He dreamed that the wizards used magic to produce a large amount of bread, and the wheat in his hands became worthless...

But how is that possible?

Making bread with magic is simply a fantasy!

Mortan wiped the sweat from his head with shaking hands and sat up from the bed with great effort, but he soon realized something was wrong.

"Bacchus...Bacchus!" Mortan kept shouting the name of the manor steward, but received no response. After a long time, a knight came over.

"Master Mortan, are you awake?"

"Where's Bacchus? Where did he go?!" Mortan grabbed the knight's arm anxiously and asked.

"He left half an hour ago... and... he also took away your favorite glass wine jug..."

The knight stammered for a long time before he dared to tell the truth. What he didn't say was that many valuable items in the fortress had been taken away by the fleeing servants, and they had no time and no ability to stop them.

"Bacchus, I raised him for forty years, how dare he?" Mortan was so angry that he almost fainted again. However, what made him feel even colder was the meaning behind this.

"Where's today's Magic Daily? Go get it for me!" Mortan said anxiously. "Also, send someone to the Kerosene City immediately and do everything they can to find out if those wizards still have any food!"

The knight did not move despite Mortan's rebuke, but spoke carefully. "Lord Mortan, I'm afraid there is no need to confirm it now."

Just an hour ago, the train from the City of Kerosene had already arrived in the royal capital. At the station, the unloaded food had already piled up like a mountain, and some workshops had officially implemented the system of four meals a day.

All the evidence showed one thing: the parliament had food in hand, and it had as much food as it wanted! Now the nobles and merchants in the capital were going crazy, and many of them wanted to sell their food reserves. However, since the parliament provided them with food and lodging, no one was willing to buy food on a large scale.

The price of wheat instantly dropped from five hundred copper coins to one copper coin for five kilograms, and no one would even look at it.

Rumors abounded in the market, saying that wizards could make bread out of air and liquor out of lake water. The food they had was worthless because from now on, the parliament would take care of the food and lodging for everyone in the kingdom...

The trade routes to the empire had been blocked in both directions, and they did not have enough transportation capacity, let alone the ability to transport so much grain out of the kingdom without the knowledge of the parliament.

Every word the knight said was like a long sword, piercing straight through Mortan's chest.

He knew that he was finished, everything was finished...

"Gustav, you lied to me!" Mortan roared angrily, but the commander of the God's Punishment Army he mentioned was obviously no longer able to help him.

At this moment, there was a sudden loud noise outside the fortress, followed by a fierce argument.

Mortan's face suddenly changed and he almost fell off the bed.

The knight spoke without waiting for Mortan to ask, "It should be those merchants who came to collect their debts!"

Mortan was filled with anger. When did a few lowly merchants dare to break into the manor of a kingdom's marquis? If he couldn't deal with a wizard, could he not deal with a few wealthy businessmen? Mortan, who was furious, drew the sword from the knight's waist and rushed out angrily without even putting on his shoes.

In the lobby of the fortress, a dozen loyal guards were confronting a group of uninvited guests who rushed in.

The leader looked amiable, about forty years old, with slightly squinting eyes, and looked very wealthy.

"Stanford?! Who gave you the courage to break into my manor!" Mortan said coldly as he stepped barefoot into the lobby of the fortress with a sword in hand.

"Your manor?" Stanford showed a slightly surprised expression on his face, then he took out a deed from his pocket and said kindly, "You may be a little forgetful, Marquis Mortain, this manor is already mine!"

"Of course, you can also choose to take it back for 30,000 gold coins!" Stanford said indifferently.

Seeing the other party directly take out the deed, Mortan choked for a moment, and had to suppress his anger and refute. "I remember the deadline should be one month!"

"This is 30,000 Imperial gold coins, Lord Marquis. I'm afraid you won't be able to pay this money within a month, so I have to come to collect the money in advance to avoid any unexpected events!" Stanford said apologetically, and then pointed to the tiny print on the contract. "This is clearly written in the contract!"

Mortan was so angry that he laughed. He had never been insulted like this before. He was a marquis of a great kingdom, but someone actually thought that he couldn't even afford 30,000 imperial gold coins! Even though he had no savings now, his territory still had a lot of land, mines, slaves and even people...

But before he could open his mouth, Stanford seemed to have guessed it in advance, and one voucher after another appeared in his hand, and finally even piled up into a booklet.

Those were the pledge certificates for the various assets in the Marquis's territory! Mortan's face changed instantly. He was not surprised by these pledge certificates, after all, he had them pledged by himself. What really shocked him was that so many certificates were actually in the hands of Stanford alone.

"You are from the Wizarding Council!" Mortan's pupils shrank slightly.

He immediately understood why Stanford dared to break into his manor, and why those businessmen were willing to let him pledge the mines and assets in the territory at a high price...

Mortan, who had been dazzled by the huge profits, did not think too much about it. He thought that the other party knew that he had a large amount of high-value wheat, so they were willing to pledge it at a premium.

Now it seems that this is a complete trap!

"Of course, Your Excellency the Marquis, haven't we all been working for the wizards all along?" Stanford had no intention of pretending and admitted it openly.

Mortan almost gnashed his teeth, but he didn't dare to attack rashly, so he had to speak again. "In addition to these assets, I also have countless wheat..."

The guards behind him took out money bags and threw them on the ground.

"Yes, they are all here!"

You fart...

Mortan was almost angry to death on the spot. Stanford wanted to buy back wheat worth tens of millions for only one thousand gold coins with just a few words.

Twenty kilograms for one copper is simply nonsense. Even if no one buys grain in the market, he can brew it into beer, or use it as livestock feed, or even sell part of the grain to the empire to make up for the slight deficit!

However, it is obviously not possible for the first two to earn enough money in just one month. There are definitely many people who have the same idea as him, and there may even be a run on each other.

As for selling to the Empire, it can only be done in private. Mortan was not stupid enough to say it openly. If he refused, he would be charged with treason again! "It's a pity that I can't give you these 1,000 gold coins, Lord Marquis!" Stanford shook his head and asked the guards to take back the ten money bags, sighing. "You have borrowed a total of 5 million Imperial gold coins from various caravans, but even if you sell all these mortgaged assets, you can only pay back 70%, and you still owe a lot."

Mortan's face flushed red, he knew that he was in great danger today.

The only thing that made him feel fortunate was that although the guards Stanford brought with him were numerous, they did not seem to carry the alchemical artifacts called muskets. He might be able to keep all of them here with his own strength!

Thinking of this, Mortan suddenly raised his hand and made a gesture, and the guards who were originally confronting Stanford and others immediately rushed up like wolves and tigers.

They are all personal guards raised by the Mortan family since childhood. They have long put life and death aside and would not question the Marquis' orders in the slightest.

However, what was faster than their sword swinging was the art of drawing their spears! The guards behind Stanford, in the horrified eyes of the knights and bodyguards, drew short-barreled muskets from their waists!

This more sophisticated and portable firearm was created by Lydia a year ago, but usually only sentries performing special tasks are qualified to be equipped with it! After all, when performing infiltration and espionage missions, short-barreled muskets are easy to carry, and are extremely secretive and sudden. Many sentries have mastered the art of drawing a gun! The best of them can complete the actions of drawing a gun, aiming, and shooting in 0.1 seconds!

The next moment, sharp gunshots rang out in the lobby of the fortress.

Even though dozens of bodyguards were wearing sophisticated armor, they could not withstand the attack of armor-piercing projectiles. They were shot into sieves before they could even put up an effective resistance!

Mortan was even more frightened. Even though he was a blood knight, he was not sure that he could rely on his body to withstand the attacks of so many muskets. He was soon hit by several bullets in the arms and thighs, and fell limply in a pool of blood.

"Treat his wounds and don't let him die. I suspect he has betrayed the kingdom. Let him be tried when we get back!" Stanford put away the musket in his hand. It was he who had broken the opponent's limbs with his superb gun skills.

A group of secret sentries began to deal with the scene very skillfully and disposed of all the bodies. Stanford took out a magic radio and passed the message on.

Count Bell died, Viscount Sk was imprisoned, and Marquis Mortain was captured alive...

A large amount of information was transmitted to Lord through electromagnetic signals. Due to the sudden collapse of food prices, the nobles and wealthy businessmen they captured were often immersed in the fantasy that they were rich enough to rival a country, but their homes were all ransacked the next second, leaving them no chance to react at all.

This also led to the fact that most of the arrest operations were very smooth, with only one exception, that is, Grand Duke Gad ran away! In this regard, Loud was also very helpless. In the past month, they needed to monitor hundreds of targets and act at the same time, and there were not enough manpower.

What's more, most of the people they deal with are wealthy aristocrats who have certain power in their hands. It is not easy to catch them all.

Fortunately, the one who escaped was just a duke of a kingdom who had lost his territory and wealth. He couldn't cause any trouble. Their most important target was always unable to escape! "Let's go, let's go to the palace!" Lord collected the intelligence at hand one by one, and then led a large number of musketeers straight to the capital.

They did not encounter any obstacles along the way. Although the guards of the royal capital surrounded them, no one dared to take action. They just let Lord pass through most of the royal capital and step into the gate of the main hall.

At this moment in the palace, King Hattar was sitting on the throne, discussing with a group of ministers the food prices in the kingdom that had suddenly soared and then plummeted to the bottom.

And suddenly Lord rushed in with a large group of musketeers!

The huge palace suddenly fell silent. The ministers who had been talking loudly before all fell silent, as if their vocal cords had been cut off.

Lord did not say anything, but respectfully took out the special [Ring of Mysticism] in his hand and placed it in his palm.

A blue light flickered on the ring, and then a familiar figure appeared in front of everyone.

"Long time no see, Your Majesty Hattar!"

Hattar looked a little dazed. This scene seemed to be a replica of the war in the royal capital more than a year ago. The wizard in front of him didn't seem to have changed at all and was still so polite!

However, the one sitting on the throne was no longer the old King Bazel, but himself...

Hatar held the throne's hand beside him, sweating slightly, but still forced himself to remain calm and said, "Long time no see, Master Lin En, is there anything you want to tell me when you come to the palace this time?"

“You can say that!” Lin En nodded, then clapped his hands, and the tied-up servants were brought over one by one.

Hattar's face turned pale instantly. Of course he recognized these servants who were brought up. They were all his trusted subordinates, responsible for secretly contacting Grand Duke Gad and letting him remotely control the actions of those nobles.

But he remembered that these people had clearly been dealt with...

(End of this chapter)