8mi Chapter 389: A Bitter Victory
Chapter 389: A Bitter Victory
Chapter 389: A Bitter Victory
TL: Etude@@@@
Cecil, with a stack of papers in his arms, hurried out of his intelligence department and made his way to the lord’s residence. After a brief adjustment of his collars at the entrance, he walked in directly. No one stopped him; as the lord’s third eye, Cecil possessed the privilege to see Paul without prior notice.
After asking a servant inside for Paul’s location, Cecil quickly made his way upstairs and knocked on a room door.
“Lord Grayman, I have important matters to report to you.”
“Ah, Cecil, please come in,” Paul’s voice came from inside.
Cecil pushed the door open and found that apart from the count, there were two unexpected people inside—alchemy apprentices from the chemical laboratory, Wells and old Hoffman.
These two alchemists, along with a bunch of their colleagues and pupils, were usually out of sight, and not many sought them out. After all, anyone would keep their distance from a group that dealt with waste materials in stinky “saltpeter plants” all day.
They were there to report on the progress of the saltpeter experiments.
Paul looked at the report in his hands with a frown.
“Fellows!” The tone of the master of the house revealed skepticism and dissatisfaction. “If I remember correctly...uh, no, I mean, the output of the saltpeter should not be so low according to my estimates.”
The alchemists had finally come up with some results, but it was still far from satisfying Paul.
“No mistakes? Has the count dealt with so-called saltpeter plants before?” A fleeting doubt crossed the alchemists’ minds.
“Uh... cough! Lord Grayman...”
Old Hoffman explained, “I apologize, we have not yet fully mastered the patterns. Please give us a bit more time.”
Wells on the side also complained, “Temperature, humidity, ventilation, light... there are too many variables, we need to adjust them bit by bit and accumulate experience...”
Paul raised a hand to cut them off. “Alright, ‘Parameter Tuners!’ I did not call you here to hear complaints.”
The count’s nickname for the alchemists brought a chuckle to Cecil standing at the door, while the two old alchemists blushed with embarrassment.
“Let’s not talk about the saltpeter issue for now. I heard that the chemical laboratory has bought a large number of glass vessels and experimental materials. Where did you get the money from? It wasn’t from the special funds for saltpeter research, was it?”
“This... this... Lord Grayman... we are... you see, so many students have never touched alchemy, so... so... we need to let them practice more...”
Seeing the alchemists stammering, Paul secretly laughed, but he warned them with a stern voice:
“Listen, you two, I do not oppose you conducting other research privately outside of your main tasks, you might come up with something. However, if you’re short of money, you can report to me, but I strictly forbid the misappropriation of special funds ever happening again.”
Paul, through investigation, found that the funds had not been used for the alchemists’ personal life, and given their passion for scientific exploration, he let it slide this time.
Old Hoffman and Wells, relieved as if granted an amnesty, swore to strictly follow the rules set by Paul.
“Alright you two, you can go back now. I hope that within a year, our saltpeter plants will allow us to reduce our dependence on ores.”
“Rest assured, Lord Grayman. Since we have achieved something from nothing, optimization on this basis should not be difficult.”
The two alchemists bid their goodbyes and left.
Paul then turned to Cecil. “My intelligence chief, what’s the important matter?”
If these lords had all been loyal to the kingdom, it would have been manageable, but after the ceasefire, Jars had politely sent them all over, leaving the problem of how to settle these nobles without land to be a big issue.
And then there was Viburen in the East...
After the final battle, Catherine wanted to grit her teeth and hold on, but the huge losses and instability in the rear finally forced her to accept the peace talks.
Crystal Shine Fortress reported a large number of goblins appearing in the forests, requiring the army to go and exterminate them. Furthermore, there were sporadic reports of pirate attacks on the west coast. The northwest fleet that went south to support the crown performed admirably, but with only a dozen or so ships, how could they protect such a long coastline?
“Sigh!”
The princess exhaled a sigh.
“Ofina, let’s go. But I swear...”
...
“Ah!”
With his eyes bloodshot, Jars let out a roar and knocked the man in front of him to the ground, then raised his greatsword to bring it down decisively.
“Please have mercy, Your Grace!”
The fallen man urgently begged for his life.
The war had ended, but the outcome was far from what Jars had hoped for.
Generation after generation of his family’s accumulations, his own years of plotting, only led to being a local warlord.
He was supposed to ride a high horse through the streets of Crystal Shine Fortress to the cheers of the masses.
He was supposed to sit in the palace in Crystal Shine, receiving the congratulations of his ministers.
But now, he could only vent his fury in the dueling arena.
“Get out!” Jars stopped his hand.
“Thank you for sparing me, Your Grace!” the man selected as a dueling opponent scurried away in haste.
Sweat wiped from his brow, Jars then viciously cursed those who had thwarted his ambitions.
“The damned Viburen!”
Without this ‘ally’ holding him back, the last battle should have been a clear victory.
“The damned Northwesterners!”
The northwest sea bay also made it onto the duke’s blacklist; had they not sold so much armor and weaponry to the crown, his own troops, with their powerful support, would have swept through the battlefield. And information indicated that during the war, the Northwest had also supplied a significant amount of military provisions.
“I will deal with you one by one!”
“I swear...”