In the secret meeting hall on the second floor of Service Hotel, the three earls noisily discussed how to divide the benefits of the Leopold Lake Area. The atmosphere of this banquet quickly sunk to a nadir.
Nearly scratching each others’ faces, the three earls completely disregarded their noble images and haggled like market vendors. The other aristocrats present here also seemed to be used to this scene. In these two days, they had enjoyed free prostitutes with the joy of those abusing public funds. It was something that people who had paid for themselves could never experience.
Earl Fred, that crafty, cunning profiteer, proposed distributing 30% of the profits to each side. It was actually the most reasonable method. Unfortunately, the other two earls could not accept it. Earl Gerard proposed that he would receive 50% while the other two would divide the rest, which was the most unfair proposed distribution method. Meanwhile, Earl Edgar believed that Earl Fred and he should each get 40% while Earl Gerard would take the remaining 20%. All sides were adamant in their stances; there was no way to reach an agreement, so the atmosphere became very tense. They were on the brink of fighting.
The other aristocrats didn’t alleviate this since they were all focused entertaining themselves. Basically, they acted like an audience watching a play, not proposing a single suggestion. It was not that they didn’t want to participate, but rather that they lacked the power to speak. The power to finalize decisions lay in the hands of those three earls. They were just followers. Honestly speaking, they had been allowed to attend this secret meeting to make the venue look more crowded. If they spoke freely and carelessly offered a suggestion, they would inadvertently offend the three earls, attracting a fatal disaster. Therefore, to protect their political prospects, these aristocrats sensibly didn’t participate in this dispute and only served as background spectators.
Those three young masters all acted differently. Viscount Gerald was quite focused and attentively listened to the meeting, occasionally putting forward a few words to boost his father’s vigor. Knight Frauer and Viscount Edmund, however, were out of place as if they basically hadn’t wanted to participate in their fathers’ matters. The former kneaded two maids’ plump bosoms using his left and right hands with a lecherous expression. Those maids turned bright red and let out charming noises under his intense stimulation. The latter was occupied with drinking fine wines in a very wicked manner. He poured the wine directly on the elastic and plump bosom of the maid accompanying him before drinking it. It was rather unsuitable to say that he was drinking it; it ought to have been counted as licking it up.
The atmosphere of the entire private room on Service Hotel’s second floor was unusually ambiguous. Other than the three earls quarreling over the Leopold Lake Area, the other aristocrats were all occupied with various kinds of unspeakably wicked things. In essence, it was not much different from the wicked eroticism on the first floor. On the table, many beautiful maids lay on a special platter with wonderful-smelling delicacies on their bodies. This serving method was the same as nyotaimori. It seemed, irrespective of the world, gentlemen would develop similar tricks to enjoy themselves.
“Everyone, as I see it, we should divide the profits of the Leopold Lake Area into three shares in accordance with His Excellency the Earl Fred’s proposal. You all will take a share of 10% each. As for the remaining 70%, our three chambers of commerce will take 20% each while the remaining 10% will be set aside for Adrian Empire. How about it, everyone?”
“This…”
At this time, the representatives of the three tycoon clans, those special envoys of their respective chambers of commerce, who had been merely watching all this time finally spoke, directly asking an exorbitant price. Even as a bystander, Clyde felt that these three tycoon clans were too shameless. They had only sponsored the capital yet dared to be so arrogant, giving such low shares to three earls like they were appeasing a couple of beggars. This division was much worse than all three of the earls’ proposals. Any of their plans would have been much better than this.
Facts proved that the rich could truly do whatever they liked. Even though this world was different, this was a universal law. Although the complexions of the three earls turned black in anger, with dissatisfaction and fury written all over their faces, these special envoys were calm and collected without any fear. Clyde could easily see that the earls were clenching their fists and were one step away from going out of control, but to his surprise, the three earls quickly suppressed their emotions. They truly couldn’t protest against their financial backers. Most of their military expenses had been paid for by these financial backers, so they couldn’t say anything.
“No, let us discuss this again. There must be a better solution. Your Excellency Edgar and Your Excellency Fred, what do you think?”
“Correct, Your Excellency Gerard. I will think of a reasonable proposal.”
“There is still a lot of time. There’s no need to be so impatient. I feel we can still discuss this for a while. Perhaps, the next distribution method will satisfy everyone!”
When all was said and done, the three earls were all wily old birds who had traversed the political circles for a long time. They were not to be trifled with. They quickly came to a tacit agreement and dragged out the length of the meeting. Nevertheless, the representatives of the tycoon clans were also not in a hurry and continued to calmly sit there. In any case, even after wasting time, the three earls would have to compromise in the end. After all, the rich could truly do whatever they wanted, and the three earls wouldn’t dare to refuse.
At that moment, something major happened in the originally quiet Benson Town. Miserable cries came from the direction of the mayor’s residence, and Clyde could see soaring flames from the window of the second floor. This operation was too large; it couldn’t have been the work of his subordinates. It seemed that those underground humanoid monsters had finally come out to play.
In Kelifu Prison, a large number of humanoid monsters had emerged from the sewers and started to wantonly massacre the defenseless prisoners, turning the prison into a bloody hell. Since the guards of Kelifu Prison had a bit of empathy, while organizing the resistance against the humanoid monsters, they also opened the prison cells, letting those prisoners flee. However, the combined combat power of those humanoid monsters was too great. The combat power of these guards who had not been tempered on the battlefield was not enough. They were unable to resist for long before those humanoid monsters forced them to retreat. After repelling the feeble defenders, a horde of humanoid monsters rushed out of Kelifu Prison, and the flames of war quickly spread to the mayor’s residence next door.
“My God, is that a rat?”
“Quickly ring the alarm! Don’t be in a daze. Ah…”
The humanoid monsters that had attacked this time were underground ratmen, big rats who could stand upright. Although they still had rat-like appearances, they were about the same height as humans. However, their eyes were blood-red as if they were crazy. The vindictiveness of these underground ratmen was very strong. Before, when Clyde and his younger sister, Bloodkin Lolita Lucifer, had gone to explore the underground sewers, they had killed several giant rat monsters and returned without exploring deeper. The underground ratmen had thought this the doing of adventurers. After they hadn’t found any adventurers underground on whom to unleash their vengeance, they had rushed out, crazily retaliating against any of the Human Race.
In the recent few wars for supremacy of the underground world, underground ratmen had achieved several victories and temporarily suppressed the insect-men monsters. This had provided them the leisure to send a vanguard force to fight with the Human Race. Basically, most human soldiers had never seen humanoid monsters and were completely unfamiliar with their attack patterns. Many of them were caught unguarded, allowing the underground ratmen to easily cut them to pieces. The war situation soon favored these humanoid monsters, and the castellan residence beside Kelifu Prison quickly fell. Then, the flames of war quickly spread throughout the rest of Benson Town.
Ironically, the underground part of Kelifu Prison was relatively safe. High-leveled monsters, Clyde’s summoned shadow monsters, directly routed all the underground ratmen that had attacked. Tall and thin phantoms blocked the underground ratmen before pouncing on them. Countless shadow hands appeared from the ground and directly pulled those underground ratmen into the ground to be swallowed. The scene was actually bloodless. The underground ratmen that stumbled upon these shadows didn’t even have time to scream before being ruthlessly torn apart and swallowed. They didn’t leave behind a single bone.
After attacking several times, the underground ratmen became terrified. These humanoid monsters had some intelligence. After pondering a short duration, they didn’t dare to look for any more trouble here and gave up on attacking the underground prison. The orders these shadow monsters had received from Clyde were just to guard this area, not hunt down all the underground ratmen; therefore, after seeing those humanoid monsters avoid them, they also didn’t bother to chase them and wipe them out.
Because of their fear, the white lambs in the underground prison huddled together in a corner and secretly rejoiced that this place was very safe. Although the scenes they had seen were incomparably bloody, and both warring sides were actually monsters, the fearsome shadow monsters brought them an indescribable sense of security. Compared to those ferocious and terrifying underground ratmen, these shadow monsters were practically standard gentlemen. In addition, they didn’t seem that terrifying. At this moment, the identities of those shadow monsters changed to become guardians in the hearts of these beautiful women.
In the periphery of Benson Town, a crowd of mummies marched toward the city. Although their walking styles were similar to zombies, these mummy monsters were much faster. Behind this mummy army were all kinds of monsters. With careful observation, one could detect a large number of Bloodkin monsters that had turned into blood bats and blood wolves on the flanks of this mummy army moving under the cover of night.
Clyde’s younger sister, Bloodkin Lolita Lucifer, as well as Undead Queen Lafania and her younger sister, Cursed Queen Mephis, led this army from the front.
“Lord Lucifer, we don’t need to be so hasty. We’ll make it in time. The ants from the underground world are not even worth mentioning!”
“No, I just fear that my cuties will not have any chance to play come dawn. Andrisno’s people are also almost here. Not to mention that I feel that that place is somewhat strange… Shouldn’t the Human Race deal with this kind of matter?”
“I can’t imagine that. The human armies of this area have too little combat power. Other than their numerical advantage, I can’t see any other advantage. If we let them deal with this, there will be no living person here tomorrow.”
