he was able to meet this nobleman without any problems.

“Hahahahaha! Mr. Lister, I’m sorry for giving you a fright.”

After talking business in the study, Earl Bridges cheerfully patted Liszt’s shoulder and laughed.

“But it can’t be helped, you know, the situation has been a bit less calm lately.”

Liszt could only chime in with a bitter smile.

“Tell you what, I have a banquet here in the evening, why don’t you come and attend it as well, and I’ll introduce you to some of Collins’ head honchos along the way.”

The Earl extended an invitation to him.

Lister stood up in a panic and bowed at him, “Ha, thank you, Lord Earl. “

This kind of high class people’s banquet was really too helpful when it came to expanding his business, the earl had given him a huge favor.

Following the earl’s suggestion, Lister first went out for a stroll to experience the local customs.

At the time of sunset, he returned to the Earl of Bridges’ residence.

After changing into a local style dress, he was guided by a servant to the hall where the banquet was held.

At this time, the hall had already been lit up with many torches and candles, illuminating the place as bright as day, and a burst of pleasant music drifted through it, as the Earl had specially invited entertainers to cheer up the banquet.

Inside has come a lot of guests, there are men and women, all dressed in gorgeous, well-dressed, some of them gathered together to talk, some on the dance floor along with the music dancing in the corner of the bay.

A long, expensive carpet was laid on the central axis of the hall, and it was quiet and comfortable to land on. Lester walked along the carpet, passed by the guests in twos and threes, and came to a square quadrilateral-shaped dining table in the center of the hall, which was formed by four long tables.

“Ooooh! Look, our Aldo guest is here.”

Seeing Liszt approaching, Earl Bridges stood up.

“Gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you, this is the trade representative of Aldo’s Northwestern Baytor shipping line in Horn Bay – Mr. Friedrich Liszt, let’s come together to welcome them. Their merchant ships are big and plentiful, much better than the ragged sampans of the coastal people.”

At the earl’s words a burst of applause rose around him.

“Thank you all, it is an honor to visit your beautiful country. “

A hanging heart of Lister was released, that said, he was still apprehensive before.

Commoner born he has always maintained twelve points of reverence for the nobles, before entering the hall had worried that he would not be looked down upon, now it seems a little over-anxious.

Earl Bridges introduced him one by one to the people around him, and it was true that there were a lot of big names, these people were either rich or noble, either high officials in the court, or senior clergy in the church.

Lester was a bit flattered, he had never seen such a big battle before.

Although Collins can only be regarded as a small country compared to Aldo, the territory only includes the main city state of Collins and a few subsidiary cities as well as villages and towns scattered in between, perhaps not as big as Alda and Baldin combined, but the size of the kingdom is also a kingdom, the sparrow may be small but it has all the organs.

He had actually come into contact with the upper class of a country all of a sudden.

But soon Lister understood why these big shots were so courteous to him.

“Todd’s shipping house? I’ve heard of it, it’s a big shipping chamber.”

“Mr. Lister, you are the first Aldo merchant to arrive in Collins, please go back and tell your compatriots to stop putting up with the exploitation of those coastal people, bypass those insatiable fellows, and come directly to us to trade.”

“I’ve seen your goods, they’re all wonderful things, it’s not that we don’t mind the price, but those coastal people are clearly ripping off their customers with their price-boosting tactics.”

More than one person expressed such a strong will. “Uh …… I’ll try to convey that to them, haha.”

Liszt also had no choice but to respond vaguely.

But he understood in his heart that if he wanted to do business with these landlocked countries, the coastal countries could not be bypassed no matter what, although Aldo had a land route to the inland of the Horned Bay, but on one hand, the land transportation capacity was small and costly, and on the other hand, the domestic territories of Aldo were numerous, and it could be said that from the north to the south there were many hurdles, especially if one had to pass through the territories of the Giles family or the two rebel families of Vibranium.

Since this is the case, I wonder if those Horned Bay coastal countries will impose heavy taxes on the Todd Boat Company, the Horned Bay inland pioneers, as an example to others, after all, these countries are able to prosper by relying on the status of middlemen.

Happily, however, Aldo’s (Northwest Bay) commercial ability has already made a name for itself in this part of the Gulf of Horns, and even Collins, who is located inland, is aware of it.

After all, Earl Bridges’ banquet was not held for Lister, so everyone quickly formed a small circle in twos and threes and went their own way.

Lister tried to join in some of the small circle conversations, but he soon realized that he was in a different class from these nobles and formed a natural fence, sometimes people tell a joke to make the people around them laugh, while he never knew where the punch line was.

Due to the development of commerce in the coastal countries of the Gulf of Horns, the intermingling of the nobles with the commoners and the rich was deeper, and Lester was still able to cope with it, whereas the nobles of these inland countries were obviously still a small society of their own, and he was not adapted to it.

In order to avoid embarrassment, he had to carry his wine glass between the various cuisines.

Exquisite food, silver utensils, fragrant wine, everything showed that the quality of life of the nobles here was no different from the coastal high society.

Although the economy here was not as developed as the coast due to geography, it did not affect the sound and fury of the ruling class in the slightest.

Soon he found someone who was somewhat similar to him.

A young man, tall and thin, with curly brown hair, dressed plainly in comparison to the well-dressed guests, sitting alone at the table, out of place in his surroundings.

His eyes were fixed in the distance, an anxious look in them.

Lister guessed that he was not spying on the opposite sex of his choice.
A poor boy, who by chance entered the upper class, befriended a noble girl and fell in love with her, but the huge gap between the two parties’ statuses allowed him to only silently guard from afar – Lister instantly brainstormed a series of common fictional bridges.

He couldn’t help but follow the other party’s gaze, but he only saw a group of grand old men who were gabbing away.

Well, it looked like he had guessed wrong.

“Hey..! Hello, my name is Friedrich Lister, get acquainted.”

Getting because it was all grungy, he was inexplicably motivated to make friends and walked over to say hello.

“Uh, hello …… Ah, you’re the Aldo guest from earlier, nice to meet you, I’m Cable.”

The young man clearly had something on his mind, and answered a bit absentmindedly.

Realizing that something was wrong, he took the initiative to explain, “I’m sorry, Mr. Lister. My mind is a mess right now, so ……”

Liszt waved his hand, “It’s okay, what’s bothering you, say it away for me to hear, maybe I can give you some advice.”

“This ……”

The young man pondered for a while, and finally said it.

“Well, this kind of thing is also suffocating in my heart, so I will say it to you to listen to it, perhaps you, a foreigner, will be able to understand the grievances in me.”

“Grievance?” Liszt frowned, it looked like the matter was not simple, but what did this have to do with his foreigner status?
Just to hear Cable continue:
“Specifically it’s a grievance on my mother. She …… she was charged with being a witch.”

A witch?

Lister’s frown deepened, a damning word at this sensitive time.

But at the same time, a beautiful figure surfaced in his mind.

(End of chapter)