Chapter 365 – Grand Duke Lionheart and The Buda Family

When Zhao Hai’s group returned to Sweet Plum Courtyard, they immediately went to the Space. Upon arriving, Laura and Meg relaxed, Zhao Hai looked at Laura’s appearance and smiled, “Laura, I didn’t think that you’re swordsmanship has become so fierce, haha, that’s great.”

Laure proudly lifted her chin up, “Naturally, did you think that me being a knight is a joke? I feel that I may even break through to 6th rank soon.”

Zhao Hai smiled, “It looks like we need to find you a magic beast mount the next time we go to the prairie. Laura, you could also use a Blood Hark as a mount, what do you think? After the Ranch levelled up, the Blood Hawks became even stronger. I reckon you could already ride them safely.”

Laura smiled, “Forget it, let’s talk about this later. There’s a lot of magic beasts in the Space anyway, I could just choose anytime I want. If I want to fly, I could use a Blood Hawk. If I want to go on ground, we have Moonlight Lions. We also have the Swordfish to travel on water. If all of them are not enough, we still have Little Wen. I could ask Little Wen to be my temporary mount, no problem.”

Zhao Hai couldn’t help but laugh. What Laura said was quite right, there were already quite a lot of magic beasts inside the Space. If it came to the point of choosing mounts, Laura would have a lot to choose from.

A few moments after the group talked a bit, Zhao Hai turned and asked Cai’er, “Cai’er, how many vegetables do we have stored right now?”

Cai’er immediately replied, “Presently, we have about 2 million jin of vegetables, 1 billion jin of grain, around 50 thousand jin of milk wine, and also 20 thousand jin of rations.”

After hearing the report, Zhao Hai nodded, “Reduce the amount of grain planted in the Space and increase the quantity of vegetables. After a batch of Scaleless Fish matures, go and raise some fire fishes, we must make sure to have sufficient supply in both vegetables and fire fishes.”

Cai’er nodded, then went towards the farm to manage it. Even though the Ranch was turned over to Mu’er, Mu’er still listens to Cai’er. This made it so that Cai’er technically managed the entire Space. Zhao Hai directly telling Cai’er about everything is fine.

Now that Zhao Hai’s concerns about the farm were handed over to Cai’er, he nodded and led Laura and the others back to Iron Mountain Fort.

Iron Mountain Fort was already in full blown winter. Snow and ice filled the plains outside the fort while the temperature inside reached 10 degrees. People inside wore thick clothes.

However, the situation inside the fort was generally quite good. Because Cai’er was present, the usage of firewood reduced by a lot. So the majority of bamboo and oil trees were instead used by the slaves to make some furniture.

Although the slaves haven’t done these kinds of things before, don’t forget that Laura already brought in some artisans. So even though the furniture made by the slaves weren’t actually good looking, they were still functional. Thus, there were already a lot of half-step carpenters present inside Iron Mountain Fort.

Zhao Hai was happy when he saw this scene. Those half-step carpenters were already absolved of their slave status. He also told them that if they could improve upon their carpentry, he would reward them with land.

This aroused the enthusiasm of the slaves. After the slaves returned from their work in the factories, they would begin and practice their craftsmanship. This made some of them reveal their talents which Green noticed. Then he made them wholeheartedly train themselves on the trade.

Of course, the other slaves weren’t discouraged to practice. Green expressed that they should still try their best while not being too hasty and not make things focusing on beauty. They should instead focus on quality and functionality, learning to this point is already enough. One should not forget that come spring, a hundred thousand slaves would arrive. And each and every one of these hundred thousand slaves would need their own things to use.

This was also why Zhao Hai really wanted to purchase some artisan slaves upon arriving at Sky Water city. He specifically wanted masons, blacksmiths, as well as artisans who knew how to bake clay bricks.

At the same time, Zhao Hai also wanted to have some craftsmen who specialize in making houses. Building a house wasn’t an easy thing; if the house wasn’t built good enough, not only would it not provide warmth, it also wouldn’t be able to survive winds and rains.

Currently, what Zhao Hai lacked weren’t ordinary slaves, it was skilled slaves. Naturally, skilled slaves were not actually cheap, but money wasn’t something Zhao Hai worried about.

When Zhao Hai returned to Iron Mountain Fort, he went to Green and discussed their current production. He also wanted to see if it was possible to upgrade their milk wine and ration production.

After discussing with Green, Zhao Hai got a specific figure. Currently, their daily milk wine output was 5,000 jin. At the same time, their wool product output was not bad. Every five days, they would be able to make approximately 20 wool blankets. This figure might look very low, but one should think that these blankets were hand-made, it required extreme effort.

The ration production was also going smoothly. Now that their rabbit farm was already settled, they would be able to produce 10,000 jin of rations each month. On the other hand, their mutton rations can also be produced at a rate of 5,000 jin per month.

Another important thing was their rabbit leather processing. While the beastmen tan the leather, the human women can turn these leather into fur covered garments. Since the skins of the rabbits inside Zhao Hai’s Space were red, the garments and cloaks turned out to be very beautiful.

At this rate, Zhao Hai would be able to add another product to his catalogue; this was very good news. After knowing the situation here, Zhao Hai returned to the Space and discussed with Cai’er how much vegetables they could produce each month. This metric was very important, it was going to be used by Shelley Hotel, which was a stable business that provided more income than their growing business back in Purcell Duchy.

After having Cai’er calculate the vegetable output, the figures Zhao Hai got were: 500 thousand jin of vegetables per month without affecting the required grain and fruit oil output. Supplying this figure to Shelley Hotel wasn’t bad at all.

After having all of these counted, Zhao Hai returned to Sweet Plum Courtyard. The current time was already not early, when dinner time came, Smith sent someone to invite Zhao Hai to the mansion’s dining hall to dine.

This time, Zhao Hai put out some milk wine to drink with Smith. Presently, Smith came to like the milk wine’s flavor.

After eating their meal, Zhao Hai returned to Sweet Plum Courtyard to rest. His rest for the rest of the night went very calmly. However, the entire Sky Water City wasn’t.

All nobles and powers inside the city acted, not because they wanted to revolt but instead to look for the suspect. They wanted to check out exactly who actually dared to touch Smith’s daughter.

These powers inside the city don’t have choice but to do so, this way, the suspicions towards them would be washed out. They really feared Smith’s suspicion. If by chance they get the City Lord’s doubt, they wouldn’t be able to keep their livelihood inside Sky Water City. And it would not only be inside Sky Water City, they were afraid that they wouldn’t even be able to re-establish themselves inside the whole Rosen Empire.

In fact, the major reason why these people became so anxious was the fact that the City immediately went into martial law after Megan was attacked. There were people from the urban management bureau everywhere on the streets. Along with them, the city garrison, warriors from Calci Family, and even mercenary companies were seen inspecting everything along the blocks. On this day, the business inside Sky Water City dropped threefold. It was obvious that the effects of the matter were very huge.

Seeing Smith acted very seriously this time, the aristocrats inside Sky Water city as well as the other powers became nervous. At this time, if someone actually offended Smith, they would die a terrible death.

Compared to the others, the Shelley Hotel was very calm. Although they also worked along with the city and also sent their warriors to patrol around, their range of movement wasn’t that large. The people from the hotel only covered two streets near them and made sure that there was nothing unusual going on. The acted very low-key, which was to Smith’s liking.

This action was obviously not being handled by Marriott, much less Might. The two of them were inside an office and discussing the matter.

Marriott looked at Might and said, “You say that this matter is related to Zhao Hai? I heard that when Megan was attacked, Laura and Meg are also present.”

Might nodded and said, “There’s a very high possibility. Except for the arrogant fool Lionheart, I cannot think of anyone else who would dare to act against Megan inside Sky Water City. If Lionheart did it, then his target would be Meg and Laura.”

Marriott thought for a long time and said, “There’s also another group of people who would dare, the Radiant Church. The Church’s influence has been steadily increasing these years. Also, they weren’t dealing with Calci Family, they were going for Zhao Hai; they could also be the likely suspects for today. And if the attack was unsuccessful, they could just plant the blame on Zhao Hai since Megan was the only one implicated. This way, they could create a wedge between Smith and Zhao Hai, which would be great for the Church.”

Might’s complexion went down a single step, “If this really is so, then we’ll be in danger. The Church would likely group us up with Zhao Hai and might deal with us as well. We have to inform the family as soon as possible so they would pay some attention.”

Marriott smiled faintly, “Did you think that the higher ups in the family hadn’t thought up to this point? They may have thought that the benefits Zhao Hai bring are worth it. Moreover, we don’t have any previous connections with the Radiant Church, so in a business standpoint, it would be better for the family to side with Zhao Hai. Now I just hope that Smith wouldn’t get angry at Zhao Hai. It would be really bad for us if Zhao Hai loses Smith as his backer.”

Might nodded, “I also hope so. But I think that when Zhao Hai comes here in two days he would explain the situation to us. On the other hand, if this matter is actually caused by Lionheart, then he would actually be very stupid in offending our Shelley Family as well as the Calci Family. Did he think that he was taking too slow dying?”

Marriott faintly smiled and said, “I think that the present Grand Duke Lionheart was a bit like Aksu Empire’s Buda Clan. Like Lionheart, they were also their King’s sword. Their matter might be casting a shadow towards Rosen Empire’s Emperor. After all, how could the Emperor know that his the sword in his hands would actually go out of control, suddenly acting too arrogant and overbearing.”

Might sneered, “Grand Duke Lionheart isn’t qualified to be paired with the Buda Clan. If the old King didn’t die, it was impossible for the Buda Clan to perish since they acted very obedient and low-key. I heard that their successor, Adam, was a spoiled young master which I think was intentionally made to happen by the Buda Clan. This was so that nobody would suspect that they harbored deep ambition. Nobody would suspect a clan with a useless successor. Even if their family would suffer because of Adam, it would still ensure that their bloodline will carry on. The Buda Clan did a very good job since the old King never held any suspicion towards them. And after the family fell, Adam actually managed to flee. Although they were exiled, the Buda Clan still survived. On the other hand, Lionheart’s son was a rarely seen before martial genius. Not to mention within their clan, he was very famous between the circles of nobility. This brought attention to their family which, regarding Grand Duke Lionheart, wasn’t a great thing.”

Marriott smiled faintly, “In every nation, old aristocrats are always in conflict with the Royal Family. All Royal Families are always thinking of ways of dealing with their old nobles, After all, these families held great power and influence. This was also the reason why our Shelley family didn’t have to fear such actions. Because we are a merchant family and was not as overbearing as the Markey Family, nobody paid any attention to us.”

Might smiled and said, “Speaking of Markey Family, they really had it bad. For Haven products, they unexpectedly had a falling out with Laura and gave her to Zhao Hai for cheap. Hahaha, I must say that Zhao Hai is quite formidable, Laura is a beautiful woman, moreover she’s even taller than Zhao Hai. One could see that Zhao Hai’s appearance isn’t worth someone like Laura. But surprisingly he made Laura like him, she even severed her connection from her family, that guy has my full admiration.”1

Looking at Might’s appearance, Marriott couldn’t help but laugh, “What? You want Zhao Hai to teach you his moves? But I think that would be difficult, Zhao Hai is a Space Mage.”

Might also laughed, “Forget it, I don’t have his capabilities. But I truly believe that Grand Duke Lionheart made a grave mistake in annoying Zhao Hai. Not only did he lose a lot of men to Zhao Hai, he was also slapped in the face. I expect him to not last for long.”

Marriott coldly snorted and said, “Even if he manages to stay, we wouldn’t let him feel comfortable. Now that the people from the clan has arrived, our plans could be set into motion. Lionheart staying in his current position would be impossible.”

1. People be roasting our boi Zhao Hai these past few chapters.