A flash of surprise crossed
Putting away his roguish smile, Lorist straightened up and said with a solemn expression, "Welcome. As the head of the
Baron Kamola scrutinized Lorist cautiously. He no longer dared to underestimate the young man before him. Unlike all the other territorial nobles he had encountered, this new head of the Norton Family was very polite, yet didn't seem to show much deference to the Duke. On the contrary, in both his tone and manner, he treated the Duke as a noble of equal standing. What radiated from him wasn't that irritating arrogance, but rather a kind of confidence...
"Lord Norton, as the Grand Duke who rules over Northland, Duke Lugins wishes to ask: Why has the Norton Family never come to pay respects to the Duke in the nearly three years since the
Lorist smiled with effortless composure. "The Norton Family has never considered Duke Lugins or his family to be enemies, and we do acknowledge the Duke's governance over Northland — otherwise the Norton Family would not have paid taxes on time. However, the Norton Family does not consider the Duke to be our liege lord. As everyone knows, the Norton Family has always been directly under the Krisen royal household. Tell me, Baron — when did Duke Lugins become a member of the Krisen royal family?"
"Didn't the Second Prince transfer all the territorial lords of Northland to the Duke's jurisdiction?" Baron Kamola pressed.
"Baron, can the Second Prince represent the Krisen Empire's royal household? I think not. All nobles know that the one who represents the legitimate line of the former Krisen Empire is the Third Prince of the Andinak Kingdom. So on what authority did the Second Prince transfer our Norton Family's allegiance to the Duke? It's as ridiculous as your neighbor trying to sell your house. Of course, if Duke Lugins obtains the Third Prince's consent and officially transfers our Norton Family's allegiance to him through proper documentation, I will immediately go to pay my respects to the Duke. As for now, as you said, I'm a new lord with much to attend to, so I can only visit the Duke when I have free time in the future," Lorist said.
"Er..." Baron Kamola hadn't expected Lorist's response, and it was well-reasoned at that. "So you're saying the Norton Family is determined to oppose the Duke?"
"Whether we're opposing the Duke is for the Duke to judge himself. If he believes what I've said makes sense, he should go discuss our Norton Family's allegiance with the Third Prince. If he believes our Norton Family is opposing him, then he can do as he pleases — send his Northland Legion to crush us if he will. Although our Norton Family is very small compared to the Duke's forces, we are the roaring bears of Northland. We can certainly break off a few of his teeth and drag things to mutual destruction." Lorist showed not a shred of concern for Baron Kamola's threats.
It seemed this matter of allegiance would be an endless dispute. The Norton Family was different from other territorial nobles — they truly didn't care about the threat of the Duke's powerful Northland Legion. Baron Kamola had no choice but to move on from this topic. The purpose of this visit wasn't about whether the Norton Family would pay respects to the Duke, but rather the hundred thousand gold Forde.
"Lord Norton, I suggest we set this dispute aside for now. I will report the Norton Family's reply to the Duke exactly as it was given, and we can only wait to see what decision the Duke makes," Baron Kamola said. "Shall we now discuss the other two matters?"
"Of course, please have a seat. I'm all ears." Since this was a negotiation, there was no need to keep up the formalities, and Lorist warmly invited Baron Kamola to sit down and continue.
After that brief exchange of verbal sparring, Lorist found himself somewhat impressed by the scrawny man. Seeing that he was at a disadvantage — having neither logic nor the ability to force the Norton Family into submission through threats — the man had immediately and decisively changed the topic without any dawdling. He was quite efficient.
"First, I hope you won't spread this around. The Duke doesn't want the Second Prince to find out about this, because the Second Prince has been openly and covertly obstructing the Duke's efforts to establish the Northland Legion, setting up many obstacles. So the Duke secretly gathered a sum of funds and entrusted the Kemace family to covertly purchase a batch of military equipment and supplies for him. However, we didn't expect Viscount Kemace to transport this fund to the Red River Valley Manor Castle for storage. As a result of the war between your Norton Family and the Kemace family, you burned down the Red River Valley Manor Castle, and this fund fell into your hands. The Duke hopes that you will return this fund to him, and he wishes to express his sincere gratitude to the Norton Family."
Let me try.
Lorist would have liked to applaud Baron Kamola — the man was truly talented, able to spin lies so smoothly. Anyone who didn't know the truth would easily believe him. He even knew that the hundred thousand gold Forde were stored in five iron-bound chests — didn't that prove the money belonged to the Duke? Unfortunately for the Duke, he couldn't have known that
Duke Lugins had somehow gotten wind of this news. The hundred thousand gold Forde had made the Duke's eyes red with greed, and he had immediately extended his grasping claws, even sending such a powerful armed force. It was clear he had intended to try diplomacy first, and if that failed, resort to force. Unfortunately, he had underestimated the Norton Family's strength, and now he was in a position where he couldn't back down.
Lorist looked at Baron Kamola with a half-smile, his expression clearly saying: Keep spinning, keep telling me your lies.
Baron Kamola reddened slightly under that gaze, and carefully asked, "Lord Norton, what do you think about this matter..."
Lorist made a few noncommittal sounds. "Let's set this matter aside. What's the other thing? What does the Duke wish to discuss with us?"
"Oh, it's like this. Due to the wars of the past few years, the Ducal residence is very rundown, and the fortifications of the capital city Gildusk have fallen into disrepair over many years — cracks have even appeared in the city walls. The Duke has been constrained by a lack of funds and has been unable to carry out renovations. We've heard that the Norton Family achieved a great victory in the war against the Kemace family and obtained a large quantity of construction materials from the Kemace family. Therefore, the Duke very much hopes to receive half of those construction materials for use in renovating the Ducal residence and recaptured fortifications..." Baron Kamola took it upon himself to reduce the amount from two-thirds to half.
"That's all?"
"That's all." Baron Kamola nodded.
"Heh, just these two demands?" Lorist asked with a smile.
Baron Kamola nodded again. "Yes, just these two demands."
"I haven't spoken yet. I also have a demand..." Tabek, who had been sitting nearby, was irritated that Lorist had been ignoring his presence and deliberately inserted himself into the conversation.
Lorist looked at this Gold-rank knight with surprise. "Then, honorable knight, what is your demand? Please, do tell..."
"I noticed your family has a lot of iron armor — even ordinary soldiers are wearing it. But our Northland Legion has fewer than a hundred suits for over twenty thousand men. So I demand that you strip off all that armor and let me take it back..."
Tabek had always looked down on Baron Kamola. He couldn't understand why the Duke had ennobled this clown as a baron, even if it was a court baronship with no territory. He had been very reluctant to accompany this clown on the mission to the Norton Family. First, he felt it was beneath his dignity to chaperone this clown on a diplomatic outing — hadn't the clown just made a fool of himself? And yet he was still pretending nothing was wrong, chatting away with this Norton Family brat. Second, Tabek believed that sending anyone at all would have the Norton Family obediently following orders — with the Northland Legion behind them, he couldn't believe any lord in Northland would dare defy the Duke's commands.
It wasn't until a bolt of green lightning had pinned his mount to the ground in front of Stone Fortress that he realized the Norton Family also had a Gold-rank archer he couldn't afford to provoke. That was when he had tempered his behavior and become very well-mannered. Even when he had been teasing the Norton Family's Silver-rank female knight, he had been keeping a close eye on that Gold-rank archer's movements. When he heard that soft hum, he had immediately backed off.
No one was a fool — otherwise Tabek wouldn't have advanced to Gold rank. It was only after this Norton Family brat came in that he sensed an opportunity for a turnaround. First, that Gold-rank archer had actually let down his guard, relaxing completely and staring blankly at the ceiling as if lost in thought. Second, this Norton Family brat was sitting right in front of him, within arm's reach. After careful observation and sensing, Tabek determined that the kid before him wasn't even Silver rank — otherwise the battle energy flowing through his bloodline couldn't have slipped past a Gold-rank knight. At most, this kid was Iron rank.
Tabek had long grown impatient with Baron Kamola's polite negotiations with Lorist. When had the Duke's envoys ever had to speak with people on equal footing? Weren't they always supposed to issue commands? Never mind that the Norton Family had a Gold-rank archer — what could one person do against the Northland Legion? They could drown him in spit alone!
Before, Tabek had been behaving himself because he was afraid of bad luck. What if that archer challenged him to a duel? Not only did he know he couldn't win, but even if the archer didn't seriously hurt him, getting beaten up would be incredibly humiliating. Tabek didn't want to go back and become a laughingstock alongside that clown...
But now heaven had handed him a golden opportunity. This Norton Family brat was obliviously sitting right in front of him. As long as he seized him, what could the Norton Family do but surrender? Even that Gold-rank archer couldn't touch him — unless the archer was willing to abandon his lord, and what were the chances of that? Plus, there were still twenty Silver-rank knights he had brought along. They could control the Norton Family's people here, open the castle gates, and let two hundred Northland Legion soldiers in. Once that was done, everything would be settled...
And he might even be rewarded with a territory and a noble title for his merits this time. Then he would become a territorial lord...
Tabek's thoughts were grand and beautiful, but he was a cautious man and had been observing his surroundings. However, he quickly relaxed — that Gold-rank archer seemed to have fallen asleep. He couldn't understand how someone could sleep so peacefully in a situation like this. The two bodyguards of the brat in front of him were clearly not paying attention either, whispering to each other about something. All that was left was an excuse to act.
Tabek had considered striking without warning, but that would be too undignified. After all, he was a Gold-rank knight. If he had to resort to a sneak attack against an Iron-rank nobody, even if he succeeded, he would be criticized by the nobility for lacking knightly honor, and such a stain would follow him for life. The best outcome would be for this brat to pick a fight with him and strike first — then Tabek could subdue him, and everything would be perfect.
That was what Tabek was thinking, and that was what he intended to do. So he made a demand that he believed Lorist would absolutely never accept.
The moment Baron Kamola heard Tabek's demand, his heart dropped as if a string had snapped. He knew disaster was coming — this trip would accomplish nothing.
Sure enough, Lorist began to laugh coldly, and with each laugh his voice grew colder...
"What are you laughing at?" Tabek asked irritably.
"Do you see that door?" Lorist pointed to the door of the great hall.
"What about it?"
"Go out, turn right, and walk straight — that's the castle gate..."
"What for?"
"Are you stupid? Can't you tell I'm telling you to get lost? I really can't understand how someone with a brain like that made it to Gold rank. Maybe fools really are lucky," Lorist said.
Even though he had been deliberately looking for trouble, Tabek nearly passed out from anger at Lorist's words. The kid's tongue was razor-sharp — was that any way to speak to anyone? As a Gold-rank knight, no one had ever insulted him so brazenly.
"You'll pay for what you said..." Tabek said darkly. He slammed his palm down on the long table, splitting it clean in two. Dishes, bowls, cups, and barrels went flying in every direction. Spreading his arms wide, Tabek lunged directly at Lorist...