Soul of Searing Steel

Chapter 117: A world in a nightmare

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"interesting."

Joshua swept his eyes up and down, and after roughly reading the letter sent by Alfonso, his deep voice echoed in the study. The soldier discovered that the letter sent by the businessman had nothing to do with the auction, but it was The key is... at least let him know some of the things happening in the imperial capital now.

Something about his family business.

"Someone is targeting me? It's really interesting."

After watching it a second time, Joshua leaned back and sat on a chair with comfortable leather cushions, lost in thought.

As we all know, whether they are civilians or nobles, merchants or craftsmen, for most people in this world, money is always the top priority, and Joshua's Radcliffe family is no exception.

For this border military family rooted in the Northland, due to the need to maintain an army of more than 2,000 people and maintain a huge Black Forest Fortress defense line all year round, the territory's tax revenue is completely unable to make ends meet. There is no point in collecting tolls from adventurers and caravans. What really allows the entire territory to operate normally is the Radcliffe family's ore industry that spreads throughout the center and north of the empire.

Due to cooperation with the rune dwarves in the North to mine precious mineral veins in the Great Ajax Mountains, the Radcliffe family's refined ore has always been of very high quality and in large quantities. It has always been the first choice of major weapons and construction companies. The goal is basically to sell as much as you can. With the support of the empire, intentionally or unintentionally, the Radcliffe family has even become one of the main raw material suppliers for the standard weapons of the five major legions of the empire. Joshua It is for this reason that once you join the Black Crow Legion, you will be given the position of deputy commander.

With these stable sales channels, at least there is no need to worry about the sudden decline of the family, and one can even look forward to a brighter future - while Joshua's father was still alive, the old earl was no longer satisfied with the meager profits from selling raw materials, but Plans to enter the finished weapons industry.

With the entire Northland rune dwarves as technical support, and sitting on excellent volcanic mineral veins, the Radcliffe family definitely has the ability to forge excellent swords and armor. Under the orders of the old earl, they have the ability to wield swords. Hand-written articles, ore shops all over the empire suddenly started selling weapons and armor part-time.

And this matter will naturally infringe on the interests of other people, especially the original weapons dealers.

This is where the targeting comes from.

"If you think about it carefully, it seems that the Wilson family tried to support my cheap uncle to come to power for this reason."

Whispering to himself, Joshua shook his head: "Indeed, the raw material merchants plan to produce and sell themselves. I don't know how many enemies they will make. It's no wonder that these people plan to take advantage of the unstable situation in Moldavia. When things are stable, they embezzle my property."

Alfonso, who was in the imperial capital, wrote about this in the letter he sent to Joshua. Probably because of the war with the orcs, a large number of shop owners assigned by the family were not optimistic about Joshua's ability before time travel. Surviving this battle, Danlia had successfully gained the favor of many people before returning to the North to compete for the title.

Therefore, after Joshua easily killed his cheap uncle and officially inherited the earldom, the shopkeepers who had defected to Danlia were afraid of revenge and immediately sold their shops to the Radcliffe family's competitors. And the other party naturally took over without hesitation.

In addition, Joshua went to Moldova to assist the Scarante family not long after inheriting the title and did not discover the situation in time. The Radcliffe family now only has two of the five stores in the imperial capital. , fortunately, other places are better off, and there has not been such a large-scale resale incident. Overall, the loss is not large, but it is a major blow to the reputation.

"Short-sighted and ignorant, taking refuge in Danlia is not a big deal. In the final analysis, I still serve the family. I am not a devil. If I am willing to continue working well, only a devil will replace an experienced and well-connected shop owner in the local area for this kind of thing. "

Shaking his head and looking at the letter, Joshua narrowed his eyes slightly and sneered: "As for now... this is betrayal."

And there is no happy ending for those who betray.

The warrior stood up from his chair, picked up a pen, and jotted down a few notes in a notebook: "It's time to find some time to go to the imperial capital... By the way, let me see which families dare to go against me."

After remembering the names of several families who dared to blatantly acquire his family's property and writing them down in his notebook, Joshua looked at the last paragraph of Alfonso's letter.

[...Therefore, I hope that the earl will grant me the corresponding rights to take charge of your property in the imperial capital. I will have the confidence to stabilize the situation and even take back the two stores that have been transferred.

In order to gain your trust, I am willing to take the honor of the name Carlos as evidence and lead my entire family to swear allegiance to you and the Radcliffe family.

Yours truly, Alfonso Carlos.]

"This guy really knows how to seize opportunities. You know, a shopkeeper who can run a shop in a place like the Imperial City has to be trained from an early age, or even a close relative by blood... an outsider, a member of a local caravan. President, I plan to win an industry in a place like the Imperial Capital where land is scarce with just a few words."

The image of the middle-aged man with a scar on his throat came to mind, and a smile appeared on Joshua's face: "Although he recognized that I really need someone who understands business to stabilize the situation at this time, he also deliberately used the oath of allegiance to Things are treated as guarantees, but I like this kind of straightforwardness.”

The warrior does not hate this simple and direct approach. It is natural for people to want to climb up. Only when a person has desire in his heart can he work hard. Since Alfonso is optimistic about himself and is willing to get on his own ship, then Why not give him a chance? He is willing to acquire rare items for himself, and naturally he will do his best to work for the soldiers.

"Huh..."

Suddenly, the sound of gentle breathing came from one side of the study.

The soldier turned his head and looked behind him. Sure enough, the silver-haired girl was lying on her side on the sofa next to the wall and fell asleep again.

Slowly approaching, and bending down slightly, Joshua looked down. Firefly was lying sideways on the animal skin sofa. Her eyes were closed tightly, and her long eyelashes were trembling with her breathing. Miss Shenji was breathing steadily, and the expression on her face was very soothing. , seems to be sleeping very comfortably.

"... If you want to rest, you should go to the room."

Shaking his head and sighing, Joshua didn't know what to do. He smiled bitterly: "There is no need to fight now. What are you doing with me all the time? It would be nice to have a good sleep."

Without intending to disturb the rest of his weapon, Joshua put away the letters in his hand, sat back on the seat in front of the desk, and continued to process the remaining letters.

But Yingying, who was sleeping, frowned slightly.

She is dreaming.

-A weird nightmare.

In the dark sky, the sun disappears without a trace. The earth, which is obscured by clouds, spreads towards the end of the world. The almost extinguished red dim light forms a small dot on it, flickering on the edge of the sky. .

When Firefly opened her eyes in her dream, she saw this scene.

Underneath him, there was a dead land. The black soil exuded a putrid smell, and there was no trace of life in it.

High in the sky, twisted and weird clouds cover the sky. It slowly changes its shape, making the patterns it creates become more and more weird, exuding some kind of evil power.

The silver-haired girl in the dream looked at everything around her blankly.

In this dream, Firefly's perspective was in mid-air, and she could clearly see the entire surroundings - from the end of the sky to the other end of the earth, whether it was mountains, hills, woods, rivers or city ruins, they were all covered by thick gray fog. Shrouded, this thick and breathless mist mixed with black sand and dust gradually covered everything on the earth with a turbid crystal shell like stone, while sticky rain fell from the twisted clouds, turning the chaos into chaos. The power spreads throughout the world.

The power of chaos envelopes the entire world, causing everything to move toward absolute chaos.

The water no longer flows, the wind no longer blows, the trees no longer grow, the sun and moon no longer rise and set...

-Naturally, the fire no longer burns.

The fire of this world has been extinguished...

(End of chapter)