Count Eugen's face immediately turned pale, and he shouted: "Sir Richard!

"A court count. Richard coldly poked Eugen in the sore spot. The domain of a court earl was often not as large as that of a knight, and it was not easy to assemble a private army of two hundred men and equip them with glorious armor. It is a complete extravagant hope to expect how effective this army is.

Count Eugen's face turned purple, and he had to control himself with all his strength to keep from throwing the horsewhip in Richard's face. Dueling with a great magician is definitely synonymous with stupidity. Count Eugen just had some of the common faults of the court nobility, but he wasn't stupid.

"Do you want to go to war with the Earl of Canglu and the Duke of Glasburg?" Eugen shouted.

"Don't forget who you are, Count, do you have the right to start a war? Don't forget what you're here for! If you really want to fight, then I can accompany you. But my advice to you is that I am not prepared to make any ransom out of you, and a court earl is not worth a few dollars. Richard coldly reminded Eugen.

The settlement of disputes between domestic nobles often leads to war, which is an internal friction that the various feudal lords cannot completely stop although they strive to restrain their vassals. But in general, in addition to blood revenge, nobles must be respected, let alone killed, if they surrender, and the ransom is also closely related to the integrity of the captive. Richard probably wouldn't kill him, but it was easy to lose arms and legs.

Baron Eugen's face turned pale, and he was speechless for a moment. He was tempted to indirectly order the whole army to storm and cut off Richard and his men in one fell swoop. But reason was prompting Eugen that if he really gave this order, only his own private army would obey it.

The 300 Guards were part of the royal family's armed forces and were responsible for keeping Chim's mother, the sister of the current king. This loan to Baron Eugen was just to strengthen his momentum, so that Richard would not open his mouth. If Eugen's orders were likely to endanger Chim, the first person the light cavalry would probably be the Count.

The Earl took several deep breaths to contain the anger in his chest, and then said coldly, "So, Sir Richard Akmund, are you going to talk to me here about the ransom?"

"Of course not!" Richard laughed, ransom was always a pleasant word. "Come with me, I'll take you to Viscount Chim first, and then I'll go to my conference room to talk about the ransom. But I don't have good black tea and refreshments, no porcelain and no paintings. In addition, all but your own personal guards are to camp one kilometer away. Of course, those trucks can be delivered first!"

Moments later, Count Eugen met with Viscount Sim and confirmed the Viscount's health. Just listening to the Viscount's hearty shout, you can judge the Viscount's health.

But the ensuing negotiation process was somewhat unexpected by Richard.

Count Eugen seems to be angry, holding no place in the ransom negotiations, and showing a grudge to a duel with Richard. At the most tense hour, Count Eugen threatened to go home, and then negotiate with Richard with another person.

Such a tough attitude was very surprising to Richard, according to the old theory, the other party should not be sent to take charge of the ransom negotiations by a willful fellow, especially for a prisoner of special significance like Sim. It seems that Duke Blue Wolf said that the royal family does not value the viscount's face, which still makes some sense.

Eugen's unforeseen toughness caused Richard to re-examine the amount of the ransom, which seemed to be near the opponent's bottom line, and he didn't want to keep the captive of Viscount Sim in his hands. Once Eugen returns and a new person comes over, more than half a month will pass. For Richard, the most precious thing is time.

Eugen's proposal was 50,000 gold coins in cash, 20 carts of valuable goods worth 30,000 gold coins, and magic materials worth 20,000 gold coins. The total ransom is 100,000 gold coins.

However, Richard had already seen that the so-called valuable goods were actually all kinds of decorative stones, such as marble, black sand filines, etc. If Richard's new castle had been made of these stones, it would have been able to reach the level of an earl. Being able to send these things shows that Count Canglu is indeed putting his mind into it. These precious stones were not easy to collect, and their converted value was so fair that they were so low that any decent nobleman would be very happy to receive such a gift when building a castle.

The problem, however, was that Richard didn't want to build the castle in a luxurious and comfortable way, he only thought about the defensive capabilities, preferably as strong as a military fortress. Therefore, this batch of stones has no additional meaning to Richard except that it is solid and can be used. What he really valued was 50,000 gold coins and magic materials, which could be instantly converted into combat power.

Richard carefully weighed that even if there were only 50,000 gold coins, the income generated in a month would be more than 20,000 gold coins. There is no need for further negotiations. What he desperately needed now was to be part of the strife in the Bloodstained Lands.

So in the end, Eugen and Richard came to an agreement.

After the ransom was paid, a permanent truce was signed, and of course, as everyone knows, the only thing that works depends on whether the side that wants to go to war can accumulate enough strength. And the whole point of this piece of paper for Richard is that if the next war with Viscount Sim still takes place in his territory, the Viscount's ransom will be more than doubled.

The next day Count Eugen left Richard's territory with Chim, and as for the Viscount's captured warriors, they would be released in batches.

It seems to be a happy outcome, with Eugen, Chim, and Richard all happy with the outcome, although all three are happy for different reasons.

Richard was given the much-needed cash and magical materials, and Chim was finally freed from captivity, able to return to the luxurious life to which he was accustomed, and to be able to gather a new army to try to take revenge on Richard. Count Eugen, on the other hand, used his anger and defense of honor to change the gold part of the original ransom from 80,000 to 50,000. The 30,000 gold coins he had saved went into his own pocket. For a court earl with a limited territory, 30,000 gold coins is a year's income. For this income, Count Eugen also took a great risk, and he had the idea of giving up the moment he heard Richard's threat, but under the dazzling light of the gold coins, he still persevered.