[Chapter 196 Ransom and Compensation]
The inspector of Iron Tree Castle, Marlonie Mansfield, is the first dignitary in this world that David has met.
However, when he wanted to upgrade Winter Village to Winter Town, Marlonie avoided him. David thought that the two would never meet again, but he didn’t expect to meet again so soon.
Compared with the last time he came to Winter Town, Marlonie’s feeling when he came to Winter Town this time was completely different from the last time.
Especially when he saw the magnificent, beautiful and clean town in front of him, he had the same doubt as Raines: Did I take the wrong road?
If it weren’t for the Winter Town soldier leading the way who repeatedly stated that he had not taken the wrong road, Marlonie really couldn’t believe that the beautiful town in front of him was the small village with only a few dilapidated wooden houses.
“Your Majesty is really willing to spend a lot of money!”
It only took one year to build a village with only a few wooden houses to this state. The only reasonable explanation that Maloney could think of was that His Majesty Abelson, the King of the Kingdom of Tilan, gave great support to Winter Town and Baron Glamorgan.
He seriously suspected that there were a large number of Tilan Kingdom guards stationed in Winter Town at this time. If any blind guy dared to attack Winter Town, these guards would make those guys never come back!
“That so-called pink flying dragon, is it also sent by His Majesty the King?”
Thinking of this, Maloney thought of the instructions he had received. He suddenly felt that the Barnett family was very foresighted. There was no benefit at all to make enemies with Winter Town and its lord Baron Glamorgan. It is
better to make friends with them, which is more in line with the interests of the family! Especially at this moment when everyone realized that the northern plains were not peaceful.
“It’s nice to see you again, Inspector Maloney-Mansfield.” Led by the soldiers, Maloney came to Glamorgan Castle.
After being checked by the personal guard knight named Floyd, he was led into the Glamorgan Castle and walked into the office of the Lord Baron of Glamorgan.
The last time he saw David, he was just a young village chief, but now he was a big shot that he couldn’t look directly at.
“You are too polite, respected Lord Baron of Glamorgan. On behalf of the Mansfield family and the Barnett family, I extend my sincere greetings to you.”
Maloney perfectly demonstrated the etiquette that nobles should have, and his performance made Elias standing next to him show a satisfied expression.
Knowing that this was a ceremonial officer from the royal capital, Maloney secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the other party did not embarrass him, and then looked at David, the Baron of Glamorgan in front of him.
“The Barnett family?” David was still surprised by Maloney’s greeting at this time, which meant that the Mansfield family was not surprised. What about the Barnett family?
“Yes.” Maloney immediately explained to David that he had come to Winter Town from Iron Tree Castle specifically at the request of the Barnett family: “The Barnett family said that all the actions of Iron Water Village were the personal actions of Village Chief Amalmantis, and they were definitely not instructed by the Barnett family to offend Winter Town and the Baron.”
“Oh!”
It turned out that Maloney Mansfield came to be a peacemaker for the Barnett family, but the Barnett family did not just find someone randomly, hoping to settle the feud with Baron Glamorgan by making a few words of friendship.
In addition to putting all the blame on Amalmantis, the Barnett family was also very polite and asked Maloney Mansfield to deliver the “ransom” and “compensation” that David deserved.
“Ransom?”
“Yes!” Maloney said, “To thank Lord Glamorgan for his kindness.”
David could have taken all the people in Ironwater Village as prisoners, including the soldiers loyal to the Barnett family and the contracted farmers who had signed the contract, all of which could be used as bargaining chips to demand ransom from the Barnett family.
However, David did not keep the prisoners, but released them directly.
In order to “repair the relationship” with Lord David Glamorgan, the Barnett family simply paid this part of the ransom.
In addition, there are also compensation and pensions for the wounded due to the “loss” caused to Winter Town by Almamantis’ attack on Winter Town.
“…”
Did Winter Town suffer any losses?
Some 30mm cannon bullets and several ground-to-ground missiles. These ammunitions were fired by Arcee, a Transformer. As long as it takes some time, her body will regenerate the ammunition, which means that for Winter Town, it is just a loss of energy.
As for the compensation for the wounded, the soldier who was slightly injured by the stones splashed by his own firepower seemed to have received an unexpected windfall.
“Since it is compensation from the Barnett family, I will accept it without hesitation!” David accepted all the money without pretending to be ungrateful.
Anyway, Barnett was just “repairing the relationship” with him, not asking him to do anything. What was their original relationship? They didn’t know each other!
Of course, they can barely be considered acquaintances now, but they are definitely not friends. If a conflict breaks out again in the future, David will not hesitate just because he received some money when it is time to take action.
After chatting with Maloney for a few more words, David could feel that Maloney was very restrained when facing him now, and he couldn’t let go at all, and he was very cautious when answering questions.
This made it impossible for David to ask him any useful information, but he barely confirmed a few things:
Iron Tree Castle attached great importance to the situation on the northern plains, so it sent a large number of elites. In addition to ensuring that the newly established northern town of Snow Plain Castle would not be destroyed by the orcs, it also wanted to completely clear those orcs out of the northern plains after the weather improved next year. The
Iron Tree Castle was very confident about this. They didn’t think that the group of orcs was scary, just like when they faced the elves when they first came to settle in the Iron Tree Forest.
Dishonest? Looking for trouble? Beat you until you are honest!
The elves in the Iron Tree Forest watched humans cut down the iron trees continuously, and their living area continued to shrink, but they never did anything. Is it because they love peace and don’t want to fight with humans?
No, it’s because the elves can’t beat the humans in Iron Tree Castle!
According to what David had heard since childhood and later from Floyd, Gareth Stanton, Addis and others, the standing military force of Iron Tree Castle includes at least: the Iron Tree Knights composed of 200 knights and cavalry, 300 strong archers and 1,000 fully equipped elite infantry.
In addition, there are spellcasters such as mages and alchemists, militias who have received military training, and the knights and soldiers of each noble family who cannot be counted.
As an important town in the north of the Kingdom of Tilan, Iron Tree Castle has amazing military strength, so in the eyes of the top leaders of Iron Tree Castle, the demise of the orcs is only a matter of time.
However, the war that will break out next, the increasing complexity of forces on the northern plains, and the barrenness of the land that exceeds expectations have greatly reduced the attractiveness of this land to the nobles.
That’s why the Barnett family took the initiative to show goodwill, and the Mansfield family, who had previously closed their doors and didn’t want to see David, sent Maloney to Winter Town to wait for things to happen.
Let Floyd take Maloney to the Winter Hotel run by Jonah to stay, and David sat in the office and thought slowly.
Helen, who had mastered the common language of Brunnia in just one night with the props provided by Medivh, brewed and poured a cup of hot tea for David.
Helen learned from Laura that David usually liked to drink tea and juice. He liked to drink juice with meals, and usually drank tea.
At the same time, she also heard that the climate in Winter Town was not very suitable for growing tea. At present, the tea in Winter Town was brought by Laura.
After hearing this, Helen prepared to return to Sparta to try to grow tea. If it succeeds, Winter Town can obtain tea stably.
Just when Helen wanted to ask David how many servants were needed in this castle, Leon and Arcee suddenly came.
“Is the matter resolved?” Seeing these two, David remembered that Leon seemed to be plaguing the small Spanish village.
“Yes, thanks to Arcee, it was easily resolved.” Leon originally thought that this job would be very troublesome, after all, the opponent was a strange parasite that he didn’t understand at all.
As a result, the process went unexpectedly smoothly. With Arcee’s help, the Illuminati and the village occupied by parasites were completely destroyed by him.
At this time, he remembered what Krauser said to him: the mysterious knowledge learned from Winter Town will help him better deal with various strange events!
At that time, Leon thought, “How can there be so many strange events?” He just thought that if he became stronger, he could better deal with zombies and other biological weapons.
Unexpectedly, Krauser was right so soon! His world, it seems, is not much more peaceful than the Marvel Universe and the Transformers Universe!
Leon, who gradually discovered the truth of the world, felt that he should pay more attention to and work harder to learn mysterious knowledge, and at the same time, he should say thank you to David who provided all this for him.
So after sending Ashley back to the mainland safely, he and Arcee came to find David and came to thank him.
Arcee came back so late mainly to help Leon send people.
As for helping Leon fight parasites and biochemical monsters, she didn’t care too much. Compared with the Decepticons, the combat power of these creatures was so fragile that it was not worth mentioning.
After accepting Leon’s thanks calmly, David hoped that Arcee would focus on Snowforest Castle in the next period of time, and it would be best if she could record the scene of the battle between Snowforest Castle and the orcs.
“Aren’t you going to continue to pay attention to the surrounding villages?”
“No, these villages won’t exist for much longer!”
(End of this chapter)