Chapter 184

"Black Dragon! Set sail!"

At dusk, Gervas gave the order, and the sails of the Black Dragon swiftly unfurled.

Under the sea breeze, the streamlined warship shot out of the harbor like an arrow, racing northward.

Sugar, due to its high value, Gervas did not wish to sell it as openly as the single-lens telescope.

After all, while the market for the single-lens telescope is broad, one unit can last for years, even decades.

Sales volume is essentially fixed.

But sugar is different.

It is something like salt, tea, or spices—a necessity of daily life, with endless consumption.

Thus, to avoid drawing the attention of those with ill intent, Gervas hoped to conceal his identity as much as possible.

Though such concealment would clearly not last long, the longer he could hide, the more time he would have to grow!

…

"How is it? Any news?"

"Young Master Adams, the messengers sent to the Diaz, Henderson, and Tucker families have all returned; they all say they have no surplus honey reserves."

"I know they have no surplus honey—I want them to sell me all their existing honey! I'm willing to pay double the price, and I'll owe them a favor!"

That night, in the luxurious study of Austin Castle, Adams, the eldest son, had bloodshot eyes—he had not rested for three days.

He had intended to use this opportunity to host a splendid birthday celebration for his Hou Jue father, demonstrating his abilities as the eldest son and expressing his devotion to his father.

For this, he had begun preparations half a year in advance; though he encountered many difficulties over the months, he had resolved them one by one.

As the celebration drew near, he had assumed everything would proceed smoothly.

Then came the most fatal piece of news.

The honey he had ordered half a year in advance had been seized by pirates during transport!

Even after deploying the family fleet to destroy several suspect pirate bands, he could not recover the stolen honey.

The honey had vanished as if into thin air, leaving no trace.

Without honey, all sweet cakes and desserts at tomorrow's banquet would be ruined.

Thus, tomorrow's birthday celebration was doomed to fail.

"Young Master Adams, the messengers also conveyed this request… but all the families said that if they sold their personal honey reserves to you, they would have no honey to eat for the next six months."

"They cannot endure that—so they simply cannot sell it to you. Please understand!"

Adams' face flushed pale then red, but he could not complain.

Nobles simply could not endure life without honey.

A day or two was bearable, but six months of nothing but sour, bitter fruit preserves would kill them.

"What about the merchant guilds?"

"Young Master, we've asked the guilds multiple times; they still claim to have no honey in stock."

"Impossible. These bastards always had honey available at any time in past years—how convenient that they're all out of stock now that I need it! They've surely been warned!"

"Spread the word—I'll pay triple… no, I'll pay five times the price for honey!"

"Five times?" His subordinate gasped.

Honey costs twenty silver coins per kilogram—five times that would be one gold coin per kilogram?

For this banquet's consumption, at least seven or eight hundred kilograms of honey are needed—that's seven or eight hundred gold coins.

That's roughly the annual income of a viscount's domain.

Of course, that's not the point—the point is that the castle's "interested parties" certainly won't let Young Master Adams withdraw all those gold coins from the treasury.

So the premium will almost certainly come out of Young Master Adams' own pocket.

"If there's honey, I'll pay five times the price immediately—and I, Adams, will owe you a favor!"

"Yes, Young Master Adams!"

The subordinate hesitated no longer, swiftly leaving the study and heading toward the city of Odin.

Yet if the guilds within the city truly wished to sell honey, they wouldn't have waited until now.

After all, they all operated under the Austin family's shadow.

Thus, when the first rays of sunlight rose above the horizon the next day, the subordinate returned once more.

The news had not changed.

"Young Master Adams!"

"What's the situation?"

Adams stood by the window, gazing at the Hou Jue Castle, which was now growing increasingly noisy.

"I'm sorry, Young Master… I've failed."

The subordinate's face was filled with shame—he had knocked on the doors of every guild manager's home through the night, pleading and promising, but they all insisted they had no honey left!

"Enough. Go."

Adams' voice had never been so calm.

"Young Master…"

"I told you to go!"

As the subordinate withdrew, Adams' face finally showed a trace of desolation.

"I've lost. Evan, you've won."

Evan was Adams' younger brother, the second son of the Austin Hou Jue.

Notably, they were half-brothers.

Adams' mother died in childbirth when he was born; the following year, the Austin Hou Jue remarried, taking a daughter of a Duke family.

Evan was the child of this ducal daughter.

After this stepmother arrived and Evan was born, Adams' life was predictable.

To prevent his death, his maternal grandfather took him away from the Austin family as a child and raised him in his own earldom.

Only at age fourteen, once he was deemed capable of self-reliance, was he sent back to the Austin Castle.

After all, he was the eldest son of the Austin family.

In this land of primogeniture, that status was his foundation for a future comeback.

Of course, the ducal daughter, his stepmother, would never allow the title to fall to Adams.

Thus, for seven or eight years, both sides had been locked in covert struggle.

In the end, the ducal daughter's years of planning had outmaneuvered Adams, the eldest son.

No thought was needed—this honey incident was surely the work of his stepmother and his younger brother.

Otherwise, which pirate would be so foolish as to risk angering the Austin family over a few hundred gold coins' worth of honey?

Thinking of how the news of the missing honey would soon reach his father, Adams quietly slipped out of the study and rode alone from the castle.

Outside the castle, he realized he had nowhere to go and no one to confide his anguish to.

So he headed straight for the coast beyond Odin City.

…

"My lord, ahead lies Odin City. The grand castle atop the mountain beside the city is the Austin Hou Jue Castle!"

"Wood, find a suitable spot to anchor!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Pirate Wood… no, now he should be called Captain Wood of the Black Dragon!

Upon receiving Gervas' orders, he immediately directed the sailors to begin anchoring.

Since the Black Dragon was a warship with shallow draft, it did not require a dedicated port.

Finding a suitable bay, the Black Dragon was moored within minutes.

The gangplank lowered, and Gervas stepped onto the soft sand.

"Woodmigen, you stay with the Black Dragon. The rest, follow me!"

"Yes, my lord!"