Chapter 558: Grand Duke Alvarez Goes to the Court of Inquisition
Archduke Alvarez looked like a short, fat middle-aged man, with small eyes that were always glancing around, and two pointed mustaches that made him look somewhat funny. At this moment, he was sitting on the train, staring at Hunter sitting opposite him.
"Uncle Alvarez, you came here alone? Without an entourage?"
Hunter looked at the smiling middle-aged man opposite him with some disbelief. This was one of the three powerful dukes in the North. Even the Queen had to show courtesy to him in person. He was one of the most powerful people in the entire continent.
Of course, there is no queen now, and I guess there are no grand dukes in the North.
"Haha, Hunter, you are still not professional enough when it comes to surrendering." Alvarez said, shaking his head.
"When to surrender, to whom to surrender, and in what manner to surrender, all these have their own rules. You young people are still too young and have lost the inheritance!"
Hunter couldn't hold back his temper and asked, "Did all your territories come from surrender?"
Alvarez showed an admiring look: "Yes, young people are very insightful."
"Back then, my family was just a hunter. Don't look at me like that. Your father's family is not as good as mine. They raise pigs."
Hunter's eyes widened. He had never heard his father talk about this. Wasn't his Watts family a family of scholars? Knowledge and wisdom should flow in their blood. How could they raise pigs?
"In short, the Saint Mir Empire was just in its infancy at that time, and the great sage Bruno was even leading troops to fight in person. The ancestor of my family led the pig farmer Old Watts to surrender to the sage in exchange for the qualification to follow him in battle, and finally got this vast fiefdom."
"You mean to surrender?"
"What do you mean by surrender? It means surrender." Alvarez snorted. "At that time, the northern border was full of barbarians. Our tribe was the enemy of the great sage Bruno. My ancestors immediately chose to surrender. Your ancestors led the way for the great sage and wiped out the tribe together. That's how we got to where we are today."
As he spoke, he proudly shook his luxurious robe.
"But I think you are not bad. You betrayed those useless people in the family in time. You are very much like our ancestors."
"You, don't talk nonsense, how can it be the same? I am abandoning the dark and joining the light!"
"Yes, yes, that's it. It seems that you have really grown up and become sensible. When you were young, you just read books all day long. I was worried that you would become stupid from reading too much and forget this ancestral craft." Alvarez patted Hunter's shoulder with emotion.
Hunter stroked the wrinkles on his shoulders with a look of disgust. After a moment of silence, he couldn't help but ask, "What does this have to do with you not bringing your entourage?"
Alvarez grinned.
"Castel, is that his name? These emerging forces will always try their best to find a reason to settle accounts with us old guys. At this time, we must surrender in time, surrender quickly and accurately, so that they will have a hard time finding fault with us."
"If they ask me to go to the trial, I will come at their call. If they say I am guilty, I will go alone with a good attitude and proper posture. By then, these Castel people will not be able to do anything to me and can only watch me surrender!"
"Just wait and see. After I'm judged, my status might rise instead of fall, and I might even make a further step forward."
Alvarez patted Hunter's shoulder, messing up his clothes that he had finally smoothed out.
Hunter was stunned and couldn't help but sigh that his uncle was really thick-skinned. Is this the tolerance of a noble? It turns out that being a noble is not that easy.
"But, if they want to settle accounts with you, why not just find a random excuse? How do you know this trip won't end in failure?"
"Hey, Hunter, you read too many books and think too little." Alvarez stretched out a stubby finger and waved it.
"I've been in the North for so many years, and they are the only force that distributes food to disaster victims. The resistance army can grow stronger and stronger. Even if these Castel people can't do anything, they can still survive with this, not to mention that they are so good at fighting."
"Then why don't you go and distribute food?"
"The grain production in the North is not high. There is only so much grain. If I give it to others, my subjects will starve. You want me to let my subjects starve to feed outsiders? No, no." Alvarez shook his head, the flesh on his face swaying. "I don't know much about fighting, but at least I can keep my subjects from starving to death."
"Besides, why should I go to such great lengths? When such a force appears, wouldn't it be better to just surrender directly?"
Hunter was speechless.
"Look, such a great carriage. Now I can ride it, and there are soldiers to protect our safety."
“This is called a train!”
"Yes, yes, a train." Alvarez nodded, and then asked curiously, "Hunter, you know a lot, can you tell me how this train runs? I have never seen such a heavy carriage that runs so fast."
As he spoke, he knocked on the carriage, making a crisp sound.
"Look, this is all steel, top quality steel. Such good steel can be used to make carriages."
This problem puzzled Hunter. He had learned something in Castell, but he had not yet learned how to build a train.
"Well, uncle, I'll tell you the truth. Although I'm a great scholar in the North, I'm nothing in Castel. Even the owner of the fried chicken shop is more knowledgeable than me."
"It's okay, Hunter, don't worry." Alvarez smiled and comforted him, "You are not actually a great scholar in the North."
Hunter looked choked.
"But I still don't believe it. How is it possible that a fried chicken shop owner knows more?"
Hunter did not refute him, but looked around and waved to an expeditionary soldier casually: "Friend, please come over here."
Hunter took a piece of parchment from Alvarez, which was the receipt he was going to hand over to the Tribunal.
“Can you read it for us?”
"Of course. Respected Inquisition, judges, I am from the Northern Frontier of the Saint Mir Empire."
As Alvarez listened to the expeditionary soldiers reading his letter fluently, his eyes widened.
He couldn't help but turn his head to look. The soldier was a young man, about twenty years old. He was wearing ordinary soldier clothes and had a gun on his back. At first glance, he looked unremarkable.
But he could read and write, and with this knowledge it should not be a problem for him to find a job as a copyist. Why did he want to be a soldier?
You know, the letters he wrote were very wordy, so this soldier must have a very high vocabulary.
"This word is spelled wrong." The soldier paused and pointed to a line of sentences on the letter. "The grammar is also a bit wrong. Perhaps this is a northern dialect?"
(End of this chapter)
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