Imperial Crown.

Chapter 163 Just a joke
Early in the morning, in the bathroom of the Eagle Castle Lord, Raven's face was covered with foam. Facing the bronze mirror, he used a razor to scrape off the foam on his face bit by bit.

Slowly, a face with deep features appeared in the bronze mirror.

His eyebrows are thick and sharp, reaching into his temples, with high brow bones; his pupils are dark and deep, his nose is straight, his lips are thin, and his facial features are sharp and clear.

Grinning at the bronze mirror, Raven took the towel from Patty's hand and wiped his face dry, then turned around, spread out his hands, and let Patty put on his clothes.

After putting on the dress, Patty stood aside obediently, contrary to her usual behavior.

She wore a lace headband, a black ribbon around her neck, and her chest showed a proud tan.

There was a big bow on her black maid skirt, and her legs were wearing extremely tight black suspender stockings. The lace straps made her thighs look very fleshy. At this moment, she had her head lowered, and from time to time she would raise her eyelids to secretly look at Raven.

Raven moved closer to her and gently leaned his head towards her.

Before Raven could speak, Petty's body trembled slightly, his face flushed, he twisted his hands together, bit his lips and whispered: "Baron, you have something important to do today..."

"Wait a couple of days, and I'll serve you well."

There was a hint of pleading in his words.

Just yesterday, Raven had Judra sign the contract and sent it to the Noble Council by express horse.

Raven was in a good mood after finally taking back the Eagle Territory and cleaning up the mess left by Donald.

So, I had an in-depth discussion with Petty about how to play chess all night long, and we played more than ten games at a time.

In the first half of the night, the two won and lost alternately. Later, Petty's white pieces were overwhelmed by Raven's black pieces and were completely defeated.

Seeing Patty's expression, Raven laughed and left the room.

Because he did have something important to do, which was to hold a celebratory party.

After returning from Bloody Highlands and receiving capital injection, Eagle Town began intensive construction. Although there was a shortage of building materials for a while due to the chaos caused by the Hand of Death Cult, some new buildings were still built.

For example, the venue for the cocktail party chosen by Raven today - the Wallace Hotel.

This name was chosen by Raven himself.

The building is three stories high and covers a large area, no less than half a football field.

Different from the current buildings which are mostly made of brick and stone, this hotel only uses precious granite on the back wall, while the other three walls are made of whole pieces of glass. After special treatment, one can clearly see outside from the inside, while from the outside, it is foggy. From a distance, it looks like a crystal palace.

Not only the exterior, but the interior is also unique.

Nowadays, the higher-end the restaurants, hotels are, the more expensive solid wood tables and chairs they will use. The lighting is also dim, and the overall color tone is brown, which can better reflect solemnity and elegance.

But the Wallace Hotel uses magic lamps, which are bright and clear both during the day and at night. The tables and chairs are made of "lead-sunken pine", a specialty of the Thousand Needle Jungle. After complicated processes, it turns into a soft bone white. The tableware is inlaid with gold and silver plates that can create a clear contrast with the table top.

The building has three floors, and there is not much difference in the decoration style of each floor, only the functions are clearly distinguished.

The first floor is a regular restaurant, the second floor is a buffet restaurant, and the third floor is a VIP box, which only accepts reservations. From the third floor, you can see the scenery of half of Eagle Territory.

Today is the first day of opening. Various carriages are gathered at the door, there are dozens of them. In addition to the wealthy families from Xiongying Territory, there are more wealthy businessmen from Xuefeng Territory. There are hundreds of people in total, and it is very lively.

Ino was one of them. He was the president of the Chamber of Commerce in Xuefeng County. He was in his early forties. He came here specially after hearing the news that Raven would appear here. He had no expectations for the hotel itself.

But when he saw the hotel, he was really surprised. Three walls were built purely with glass, which was really bold and novel, and it looked quite spectacular from a distance.

Entering the hotel, the decoration refreshed his three views. He had never imagined that a hotel would use magic lamps.

Magic lamps! Many nobles are reluctant to use them at home.

The sun rose and the cicadas began to chirp. Ino thought it would be very hot inside the hotel, but as soon as he entered the door, a cool air flow rose.

It's a temperature control array.

With magic lamps as the lead, although the temperature control array is not cheap, Ino still accepted this reality relatively calmly.

And when he opened the menu, his eyelids began to twitch slightly again, because the cheapest item was priced in silver coins, at least thirty or fifty, and most of them were priced in gold coins.

His keen business sense made him understand that Raven wanted to turn the Wallace Hotel into a truly high-end restaurant, but after all, it was located in Eagle Town. Would so many people really come here?

This probably depends on Baron Raven's arrangements. Just based on this novel architectural form and decoration, if it can also provide unique dishes, the taste does not need to be too good, it will be enough to attract nobles.

After all, to put it bluntly, most of the nobles were bored to death.

Gently putting the menu down, Ino ordered a bottle of Angel's Tears, but did not order any dishes. It was not because he could not afford it - well, it was a bit painful for him, but the most important reason was that the host had not arrived yet.

Ino chose a seat near the gate and tasted wine while looking at the scenery inside and outside the house. Judging by his standards, judging by this street and this building alone, the construction of Eagle Town is not inferior to the upper city area of ​​Mon'en City.

This made his mind wander a little.

Merchants pursue profit. Since the news of the war's end came out, he took the risk of organizing a caravan to transport goods and led the team himself.

What he saw and heard along the way made him quite emotional.

The closer to the City of Mon'en, the more deteriorating the economy and people's livelihood became. Everywhere was in ruins, especially around the City of Mon'en, which had turned into a wasteland.

Even other places in Xuefeng County were more or less affected by the war and declined a lot. Many nobles were holding funerals, or urgently recruiting soldiers, causing chaos.

Only Eagle Town is so peaceful as if it had never experienced anything, and it is still developing vigorously!
A low cry was heard all around, and Ino came to his senses, and found that a carriage with the Griffith family emblem had stopped outside the door.

The Baron is coming! ?
Ino quickly straightened his clothes for fear of being impolite. The next moment, a man in a black suit got out of the car.

This startled Ino.

He had heard of Raven's achievements, and he always thought that anyone who could conquer the Bloody Highlands, kill Heleti, and make a big splash in the previous war must be at least in his thirties.

But I didn't expect that Raven was so young, he looked to be in his early twenties at most!
Ino raised his butt slightly, waiting for Raven to enter the door, and immediately began to salute, but unexpectedly, Raven turned around and stretched out his hand, and then a white and slender palm fell into Raven's palm.

A girl who seemed to be shining all over walked down from the car.

She was wearing a pair of white soft-soled cloth shoes, which were immediately covered by the fluffy goose yellow pleated skirt. The white cotton top was as gentle as its owner. Her golden hair was braided into a pigtail and draped over her shoulders. Her eyes were watery, like a sapphire sinking in the sea.

As soon as she got off the carriage, she immediately withdrew her hand, put her hands behind her back, and walked into the gate side by side with Raven.

As soon as he entered the door, Raven saw hundreds of people in the hall stand up and bow to him, but no one came up to talk to him, which made him very satisfied.

Taking Lacus up to the third floor, the core members of the Griffith family were all waiting here, sitting at two large tables. When they saw Raven coming, they all stood up:
"Lord Baron!"

Raven scanned the room, taking in every single person.

Denise was sitting at the central table, with two empty seats reserved for Raven and Lux ​​to her right, and Anno to her left, followed by Visdon.

In addition, there are Eric, Volaf, Link and Simon, old Gordon and Fiona are also on the list.

This table can be said to be Raven's "founding team" and the administrative, financial and military core of the entire Griffith family.

At another table sat Fili, Hopkins and Gabe, all of whom were from Goldshire. Fili was a government official, Hopkins was a tax collector, and Gabe was a sheriff who was in charge of the Goldshire patrol team.

Also sitting at the table were people from the Riverside Workshop, including Poirot, who was now the workshop manager, Green, who was in charge of the leatherworkers, Joya, the leader of the tailors, and the two leaders of the gray dwarves, Thorhei Ironhand and Bowel Grayhammer.

Raven smiled and said, "Today's dinner is a family dinner. Please don't be polite. Please take a seat!"

Everyone took their seats, and their reactions varied, with some feeling more or less a little awkward.

Denise was the most generous and natural. She walked up to Lux, took Lux's hand and brought her to the seat next to Raven: "Raven set out to support the Slater family, thanks to you. He mentioned it to me more than once." As she spoke, she looked at Lux and thought to herself, no wonder Raven cared so much about Lux.

Even as a woman, she had to admit that Lux was indeed very pure and beautiful, which was rare in the world.

Denise was studying Lux, while Raven was studying her.

Even though the weather was hot, she still wore a rather thick white coat, with a lavender high-necked shirt underneath, a blue pen-shaped, knee-length skirt, flesh-colored stockings under the skirt, and a pair of tightly wrapped purple high-heeled shoes on her feet. She refused to let anyone see even a little bit of her, and her whole temperament seemed shrewd, strong, and conservative.

It reminded Raven of the beautiful and dignified female principal in high school before he traveled through time.

In contrast, Annuo was different. She sat on a chair with a light grey cloak draped over her shoulders. She looked quiet and mysterious. She just nodded slightly when she saw Raven coming.

Clapping his hands, Raven drew everyone's attention to himself and said loudly, "Everyone, it has been a year since I inherited the title of baron and became the lord of Eagle Territory."

"In this year, we have gained a lot. We have defeated powerful enemies, recovered all the territories, and even held the Snow Maple Territory in our hands. All of this is inseparable from your help and support."

"And I'm not a stingy person. I see your hard work and will certainly reward you."

Having said that, Raven touched his belt, and suddenly a stack of red envelopes appeared in his hand. He took a step forward and distributed the red envelopes one by one, starting with Eric.

There has never been a custom of "red envelopes" in the Middles continent, but that doesn't stop everyone who receives one from being very happy, because after all, they are filled with real gold coins!

Poirot held the red envelope, looked carefully at the amount inside, and counted it over and over again.

That’s right, twenty gold coins!
He, like Eric and old Gordon, had served Donald.

It was fine in the early years, but later, with the "proper management" of Raven's uncle, Donald, the Griffith family became increasingly weak, and his salary as a cook also dropped sharply, and he couldn't even steal food!
It can be said that I have to go hungry nine times out of three days when following my uncle.

But now it’s different. After only following Baron Raven for a year, I actually got twenty gold coins at one time!
It was equivalent to his salary in the previous ten years.

Hey! When I get home today, I will slap this money on the table and let that short-sighted woman at home know that I, Poirot, can also make a lot of money!

Let’s see if she dares to get angry because I always live in the workshop and rarely go home!

When Poirot thought of that scene, his face first frowned, but then he couldn't help but burst into laughter.

This is what a happy life is supposed to be like!

In comparison, Fili was calmer, but the joy in his heart was no less.

The red envelope was pressed against his palm, and the amount inside it was firmly memorized in his mind - ten gold coins in cash, and a reward slip signed by Raven himself, which was good for fifty gold coins.

Adding them together, it’s a reward of sixty gold coins.

The Baron is so generous!
Philip couldn't help but think that he had worked very hard in running the shop before, but the gross profit for the whole year was only eighty or ninety gold coins. After deducting the taxes, there would only be forty or fifty gold coins left.

Originally, he served as the political official of Shanjin Town and resigned from the position of president of the Chamber of Commerce. In addition, the business of Shanjin Town was hit by the unrest. He thought he would be poor for a while, but he didn't expect to get so much.

Now it seems that choosing to follow Baron Raven wholeheartedly was the best investment he had ever made in his life!

At the main table, Simon looked confused and rubbed the red envelope with a silly smile on his face.

He looked down at the red envelope in his hand, and it was as if his eyes were sucked in.

The cash of ten gold coins was enough to satisfy him, but what really attracted him was the reward slip, which awarded him a full year's salary.

He is not only a first-level extraordinary person now, but also responsible for leading a scout team of 100 people. The extraordinary person's salary and military pay totals 80 gold coins!
You know, just a year ago, Simon had only seen silver coins, and gold coins were just a legend to him.

Now, he got eighty of them in one go.

Baron Raven's promise to improve their lives was truly achieved, and it was achieved tenfold and a hundredfold.

Because he had military pay, the family's life had improved greatly. They had meat to eat every day, their grandmother and mother no longer had to drag their sick bodies to work in the fields, and their sister could wear new clothes every quarter.

Now with this money, he can buy more things for his family, such as renovating the entire house and hiring a teacher for his sister.

Now that he has the ability, he doesn't want his sister to grow up in confusion and marry any man.

Simon clenched his hands tightly, a happy smile appeared on his face, looking forward to a bright future for his family.

Seeing the reactions of the people around her, Fiona was a little confused. The red envelope she received contained five gold coins, which was not a small amount, but not enough to make her so excited.

At this moment, Old Gordon coughed twice and stuffed the red envelope in his hand over.

"Grandpa, how are you?" Fiona asked with concern.

Old Gordon has recovered somewhat, but not completely. He forced himself to get through today. He shook his head and said, "It's okay, it's just that this thing is a little heavy. Please help me keep it."

What's so heavy about five gold coins?

Fiona was stunned for a moment, took the red envelope, and didn't feel too heavy. She couldn't help but quietly opened it, and her eyes suddenly widened.

There was no gold coin in the red envelope, but a brand new monocle, made entirely of gold with intricate patterns engraved on the edge, and a faint blue magical light flashed inside.

It's a magic prop!
This would cost at least a few hundred gold coins, right?

The importance lies not in weight but in friendship.

Giving a gift directly, and such a thoughtful gift at that, is enough to show how much Baron Raven cares about her grandfather.

Now, Fiona gradually began to understand why her grandfather had told her those words before.

In the Keynes Empire, being able to follow such a lord is truly a blessing. It is both lucky and a blessing.

Seeing the smiles on everyone's faces, Raven was also very happy. Happiness shared with others is worse than happiness alone. Only when everyone is happy can things flourish.

Walking back to the main seat, Raven took the wine glass handed to him by Lux and took a sip of Angel's Tears.

Denise smiled.

Old Gordon was not feeling well, and the finances of Eagle Territory were now all on her shoulders. She knew very well how much gold coins Raven had spent this time, and she expressed her support for this.

After all, no matter how many gold coins there are, they are just decorations if they are stored in the warehouse. They can only be called money if they are spent. Raven's approach can not only win people's hearts more tightly, but also stimulate the economic vitality of Eagle Territory. It can be said to be a win-win situation.

She said half seriously and half jokingly: "Lord Baron, won't you give me a little reward as well? And even if you don't consider me, you should give something to Priest Lacus. Her contribution to Eagle Territory is not small."

"Of course there will be rewards, and there will be surprises as well." Before Lux could refuse, Raven smiled and said, "Since today is a family dinner, as the head of the family, I will show you my skills in person."

The Baron is actually going to cook for himself! ?

Most people present showed expressions of surprise, and at the same time a little excitement - being able to eat the food prepared by the Baron himself is an honor that can be boasted to the grandchildren!
Seeing their expressions, Raven smiled and said, "Do you really want to eat?"

"Yes!" Everyone responded except a few ladies, even the sick old Gordon smiled.

Raven nodded and said, "Well, after this meal, the Griffith family must drive forward at full speed."

"After all, happiness must be protected by strength!"

After saying that, Raven turned and walked towards the kitchen.

There was a gleam of anticipation in everyone's eyes.

I don’t know what the Baron will do.
……

(End of this chapter)