Chapter 588: An Interlude (2)

Zhang Lisheng had a noncommittal smile on his face as he accepted Nia’s compliment. After secretly seductively waiting for a long time, he finally heard the charming woman in front of him change the topic, “So, Sir, I heard that Golden Velvet Flower Trading obtained the trading privilege with the mysterious Hellfire native tribe from you right?”

Only one question and the young man could immediately guess the woman’s intention. Now that the mystery in his heart had been solved, he casually asked, “Miss Nia, this news is not a secret among the aristocrat merchants in the Sea Haines City. I’m indeed the one who helped Golden Velvet Flower Trading to obtain the trading right with the Wizard Li tribe, for which it has paid a lot of price…”

“Sir, I don’t think you know how much interest you can get from monopolizing a powerful Hellfire tribe trading right now.” When Nia heard the word ‘price’, she suddenly stood up gracefully and placed her face close to his. When there was only a distance of less than one inch between their noses, she breathed gently as she said, “No matter what price Golden Velvet Flower Trading has given you, our Mermaid Trading can give you twice the amount.”

“Monopoly…” Zhang Lisheng was stunned. “Your trading company actually wants to fight against all of the aristocrat merchant families in the Sea Haines City? Looks like I’ve underestimated your ambition, Miss.”

“It’s not my ambition, sir. It’s the long-term plan of a monarch behind the Mermaid Trading who has just regained the position to change the entire Green Leaf Mainland. Of course, the first step of the plan is not a ‘comprehensive confrontation’ but a ‘quiet replacement’.” The girl said with an underlying meaning, “It’s said that you’re a very intelligent man so you should know what I mean. It’s because of this that I’d ask for your help in such a frank attitude. I believe you won’t let me down right?”

The instant Nia’s words left her mouth, the door of the carriage was suddenly pulled open and Yaj who was laden with anxiety stepped into the carriage. When she saw her most hated figure suddenly appeared in front of herself, she lost her cool for a moment and could not suppress her anger as she yelled, “Nia Kayfend, what the hell is a greedy ghost like you doing in my carriage?”

“Greedy ghost? What an impolite but concise name.” Nia smiled elegantly, “But Miss Yaj, my Mermaid is no longer dedicated to capital clean-up services for bankrupt firms. Just like Golden Velvet Flower, it’s also a trading company now…”

“No matter what business you have switched to, get the hell out now! Get the hell out of my carriage!” Doing her best to suppress her anger, Yaj interjected Nia with a cold voice but even so, her loss of cool just now had already elicited a contemptuous look from two girls wearing big dresses who had been covering half of their faces with a feather fan.

“Miss Yaj, I merely borrowed your carriage to discuss a small transaction with Sir Lisheng. Since you don’t welcome me, I’ll leave then.” Nia’s smile remained resolute as she smiled seductively at Zhang Lisheng. “I’ll take my leave first, Sir. I’ll contact you again in the future.”

After saying so, she took out an elegant lady’s folding fan from her small, exquisite fish skin bag and with a ‘snap’, she opened the folding fan and gently fanned it as she walked out of the carriage.

Looking at the hated guest while walking away in neither slow nor fast manner, Yaj sat in the carriage with a blank expression. The young man dressed in a battle attire behind him did not know how to comfort her and could merely smile apologetically to his three new friends before they silently sat beside the female merchant.

Instead, the young man dressed in a hunting jacket who entered the carriage later on sat opposite to Yaj and smiled at her. “Miss Yaj, is the woman you asked to leave the carriage just now the trading rival of Golden Velvet Flower Trading?”

“Rival? No, Mr. Norwin, that woman is a demon who specializes in swallowing the ‘corpse’ of bankrupt businesses to squeeze out the last profit from them.” Yaj shook her head in a daze and said.

“There is actually a business that specializes in managing bankrupted businesses? Looks like the development of the commercial game of the Kattaman City State is really beyond my expectation.” The young man dressed in safari jacket exclaimed in a low voice like he was telling a tongue-twister with his eyes wide. When he saw that the female merchant no longer continued this conversation, he sensibly became silent as well.

At once, the carriage became quiet, except for the clear horseshoe sound galloping on the stone road that lingered in everyone’s ears.

“Gallop, gallop…” The carriage sped into the Sea Haines City; rows and rows of stone buildings of three to five stories that were neatly arranged on both sides of the street and the neatly dressed pedestrians flashed across and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

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After a long time, after maintaining a smooth and steady speed, the carriage accelerated again on the stone road; passing through the whole city and gradually left the towering, yet spectacular Sea Haines City behind it.

“Sir Lisheng, can you tell me what kind of trade Nia wants to do deal with you?” The female merchant who had been silent along the way suddenly asked when the carriage drove from the suburban road into a ramp and headed for an imposing manner.

“She hinted to me that there’s a monarch who has just changed the situation of the entire Green Leaf Mainland through a victory standing behind her business and she wants to obtain the exclusive trade rights with the Wizard Li tribe.” Zhang Lisheng replied casually.

“A monarch who has just obtained a victory that changed the situation of the Green Leaf Mainland?” The young man dressed in battle attire immediately had a change of expression. “The only monarch who is fit with such a description is none other than Yassen’s Dignity King! But hasn’t he agreed to accept the ‘peace tax’ offered by Duke Opu? Why would he still turn his attention to Sea Haines City?”

The instant his words left his mouth, the young man dressed in a safari jacket sitting diagonally opposite him replied in a low voice, “Camano my dear friend, which do you think has a greater interest? Extort a rich man’s purse or simply steal away the purse that can make money? Dignity King’s goal is not just to simply get ‘peace tax’ or to get the Sea Haines City. He has his eyes on the entire Kattaman City State instead!”

Upon hearing this horrifying inference, colors immediately drained from the face of the young man dressed in battle attire who was also a city defense officer. When Yaj saw her loved one was laden with anxiety now, she who already had a lot on her mind at the moment frowned and said, “Stop making such baffling inference, Mr. Norwin. This will only make me feel that the Kattaman City State would be in an even more dire state had you Fran people won the century-old battle.”

The young man dressed in a hunting jacket had his expression changed right away. He wanted to argue but when he recalled the reputation of the Fran’s Sun King who loved luxury, he could not come up with any comeback at all. Instead, it was one of the cute girls dressed in luxurious big skirts who had a round and cute face who replied with a slight frown, “Miss Yaj, I can’t believe that you’re actually brought up in one of the old ‘golden families’. Even though the aristocrats in the Kattaman City State are known as ‘free and easy,’ the noblest blood is still flowing in your body. How can you speak so badly about your friends? ”

“Miss Mihani, I’m merely stating the truth.” When the carriage sped into a dark gold-brown door, Yaj replied in a blank expression. “As for etiquette, I’m sorry, as a ‘free and easy’ Kattaman City State’s aristocrat, I already don’t have the energy to beat around the bushes, and I no longer care whether the blood flowing in my vein is actually from a golden or a silver family.”

“Y-You… Miss Yaj, we’re just here to travel in the Sea Haines City. I really don’t understand w-why you would slander…” The round-faced girl said with a trembling voice. When the female merchant saw that this girl was so ignorant, she no longer showed any sentiment and asked instead, “Travel in the Sea Haines City together with the children of Fran Kingdom’s Sun King?” Upon hearing this, the round-faced girl’s words immediately got choked in her throat. Colors crept upon her face as her mouth dropped in shock for a long time before she finally stuttered, “H-How do you know…”

When she was speaking, Camano also opened his eyes wide in shock to stare angrily at the friend that he had known for a few days. “Norwin, Edo is actually the prince of the Fran Kingdom?”

In the face of his new friend’s interrogation, the young man dressed in a hunting jacket could no longer dispute and could only nod his head in a wry smile silently. Yaj, on the other hand, imitated the tone used by the round-faced girl just now and said sarcastically, “Among the 31 aristocratic titles that His Highness Charmand has given, the noblest one is none other than Fassen and the King of Landero United Kingdom while the most inconspicuous one is Baron Hosenberg. However, no matter how inconspicuous the title is, there’s still the noblest and ancient ‘golden family’s blood’ flowing in my body so how can I possibly not know? When I saw the black iron castle and the quail coat of arms embroidered on Mr. Edo’s handkerchief, wouldn’t I be ‘free and easy’ but also stupid if I still couldn’t guess that he’s the son of the Sun King?”

Because of the sharp words of the female merchant, tears began to brim in the round-faced girl’s eyes but she could no longer say anything.

In the carriage, Zhang Lisheng, who was most relaxed, counted himself lucky to be able to see such a good show the instant he disembarked from the merchant ship.

The dispute among the various states in the Green Leaf Mainland was very advantageous to the young man’s plan of wanting to conquer the mainland in the shortest time possible to establish a stable theocratic ruling. The more secret he knew, the more thorough the plan in his heart was so, of course, he would not interrupt any of their ‘show’ at this moment.

In this atmosphere that seemed to have frozen, the carriage that moved slowly forward bypassed the huge navigator statue in the middle of the spacious and flat stone road of the manor, and slowly stopped in front of the huge mansion.

When the carriage stopped, uniformed servants immediately opened the door with respect. Upon seeing the female merchant stood up and walked out of the car with a blank expression, the young man dressed in a hunting jacket suddenly said frankly, “Miss Yaj, other than to travel, there’re indeed other purposes for Edo and I to come to Kattaman. With the advent of land artillery and heavy infantry, the war in the future will be more of a competition for wealth. It’s not horrifying for Fran to lose a war. What’s horrifying is sitting by idly and remaining indifferent as Dignity King uses various methods to conquer Kattaman and equip his army using the wealth accumulated by the city state for thousands of years…”

“You think too much, Mr. Norwin, Kattaman is built by weak merchants by me and each of the city states that is in power is indeed afraid of war and is willing to part with a lot of money to be content with temporary ease to seek peace. However, when somebody not only wants to swindle our wealth but also turns us into a slave country to put a shackle on us, he’ll realize that the people of Kattaman are actually not so easy to be conquered.” Yaj interrupted the young man dressed in a hunting jacket without turning her head and said in a low voice.