Chapter 96: Gaining Ground
Chapter 96: Gaining an Inch, Advancing a Foot
At 9:00 am the next day, Emerson once again arrived at the lord’s mansion, this time he did not intentionally make Paul wait for him.
“Heh! Lord Gleeman has put up a great show.”
Emerson said with a smile after seeing the many extra people in the house.
Of course, this was not enough to scare him, Emerson confidently and calmly came to the place where he sat yesterday, and without waiting for Paul to open his mouth, he sat down on his butt and asked, “Lord Gleeman, a night’s time should have allowed you to think it over, right?”
“I’ll bear with-” Paul mentally talked himself down.
He smiled and nodded, “Sir Emerson, I’ve thought it over.”
“For the sake of the friendship between the Kent and Graiman families, I have decided to accept your request regarding the aspect of sharing profits. But regarding the aspect of co-managing Bairdine, I can never agree to it, otherwise I will be sorry for the departed Uncle Garnard, and the true lord of Bairdine is Myron Garnard.”
“I am not going to agree to the demands you made yesterday regarding Bairdine.”
Next to him, Myron said while shaking his head towards Emerson.
“Oh ……”
Emerson looks a little disappointed as he shakes his head.
“Lord Kent will be disappointed.”
He stared at Paul without moving, and the two sides just stared at each other.
Finally, after a long internal struggle, Paul backed down to his bottom line, “If the Kent family can give up their demands on Bairdine, we can share out a bit more in terms of profits.”
Then he waited for the other party’s reply without a word.
Emerson kept stroking his chin, seemingly considering what Paul had just said.
In fact, his heart had already made a decision, but he enjoyed the feeling of “judgment”, watching the other party anxiously (in his opinion) waiting for his reply, somehow suddenly had the feeling that his words could decide the fate of the other party.
“The room is now full of people waiting in stony silence for my judgment.” That was what was going through Emerson’s mind right now.
What sentence should be passed on them?
Alas, Gleeman, Gleeman, if you had come at once to pay your respects when I first arrived here the day before yesterday, I would have spared you now.
Alas, alas, you committed the mistake of disrespecting me then, and must be punished.
After Emerson deliberately waited for another moment, he put on a serious expression and finally spoke, “Paul Gleiman.”
“In view of the fact that you failed to make a timely decision to satisfy the Kent family, I make the following demands of you on behalf of the Lord Earl.”
“First, raise the profit divided between both Count Kent and Duke Ferdinand to one-third.”
“Second, hand over to the Kent family the technology of making paper and making porcelain.”
“Third, immediately cede half of the territory of Bairdine to the Kent family.”
“Fourth, ……”
A wry smile appeared on Emerson’s originally serious face:
“…… swear allegiance to the extremely legitimate heir of Lord Earl Maltz Kent.”
After finishing these four requirements that he had added on his own, Emerson’s heart could not contain his excitement:
Hmph! Kneel down and beg for forgiveness from me, this is your punishment for neglecting me.
Paul Greiman, as a weakling, how dare you not come to see me in the first place, who do you think you are, just a titular count who doesn’t even have a single knight under his command.
But if you beg me to be happy, maybe you’ll be spared, of course, maybe.
Although he was excited inwardly, Emerson’s face still maintained an unperturbed look except for a hint of a smile, and slowly and methodically took a sip of water from his water cup.
At this time, Paul had frozen, he was completely stunned by the other party’s greed.
The other people in the parlor also had a look of disbelief, all of them did not react.
Paul suddenly felt himself being tugged on his sleeve, he came to his senses and turned his head to see that it was Chief Steward Ford who was tugging on him.
Only to see the old Ford’s right hand five fingers stretched out in the shape of a knife, so down everything.
The meaning is very clear: Lord Earl, let’s go to war!
The other party’s request is really too much, has broken through the bottom limit of Alda can bear, once agreed, the Greiman family in the northwest will no longer have a foothold.
There are some spiritual things that can not be given up no matter what, obviously, it is the time to have to respond to the war. Seeing that Chief Ford, the biggest peacemaker, had begun to beg for war, Paul quickly made a decision within himself.
He straightened himself and asked Emerson with a smile, “Sir Emerson, may I ask if you can represent the Earl of Kent with full authority?”
Emerson was waiting for Paul to beg for mercy from him, when he was suddenly asked such a question, he hesitated slightly, but then said with a stern face, “Of course, Lord Kent has ordered me to have full authority to handle the negotiations with you.”
Paul continued to ask, “The conditions you just mentioned, were they requested by Lord Kent himself?”
Emerson was slightly annoyed, “What does Lord Gleeman mean? I have just said that Lord Kent has ordered me to handle the negotiations with you with full authority, I don’t want to repeat it a second time.”
Well, Paul didn’t want to continue to ask, regardless of whether Maltz Kent had personally requested these four articles, or this messenger called Emerson had overstepped his bounds, anyway, this situation was now immortal.
He crossed his hands and leaned on the table with his arm, and a look of determination appeared on his face.
Emerson to Paul’s this posture and the new expression suddenly some uncomfortable, could it be that this little lord dares to refuse his own proposed conditions? Haha, impossible.
A confident smile returned to his face once again, this time he had asked for many benefits beyond expectation instead of Earl Kent, this elder would surely reward himself heavily.
However what Paul said below made him unable to react at once.
“Sir Emerson, given that the Kent family has made such a brutal and unreasonable request, I consider it a great insult to the Gladman family.”
“Therefore, in the future, anyone associated with the Kent family will no longer be welcome in both Arda and Baildin, and will be expelled immediately upon discovery.”
“Now ……”
Paul suddenly stopped, his eyes staring intently at the face across from him that disgusted him to no end, and then said in a single word:
“You – get – out!”
The smile on Emerson’s face froze for a moment.
What? Did I hear you right, this little lord who couldn’t even scrape together a single knight under his command was telling himself to roll, haha, the sky is the limit.
He asked suspiciously, “Earl Gleeman, what did you just say?”
Paul said in a bad mood, “I said to tell you to get lost, have your ears been stuffed with poop or is your brain too waterlogged to analyze other people’s words?”
Well, this time Emerson heard clearly, this little lord who didn’t even have a single knight, actually really told himself to get lost, told himself as a noble of the royal capital to get lost, and told himself as an emissary of the Kent family to get lost.
Ridiculous! How absurd!
Emerson stood in place not knowing what to do.
“Get out!”
Bryce suddenly bellowed at him.
“Get out!”
“Get out!”
The others in the parlor began to repeat the same words to him angrily.
Emerson suddenly felt a little frightened, and trying to restrain the feeling, he held out his finger to the crowd led by Paul.
“You, you, and you, wait for me, all of you.”
Seeing how arrogant he was, Bryce drew his allotted sword at once and pointed it at him, yelling once again, “Get out!”
The intimidating sword light shone on Emerson’s face, and he shivered, but his face quickly regained its condescending expression.
“Hmph!”
He grunted heavily and straightened his clothes in front of Bryce’s sword, then turned around and walked out.
……
Emerson did not stop when he returned to the stagecoach, called his servant and rode out of Lakewood.
“Wait! Wait for the Kent family’s army of knights to crush you ungrateful idiots!”
He cursed so in his heart.
But he had to think about how to face his Uncle Kent first, if he hadn’t overstepped his bounds by mentioning those four new demands, Paul Gleeman would have been on the verge of agreeing to the previous conditions ……
(End of chapter)