Chapter 340 Declaration of War
Viscount O'Neill had no idea of the earth-shaking circumstances his nephew was experiencing.
While Coulson was excited about becoming a big shot like Charlie Rex, famous in the Rhine and feared and coveted by countless respectable families, Viscount O'Neill, who had been waiting in Hexagon Alley in the South City for an afternoon, had to rush to the Bounty Hunter Association in Dutata City.
The intelligence dealer of the Bounty Hunter Association did not disappoint Viscount O'Neill. Only 24 hours later, an investigation report on China Darcy's social circle and approximate movements in the ten months since she inherited the title was sent from Inadelli to Dutata City via bird messenger.
"Has he never ? Has he been rejected by the nobles of Innadri and has almost no social interaction with them? Has he been dressed as a commoner and wandered the streets all year round?"
After reading this background check that was neither too long nor too short, which he had paid a large sum of money for, Viscount O'Neill suddenly felt that his anxiety over the past day and a half was completely due to being fooled, and he flew into a rage on the spot...
Well, of course he didn't know that Yang Qiu had intentionally kept China Darcy as a trump card after discovering her inclinations, and had never informed Rex to manage the relationship with China Darcy, the convertible aristocrat... On the surface, it naturally seemed as if China Darcy was just talking nonsense and deceiving people.
In addition to being angry, Viscount O'Neill was secretly glad that he did not rush to ask the lord for help - the lord of Adler was even more unsophisticated than the Bartles family of Innadelli before. He only asked for help at the door, regardless of whether he could help or not. He would not be able to end the matter without spending a lot of money.
Why do the nobles of Adler and Innadri like to run to the territory of Odysseus whenever something happens? The reason is that among the three great lords in the southern part of the Rhine Kingdom, only Count Odysseus is willing to pay attention to his dignity.
After a moment of rage, Viscount O'Neill calmed down and felt that the information the Bounty Association had collected in such a short time might not be reliable...
Yes, these professional bounty hunters are indeed very dedicated, and as long as they are paid enough, they are more efficient than the church's investigators; but in the final analysis, bounty hunters cannot share official intelligence channels as easily as formal investigators. What if the bounty hunters who took his orders did not investigate thoroughly enough and missed the private meeting between Charlie Rex and China Darcy?
After careful consideration, Viscount O'Neill felt that he should be more cautious... He called the butler to prepare the carriage and headed to the Bounty Hunter Association again.
This time, Viscount O'Neill commissioned the Bounty Society to contact the underground gangs in Dutata City for him, asking them to create some accidents so that China Darcy would suffer some injuries that would force her to return to Innadri for recuperation and treatment.
If we send that bitch back, it will be easy to deal with Mrs. O'Neill and Coulson, mother and son.
The Bounty Hunter Association would not easily take on the business of assassinating a noble, but if it was just an accident and no lives were lost, there would be no problem. That night, underground gangs in and around the Dutata city area frequently became active in various blocks in the southern city area.
Viscount O'Neill returned home and waited patiently for the whole night. In the morning, he received the following feedback... The local tyrants in Dutata City and the underground gangs with influence throughout the city did not find China Darcy.
Before Viscount O'Neill could express his dissatisfaction, the Bounty Hunter Association sent him a very bad news - a large group of militiamen, operators, and even some civilian staff from the Innadri territory left Everwatch Territory in a low-key manner yesterday, heading towards the Adler Territory.
Viscount O'Neill broke out in a cold sweat on the spot.
A few hours later, the Bounty Hunter Association hurriedly came to deliver the next piece of information: traces of a large force of Innadri militia appeared in the southern wilderness that the Innadri people were rushing to develop.
Lord O'Neill immediately slipped under his chair.
It was no use getting angry about the lag in information from the Bounty Hunter Association. Viscount O'Neill called his butler in fear and asked him to take people to the town (fiefdom) immediately to pack up the property and move it back to the city as soon as possible. The deeds to the farms, estates and mines must be brought back to the city.
Afterwards, Viscount O'Neill ordered his men to prepare half a box of gold coins and rushed to the City Lord's Mansion in a daze.
After the battle between the Odysseus family and the Principality of Lionel, the details of the battle were revealed one after another because the results were too shocking; the nobles of the Rhine Kingdom had long known that the army of the Tarantan Undead did not need to rush thousands of miles to conquer a certain place, but could be summoned by a pieced-together iron plate summoning array.
Innadri's large militia force has already entered the southern part of Adler Territory. It is meaningless to think about organizing private soldiers to intercept them now - most importantly, there is no guarantee that they can be stopped - in other words, the O'Neill family's fiefdom will definitely not be able to be preserved.
Viscount O'Neill had no way to vent his resentment because such a big disaster had happened just by suppressing his nephew who posed a threat to his descendants... But he couldn't lose his title. Even if he lost his fiefdom, he would never give the title to Coulson, his nephew who hated him to the core - otherwise Coulson would use the same means to retaliate against him as he had done to Coulson and his mother!
"You put the fiefdom bestowed upon your family by Ezekiel in danger of falling into the hands of others, and yet you still have the nerve to ask for the preservation of your title?!"
Lord Adler, who took time out from the tea party to meet Viscount O'Neill, was so angry when he heard the cause and effect of this panicked and helpless guy that he smashed the cup on Viscount O'Neill's face.
Viscount O'Neill did not dare to dodge and let the tea pour over half of his body.
Count Ezekiel certainly knew how difficult it was to deal with the army of the undead, otherwise he would not have allowed the Innadri people to stay in his territory to open up wasteland...
But the O'Neill family's fiefdom is right next to the city of Dutata. Such a close place is completely different from the vast wilderness hundreds of miles away in the south!
While he was scolding O'Neill, Count Ezekiel had already made up his mind. Instead of accepting the gold coins from Viscount O'Neill, he ordered his men to kick this stray dog out of the house.
Next... the Earl immediately ordered the butler to send someone to contact Coulson O'Neill.
Coulson, who rushed home to get something during the day, happened to meet the butler of the lord's mansion who came to deliver a letter.
After sending the butler away, Coulson tactfully did not open the letter, but handed it to Yang Qiu who accompanied him back.
"Since it's your personal letter, you can open it yourself." Yang Qiu waved his hand and didn't take it.
In the letter that Lord Adler Ezekiel wrote to Colson, he made a clear and concise statement: as a lord, he would not interfere in any struggles within the O'Neill family, and promised to support Colson O'Neill in inheriting the title of Viscount.
The only condition was that Colson O'Neill must not introduce external forces to rule the territory belonging to Adler, otherwise the Ezekiel family would take back the fiefdom granted to the O'Neill family.
Coulson sneered and handed the letter to Yang Qiu calmly.
When the Earl's retired butler participated as an accomplice in the plundering of the farm left by his father, the Earl did not say a word; now that Innaderi's army is about to arrive, he says that he supports his inheritance of the title. What kind of generosity is this?
Yang Qiu glanced over the letter without any expression on his face, and casually threw the letter into the lampshade of the lit oil lamp.
"Just take your things and go, we still have a lot of things to do." Yang Qiu said.
"OK."
Coulson swiftly ran into his mother's bedroom, found the transaction receipts and written proofs left behind when he reluctantly handed over the property and farm, wrapped them in oilcloth, and carefully put them in his arms... These were important evidence to prove the legitimacy of the lawsuit, and they had to be photographed and published in newspapers for public display.
Another day passed, and it was the fourth day that China Darcy openly took out an advertisement to appeal for justice for her aunt and demand an apology and compensation from Viscount O'Neill.
Viscount O'Neill, who was abandoned by Lord Adler, was depressed and anxious all night long, moving and hiding his property and preparing for the miserable days after losing his title. As soon as daybreak, the butler returned with a morning newspaper with a pale face.
Viscount O'Neill, who now had two dark circles on his face, just glanced at the headlines in the morning newspaper and was completely stunned.
China Darcy is in the papers again.
This arrogant mad woman released the transaction receipts of Coulson and his mother's property in Midtown and farm outside the city that were stolen by trickery, claiming that these two unfair and immoral transactions were secretly manipulated by the cruel and evil Viscount O'Neill. She angrily accused Viscount O'Neill of not having the slightest dignity of a noble family head and bringing shame to all the nobles of the Rhine Kingdom.
Under the photo of the farm's transaction voucher, China Darcy expressed even more anger that Count Ezekiel, as the Lord of Adler, not only did not uphold justice for the noble descendants of Adler, but instead assisted the evil and instigated the butler to conspire with Viscount O'Neill to seize the property of the noble descendants, which was truly a shame for the great nobles of the Rhine Kingdom...
On the next page was a huge half-length photo of Coulson O'Neal with a face full of bitterness and hatred.
Coulson O'Neill, who appeared in person, recalled in the newspaper with the help of the editor's pen the achievements of his great ancestor, the first Viscount O'Neill, who fought and bled for the Rhine Kingdom's War of National Defense. He claimed that he had been taught by his father since he was a child to be proud of his ancestors who defended the honor of the kingdom and not to bring shame to his once glorious ancestors.
Next, Colson O'Neill, like China Darcy, denounced the despicable behavior of Viscount O'Neill and Earl Ezekiel, expressed great indignation at the two disgraceful nobles who conspired to seize his deceased father's inheritance, and swore by his father's name and the honor of his ancestors to formally declare war on these two disgraceful, despicable and shameless enemies.
Lord O'Neill slipped under the chair again.
So... no matter whether he is willing to apologize in the newspaper or not, it is useless.
China Darcy, that bitch, and Coulson, that ungrateful bastard, are not only plotting to take over the O'Neill family's fiefdom, they also want to take over Dutata City and Adler Territory...
What was he trying to achieve by moving all his property from the town to the city?
In Lord Dutata's mansion, Count Ezekiel was still thinking about how to educate this fatherless boy after Coulson's reply so that he would not always get entangled with the Innadri people. His hands were shaking as he held the newspaper.
——How could this shit be related to him? !
"Innadelli is going too far!" Count Ezekiel roared, slamming the morning newspaper on the table. "What's wrong with this newspaper? How dare they publish such things? And they are so stupid as not to come to the City Lord's Mansion to report the situation before publishing it in the newspaper?!"
Of course, the butler and the Earl's wife and children had no idea what was going on. They could only look at the furious Earl in confusion and fear.
Hal knew that kidnapping the editor-in-chief of a newspaper was a way of forcing the newspaper to publish, so Yang Qiu certainly had no shortage of similar methods... He was even more ruthless than Hal , as he controlled the entire Morning Post editorial office and printing factory.
Just when Lord Adler and Count Ezekiel realized that they were also involved in this inexplicable revenge drama, the large army from Innadri had already arrived at the gates of Dutata City.
The residents of the slums and the craftsmen who got up early in the morning to start their day's work all looked towards the road in surprise.
On the territory road that could accommodate four carriages passing side by side, a large army of thousands of people, lined up in neat rows, covered in dew, and walking leisurely, naturally approached the slums.
When the team was some distance away from the residents' wooden shed area, many laborers in uniform (actually contract workers) took out tools such as shovels and spades from their cars and began to level the surrounding ground.
The residents living on the outskirts of the slums looked at each other, fearing these outsiders who came from nowhere, but also curiously sticking their heads out to look around.
While the contract workers were busy leveling the ground and setting up camp, a group of sturdy maids (actually employees of the Logistics Department) pushed and pulled small carts filled with supplies (actually tricycles, the first batch of vehicles that the players used for expeditions are still being used reasonably and there is no waste at all) to the outside of the shantytown and lined up on the side of the road.
Mrs. Hank, who had volunteered to join the battle to liberate Adler Territory, walked out of the crowd and greeted the residents who were looking out of the huts and alleys with a smile: "Good day, friends, would you like some Inadri-style food? It's very cheap and perfect for breakfast. Only when you are full can you have the energy to work!"
