Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 543 Negotiation (Part Two)

[Maplestone City - Military Officers' Residential Area]
Montagne
[early morning]
Winters devoured breakfast—leftover bread, leftover pickles, and a large bowl of thick soup made from fresh vegetables and leftover braised meat.

Eating breakfast is a habit Winters developed while he was in school.

Poor people don't eat breakfast; they only have two meals a day and usually go out to work on an empty stomach.

Wealthy people can fill their empty stomachs after waking up, but they usually get up late and eat their first meal around nine or ten o'clock.

Only army school cadets, who have to get out of bed very early in the morning and attend classes all morning, are required to eat breakfast.

Winters's beast-like eating speed was also a mark left on him by military school. He never let food stay in his mouth for too long, swallowing it immediately after a little chewing.

Anna went to great lengths for this and even set a rule for him at the dinner table: "Chew each bite at least twenty times."

Unfortunately, habits are not so easy to change, especially those formed in childhood.

So unless Anna reminded him in time, Winters continued to wolf down his food.

Charles brought him an overcoat; the starched hunting jacket was very neat and crisp.

“I’m not wearing casual clothes today,” Winters said. “I’m ironing my uniform.”

Charles nodded, picked up his clothes, and left the restaurant, completely ignoring the handsome, curly-haired, blue-eyed man at the other end of the table who looked rather uneasy.

Also seated at the table, "Madame Montagne," sitting next to Winters, raised her glass to cover her lips and discreetly yawned.

Ms. Navarre would not have gotten up so early if it weren't for a sudden visit from a guest.

Having fulfilled her courtesy, Anna put down her warm wine and gracefully bowed to the handsome man at the other end of the table. "Mr. Kai, I won't disturb you two any longer."

“Oh, madam, please don’t say that. It was I who disturbed you,” Kai Morland said with a sigh of relief, returning the greeting politely.

Anna then looked at Winters and smiled sweetly, "Be polite."

Winters, who was tilting his head back to pour soup down his throat, suddenly shivered for no reason. He quickly put down the plate and said, "Don't worry."

Anna sighed inwardly, stood up, nodded to the two men again, and then left gracefully, leaving the restaurant to Winters and the guests—she needed to get some more sleep.

Kai Morland watched Madame Montagne leave the room before speaking.

He began by his usual complimenting of the mansion's owner: "Your Excellency has quite the appetite; you can have such a good appetite so soon after waking up."

The host, who should have exchanged a few polite words, completely ignored him and focused intently on cleaning the food off the plate.

After scraping the last bit of soup off his plate, Winters grabbed a napkin, wiped his mouth haphazardly, and let out a satisfied burp.

To be honest, Winters did not expect that the first guest he would receive after returning to Maplestone would be Kai Morland.

Bud, Andre, Mason, and the Mitchell family felt right at home when they visited his house, so they weren't considered guests.

After making a name for himself at the New Reclamation Freemen's Convention, Kai Morland was tacitly allowed to move freely within Maplestone City, no longer under house arrest, and no longer needing to hide.

From time to time, one could hear that he had visited the residence of a highly respected free man from another county, and occasionally he could be seen at banquets held by prominent families in Maplestone City.

However, as long as the National Assembly is not formally established, he will not have the legal right to participate in politics.

“You shouldn’t have come at this time, Mr. Kai,” Winters said with a double entendre. “Now that you’re here, I have to serve you food, but you have no appetite, so the food I serve you will only end up being used to feed the dogs.”

Kai Morland looked down at the almost untouched food in front of him, a wry smile appearing on his face. "I really don't have much of an appetite, but I had to come now, before anyone else, not for myself, but for you."

"For me?" Winters asked with a half-smile.

“Yes,” Kai Morland said with utmost sincerity, “Although our previous agreement did not go as I had hoped, you actually gave me something I never dared to dream of. Therefore, I firmly believe that you are a partner who stands with me on the same side.”

“I am flattered that you think that way,” Winters replied calmly but politely, unmoved. “Please speak your mind. I would like to hear more.”

Kai Morland cleared his throat, as if he had just made up his mind after a fierce struggle, and asked with great seriousness, "Are you aware of what Colonel Gaisa Adonis is planning recently?"

Winters grinned, “Whether I know it or not, I don’t know if what you’re saying and what I know are the same thing, do I? So don’t waste your time, Mr. Kai, just get to the point.”

Kai Morland coughed lightly, picked up the water glass on the table, took a sip, and leaned out towards the Blood Wolf at the other end of the table.

“I heard that Colonel Geza is planning to award medals to all the soldiers who participated in the Battle of Howling Valley—of course, our soldiers.” Kai Morland paused deliberately, emphasizing his words, “…”

"A medal award?" Winters had indeed heard something he knew nothing about. "Why award medals at this time?"

……

"Why else?"

Gaisa Adonis jumped up from the bath with a "splash," and the hot water overflowed from the tub as he moved, reaching all the way down to Winters' boots.

In the steamy bathroom, the garrison commander of Baishan County stood shirtless, hands on his hips, his eyes wide open.

The colonel's furious voice, booming like a bell, echoed in the bathroom: "Of course, it's all about making money!"

Wherever he went, Gaisa Adonis couldn't live without taking two hot baths a day, so even though the officers' quarters in Maplestone City didn't have a bathtub, one was quickly built after he moved in.

Winters had absolutely no interest in a man's naked body, so he turned his head away first and said, "Please put on your clothes first, so you don't catch a cold."

"Give me a towel," Gaisa said sullenly as he waded out of the tub, his mood ruined. "Who told you this?"

Gaisa's answer was honest, so Winters's answer was equally straightforward. He took a towel from the shelf, handed it to the colonel, and uttered a name, "Kay Morland."

Upon hearing the name, Colonel Gaisa immediately unleashed a torrent of profanities: "[Extremely angry Plato profanity]! This [powerful personality insult]! He's always trying to make things difficult for me! [Profanity]! This little [common personality insult] must have been tipped off by the old [common personality insult] people in town, otherwise his information wouldn't be so readily available!"

Winters tried to let the profanities flow into his left ear and out his right, leaving only the useful information.

After drying himself off and putting on his bathrobe, Gaisa led Winters to the rest area outside the bathroom, suddenly changing his tone. "I've actually wanted to discuss the awarding of medals with you for a while, but you were nowhere to be found, and I hadn't even finalized my proposal yet," Gaisa said, adopting the demeanor of a kind and wise elder. "Now that I've already prepared my proposal, and you're back and aware of it, it's perfect, saving me the trouble of explaining it again."

He looked at Winters expectantly: "What do you think? An award?"

“I think awarding medals to the soldiers who fought in the Battle of River Valley is fine,” Winters said, changing the subject. “But I don’t quite understand why you want the major guilds in Maplestone to donate?” He asked cautiously. “Are you… really short of money?”

"Nonsense!" Gaisa's face flushed red, and he feigned a fit of rage. "Is there anyone in this world who isn't short of money? Let me tell you, even an emperor who breaks his oath still has to worry about money!"

After venting his anger, Gaisa began to complain again. He counted on his fingers and listed them off for Winters, "Let me ask you, the compensation for the dead, the severance pay for soldiers who lost arms or legs and could no longer work, the lost warhorses, the scrapped weapons, the consumed supplies, and the daily food, drink and sanitation... isn't all of that money?"

“War does require money everywhere,” Winters said, remaining conservative, “but relying on ‘fundraising,’ a method that can only be used once, is merely a stopgap measure, treating the symptoms but not the root cause.”

Gaisa got up, found two glasses and a large jug of beer, and gave Winters a sidelong glance that said, "You're still too young." "Who said you can only donate once?"

Winters was speechless, but Gaisa poured each of them a beer and drank it with great relish.

After a moment of silence, Winters calmly commented, "This will push the upper class of Maplestone City to the opposite side."

Gaisa put down his glass, let out a satisfied burp, and smiled grimly, "They don't have to donate."

Winters picked up his beer glass; it was cold and bitter.

Gaisa poured himself another glass of bitter beer and grumbled, "You think everyone's like you? Managing your territory like an iron barrel. You say you want something, and someone obediently hands it over to you, not daring to delay? Do you know how hard it is for us to squeeze any flesh out of these big shots?"

Winters sipped his beer. "I can't tell if you're praising me or belittling me."

"Nonsense, of course I'm praising you." Gaisa tilted his head back and downed another glass of cold beer. "Let's not talk about anything else, just take the matter at hand—let's talk about making military uniforms!"

"Shouldn't the new army have new uniforms? Even if we don't give everyone a new set, shouldn't they at least have them dyed the same color?"

"But as soon as they heard we were going to make new military uniforms, look at the market in Maplestone City—the prices of fabrics, yarns, dyes, buttons… everything is going to skyrocket!"

"Who raised the prices? It was these 'upper-class citizens' who raised the prices!" Gaisa slammed his glass on the table. "And they even 'pushed them to the opposite side,' let me tell you, they weren't even on our side to begin with!"

"We fought a war with our lives hanging by a thread, just so they could benefit from it? They want to cut off our flesh, but I can refuse to cut off theirs?"

"That's why I forced them to donate. If they didn't want gold or silver, they could donate goods. They like prices to go up? I'll make sure they don't earn a single copper coin!"

Seeing Winters' furrowed brows and silence, Gaisa comforted him, "Don't pity them. This little bit of wealth is nothing to them!"

“Besides,” Gaisa poured himself another glass of wine, spitting it dismissively, “we’re not taking their lives. What’s a little money?”

Winters sighed, "Sometimes, it's harder to have money than to have your life."

Gaisa gulped down another glass of bitter beer in one go, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and continued pouring beer. "You also crawled out of a pile of corpses. The scariest thing in the world is dying and coming back to life. If anyone doesn't believe this, let him try it himself."

Seeing that Gaisa was about to drink more, Winters reached out and stopped Gaisa's glass. "It's only morning, Colonel. Drink later."

"You won't let me make a soothing drink, and you won't even let me drink it?" Gessa raised his eyebrows, and after a moment of confrontation, he put down the wine jug with a sullen expression. "Fine, it's no fun drinking with you anyway. Your fellow countryman is a real drinking buddy, he never wastes words, he just drinks. What's his name again? Oh... Moritz, right? I haven't seen him lately?"

"I'm trying to quit drinking, and I feel depressed every day."

Colonel Gaisa's expression became somewhat complicated, a look of unsure whether to feel regret or congratulation. He clicked his tongue, then suddenly waved his arm impatiently: "What a spoilsport!"

Winters sipped his beer, still pondering "fundraising".

"Alright, stop talking about me, tell me about yours!" Gaisa crossed his legs, propped his chin on his hand, and glanced sideways at Winters. "You still haven't sorted things out regarding your military rank?"

“I cannot accept the rank of brigadier general,” Winters replied immediately and solemnly, “and not just because of my pride.”

Gaisa scoffed, "'More than just'?"

"If I were to advance four levels in a row, there would be a lot of... trouble."

"What trouble?"

"Internal troubles."

"Can't you just say it directly?"

Winters rarely showed a helpless expression. "If I were to advance four levels in a row, it can't just be me advancing four levels in a row."

"Lieutenant Bard has decided to retire from active duty, so we won't consider that for now. But Senior Mason and Lieutenant Cellini must be promoted as well."

“Especially Lieutenant Cellini. If I become a general and he is still a field officer, he will be very bored. He is my closest comrade-in-arms and partner, and I cannot ignore him.”

“But if Senior Mason and Lieutenant Cellini are also promoted, then what about the expeditionary officers who joined midway, like Major Seber? Wouldn’t that also lead to a complete mess of the ranks in the new army? The army would naturally split into two factions—the old New Reclamation Army faction and the old Iron Peak County Army faction…which would be detrimental to unity.”

"What's detrimental to unity?" Colonel Gaisa said irritably, pointing out the crux of the matter, "If you were the only one who skipped four grades, wouldn't there be no problem? In the end, isn't the problem still with your little lackey? That... Andrea Cellini? Take care of him!"

“Colonel Gaisa,” Winters’s expression suddenly turned serious, even a little frightening, “Lieutenant Andrea Cellini is not my follower. I can die for him, and he can die for me, but neither of us will kneel before the other.”

He said firmly and decisively, "I don't want to 'settle' him, and I can't 'settle' him, so please don't mention this matter again."

Gaisa froze, sitting there stiffly for a moment. Then he scratched his arm and said with feigned anger, "If you can't handle it, you can't handle it. Why make such a fuss? I thought you were going to turn into a 'blood wolf'!"

Winters, his sore spot touched, became genuinely agitated. "How many times have I told you! That's just a nickname someone gave me!"

“Nicknames aren’t given randomly…” Gaisa couldn’t help but tease, but before his little darling could really turn into a blood wolf, he quickly changed the subject, “I’m not going to talk about it anymore.”

Winters crossed his arms, his neck and above were a little red, whether from the alcohol or the temperature, it was hard to tell.

“But have you considered this?” Gaisa picked up the flask again, completely forgetting his earlier promise not to drink anymore, “if you can’t handle Lieutenant Cellini…”

He stared intently at Winters and asked, enunciating each word clearly, "And how do you intend to command us?"

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(End of this chapter)