Chapter 39: Prince Soth

Upper Vancouver Harbour is one of the largest river ports in the world, and the hustle and bustle of the town is bustling with people and shops lining the streets. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. biquge。 Brightly dressed merchants shouted loudly in accents as they observed the passing figures, sweaty sailors wandered around waiting for the ship to leave, half-naked porters worked hard, and crowded with travelers and pedestrians.

Compared to here, Rhodes's familiar business district in the city is as solemn and quiet as a temple, the same place for doing business, and the location can present diametrically opposed extremes, and the central street of the imperial capital that he frequents is strictly regulated, and the opening, closing, selling prices and services are all strictly regulated, and this is ...... Buying and selling are carried out day and night, as long as you don't ask about the source of goods, the same items can be obtained here for only a fraction, but the quality of the real and false and even the after-sales service, it all depends on luck.

The smell of fried meat, spices from all over the world, fish, meat and even human sweat permeated the air and mixed into a strange smell, and Rod, who has always had a keen sense of smell, was stimulated to churn in his stomach and couldn't help but cover his nose.

"What are we doing here?" he asked in a muffled voice.

"Join the convoy and take the ship north. ”

Sylna stared at Rhodes with a smile and enthusiastically explained to him: "The land price in the imperial capital is too high, and the commercial warehouses are all outside the city. ”

Rod nodded in understanding: "Where do you get off the boat?"

"All the way north to the border, where it borders the kingdom of Anteli. ”

"So far?"

"There is no domestic part of our business route this time, and it is not only not slow to go down the river by water, but also to avoid the pain of bumps, how good. ”

"Hmm. ”

They arrived at the destination of the trip, the starting point of the journey. Here, several chamber of commerce men and accountants have already sorted out the goods and loaded them onto the ship, waiting for everyone to arrive. The flat-bottomed cargo ship has a round head and a round tail, and the only mast is very low, which is not at all like the appearance of a ship that "rides the wind and waves" in Rhodes's impression, but looks like a big bathtub...... This time, Rhodes was afraid of being teased again, so he didn't ask questions, so he pretended to be familiar with everyone and got on the boat, and was led by the captain to find his room and have a simple lunch, the ship was unanchored, and the journey officially began.

***

Pedestrians and merchants in the shops lining the street are looking this way, marveling at the pair walking side by side on the side of the road. The boys had a look of fascination and longing in their eyes, while the girls exchanged heads and stared at both with admiration and jealousy.

The silver-haired woman is none other than Roy Foster, who is known as the flower of the imperial capital and the most beautiful girl in a thousand years. It was only a few miles away from the Foster family's mansion in the city, so her appearance was not unusual, but the man walking beside her had changed for the first time!

The expensive clothes that fit him looked luxurious but not without style, as if they were the embodiment of his temperament after the natural outpouring of his temperament, and his blonde hair shimmered with dazzling brilliance, as if the sun was attached to his body, and he hovered and stayed on him willingly. Starry eyes and sword eyebrows, handsome and resolute but without losing the soft contours of the face, it is simply a perfect creation of the heavens, and it is not too much to say that it is the son of the gods.

Is there a more handsome boy than him?

Yes.

If you ask this question to the people of this street, they will tell you that the one who used to walk side by side with Miss Foster is not inferior to this one in appearance and temperament, but never causes a whisper from passers-by...... Because that was her own brother. And now this is Prince Soth, the eldest son of the ruler of the Narig Kingdom, the largest vassal of the Midland Empire, and the first heir to the throne.

The prince was unresponsive to the commotion and admiration of the crowd around him, and the others were only concerned about Roy Foster's beauty and noble birth, and wondered how he and her had come together...... But for him, the girl next to him at this moment is the most difficult opponent he has ever encountered in his life, and he needs to fight with all his nerves in this war that will never end for thousands of years when males pursue females.

At one time, the situation on the continent could be explained in one sentence: a super-empire - Ericon, and a large number of small and medium-sized kingdoms. The mid-strength kingdoms relied on the central mountains across the continent to protect themselves, while the Erikon Empire tried its best to squeeze and harvest the former's wool in a non-war manner, and there was no shortage of local conflicts, compromises, and marriages...... However, annexation and expansion at the level of annihilation have not occurred for more than 100 years. And he, born in such an environment, became the prince of the kingdom of Narig.

He was born to the queen, and both himself and his mother were favored by the old king, and he did not have any elder brother, and his only brother was not yet ten years old. Suffice it to say, nothing can stop him from becoming the next king of Narig...... Until Midland suddenly appeared in his world from the sky.

He had heard the term less than ten years old, when "Midland" was just a southern kingdom that the ladies of the court referred to in their casual conversations, distant and ethereal, rapidly expanding outward. This thing is not unusual, spring goes to autumn, there are constantly old countries declining and disappearing, and new countries replace them and rise, as long as these "new players" develop and expand to a certain extent, they will naturally be contained by the joint efforts of the surrounding countries and even the Ericon Empire, if they can't survive this level, they will quickly disappear into the tide of history, and if they survive, they will at least lose their strength and be forced to compromise and become a member of the forces of the surrounding countries - this has been the case for hundreds of years, in the mouth of their own court teachers, this is called dynamic equilibrium.

That has nothing to do with him, Narig is a rich and prosperous neutral country, not to mention that Midland is far away, even if it is close at hand, there are many friendly countries and Nareg who is like a mountain of gold coins. But the expansion of the newly rising kingdom was unbelievably rapid, as if overnight, the countless buffers that separated it from its own homeland disappeared under the iron hooves of the red-clad army, and that distant kingdom "came" to Narig in such a ferocious form, like long legs, and his father was not prepared for it.

The mellow wine and the exquisiteness of the crafts are famous all over the world, the rhythm of the songs and poems, and the tricks of the actors in the scripts, and the enjoyment and entertainment of the noble knights everywhere, even the nobles of the Ericon Empire sigh to themselves...... To put it nicely, it is called economic and cultural development, but in fact, isn't it extravagance and decay?

Soth has realized the inadequacies and shortcomings of his homeland, as long as he ascends to the throne and carries out a series of reforms and changes, relying on the mountains of gold coins in the treasury, he is fully capable of making Narig, a country that has been neutral for several generations, strong once again without seriously damaging the interests of the great nobles and provoking a rebellion!

He waited patiently for his father to abdicate, but the newly rising Midland did not.

Armed with the Reds, who sold vast amounts of resources for vast sums of wealth and bribed mercenary legions, Narig confronted the surrounding kingdoms and eventually won the fruits of their neutrality. However, after two years of siege and blockade, Soth finally gritted his teeth and persuaded his father not to resist and voluntarily come to the empire as a hostage.

***

Life is so cruel and impermanent, although Soth is still a prince, he no longer has the capital of pride and pride. The empire had stationed officials in Narig, and although the royal family had been retained, its control over the country was gradually eroded, and his stomach full of statecraft and a host of new ideas were stillborn before they could be proposed, and there was no chance of putting them into practice.

He was depressed for a long time, and finally he picked himself up again: since this has come to this, let me endure the humiliation and live with the burden. If he wants to study the reasons for Midland's sudden rise, learn from them, and secretly try to dig a stumbling block for this war machine, the Midland Empire has ruined his life, then he must seek every opportunity to seize the opportunity to restore independence while weakening the country.

Through a period of personal encounter, he understood the reason for the strength of the Midland Empire. His own country, Narieg, is a rich, stable and tolerant country, where all kinds of people are protected by the law, all kinds of strange behaviors can be accepted and tolerated, every art can have a chance to develop and prosper, and every political affiliation is not persecuted or exterminated. As a teenager, Soth thought that the kingdom he was going to inherit was the freest and most harmonious place in the world...... But now, having seen the workings and rapid development of the Midland Empire, he realizes that the so-called harmony is worthless in the eyes of the challengers who decided to break the old world order.

Compared to the annexed kingdoms, Midland was like an efficient magical construct: the emperor violently subdued the opposition and separatist forces in the country, all resources were closely united and cooperated with each other under the strong constraints of the ruler, and this collective was spontaneously producing and growing stronger every moment, and this development naturally brewed a tendency to expand outward.

The empire has passed its most difficult stage of birth, and in time, no one in the world will be able to stop its progress. If Narig is not allowed to change the status quo and become strong immediately, unless the empire suddenly disintegrates and disappears, the hope of recovering the country will become more and more slim.

He already had some ideas about how to revitalize the kingdom, and it was time to find a way to return to his own country and implement them immediately. Time was precious, but he had to stay here now, to accompany the flamboyant young lady beside him, not only to be neither humble nor arrogant, but also to try to win her heart, not to covet her beauty, but because her surname was Forster.

The Foster family has a very high status in the hearts of the rulers of the empire, and if he can build a relationship with this family, his series of plans can be implemented with half the effort. But Duke Fachen was awarded for his military exploits, and he could see his extraordinary features at a glance from a distance, and whether it was appropriate to contact the commander of the imperial army as a proton was not to say first, even if he succeeded, there would be no result, but if he approached it in the way of pursuing his daughter...... That's another story.

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