Chapter 538: See whose blood runs dry first

The dungeon of Campbell Castle.

Hearing the movement outside the iron gate, Count Derike opened his eyes, seeing the jailer with a cold face bringing today's dinner.

That was stew and bread, and fried pork chop.

But there were no knives, forks, or soup spoons, only a napkin and a bowl.

It seems the Grand Duke wants him to eat with his hands.

Not caring about this childish humiliation, Derike grinned at the corners of his dry mouth, throwing a tease at the jailer who threw down the plate.

"Is there a banquet outside?"

"Yes, Count."

"It seems they didn't catch any prey today, hehe."

Picking up the plate, Derike grabbed the greasy fried pork chop with his fingers, his expression seemingly indifferent, "Pass my greetings to your Grand Duke, and say that Count Derike wishes him success in catching his first wild rabbit tomorrow, and don't let the commoners take the lead."

"His Majesty the Grand Duke just arrived at Gelansidunbao today, I'm afraid I can't help you pass the message, sir, perhaps in a few days." Looking at the Count who was joking with him, the jailer also teased him politely.

"Oh?"

Derike's hand holding the pork chop paused, raising his eyebrows, his turbid eyes staring at the young man outside the iron gate.

"Is this year's summer hunt at my castle? When did he set off?"

Unbelievable, he hadn't expected Edward to be so bold; the entire Beifeng Valley count territory was Gelansidun family's people.

"His Majesty set off in the morning, together with guests from Lei Ming City."

Set off in the morning...

Count Derike's pupils contracted slightly, and on that relaxed face, a trace of faint panic finally appeared.

They had already arrived!

The June Luo Lan City was exceptionally hot, so much so that the Benliu River was still warm at night. Luo Ke couldn't help but optimistically think that perhaps this winter would be very warm.

The apartment in the central city district, a polished kerosene lamp dispelled the dimness of the room, and the time on the wall clock at this moment had just passed seven-thirty.

At the same time that the guests at Gelansidunbao were raising their glasses to celebrate the official opening of the first railway of the Royal Railway Company, Luo Ke also finally ended today's social engagement, sitting alone at the dining table to enjoy today's dinner.

If compared with the Grand Duke's banquet, this dinner of Campbell's "first grade" undoubtedly seemed a bit shabby.

However, compared to other middle-class gentlemen in Luo City, a bowl of rich stew plus a basket of toasted, buttery bread could already be considered a luxurious banquet.

And Luo Ke's strength was far more than that; two sausages fried with golden-brown skin and sizzling with oil, and the kerosene lamp placed at the corner of the table were all things that only the most powerful gentlemen were worthy of possessing.

Luo Ke forked a piece of sausage and sent it into his mouth, chewing carefully on the warmth that healed the heart, but couldn't help but miss his hometown.

In Lei Ming City, as long as you spend a silver pound, you could hire an adventurer to get a wild rabbit from the Yinsong Forest for yourself.

And if you went to Yinsong Town, the farmers there could serve you until your stomach couldn't hold it for your silver pound.

"... Praise Baron Weiketon, fortunately the fire extinguisher isn't settled in copper coins, otherwise I'm afraid the money I earned last month wouldn't be enough to buy this dinner today."

He muttered a sentence in his mouth, reaching out to take the second piece of bread. Just then, a rapid knocking sound came from outside the room.

"Knock knock—"

Luo Ke picked up the napkin to wipe his mouth and hands, sighed, signaled the manservant walking out of the kitchen to hand it to himself, and then got up from the chair and walked to the door.

"Who?"

"It's me! Sir, your assistant! Rui En!"

Confirming the voice outside the door, he pulled the door open, and a damp hot wind blew in from outside the door along with his actions.

"Why so late?"

"Sir, the Royal Guard sent documents, saying it's about the fire extinguisher procurement for the next quarter and the list of follow-up maintenance parts! I thought it was on the way, so I sent it to you..."

The young guy standing at the door shook the cowhide paper bag in his hand, looking dusty, with bangs and sweat stuck to his forehead.

The words in his mouth stopped abruptly halfway, and his gaze seemed to be stuck by superglue, nailed dead to the dining table behind Luo Ke.

"Gurgle—"

A slightly awkward sound echoed in the foyer of the apartment, also making the sallow cheeks of the guy burn.

As a profit-seeking merchant, Luo Ke's heart had always been very hard.

However, perhaps it was the bite of sausage just now that reminded him of his hometown, or perhaps the light in this room was too warm, making him unable to help but move a heart of compassion.

"Haven't eaten yet, right?"

Taking the document bag from Rui En's hand, he patted the guy's shoulder, squeezed a smile on his face, and closed the door behind him for him.

"I just happened to be eating... come in and eat something."

His original intention was to let Rui En sit down first, and then call the manservant to bring a new dinner from the kitchen, but hunger had already burned the reason and decency of this guy.

He didn't even have time to say a thank you, let alone be polite, scraping into the restaurant like a gust of wind.

And by the time Luo Ke came back to his senses, Rui En, who had sat down, had already reached out and dragged the half-eaten sausage and bread to his front.

In another blink of an eye, not only did the sausage disappear, but even the thick soup was half gone.

Luo Ke's hand, which had just been raised to greet the manservant, froze awkwardly in mid-air, finally silently withdrawing his hand, not having the heart to interrupt his wolfing down.

In just two minutes, the plate was cleaner than if a dog had licked it.

Probably because he was full, Rui En finally slowed down.

He clutched the last piece of toasted bread in his hand, using it to wipe up the remaining gravy at the bottom of the plate, his mouth stuffed full as he spoke indistinctly.

"Sir... um... you are truly a good person."

"Thank you... for the compliment?" Luo Ke poured him a glass of hot water while replying in an uncertain tone.

After all, he didn't think he was a good person.

"I'm not flattering you, I'm serious! Now the whole city can't buy such good bread, those bread masters are all rotten to the core, actually mixing sawdust into the bread! Saint Xisi is above, they are all going to hell!"

Rui En bit fiercely into the bread soaked with meat juice, as if wanting to bite some enemy.

"And those Campbell people, the King's guards said on the street that our food was snatched away by those greedy Campbell merchants! They used waste paper to cheat away our grain and meat, and also taught the bread masters bad things... Of course, you are different, you are a truly good person! No one has ever treated me so politely like you."

How fresh, on one side is waste paper, and on the other side can cheat away grain and meat... This sounds like a kind of humor of the left hand and right hand arm-wrestling.

If Luo Ke remembered correctly, the kingdom's manors were all in the hands of nobles, and he didn't remember himself being so smart and brave, able to steal those things from Miss Ma Rui's body.

Luo Ke placed the water cup in front of Rui En.

"Drink some water, don't choke."

"Tha, thank you..."

The guy held the cup with both hands, blowing air in small mouthfuls, and after filling his stomach, he finally remembered some decency.

Luo Ke looked at his clear eyes, but his heart was mixed with five flavors.

The Campbell Principality also had a bottom layer, for example, the serfs at Gelansidunbao had just eaten their fill, while the remote Count Sipinuo territory perhaps still had hungry ones; his sympathy hadn't yet flooded to the point of indignation for strangers in a neighboring country.

What really made him mixed with five flavors was that the people he could see around him had actually lost their heads.

For example, his assistant had clearly studied in a church school, having both knowledge and holy light in his heart, clearly the middle class of the Lei En Kingdom, yet he was ignorant to this extent.

Luo Ke admitted that his thoughts were a bit selfish, but he still couldn't help but think that Professor Ferguson's *Encyclopedia* would probably harm them.

After all, hating Campbell people was no problem at all, and this didn't hinder him, a Campbell person, from selling fire extinguishers, because fire extinguishers had Baron Weiketon's shares.

However, once these people walking in the fog got the matches and realized where the pain came from... before they lit the King's robe, they would definitely light themselves first.

"Actually, your King isn't completely wrong."

Luo Ke sighed lightly, putting the fire procurement list into the drawer, and gently closing the drawer.

With his back to Rui En's bewildered eyes, he finally couldn't bear it, and the conscience and ambition in his brain also fought.

"However, you are my assistant, I still have to tell you, the problem isn't on the Campbell people, nor is it on the Lei En people... The blood flowing in our bodies actually has no difference, we are all knights of the land of knights, we all believe in Saint Xisi, and even our glory is the same."

"Then... where is the problem?" The guy looked at him blankly, asking subconsciously, his clear pupils full of confusion, but there was also a trace of unwillingness to open his eyes to sobriety.

Luo Ke looked at his young face, and thought of the stonemason named Ba Er, the struggling heart falling into a struggle for a time.

The real answer was too cruel, so much so that he could only say it in a joking tone, and couldn't say it at all normally—

Because you are too cheap.

It's that simple.

The Lei En Kingdom didn't lack food, and the grain-producing area wasn't the Twilight Province, but the Golden Plain watered by the Benliu River.

However, they, like those crudely made copper coins, were also firmly in the hands of the nobles.

These gentlemen had no reason to sell good things to bread masters in exchange for those crudely made copper coins, because that was an unprofitable and superfluous thing.

After all, they could completely load the grain onto ships, sell them to Lei Ming City downstream in exchange for exquisite handicrafts, or let it go upstream to the Luo De Kingdom in exchange for the rich magic tools and mineral resources there.

Nobles always complained that citizens were mercenary, craftsmen were lazy, and farmers were stupid, but they didn't mention at all that they themselves, who were bathed in holy light, were the synthesis of all shortcomings.

Luo Ke couldn't help but think of Miss Ma Rui, who was almost the opposite of the "Miss Eloise" she worshipped.

His thoughts returned to last night.

On that soft big bed exuding the scent of lavender, Miss Ma Rui Langbane, who was in the heat of love with him, curled up in his arms like a sticky cat, telling him everything she knew without reservation.

She didn't go to Lei Ming City to play, but to follow her father—the shrewd Baron Langbane—to sweep up goods there.

And what they swept up wasn't just novel toilets and spring mattresses, but also real estate in the most prosperous areas of Lei Ming City.

Because Miss Ma Rui liked to watch plays, her father simply bought her a large piece of land, preparing to invest in a theater even more magnificent than the Prince Kelin Grand Theater.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg of the Langbane family's many investments.

As for the remaining money, they couldn't spend it at all, so they deposited it into the banks on Queen Street, exchanging it for stocks of the Prince Kelin Group and the Royal Railway Company, waiting for them to lay eggs.

Although the relationship between the Campbell family and the Devalu family had already dropped to the freezing point, Luo Ke wouldn't naively think that Edward would look at these generous Lei En nobles with cold eyebrows.

After all, the merchants in Lei Ming City were stingy to the extreme, and donating a steam engine to the school would make them stingy for a long time. And these noble Lei En nobles didn't care about profit or loss in their investments, only caring about the long term.

They slapped their heads and slapped the theater next to the new industrial zone; whether Miss Ma Rui would go there to watch didn't matter, it was cheap for the poor ghosts in Lei Ming City.

At the same time, Baron Weiketon was still having a headache in the office, trying to use the Royal Guard to squeeze the last drop of oil from the bread masters, just like when he used the Royal Guard to snatch the cake from the stonemason guild.

The bread masters willing to mix sawdust into the bread were instead the good people with the most conscience in Luo Lan City. At least those real gentlemen didn't steal or rob, and the probability of sawdust choking people to death wasn't high, better than him, a locksmith who helped thieves pick locks.

Luo Ke didn't tell this sad thing to the guy in front of him, and couldn't bear to break his dream, letting him know that he was also an accomplice in this conspiracy crime, and might not be able to escape the liquidation at the end.

He silently reached into the inner pocket of his coat, took out a banknote, and placed it gently on the corner of the dining table.

That was a paper banknote with a face value of one silver pound; a few months ago he had proposed using it to pay Rui En's salary, but was mocked by the other party.

And now, when that paper sheet as light as a feather was placed on the table, the eyeballs of this Lei En guy were like being sucked by a magnet, unable to move away at all.

"Take it."

Luo Ke pushed the banknote over gently.

"Go stroll around the wharf by the Benliu River, any wharf will do."

The largest black market in Luo Lan City was located by the Benliu River, especially that slum burned by the Winter Fire, which was the only place in the entire Luo Lan City that could still buy conscience, initially only supporting gold coin payment, later heard that it also supported Luo De Kingdom's silver coins and Campbell Principality's silver pounds.

This secret was shared with him by Sir Si Gaidejin of the Royal Guard, because Si Gaidejin also needed to eat.

Luo Ke's manservant used to take silver pounds to purchase daily necessities there. However, ever since he established a connection with Miss Ma Rui Langbane, he hadn't sent servants to purchase there for a long time.

Those good things that couldn't be bought with money were sent to his house every few days, and he rarely ate at his own house.

"You will find the flour you want, and bread..."

"And, the answer you want."

Clutching that hot paper sheet, Rui En left his boss's apartment in a daze, already unable to remember how he returned home.

Perhaps it was because he was too full, he fell asleep, sleeping until dawn, almost missing the time for work.

Fortunately, Mr. Luo Ke's company business wasn't busy, they didn't do ordinary people's business. Baron Weiketon, although having worried his hair white for His Majesty's treasury, didn't hinder his body from honestly reaching into His Majesty's treasury and taking his own share.

After all, Luo Lan City couldn't be without fire extinguishers, and the oil leaking from the wooden barrel was also to cultivate his own direct line, ultimately helping His Majesty.

Just when Baron Weiketon was comforting himself, the Lei En guy named Rui En was also comforting himself, coming to the side of the Benliu River with that hot paper sheet after work.

Ships were coming and going on the Benliu River, but not many ships stopped at the wharf. And those bread masters called good people by Mr. Luo Ke also mostly closed early, not knowing where they went. ===== CHAPTER 539 =====