Start with Island Lord

Sturgeon Harbor.

A small cargo ship flying the flag of the Shire County Maple Leaf County quickly approached the shore.

‘Click~~~Plop~~’

The hull hit the berth heavily. I thought it would vibrate violently, but I didn’t expect it to be gently pushed away by the dark cushion on the berth.

The captain thought it was very strange, but he didn’t have time to get to the bottom of it. He turned around and shouted to the cabin: “Dear Sirs, we have arrived at the White Sturgeon Harbor.”

So, a group of well-dressed northern gentlemen from Veran came out of the cabin, led by Sir Humphrey from Alpine County.

They all looked solemn and hurried. After leaving the cabin, they did not take the sampan that the sailors had hastily built, but directly landed quickly using flying skills.

As soon as I got on the dock, I found a row of high-end carriages parked on the dock, no more, no less, exactly 10.

Next to the carriage, a tall knight in a navy blue officer uniform came up quickly. It was the guardian knight of the dock, Tato.

He smiled: "My Lords, the Baron ordered me to wait for you here. The Lord said that as soon as you arrive, he will take you directly to the Sturgeon Mansion to check in."

"By the way, the Lord also said that he will come later."

The Lords were surprised to see the Sturgeon Port, which had a completely new look and was still being built like a construction site.

But they naturally couldn't show their surprise too much, lest they be regarded as country bumpkins.

Sir Humphrey waved his hand: "Get in the car, let's go to the Sturgeon Mansion."

So, ten Lords, each got on a carriage and was taken to the so-called Sturgeon Mansion.

As soon as the carriage started, Sir Humphrey felt something was wrong.

The carriage was very stable, so stable that the wheels rolled on the ground with almost no sound, and the shaking of the carriage was very gentle, even comfortable.

Looking at the decoration inside the carriage, it was simple and exquisite, with many new things that had never been seen before, and even many pearls were used as decoration.

As soon as Sir Humphrey saw the pearls, his heart was bleeding and he was filled with resentment.

"This baron is so bad. He has so many pearls, but he sells them at such a high price in the Northern County. He is simply robbing!"

Although the quality of these pearls is indeed very high, he, as a man, thinks they are very beautiful and even buys a string.

But when he got home, he found that he reluctantly bought one string, but his wife actually bought ten strings behind his back!

Then he found that many wealthy families he knew also spent a lot of money to buy pearl jewelry. The total value of the ones he knew alone was as much as 50,000 Oger.

There must be many more that he didn't know.

Later, he found that it was not only his Gaoshan County that was in this situation.

The Shire County, Icefield County, Emon County, and even the entire Weilan were all in a similar situation.

The best pearl jewelry appeared as if it was free of charge, and even the Duke spent a lot of money to buy a large amount of pearls.

Taking a deep breath and suppressing the anger in his heart, Humphrey looked at Sturgeon Harbor through the crystal clear car window.

The last time he came here, it was still a small dock. In just half a year, it actually showed the atmosphere of a prosperous city.

At a glance, new buildings are everywhere, and there are even many high-rise buildings with five or six floors.

The unified feature of these buildings is simplicity, without complicated decorations, no exquisite reliefs, each one has edges and corners, square, like a building block box.

"At the beginning of the Blue Whale Mansion, I felt that the baron was extraordinary and must have extraordinary achievements. But now it seems that this achievement is really extraordinary."

I thought that no matter how much the White Sturgeon Island grew, it would be a wealthy island at most due to the land of the island.

Even if the princess successfully replaced the Duke, the baron would be a regent minister, and he would need the support of their Northern County to hold his position.

Unexpectedly, it quickly grew into a behemoth and began to control the Northern County in turn, and even had the atmosphere of controlling the Willan Island.

This is really a bit scary.

The Sturgeon Mansion is not far away, and we arrived soon.

There is a small square at the entrance of the mansion. A beautiful fountain sculpture is built in the center of the square. The water flow is five or six meters high and keeps spraying.

From the outside, the mansion is also square. There is nothing to say, but it is very high, with seven floors.

After entering, a servant immediately came up to greet: "Dear knights, please come this way."

He turned around and led the way, and the knights followed.

The interior decoration of the mansion was extremely luxurious, just like a palace.

It can be seen that not only Humphrey was surprised, but also other knights were surprised, and even some knights from poor counties felt a little at a loss.

Because there are too many new things that have never been seen before, people don’t know how to deal with it.

Soon, everyone was taken to a very beautifully decorated, very spacious and very bright room.

There was a long square table in the room, and the best chairs were placed on both sides of the table. Drinks in flawless crystal glasses were also placed on the table.

After the servant led the knights to the door, he said in a polite and gentle tone: "Please take a seat, knights. The lord will come in a moment."

The knights walked in and found their nameplates on the table, so they sat in the corresponding seats.

After they sat down, the servant closed the door and left, leaving ten knights from various northern counties in the room.

Without outsiders, the knights immediately talked about it.

"Is the baron going to do something big?"

"I support him in his great undertakings, but he can't use pearls to trick us!"

"Yes, yes, yes, what's the difference between this and the vampires in the Southern County?"

"If he is this kind of person, why should we support him?"

"The Storm Fleet is about to head north, and I don't know if the Baron can handle it?"

Amid the whimpering and whimpering discussions, the door was knocked, and the voice of the servants' announcement came from outside the door.

"Gentlemen, the Lord, and Lady Agnet, the Lord of the Shire County, are here."

Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at the door.

'Click~~'

The door was pushed open, and a young man in a new simple navy blue dress walked in, with short black curly hair, black eyes, a majestic look, and a tall and full figure.

When he walked over, he gave people a feeling of being strong, powerful, and gentle.

Apart from other things, this appearance and temperament alone are indeed very impressive, making people feel that this is the perfect example of a lord.

Behind the man followed a female mage in a lavender dress.

Of course, the knights all knew this female mage, especially Humphrey, who often met her in Dawn City.

He took a look at her and felt that she looked much better than before.

Her face was ruddy, her figure was graceful and light, and her eyebrows were relaxed. The trace of resentment that could be seen before disappeared without a trace.

"It seems that this Princess Charles is living a happy life on the island."

At this time, Lady Agnet sat down next to Sir Humphrey and asked softly: "What's wrong with these people? They look so resentful?"

Sir Humphrey spread his hands.

"Anna, the Duke has announced that the White Sturgeon Island is rebellious, and the First Storm Fleet is preparing to go north. Aren't you worried at all?"

Anna smiled slightly: "Didn't the knight play victory chess with Rosen? Don't you know Rosen's style of doing things?"

Humphrey was stunned: "But this is different."

"What's different?"

The speaker was Rosen, who was sitting at the top of the conference table.

Humphrey was stunned, thinking that this was not a small matter, but a very big matter.

But on second thought, isn't this what they have been doing all along?

So they were speechless.

At this time, Rosen tapped the table lightly and said loudly: "Gentlemen from the Northern County, I know why you are here."

As soon as he spoke, the knights who came from the earl family and spoke for their own earl lords stopped talking and turned to look at him.

Rosen smiled and said: "I did sell a lot of pearls, and most of them are rare and top-quality pearls. Do you agree with this?"

The knights had nothing to say, because pearl jewelry is indeed very rare and exquisite.

The reason they are dissatisfied is that they sold too much.

They are everywhere, everyone has several strings, and wearing them is just for the sake of beauty.

But how much is a simple beauty worth? They spend a lot of money to buy this thing, and what they really want is the sense of superiority of "I have what others don't have".

Rosen continued, "Of course, I did sell a lot, mainly because I got a lot."

"These are all small things, and the real big thing that I called you all here this time is this one!"

As he spoke, he stood up, stepped back a few steps to the wall, and stretched out his hand to pull the decorative curtains on the wall to both sides.

As the curtains slowly retreated, a new ocean trade map centered on the Golden Ocean appeared.

The trade map was very beautiful and firmly attracted the attention of the knights.

Rosen stood in front of the map and began to explain.

"Please look, everyone, the red one is the main route of Weilan's ocean trade."

"Minerals, wool, leather, black stone, wood and other raw materials in the northern county, and various cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, various fruits and other economic crops produced by the plantations in the southern county, all entered the Witt Continent along the red route."

"Eighty percent of them were obtained by Aaron, and of the remaining 20%, another 80% were obtained by Kao, and finally 20% of the 20% were obtained by Levender."

This is common sense known to everyone, and all the knights nodded in agreement.

Rosen pointed to the blue route again.

"We sold the raw materials, and the three kingdoms gave us back all kinds of magic products, especially high-end finished products."

"Magic instruments, high-level magic tools, precision gauges, fine carriages, cargo ships, and luxury goods with all kinds of unfounded meanings."

"Usually, a high-level staff with four rings of enchantment is worth 1,500 Oggs, which can be exchanged for 500 tons of high-quality black stone, or 600 tons of cotton, or countless fresh fruits."

"Isn't that right?"

The knights nodded again.

Rosen continued: "But think about it, black stone can be burned for heating, cotton can be made into warm clothes, and fresh and sweet fruits can keep us healthy and happy. What can this staff be used for?"

"When it is just placed here, what can it do besides looking good?"

As he spoke, Rosen took out an exquisite arcane staff and slammed it on the table.

"Yes, it can make the wizard more powerful in combat, but as we all know, this is by no means Aaron's best magic creation, and it is not enough to deal with Aaron's warriors."

"It's just a bone thrown to the watchdog, a bone that looks sweet but is actually useless, just like the pearl jewelry I sell."

"It's not worth such a high price at all!"

Sir Humphrey said: "We all know it's unfair, but we have no choice!"

Rosen smiled slightly and took out a black stone from his pocket.

He took this black stone and walked to the trade chart, starting from the Broken Gold Dock in Shire County, connecting to Paddlefish Island, Hank Island, and finally all the way to the East Golden Cape.

A black line outlines a new route.

‘Click~~’

The dirty black stone was gently placed on the smooth new table. The young baron patted the powder on his hands and raised his eyes to look at the knights.

He saw a look of shock on the faces of every northern knight.

So, he smiled and slowly told the answer they guessed.

"Yes, I have discovered a new safe route to Levend, a new deep-sea route that the Aarons can see but cannot touch!"

"It only takes 15 days at most to deliver the raw materials produced in our northern county to Levend."

“This is a full 25 days shorter than the current 40-day shipping time!”

‘Wow~~~’

The knights were so shocked that they all stood up. Everyone's face turned red and their eyes widened, staring closely at the somewhat crude black stone line, as if they had seen a peerless beauty taking off her clothes.

Sir Humphrey could not suppress his shock: "Baron, is this true?!"

Rosen smiled: "Is it meaningful to lie about such a major matter that affects the fate of countless people?"

It’s really pointless because it will be exposed soon.

Rosen said softly: "As soon as the new route opens, Northern County's raw materials will have another trade partner other than Aaron."

"We are free to choose Aaron, Levend, Kaa, or other principalities for trade. Whoever offers a higher price, we will sell to. Whoever's finished products are lower, we will buy."

"The staff is not a necessity in life. You can still cast spells without it. You can wear gems, gold, or gold without pearls."

“But the things we provide are used every day and are irreplaceable, so we don’t have to worry about selling them!”

"And my wife, Princess Chenxi, has always considered the interests of Quan Weilan first, and will never be a lackey of the Aaron people like Ryder Adrian!"

"So, for this new route, the transit tax we collect will be far lower than that of Dawn City, as low as one-fifth of the current one!"

"One fifth?! Is it really that low?"

Some Jazz subconsciously exhaled, it was almost like a dream.

Rosen repeated again: "Yes, it is one-fifth. This money will be used to maintain the port and fight against piracy."

"If you don't believe it, we can sign a sacred contract in the name of Mother Nature!"

He has no intention of making a lot of money from toll tax, because it is the most hopeless money and will only breed a team of lazy islanders with no future.

He will use various magical and industrial products that are difficult to refuse to complete the profit harvesting of Northern County.

But no one knew his plan, so his promise was very, very attractive, making every knight's heart flutter!

Rosen looked at the knights again: "As we all know, protecting the new route requires a navy, and building a navy requires a lot of money, so I have to use pearls to temporarily lend you a sum."

"Here, I apologize to everyone and offer my most sincere gift as reparation."

While speaking, Rosen clapped his hands gently.

The door was pushed open, and a group of beautiful girls walked in, each holding a beautiful jewelry box in their hands.

"The Heart of the Ocean Necklace uses the highest quality azure pearls, paired with gold, arcane gold, and hardened mithril to create this gift from the deep sea."

"Believe me, this is probably the best pearl necklace in the world."

"Because in addition to being beautiful, it also comes with a five-ring induced pure water shield. It was jointly created by me, my mentor, and many magic masters, and is a gift to all the Earls of Northern County."

As soon as these words came out, the knights' hearts beat again.

The resentment caused by the pearl jewelry in my heart was greatly appeased by this extremely precious five-ring magic weapon.

Everyone has a feeling.

‘This baron is really capable. Not to mention opening new routes, he can actually come up with such a good thing. ’

‘No matter how good the people are, the new route means that we don’t charge any money. Just follow him, that's for sure. ’

Humphrey was also shocked again: "How come there are five rings so high?"

This time it was Anna who spoke up to explain, because she was a master of magic, and her words were more convincing.

"Humphrey, pure water is a cheap energy, and cheap energy can break rings and focus. This is the latest knowledge in the magic world of Witteland."

"It happened that we took a trip to Levend from the new route, so we gained some relevant knowledge. After careful study, we achieved the focus of pure water destruction."

Sir Humphrey suddenly felt that he was significantly behind the times.

But the backward knowledge of magic and magic is not military common sense.

"But North County doesn't have a navy, so it can't help Paddlefish Island resist the storm fleet."

Rosen smiled: "But there is a heroic army, isn't it?"

That's true.

The army is the trump card that Northern County is most proud of, especially the cavalry regiment. From ancient times to the present, it has beaten Southern County to tears on the frontal battlefield.

Rosen said the most important words.

"Currently, we already have a fairly good navy on Paddlefish Island."

"I hope that after we defeat the Storm Fleet in the sea, the earls of the northern counties can clean up the Duke's power in the north on land and propose to open a lords meeting across the island to re-elect the Duke of Dawn."

When these words came out, the knights swallowed their saliva subconsciously.

They had been prepared for this, but they didn't expect that this day would come so soon!

Humphrey looked unbelievable: "Navy? Is it a navy composed of those fast rune boats?"

Of course, he knew that speedboats existed, and he also knew that there were many such gadgets on the White Sturgeon Island, but he didn't think that these speedboats could confront warships head-on.

Rosen smiled slightly: "No, it's a 50-meter-long, still fast-running navy fleet equipped with the latest thunder and flame magic weapon!"

Humphrey was confused: "Where did this ship come from?"

"Of course it was built with a lot of money, otherwise why would we need money?"

In this case, each knight looked at me and I looked at you.

In the end, it was Humphrey who said: "This is not a trivial matter, we must see the navy of the White Sturgeon Island with our own eyes!"

This is a complete break with the Duke, a real rebellion, and the ability of the White Sturgeon Island must be confirmed.

Rosen nodded: "I will show you one of them. We already have five ships like this, and we are still building more, but it also costs a lot of money, so I hope the Northern County can continue to support us."

A knight said without hesitation: "As long as it is a really powerful navy, then for the safety of the new route, we will of course fully support it!"

"That's right~ I want to beat up that bastard Reid every time I see him!"

"And those vampire earls in the Southern County, now we don't have to be sucked blood by them!"

"Let Reid go to hell!"