[Hadratha] In a luxurious council hall in the royal capital, the handsome second prince, after listening to the report from his subordinates, suddenly angrily swept all the flower pots and oak wine glasses on the table to the ground and cursed in anger.
"Damn it... Damn it! Damn Harold, damn William!"
All the servants present lowered their heads in fear, not daring to answer. Only an old man with white hair and beard remained calm. He looked at the glass in his hand, waiting for the prince's anger to be vented, and then he spoke indifferently.
"Don't worry so much, Hattar, things are not as bad as you think."
"But, Master Anthony, Harold won the favor of almost all the nobles at that banquet, and of course, my good father, King Basil..."
At this point, Hattar's expression twisted.
In order to outdo his brother Harold at the birthday party, he went to great lengths to find a very rare crystal stone and asked a master sculptor to engrave his father's most glorious achievements in conquering enemy countries into a lifelike picture of a person.
However, just when he thought he could shine at the banquet, that damn Harold actually presented a rare treasure called a glass mirror, which attracted everyone's attention almost instantly.
So much so that throughout the entire banquet, he was like a funny clown, being left aside and no one paid any attention to him.
How could he not feel humiliated!
"Hattare, you need to remember why those who support you are doing so. They will not betray their own interests just for a so-called rare treasure." Anthony said, gently placing the glass in his hand on the table.
"As for your father, King Basil, I think Harold's offering of that round mirror will only have the opposite effect..."
Hattar looked at Anthony in confusion.
"Because Harold did a very stupid thing. Long before the banquet, he couldn't wait to give the other round mirror to the cardinal of the kingdom. What do you think your good father would think?" Anthony reminded calmly.
Hattar paused for a moment, then quickly understood what Anthony meant. His father, King Basil, had devoted his life to consolidating the royal power.
Harold's act of presenting the round mirror to Cardinal Losak first undoubtedly touched the thorn in King Basil's heart again.
There are also those nobles who are nominally the controllers of various territories, but in reality a word from the bishops is far more effective than their decrees. This makes many nobles extremely uncomfortable, but they dare not speak out.
But his elder brother Harold made sure to please the cardinal to the utmost in order to seize the throne. Anyone could see that if Harold became king, the power of the Holy See would be even greater than before.
The nobles who supported him simply hoped that after he became king, he would be able to restrict the privileges of the clergy to a certain extent.
Thinking of this, Hattar calmed down again, but still looked a little worried. "Master Anthony, what if the cardinal really supports Harold?"
This is also the problem he is most worried about. Although they are born with extraordinary power relying on the royal blood, even his father, King Bazel, cannot compete with a cardinal.
"This is the worst case scenario." Anthony's expression became more serious.
Although there has always been a saying in the Vatican that the spirit and faith belong to God, and the secular and flesh belong to the king, these are just empty words to comfort the nobles.
"So what should we do now?" Hattar asked in annoyance.
"I heard that the two round mirrors and the glass products that have recently appeared on the market are all the work of Viscount William. Perhaps we can start from here and find out where he got this rare mineral from." Anthony said thoughtfully.
He was also very interested in this kind of glass product. During the research process, he accidentally discovered that these things could enlarge or reduce an object under a specific curved surface structure, and could be used to make many useful alchemical instruments.
"Okay, I'll send someone to investigate immediately." Hattar nodded in response.
Although William was only a viscount, he controlled a large fleet. He was also a famous wealthy businessman in the kingdom and one of the most staunch supporters of Prince Harold.
If he could be eliminated, Harold would naturally lose an important helper.
…
At the same time, in the dean's office of Yieta College, after listening to the report from the boatman sent by Lord, Lin En tapped the table with his index finger and spoke slowly.
"In other words, William has been restless recently and even wants to redistribute the profits?"
"Yes, William said that these novel glass products may easily attract the covetousness of others. He needs to spend a lot of time and energy to deal with the nobles of the Church and the Kingdom. The benefits we give him are far from enough. He hopes to split it in half..." the laborer reported truthfully.
Lynn sneered. William was asking for too much and had no idea of the situation.
Although the other party needs to face some additional pressure, relatively speaking, the most dangerous shipping work is now completely carried out by them, and William does not need to intervene. All the other party has to do is to use their own power to provide cover, bribe their superiors, and give them 30% of the benefits, which is already extremely generous.
According to the investigation of Lauder and others, William perfectly implemented his hunger marketing and product grading system, selling those glass products at a sky-high price. In just two or three days, he earned thousands of imperial gold coins, enough to catch up with the trade volume of the whole year in the past! However, human greed obviously has no limit. It seems that after learning about Hellram's death, William has become a little inflated.
"Let Laud drag him first and talk slowly. My bottom line is that each of us should give up a level of interests to appease those priests and nobles." Lin En thought for a while and then made a decision.
William is now the Viscount of the Kingdom of Hadratha, and Lord has just arrived in the capital a week ago. The news has not been ascertained yet. It is difficult to take on all of the other party's forces in a short period of time. It is better to drag it out first and settle the accounts slowly.
What he needs now are various mineral resources and scarce alchemical materials. Pure gold coins are of little significance to Lin En...
(End of this chapter)