Chapter 368 – Benefits

Marriott didn’t get offended by what Smith said, since it was indeed fact. The main cause of this incident was the grudge between Sh.e.l.ley Family and Grand Duke Lionheart.

If not because of the enmity between Lionheart and the family, Zhao Hai wouldn’t have become enemies with the Grand Duke, then Zhao Hai wouldn’t have been chased around the empire and becoming plotted a lot using various methods.

Therefore, Marriott approved Smith’s view. The Sh.e.l.ley Family will have benefits with no repercussions with this time’s cooperation, so Smith’s accusations would have to fall on deaf ears. In the end, this was the difference between an experienced merchant versus a great n.o.ble.

Great n.o.bles hold their dignity dearly, anybody who dared disregard their dignity would be fought and dealt with. This was something that they needed to do because in their opinion, a Great n.o.ble who didn’t have any dignity couldn’t be called a n.o.ble. This mentality was something that was cemented onto their souls across the years, this pride wasn’t something that they couldn’t just erase.

But Merchants were different, there was a saying for merchants in old poetry; Profits outweigh words. This meant that, to Merchants, profits were the most important, as long as one profited, they didn’t care if they were looked down or sometimes have their dignity stepped on.

Thus, Marriott just showed a faint smile and said, “It is also because of what City Lord has said that we came today bringing this small gift for Miss Megan, I hope that the City Lord wouldn’t decline. We also wanted to express our full cooperation for today’s discussion, after all we will have to depend on the City Lord.”

Smith looked at Marriott and smiled, “Then I’ll take this for Megan and then continue on with our plans. I actually wanted to invite Little Hai today to partic.i.p.ate, but Little Hai said that he had nothing to contribute. But he also said that if he would help if something comes up, he was also hounded around by Lionheart.”

Marriott smiled, “This matter had really been unfair to Mister Zhao Hai. Because of my family and Lionheart’s matter, he actually got involved, this wasn’t in our initial intentions.”

Smith looked at Marriott profoundly, then he smiled and said, “Don’t treat Zhao Hai like a fool, a person like him meeting you is a boon for your family. If you don’t treat him with sincerity, then he would forever disregard you as a person on his side. Am I right?”

Looking at Smith’s expression, Marriott could only smile bitterly. His power inside the family was not small, but the ones who made decisions for the family were the elders. The tests conducted on Zhao Hai were also because of the elders. Marriott wanted to disagree with that but his influence as a manager was very limited.

Although Zhao Hai was currently in a very good relations.h.i.+p with them, who knows what Zhao Hai actually felt deep inside. Zhao Hai doing business with them was certainly not for profit. If Zhao Hai really did rely on the Sh.e.l.ley Family, then he wouldn’t have given the bigger slice to Smith.

Might knew that Zhao Hai’s feelings towards Smith was greater. If the family didn’t doubt Zhao Hai before, they should have gotten more benefits from him. For the Sh.e.l.ley family, these benefits would have ushered them to new heights, it was a pity that they have missed this chance.

Smith looked at Marriott’s expression and understood what was going on. Actually, the Calci Family’s att.i.tude towards Zhao Hai wasn’t better off, it was only because Smith appreciated Zhao Hai that he was very hospitable to him. Now it seems like Zhao Hai’s grat.i.tude gave him very great benefits.

Marriott sighed and didn’t pursue this topic. Now he continued on to how the Sh.e.l.ley Family planned to deal with Grand Duke Lionheart,

Sh.e.l.ley Family’s method in dealing with Lionheart was to obtain the agreements of the Royal Clan as well as some Great n.o.bles. After all, Lionheart’s past conduct of being too rampand brought satisfaction to the Royal Clan. Sh.e.l.ley Family wanted to use this opportunity to make them completely remove their connection with the Grand Duke, effectively removing Lionheart’s greatest backer. With Grand Duke Lionheart becoming akin to a rootless duckweed, dealing with him would become much more convenient.

After solving the Royal Clan, naturally the Sh.e.l.ley Family also needed to take care of those n.o.bles who were of good relation to Lionheart. Lionheart was not a complete fool, he wouldn’t turn himself into a lonely official just because he lost the favor of the Royal Clan. He still had connections to a lot of n.o.bles of great influence. This was also another reason why the Royal Clan was unhappy with him.

But what was the most frightening thing about Sh.e.l.ley Family? Of course, it was money. If they have money, they could buy a lot of things, such as the support of the n.o.bles.

Now that the earlier preparations were done, what was very difficult was finding the right opportunity to enact the plan. Publicly making war with the Grand Duke wasn’t only the difficult part, they also needed to find an excuse to do so, something that would make the Royal Clan and the Great n.o.bles stay back. For example, pinning Lionheart with an unforgivable crime, this would make the entire Rosen Empire abandon him, but the problem was who was going to accuse him of so?

The original plan of Sh.e.l.ley Family was to pay a great price to a Great n.o.ble and accuse Lionheart, this would give the Royal Clan and the other n.o.bles an excuse to not make a move.

But it seems like that part of the plan wasn’t needed anymore because of the Calci Family. The family was itself a Great n.o.ble family, as long as they come forward and accuse the Grand Duke, the Royal Clan and the other n.o.bles wouldn’t act.

Although the family was acting quite low-key recently, no one dared to underestimate this thousand-years old family, their power was very scary. Additionally, the Calci Family was a family of Dark Mages, so their temperaments were also quite like other Dark Mages, making it hard for people to guess what they were thinking. People of the empire were terrified of the family. Supporting someone like the maddened Grand Duke Lionheart right now would be like stirring up the hornet’s nest.

Listening to Marriott’s explanation, Smith couldn’t help but nod. Looking at the arrangements, Smith could see that the Sh.e.l.ley Family was certainly very wary of Lionheart’s threat, otherwise they wouldn’t have spent all these resources right now.

At this time, Smith changed how he viewed the Sh.e.l.ley Family. In the end, the Sh.e.l.ley Family was a Merchant family who had immense wealth, however, this wealth was also extremely coveted by a lot of people. If Lionheart succeeds in suppressing the family, then it was certain that the family wouldn’t be able to live comfortably in the continent. Such a big fat piece of cake, it was impossible that n.o.body wanted to have a part of it.

Therefore, the Sh.e.l.ley Family would rather pay a huge price to deal with Lionheart. This was to inform the continent; “We have money, if you offend us, we’ll buy your life, not only your life, but your entire family’s life, your entire clan’s life.”

After Smith heard Marriott’s words, he nodded and said, “Good, we’ll cooperate on this matter. I think we should first ama.s.s our military, as soon as we have the manpower, we’ll immediately go and accuse Lionheart’s clan. We have to make sure that we really kill Lionheart, otherwise he would certainly counter-attack. That situation would be troublesome and would bring huge losses to us. Take note that he has been the First Lord of the Treasury for many years, his clan should have a lot of properties.”

Marriott nodded, “Right, after I head back, I’ll send a word to the family and make them prepare to mobilize the needed manpower. The City Lord wouldn’t need to have any worries, but I think we should a.s.sign which avenues we would place our personnel. This would make us avoid some misunderstandings, what do you think?”

Smith didn’t oppose, he agreed and said, “We should, but we still need to report these propositions to our respective families, then decide to distribute the manpower later. After all, these things needed to be ruminated by the higher ups.”

Marriott nodded, then he asked to be excused along with Might. After they left, Smith immediately prepared the letter to be sent to the Family, telling them exactly what they agreed on.

Smith believed that the people from the family would agree, although the Calci Family was not a merchant family, it was common sense to grasp any opportunity to minimize losses when dealing with an enemy,

Moreover, this matter would allow them to make a connection to the Sh.e.l.ley Family. Even though the Sh.e.l.ley Family was just a merchant family, the family’s hotel business had been spread out across the entire continent, this was simply a hidden Intelligence Network. As long as the Calci Family forms a relations.h.i.+p with them, they would be able to get their intelligence from there. For the Calci Family, this was a very huge benefit to the League of Dark Mages.

This was also the reason why Smith didn’t prevent Zhao Hai from partnering with the Sh.e.l.ley Family. In his opinion, coming in contact with the Sh.e.l.ley Family was a good opportunity.

…

Zhao Hai who sat in the s.p.a.ce turned off the screen. He didn’t expect the Sh.e.l.ley Family to pay such a huge price to deal with Lionheart. At the same time, he didn’t expect that the Royal Clan and the Great n.o.bles of the empire would agree in the face of benefits. For people like them to let go of someone with the status of a Grand Duke in exchange for benefits, this world was too brutal.

But this also gave Zhao Hai hope in the revival of the Buda Clan. A hope that he could allow the Buda Clan to flourish in the continent once more.

In the end, everything ends up on these two characters, benefit. In the past, the n.o.bles have dealt with the Buda Clan because of these benefits, they didn’t want the old king to use the Buda Clan to decrease their benefits. But in the present, the Buda Clan couldn’t be used as a sword anymore, if the Clan could bring benefits to these n.o.bles, why would they keep hating on the Buda Clan?

In reality, those n.o.bles didn’t hate the Buda Clan. What they hated was the Old King who wanted to weaken their power, the Buda Clan was just a sacrificial p.a.w.n.

Zhao Hai reconsidered whether what he was doing was right, and he has come to the conclusion that his current direction was the correct one.

Currently, the Buda Clan was weak, there was no way for them to bring benefits to these n.o.bles. If they don’t get these benefits, there was no way for them to accept the Buda Clan back.

Moreover, from Marriott and Might’s words, he understood that this world was a world of benefits. If he was not capable of helping the League of Mages, if he was not capable of helping the Sh.e.l.ley Family, would Smith and Marriott be polite with him? Definitely not.

It was more apparent to great families like the Calci Family and the Sh.e.l.ley Family, since they were all looking out for their own benefits. If Zhao Hai couldn’t provide them with benefits anymore, then they may not hesitate to give up on him.

This was the rule of survival for the aristocracy, but this was also Zhao Hai’s most hated rule. If the entire world turns into bare, naked world of clamoring for benefits, what point was there for a person to live in it? Perhaps when that time came, humans wouldn’t be called humans anymore, it was more appropriate to address them as wild beasts.

While Zhao Hai was thinking about these things, Cai’er suddenly told Zhao Hai that Laura was outside and that Smith was calling him over to eat.

Zhao Hai’s body immediately came out of the s.p.a.ce. He opened his door to walk out and saw Shun approaching his door to call him.

When Shun saw Zhao Hai come out, he immediately gave a bow and said, “Young Master, City Lord Smith asks you to dine with him.”

Zhao Hai nodded and looked at Shun, “Shun, have you been well these days? Are you eating your meal? Did they neglect you?”

Shun quickly bowed to reply, “There are no problems, young master, we are eating well. Because of your status, we had been treated with importance, there was no point of neglect. Even the people of Calci Family were very kind and polite to us.”

Zhao Hai nodded, “That’s good, remember, if there’s something wrong, don’t hesitate to tell me. There’s no need for us to really live here, don’t let yourself be made into a scapegoat. If I couldn’t protect you, then I wouldn’t need to mention the revival of my Clan anymore. That would just be empty talk.”

Shun’s heart was moved, when he first became Zhao Hai’s servant, he didn’t expect anything. However, after coming under Zhao Hai’s retinue, his life became incomparable to before. Now, he wasn’t worried about his family, moreover he didn’t need to do a lot of dangerous tasks. Compared to his past situation, his present life could already be considered as heaven.

Because of this, Shun was very grateful to Zhao Hai from the depths of his heart. The doubts deep inside had long since disappeared. He took a deep breath and stabilized his emotions as he replied, “I thank young master for his care, if there’s any problems then rest a.s.sured that I will certainly inform the young master. “

Zhao Hai didn’t say anything as he patted Shun’s shoulder and walked forward.