Imperial Crown.

Chapter 542 Business Acumen
Miders Continent, Keynes Empire, Nord Province, Feldoro County, Howe City.

A troop of knights clad in golden armor slowly entered the city, attracting the attention of the vast majority of people. Some were curious, some were envious, some were excited... but some also showed expressions of fear.

"Is this the Nord Province? It looks much more prosperous than my hometown, Mangtelid!"

Hume excitedly spurred his horse and came to Savannah, praising her from the bottom of his heart.

Savanna frowned, looking preoccupied. Hearing this, she pursed her lips, thinking, "You haven't even been to Eagle City yet; that's where the real prosperity is. You little bumpkin." But of course, she wouldn't say these words aloud; she simply gave a soft "hmm."

"What's wrong? Aren't you happy to be back?" Hume noticed that Savannah seemed preoccupied the whole way. She seemed worried about something. Logically, after helping Raven defeat the orcs, shouldn't they have returned in triumph like heroes, and been warmly received by the nobles?

Several months ago, Savannah, far away in the Orc Empire, Nightthroat Province, and Bloodstone Territory, suddenly received a letter from Archbishop Thomas, demanding that she return to Hove City as soon as possible. Hume's infatuation with Savannah was common knowledge within Bloodstone Territory. Naturally, he found an excuse and shamelessly followed Savannah all the way from the Orc Empire back to Hove City. This excuse was—he wanted to visit Raven's Eagle City. To broaden his horizons and see the world.

"nothing."

Savanna tossed her long, wavy hair, releasing a fragrant aroma, and said softly, "You can go rest with them later. I still need to find Bishop Thomas."

"Yes, yes." Hume shook his head and said with great satisfaction, "I'm going to the Dragon Gold Shop to withdraw some money later. Haha, I only deposited 5000 gold coins. In a few months, it will generate interest equivalent to 5 silver coins! If my father hadn't been so adamant, I would have liked to deposit several million gold coins from my house."

Savannah: ...

“Actually, you don’t need to flaunt your wealth like this,” Savannah said quietly.

"This isn't about showing off wealth, it's a business opportunity." Hume covered his mouth with his hand and said mysteriously, "Times have changed, Miss Savannah." "Or, how about I deposit some in for you too?"

Savannah thought about it seriously for a while, then shook her head. "Forget it, I don't trust that guy." With that, Savannah dismounted and walked quickly toward the church of the Holy See.

Savannah's sturdy boots left deep footprints on the soft carpet as she walked step by step toward the statue of the Lord of Light. Reaching it, she clasped her hands together and knelt in devout worship. "Great Lord of Light," she said, "Savanah is your faithful follower. I uphold your beliefs, bravely slaying orcs and preserving my chastity… Faith is never alone, the holy flame shines forever! I hope… I hope… that you will bless that damned bastard and help him through this ordeal. After all… he is also human. Although not a follower of yours, he has fulfilled the oath the nobles swore to protect humanity and resist the orcs."

Raven has been seriously ill in Bloodstone Territory for several months. In these months, no one has seen Raven make a public appearance, not even when they were leaving Bloodstone Territory; he didn't come out to see them off. As time passed, Savannah couldn't help but feel worried.

After a long while, Savannah finally got up and walked towards Thomas's room.

As soon as she entered the room, Savannah couldn't help but hold her breath; a strong, pungent smell of blood assaulted her nostrils. She knew that Thomas was once again dissecting a live prey in the secret chamber. Whenever the cardinal was agitated, he would do this: he would tightly bind his captured prey and then cruelly pluck off its fur piece by piece. The more the prey struggled during this process, the more excited Thomas became.

"Greetings, Archbishop," Savannah said, striking her chest with her left hand and bowing respectfully.

"Hmm." Thomas, still dressed in his usual cardinal attire, responded indifferently, "From today onwards, you will stay in Hove City, cultivate diligently, and strive to break through to the third rank as soon as possible."

"Uh"

Savannah was taken aback. That's all? Ke Zhong had clearly said it was urgent and she needed to return as soon as possible. Moreover, she had given a detailed battle report on her gains and losses in the Orc Empire; it seemed Archbishop Thomas had no interest in listening.

"What? Is there something else?" Thomas asked, lifting his wrinkled eyelids.

“Your Excellency, didn’t you say you had something important to discuss?” Savannah asked, mustering her courage. “Although Raven’s Bloodstone Territory in the Orc Empire is becoming more stable, the Orcs in the surrounding provinces have started to stir again recently with the influx of humans into the Orc Empire.” “Moreover, Marquis Raven is afflicted with a blood curse and his life is uncertain. I think it would be better for me to stay there.”

bang——

Thomas smashed the glass hourglass on the table with a single punch, countless shards of glass piercing his hand, drawing blood. He abruptly stood up and roared, "Raven! Raven! Savannah, are you a member of the Church of Light or Raven's dog?!" "Do you know Raven is in league with the Hand of Death?!" "Raven is scum! A bastard! A heretic who deserves to be burned at the stake!" "From now on! You are not allowed to mention his name in front of me!" "Absolutely not!"

“Please calm down, Your Grace!” Savannah hurriedly explained, “Yes! During the final battle, Raven contacted the Hand of Death. But that was only because we were fighting the orcs together! Later, Raven broke ties with that necromancer! I witnessed all of this myself!” “After that, Raven never contacted the Hand of Death again!” “He hasn’t even shown his face in the past few months.” “I swear to the Lord of Light, Your Grace.”

"Hahaha" "Hahahahahahahahaha" "Hahahahahahahahahahahaha"

Watching Savannah, her face pale and flustered as she explained everything to Raven, completely oblivious to her own panic, Thomas raised his head and let out a series of strange laughs. What kind of laugh was it? The laugh was filled with helplessness, heartache, regret, resentment, and incomprehension... a laugh filled with a hundred different emotions! A maniacal laugh! A hysterical laugh! He hadn't said a single word, yet it seemed as if he had said everything.

“Sawana, Savannah,” Thomas said sarcastically, looking at Savannah with disdain. “With your intelligence, Raven would have sold you out, and you’d still be helping him count the money!” With that, Thomas opened a drawer and threw two image crystals and a magic contract directly at Savannah’s face. “Do you know that Raven, whom you’ve been so devoted to and protecting, used your lives as leverage to force me to sign this magic contract?!”

After saying that, Thomas sat down again, putting his legs up on the table. "You are truly the most idiot I've ever seen." "Take your time reading it. Come and tell me your thoughts after you've finished reading it."

Savanna, her body trembling, bent down to pick up the items. The first image crystal showed the Hand of Death slaughtering orcs in the final battle. The second image crystal showed Raven kneeling before a dragon, begging for mercy without any noble bearing or dignity. After seeing these images, Savanna trembled even more violently. She hadn't initially believed Thomas's words, but now a bad premonition was creeping in. After reading the contents of the magic contract, Savanna's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally died completely.

Tears streamed down her face like a burst dam, her heart felt as if it had been pierced by a thousand steel needles, riddled with holes, the pain unbearable. Despite her and all her colleagues risking their lives to help Raven slay the orcs, in the end, Raven used their lives to demand that the Archbishop sign this so-called peace treaty.

"So, in Raven's mind, all of our lives were just a transaction."

"noble"

"They really are all cold-blooded, ruthless, and heartless beasts." Savannah remained silent for a long time, put her things away, and quietly left Thomas's room.

……

"Wow, this is too extravagant, young master!" "In our land, even nobles wouldn't dare use magical lamps, but here they're just streetlights?!"

Since meeting Archbishop Thomas, Savannah refused to see anyone. Hume's attempts to coax her in Howe City for days were to no avail. Too ashamed to linger in Howe City any longer, she had no choice but to head towards Snowmaple County with her three squires. After all, this was the pretext she had used. Along the way, they passed through Belle County, Hisside County, Hampshire, Essex County… before finally arriving at Eagle City in Snowmaple County. As soon as they stepped into Snowmaple territory, one of the squires, named Perkin, couldn't help but exclaim.

"Ahem!" "Get your act together, you hear?!" "Don't embarrass our Mangtail Province!" "Otherwise, people will think we're just a bunch of country bumpkins coming to town!" Although Hume was also quite shocked, as the son of a marquis, he still had to save face, so he could only bite the bullet and say it. To be honest, after entering Snowmaple County, they first arrived at Viscount Broca's Scorpion territory and Baron Puwan's Pink territory. Nothing special, just average. But after entering Marquis Raven's territory, it was like entering a completely different world.

They had traveled a long and arduous journey, and it was already 2 a.m., but the wide streets of Xuefeng Territory were still bustling with people, even more lively than other counties during the day.

Towering magical streetlights were everywhere, each pole adorned with a huge portrait of Raven on one side and the coat of arms and flag of the Griffith family on the other. There were also enormous red banners, some spanning the length of seven or eight streetlights. These banners bore slogans such as "To get rich, build roads first," "Make mountains bow and rivers give way," and "The great Lord Raven is always right; we are grateful for Lord Raven's contributions to the people," and so on.

This was truly a spiritual baptism for the four of them. For a moment, they felt like they were walking on air. In all their lives, they had never seen anything like this. Not only were wide streets built for the people, wide enough for eight horses to run, but also all sorts of green parks were constructed. Even expensive magical lamps were used as streetlights at night.

"Tsk tsk, how many magic crystals must have been used up in one night?" "It must have cost a fortune to do all this, young master." "I think Marquis Raven is a complete idiot... why spend money on his subjects? Isn't that just a pure waste?" The three attendants were getting more and more confused as they walked, and they started giving their heartfelt comments one after another.

“What do you know?!” Hume said, somewhat angrily. “This is called business acumen, you know? Look at this place tonight, brightly lit and bustling with people. The amount of money transacted in one night is probably equivalent to half a month’s income for others.”

"There's such a saying?" Old said in surprise.

“I always tell you three to read more books, but one of you always says you have a stomachache, need to go to the toilet, or that your mother is about to give birth,” Hume said, somewhat boastfully. “It’s all written in this book.”

“Okay,” Perkin, Old, and Kohler couldn’t help but agree wholeheartedly. They thought about it and realized it made perfect sense. So many people staying up all night are bound to spend money; they can’t just be out strolling around aimlessly, can they? Who would be that bored?
“Let’s go! To Wallace. I heard it’s the restaurant owned by Marquis Raven! It’s also the biggest restaurant in the entire Snow Maple Territory.” Hume couldn’t help but rub his stomach. “I’m starving right now. I heard they have barbecue at night, it’s very famous. Savannah told me all this.”

Kohler couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Young Master, there are plenty of fish in the sea. Why are you so hung up on just one?" "Anyone in Bloodstone Territory who isn't blind can see that Knight Savannah is in love with Lord Raven. You have no chance."

"You son of a bitch?"

Hume glared at Kohler, somewhat annoyed. "The Marquis Raven has a wife, you know! Lux! Didn't you see? Are you blind or am I?" "Then let me ask you, do you think Lux is prettier than Savannah?!"

“That must be Priestess Lux!” “Is that even a question?” Köhler said instinctively.

"That settles it! Would Marquis Raven even be interested in Savannah? He already has Lux!" Hume tried his best to find a reasonable logic for his behavior.

The three of them exchanged glances, shook their heads and sighed, and then fell silent.

"Damn it, you three are really upside down, trying to teach me how to do things?!" "If we hadn't grown up together, I would have sent you all packing right now!" "Do you even deserve to come out with me?" Hume cursed.

“Yes, yes, yes.” “Young Master, you’re absolutely right.” “Ms. Savannah is testing you.” Ald quickly nodded and said.

"That's more like it." Hume immediately felt much better. "Remember! Don't embarrass me later!" "I'll teach you a trick—the softer your voice, the stronger your aura." "The principle is that if you speak softly, the other person has to prick up their ears and listen carefully to what you're saying, understand?"

“That makes sense, young master!” Perkin nodded vigorously.

The four then arrived at Wallace. The enticing aroma from afar made their mouths water, and they jogged forward. Upon reaching it, they were even more stunned by the entire wall made of pure glass. And there were so many people! Hume estimated there were at least ten thousand people gathered there. Many of them were serfs with tattoos on their faces. Could serfs really be out and about at night? Hume was utterly horrified.

At this moment, a beautiful and graceful waitress swayed up and greeted us warmly, "Hello, distinguished guests, how many are in your party?"

Kohler: "

"Hmm?" The waitress could only see Kohler's lips moving, but she couldn't hear a sound. She took a step forward.

Kohler: "

"What did you say?" The waitress frowned, sensing that these guys were just there to cause trouble. If it weren't for their distinguished attire, which suggested they were likely nobles, the waitress wouldn't have come out to greet them; she would have had to call their numbers and wait in line, which would have taken at least an hour or two.

Kohler: "

When she couldn't hear Kohler's voice for the third time, the waitress finally realized that these guys were there to cause trouble. She immediately gave a sweet smile: "Did you leave your vocal cords at home, you bastard?"

Hume, Olden, Perkin: ...

……

(End of this chapter)