While Loranhill was discussing with the mages of Lurna, a round of questioning began in Tisiphone's study.

"Wick, was this your order?"

Edley looked at his sworn brother with a frown. The assassination incident a few days ago quickly spread throughout the city. After thinking about it, he felt that only the Tisiphone family, that is, his sworn brother, could have done it.

"Yes."

"Heh, when will it be your turn to help me make a decision?"

"I just don't want you to be tempted by beauty."

"So, you can just make decisions for me? And then push the whole family into the fire? You are very brave, my brother."

He emphasized the word "brother". Wick was not the biological son of the Tisiphone family. He was just adopted by the old master and raised by Tisiphone. Although he had a high status in the family, he was not a direct descendant after all.

Normally, he was fine, and he had good abilities. He often handled household affairs and had his own group of subordinates. However, this action touched upon something that Edley could not tolerate. It was not that he sent someone to assassinate Lacey, but that he had never told him about the assassination of Lacey in advance.

A knife is naturally a good knife when held in the hand, but if he has his own ideas and does not obey orders, then this knife has no value in existence.

If it weren't for the deep brotherly love over the years and Wick's loyalty, Edley would have had his family cleaned up long ago.

"I'll tell you again, I'm the heir to the Tisiphone family. Any action must be approved by me. You can't just send someone to do it because you think it's feasible. This will only bring great danger and conflict."

"Do you understand, my brother?" He repeated the word 'brother'.

"I don't want to see the day when we can't be brothers anymore." Edley slammed his fingers on the solid wood desk, warning Wick, then slammed the door and left.

Wick leaned back in the sofa, looked at the ceiling, covered his eyes with the back of his hands, and remained silent.

After leaving the study, Adderley asked the servants to bring out the carriage.

"Where are you going, Master Adley?"

"Go to the alchemy workshop on Daffodil Street."

"Okay."

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"I'm sorry, but the agreement you proposed is too harsh and we cannot accept it."

Loran Hill put down the contract paper in his hand, and his light voice spread throughout the quiet hall.

"Why not? Don't you know how advanced this technology is? If you cooperate with us, we can at least ensure that your Carites family will be at the forefront of the shipbuilding industry for the next hundred years."

"But this doesn't mean you can just take 70% of the profits for free."

"However, you are not the only guild that can build ships, and only our Lurna has such advanced technology." Mage Bronton did not care about Loran Hill's rebuttal. He just felt that the merchant lady was inexperienced and did not figure out the key point for a while.

"We at Carites pay for all the raw materials, labor, and facilities, and manufacture the products, while you assign a small number of people to provide technical guidance, and you claim 70% of the net profits. You assume no risk, yet you keep the lion's share. Isn't that too good to be true?"

"Miss Lacey, please watch your words. Now the Cangcui Empire shows signs of going to war again, and the seven countries of Xuehua must unite and work together to overcome the difficulties. Why are you still so greedy, obsessed with immediate interests, and ignoring the overall situation of the century?" A middle-aged male wizard said.

"Once the Green Empire captures Lurna, Wilga will be left with no defenses and will fall into the hands of the enemy at any time. What use will it be to have tens of millions of assets then?" Another wizard nearby also began to chime in.

"If Cang Cui hadn't wanted to start a war, you wouldn't have been able to access Luerna's advanced technology and design concepts for the next twenty years. You should be thankful."

Loran Hill laughed out of anger. What can I say? It turns out that these mages have no business acumen. They dare to say this during negotiations. How confident are they? They think so lowly of the other party. How can they expect the other party to agree after insulting them like this?

"Then I'm even more embarrassed to take advantage of you. You can find whoever you want and see which chamber of commerce is so lucky to be favored by you."

She stood up, walked through the corridor between the seats and left the conference hall. Hundreds of people from the Carites Chamber of Commerce also followed this young lady and left the venue in an orderly manner.

Looking at the suddenly silent conference hall, Bronton felt a pang of embarrassment. His previous fondness for Miss Carites was completely gone. How dare she do this? How could she just walk away like that? She was just making a little less money, yet she acted like she was so noble. It was simply unreasonable. It was true that women, regardless of age, were irrational creatures.

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Unexpectedly, the Luerna delegation spent only two days in Hopeland before departing. They headed for Greenwater Harbor, the headquarters of the Dayas Chamber of Commerce, a former competitor to the Carites in the shipbuilding industry. Although its market share had shrunk significantly, it still held on tenaciously.

Three days later, the Dayas Chamber of Commerce happily accepted Lurna's delegation, and then began to mock the Carites family's short-sightedness and irrationality.

Loran Hill did not regret it at all. Although he had never seen the actual product, from the drawings introduced by Luerna, his so-called new technology was nothing more than replacing the wooden ship with an iron ship. Little did he know that after changing from sail power to propeller power, the structure of the entire hull would have to be greatly changed.

Moreover, their design ideals were too conservative. The hull was only about 80 meters long, and the weapons it carried were still the old cannons fixed on the side, which was not very innovative.

If it were designed by Loren Hill, the Iowa-class battleship, the final culmination of World War II, would be 270 meters long and have a displacement of about tons. A single shot from the 406mm 50-caliber main gun could cut a small boat like Lurna in half and break it into pieces.

Although the craftsmanship in Ivar's world is not yet up to standard precision, with the existence of extraordinary magic, the power of explosions and artillery shells will only be greater than in the previous life.

With current technology, Loran Hill deduced that Dayas would need at least a year to produce a test ship, and three years before a mature design would be available. Three years was plenty of time for her to accomplish a great deal, and the Land of Mages wasn't just about Lurna, was it?

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ps: Thanks to chenyu666 for the reward, I sorted out the outline today