In the secret meeting hall on the second floor of Service Hotel, the three earls sat around a table. Clyde successfully bypassed several heavily-guarded checkpoints by relying on his shadow concealing magic to arrive at this location.
The venue of the three earls’ secret meeting was a luxurious private room on Service Hotel’s second floor. This room, as the hotel’s highest grade private room, allowed one to see the entirety of the artificial Lake Andy’s beautiful scenery from the main window. It was evening, so various kinds of brightly lit pleasure boats floated on Lake Andy, forming a beautiful picture, very different from the daytime’s serene scenery.
No one could see Clyde hidden in the shadows. His current state was like mist; he could easily pass through closed gates. After passing the guards at the luxurious main entrance, Clyde smoothly entered the secret meeting hall that was full of people. Other than the three earls, who held the real power among their small and mid-level aristocratic followers, their trusted subordinates and other important personnel were also here.
Miss Anna’s father and elder brother, Earl Gerard and Viscount Gerald, sat at a round table as the hosts of this meeting. Since Benson Town was Earl Gerard’s temporary headquarters, acting as the host was only logical. Viscount Gerald still wore the suit of armor that Clyde had seen him in before. It seemed that he was not particularly fond of orthodox western-styled formal clothes. Earl Gerard, however, was more formal. A handsome middle-aged man with golden, medium-length hair, he wore the golden, formal robes of an earl.
Earl Gerard had a mild expression. If Clyde hadn’t known before that Earl Gerard frequently drank and partied with female entertainers, his current appearance would have truly fooled Clyde and made him think that Earl Gerard was a serious aristocrat. In fact, the more serious one was Viscount Gerard, Anna’s elder brother. He truly didn’t care about women and wasn’t licentious, unlike his father.
Earl Fred and his son, Knight Frauer, didn’t have such heavy aristocratic auras. Knight Frauer was Miss Kylie’s younger brother, and like his father, he was a typical fatty and looked more like a nouveau riche merchant. Not to mention that they had gold rings on all ten of their fingers, thick gold chains also hung around their necks. They had short brown hair and crafty smiles, much like Bishop Nichols’s usual expression.
Knight Frauer had the appearance of a typical profligate son and looked like he belonged with those debauched aristocrats on the first floor of Service Hotel. He didn’t conceal his greed at all, so anyone could tell that he was a money-grubber at a glance. Compared to them, Miss Kylie clearly hadn’t inherited this weakness. Clyde was somewhat doubtful about the blood relationship between them. They were from the same family, but the difference in their temperaments was too great.
Earl Edgar looked even less like an aristocrat. He didn’t have even a hint of an aristocratic air. He had attended this secret meeting with his son Viscount Edmund. Both had revolting behaviors and doughty statures. With their fierce and tough expressions, anyone could see that they were vile. The formal aristocratic clothes they wore somehow donned them with the least aristocratic airs among all the aristocrats present here. It looked as if they had casually borrowed them from someone else.
Earl Edgar had short black hair and obvious facial scars. If he wore black sunglasses and smoked a cigar, he would have looked like a typical underworld boss. Clyde felt that Earl Edgar had chosen the wrong profession. From the atmosphere around him, he was clearly more suitable to become an underworld ringleader. Becoming an aristocrat was wasting his talents. Viscount Edmund was somewhat inferior to his father. He had long black hair, and his momentum was far from reaching the level of a true underworld boss. He was more like a hooligan with his lecherous expression.
Viscount Edmund was the elder brother of Miss Betty. Except for their shared hair color, they were very different. It was doubtful whether they were truly siblings of the same parentage. Among the three earls, only Earl Gerard was qualified to be an aristocrat in terms of temperament. For the other two, one looked like a nouveau riche merchant while the other looked like an underworld boss. Neither had any noble airs. Considering the faces of those three young ladies, Clyde temporarily decided against directly attacking this meeting place. If he wanted, he could use dark magic to bury these three earls along with everyone else that had attended this secret meeting.
However, even if these three earls were killed, Clyde also lacked effective measures to control the Leopold Lake Area. Once these three earls were killed, those around 150,000 troops forcibly occupying this place would become leaderless. At that time, all the small generals would take advantage of the occasion and mass troops to stage an armed rebellion. Without an aristocrat governing them, the consequences would be too ghastly to contemplate. The chaos might even spread to Steinbeck Fief. When that time came, it would be difficult to control the situation, so Clyde didn’t want to see this development. After thinking this, Clyde continued to lurk in the shadows, wanting to learn the contents of this secret meeting.
Although it was said to be a secret meeting, this luxurious private room also held something akin to an aristocratic party. It was still like the standard gathering of illustrious aristocrats, but the discussions here were quite secret, nothing more. Other than the three earls, there were also several astute and keen-witted merchants who were special envoys sent by the three earls’ behind-the-scenes financial backers, the three tycoon clans of Adrian Empire. Since the three clans had coordinated this secret meeting, these merchants had greater authority than the three earls present. The three earls had to consider these clans’ interests and follow their demands.
Adrian Empire and most nations of Victor Alliance had flourishing, commodity-based economies. The power and influence of the tycoon clans were too powerful, enough to compete with the emperor’s. Many local Suzerains and aristocrats depended on these behind-the-scenes supporters to maintain their luxurious lifestyles and dominance. Just depending on taxes would not let many aristocrats make ends meet. Even paying for soldiers and provisions would be difficult, let alone supporting their luxurious lifestyles.
In this luxurious private room were many completely bare, special maids. The special services provided here were a lot wickeder than those found on the first floor’s banquet hall. After all, the aristocrats here were all wily old birds. Each wickeder than the last. Only a few members like Viscount Gerard were not interested in wicked activities. Most wallowed in the mire and followed the crowd in these wicked activities.
For a moment, Clyde thought that he had entered the wrong room and arrived at a Clark Alliance party. There were various wicked erotic services here, comparable to Clark Alliance. The sole difference was that those white lambs didn’t have collars around their white necks, nothing more. Nevertheless, their actions were no different from those of real slaves.
In this luxurious private room, the aristocrats sat on chairs formed by the smooth backs of white lambs prostrating on the ground. Clyde had personally experienced this feeling. Recalling that now, Clyde felt a lingering aftertaste. Besides chairs each made by two white lambs prostrating side-by-side, each aristocrat had at least four bare white lambs serving him. One would massage his shoulders while the other three would kneel in front of him, either kneading his thighs or swallowing his root of all evil.
Surveying the room, Clyde realized each male aristocrat had at least six special maids on average. All kinds of strange noises continuously reverberated throughout this luxurious private room. The scene here was by no means inferior to that in the reception hall below.
Later, Clyde would figure out the difference between aristocratic parties held in Clark and Victor Alliance. Over there, since all the white lambs were slaves, they were free for the aristocrat’s enjoyment. Over here, however, it was very expensive to experience this. One was free, and the other was expensive. It was incomparable. Perhaps, this was the difference between the capital system and slavery. (Editor note: haha, so deep. Marxism!) The three earls and the other aristocrats relaxed entirely because all the expenses of this secret meeting were being borne by those behind-the-scenes financial backers. They didn’t need to pay for themselves. Basically, this could all be regarded as free If Clyde had been in their places, he too would have had such a happy expression. There was nothing more exciting than free services.
“Your Excellency Gerard, let’s divide the Leopold Lake Area. To be fair, each side will get 30% of the taxes, and the remaining 10% will go to the imperial family. How about it?”
“Cough, cough, Your Excellency Fred, your method is too unfair. Now, I have control over a large part of the Leopold Lake Area, at least 60%, but you are only giving me 30% of the income? This proportion is unfair. I want 50% of the income. You two can divide the rest.”
“Your Excellency Gerard, that’s too much. Most of the area you’ve occupied is the lake surface of Leopold Lake, nothing more. Can that be regarded as occupying 60%? Furthermore, it’s only nominal since you claimed it with a few hundred marine troops, nothing more. As for the area around the lake, Fred and I account for 40% each. Dividing it proportionally, you should get just 20% while Fred and I should get 40% each.”
Your Excellency Edgar, enough! Can it be that the lake area doesn’t count? If you only cultivate the land, then don’t take income from the fishery resources harvested every year in Leopold Lake, and remember to pay me when using the water too!”
Clearly, the contradictions between the three earls were not so easy to mediate. If they could settle this with just words, they wouldn’t have taken such great pains to use military might to settle it before. The representatives of the three tycoon clans just watched from the side. For the time being, they gave no indication of intervening. Clyde also secretly observed from one side, biding his time. According to his prior plan, Lucifer should soon start to take action.
