Chapter 402: Earl Coulson Returns Home in Glory
The high-ranking priests of the Church of the Fiery Sun took the initiative to go to the capital of the Rhine Kingdom to negotiate with the black magician Yang. This was just a rare curiosity for the citizens of other countries on the continent of Nabaron, but for the royal family of the Kingdom of the Rhine, it was simply terrible news.
Even the Fiery Sun Church, which had a blood feud with the Nightmare Butcher and was the most likely "reserve foreign aid" to help them drive away the enemy, had to reconcile with the Nightmare Butcher. What did this mean?
This means that the Rhine royal family has almost no choice but to lie low...
As soon as the news of the successful handshake between the two parties who had negotiated at the venue of the Rhine Kingdom came out, the old king aged ten years overnight.
While Yang Qiu was discussing with Brother Lowell about assisting the internal reforms of the Principality of Shiga, the old king in the palace was pulling his hair out in worry.
After much hesitation, this old man, who had been on the throne of the king and enjoyed wealth and glory for decades, still couldn't make up his mind.
If they raise an army to attack the Nightmare Butcher on their own, their chances of winning are slim... Thirty thousand undead can capture a strong city like Dutata within a day, and can even go to the battlefield of Middle-earth to march armed to force the Church of the Sun to negotiate; if the Nightmare Butcher is really forced to the battlefield, the old king really doesn't think that the Rhine royal family will have the same luck as they did in the National Defense War two hundred years ago.
Going all out to ask for help from the Eastern overlord, the Church of the Storm, would only be like inviting a tiger to drive away a wolf, and it might even lead to a faster decline of the royal family - the style of the Church of the Storm is not much better than that of the Church of the Sun. If it weren't for the frequent rebellions within the Norsk Federation, the Eastern countries would have become the second Middle-earth long ago .
What's more important is that the three remaining noble families after the fall of Ezekiel's family may not necessarily support bringing in the fierce tiger of the Storm Church... After all, the Nightmare Butcher does get along well with the Odysseus family, one of the three noble families.
If the royal family insists on having their own way, the three great nobles may stab the royal family in the back before inviting the Storm Church.
After sitting alone in the palace for a whole day, the old king finally sighed to the sky.
If the Rhine royal family tolerates the rise of the undead regime, the glory of the family will eventually be shrouded in darkness; but if they refuse to give in and surrender, the end of the family will be at hand.
Faced with two evils, what else can the old king do?
So... Lord Adler, Coulson O'Neill, who had been squatting in the royal city for several months, finally had his earl investiture ceremony.
Coulson ran excitedly to the parish villa to tell Yang Qiu the good news, but Yang Qiu just said "Oh" and sent him to the palace to go through the formalities.
When Count Coulson O'Neill, radiant with his golden title of Count, boarded the passenger ship back to Adler Territory with Yang Qiu... Coulson was shocked to find that there were two more people in the return team.
In the living room of the luxury suite on the top floor of the cruise ship, which has a small balcony and a view of the river, Yang Qiu, who was sitting by the window, calmly introduced the three people he met for the first time: "This is Earl Coulson O'Neill, this is the fourth prince Andre, and this is Enwei."
The lich Enwei, who was sitting by the window like Yang Qiu, did not move. Little Andre, who was sitting on the sofa on the side, stood up and extended his right hand to the newly-minted Earl O'Neill in a friendly manner: "Good day, respected Earl."
Coulson was stunned and almost bowed instinctively. Then he remembered that he was already an earl and did not need to be overly humble in front of the fourth prince who was lower in the succession order. He quickly extended his hand to shake the other party's, and bent his waist slightly with an unconcealed nervousness: "Good day, Your Highness."
Little Prince Andre frowned slightly, a flash of contempt passed through his eyes, and then he smiled more cordially.
When Princess Harriet first suggested that Prince Andrew follow the Nightmare Butcher, Prince Andrew was unwilling to do so. He did not want to leave the royal capital at all, and did not think that leaving the center of power in the kingdom was the right choice at this time when his father was old and the throne was about to change hands.
The lich Enwei didn't think much of the little prince who was spoiled by the princess, so naturally he was too lazy to persuade him.
This dragged on for more than a month. When the Blazing Sun Church took the initiative to come and negotiate with the Nightmare Butcher and the old king's fear of the Nightmare Butcher became known to everyone in the palace, little Prince Andre finally realized that the black magician who stayed at the villa in the suburbs of the capital was actually a golden thigh. He took the initiative to find the princess and offered to follow her...
Seeing that Coulson, his "competitor", was so unpresentable, Andre became more confident. He pretended to be friendly and pulled him to the balcony. While they were drinking wine and chatting, he got information out of Coulson.
Yang Qiu glanced at the two young men chatting affectionately on the balcony, smiled at Enwei, and said, "Little Prince Andre is not that bad."
The lich Enwei had a blank expression on his face: "You are inferior to your superiors and self-righteous to your subordinates. You are far from being a princess."
Yang Qiu shook his head with amusement: "You can't expect a young man who grew up in a privileged life and has an excellent mother to protect him in all aspects to be as insightful as his mother who came from a low-income family."
Princess Harriet was not a woman with beauty in vain. Beauty alone was not enough for this once most beautiful woman in the Rhine to cope with her philandering husband, the king, and keep her position as princess even after she lost her original asset of youth and beauty.
The lich Enwei did not want to continue the conversation. He did not really care whether little Prince Andre could become king. He just wanted to fulfill his promise to the princess. He took the initiative to change the subject: "I heard that you had rejected the invitation from the Rhine Court Mage Corps before?"
"After all, I am Kingsley's disciple." Yang Qiu said with a smile, "You know, my teacher Kingsley hates those court mages who are full of aristocratic habits."
The corner of the lich Enwei's mouth twitched... Many of the court mages came from aristocratic families, so what does it mean to be full of aristocratic habits!
"Besides, I personally don't like dealing with spellcasters who enter the palace right after leaving the ivory tower." Yang Qiu picked up the thermos cup. "It always feels wrong to see a spellcaster who has not traveled on the mainland for decades."
Enwei agreed with this and nodded involuntarily - this could be considered an invisible discrimination chain among spellcasters. Those who are keen on traveling and those who have not traveled really cannot get along.
"Since you are trying to win over even me, I thought you would also try to be hypocritical with those court mages." The lich Enwei said bluntly.
Generally speaking, liches are not suitable partners... because the "real body" of a lich that appears in front of people is not its true body, but just its "avatar"; the lich's true life box is often hidden in a secret place that only the lich himself can find.
In other words, when faced with real risks, the lich can easily abandon the "clone" and escape, and the cost of betrayal will be very low.
Enwei has traveled around the continent for many years and has been open to doing business with various civil and official forces, but he has never been recruited. His identity as a lich is the biggest reason.
"Didn't I tell you, Enwei, you are different." Yang Qiu said with a smile, "We are friends. I always think of you when I have good things."
Enwei made a disgusted expression and stood up to leave.
"Wait a minute." Yang Qiu quickly raised his hand and pressed it down, "Don't worry, Enwei, I still have something important to say."
Enwei reluctantly sat back down and asked coldly, "Anything else?"
Yang Qiu put down the thermos cup, smiled and leaned forward: "Enwei, do you want to get a stable anchor point that belongs only to you?"
Enwei: “???”
A day later, the passenger ship entered the port of Duthatha City.
Before the ferry entered the port, Coulson O'Neill could not wait to run to the deck, ready to see his mother first and tell her the good news that he had become the glorious "Earl O'Neill".
And then... As soon as the ship docked, Coulson O'Neill was grabbed by the arms on the left and right by two sturdy operators sent by the Undead Archon and dragged away on the spot.
"Our Lord Adler has left too much to do. The Archon Lady of the Dead can't wait for him to take over the work as soon as possible."
Yang Qiu ignored the panicked cry of Coulson who was being dragged away, and calmly led the expressionless Enwei and the horrified little Prince Andre off the boat slowly: "A lot of things need to be rebuilt in Adler County, and Coulson will probably be very busy during this period, so we won't disturb him."
The lich Enwei's mind was full of the meeting with Kingsley later, so he nodded indifferently.
Little Prince Andre was in a state of shock that "the Earl was not given a grand welcome, but was carried away ", and he couldn't recover...
The three of them got off the boat, and Yang Qiu hailed a carriage and went straight to the lord's mansion.
The empty lord's mansion, which didn't even have a gatekeeper and not even a trace of maids or servants, shocked little Prince Andre again, leaving him with his mouth wide open.
"We have something to discuss, please make yourself at your leisure, Your Highness."
After saying this, Yang Qiu invited Kingsley, who was helping to look after the house, and Envy, the lich who was eager to ask about the spiritual matrix, to the study on the second floor, leaving little Prince Andre alone in the living room on the first floor.
Little Andre, who was still carrying a suitcase in his hands (the two spellcasters were unwilling to let him bring guards), had no one to help him take off his coat, and no one even poured him a glass of water. He watched in confusion as the three spellcasters disappeared at the end of the spiral staircase.
"…How can I help myself?!"
Little Prince Andre looked around and waited patiently for a long time, but no one came out to serve him. He was so angry that he threw his dust-proof bowler hat onto the marble floor.
The empty living room and the even emptier courtyard were both quiet and silent.
Little Prince Andre's legs were sore from standing there. He took two steps silently to pick up the bowler hat he had thrown away, found a place to put his suitcase, took off his coat, and hung it on the coat rack next to the sofa .
He sat on the sofa in a daze for a while, helplessly calling out a few times, "Is anyone there?" and "Can you give me some refreshments?", but no one responded. His Royal Highness had to get up by himself, wandering around the empty lord's house for a long time to find the tea room to pour himself some water to quench his thirst, and then wandered around for a long time to find the kitchen, and found some snacks for Kingsley in the storage cabinet next to the kitchen...
While little Prince Andrew was having a hard time entertaining himself, Count Colson O'Neill, who had developed a soft friendship with little Prince Andrew while on the same ship, was also having a unhappy time.
In the mayor's office of Dutata City Hall, Coulson slumped on the sofa, holding his chest with his hands and breathing heavily.
After slightly relieving the painful feeling that was suffocating him, Coulson raised his other hand tremblingly and looked at the threatening red numbers on the folder in his hand with horror and disbelief.
Debt of 460,000 gold coins.
The creditor is the Undead Chamber of Commerce of the black magician Yang.
The debtor is Colson O'Neill, Lord of Adler.
"What the hell is this-?! Why do I owe so much money??"
Coulson was going crazy and yelled at the undead lady at the desk without caring about anything.
"Calm down, Count. This money is not your personal debt, but the fiscal deficit of the Adler regional government. Because you are the Lord of Adler, you are the biggest debtor." Zhao Zhenzhen said calmly, "Please rest assured that the detailed account book of this deficit has been repeatedly calculated and there will be no mistakes. The destination of this expenditure is also very accurate. It is indeed used for practical purposes. There is no corruption..."
"Isn't Adler County rich? I remember that when I left, the City Hall should have tens of thousands of gold coins and a large piece of real estate?!" Coulson screamed hysterically, "In just a few months, how did the City Hall spend all its money to not only spend all its reserves but also owe such a huge amount of money?"
Lady Gold Coin, when he came back he was still planning on finding a way to build two holiday estates and a private horse farm for his mother from the real estate confiscated by the City Hall - he never expected that the City Hall not only had no money, but also dumped a huge debt on him!
The money owed is still the money of the Undead Chamber of Commerce, Yang's money!!
Zhao Zhenzhen calmly began to settle accounts with Coulson, including the expenses of resettling more than 300,000 slum dwellers, the expenses of supporting the new town development plan, the expenses of converting the confiscated horse farm into a farm and livestock ranch, and the expenses of repairing the road and railway from Dutata City to Innadri...
Before Zhao Zhenzhen finished counting, Coulson slid softly under the sofa.
