Chapter 1540: Unexpected Reunion of Old Friends

When he left Grandma Natalie's tailor shop, the time was just noon. Because he had prepared lunch for Mia before going out, Xia De didn't have to rush back.

He had a lot of things to do here, but considering that he was not particularly familiar with the whole area, Xia De returned to Green Lake Hotel for lunch, then took a carriage, intending to go to Mikaela Furnace City in the south to take a look.

Although the two cities were located in different countries, due to the special nature of the era, crossing the border was actually quite easy. After getting on the carriage, Xia De also chatted with the coachman who was wearing a straw hat to block the sunlight about the local customs, and then learned from him that generally speaking, traveling between the two places did not require inspection.

It was just that after it was determined that the two-nation negotiations would be held in the Green Lake area some time ago, border areas established checkpoints for inspection. But it was not difficult for locals if they wanted to avoid it. This was a plain area, and there were no barbed wire or isolation walls between Delarion and Karsenrik, only checkpoints on the main roads. And if they were not afraid of trouble, they could even travel back and forth by boat through Green Lake.

After leaving the urban area, the carriage drove on the country road. Because communication between the two cities was frequent, the country road was also well repaired, and the level was similar to that outside Tobesk.

Xia De knew that the two cities were very close, but he didn't expect them to be so close. In fact, less than five minutes after leaving the urban area of Green Lake City, he could see from the carriage window in the distance on the southern horizon, tall chimneys standing in rows, spraying black smoke into the sky. Large patches of buildings were piled up on the horizon. Just seeing the distant view of the city, one could feel the prosperity there.

"Sir, look at the air in Green Lake City, which is so bad, but we don't have so many steam factories here, can you guess the reason?"

On the bumpy carriage, the coachman also noticed Xia De looking into the distance, so he asked him in a chatty tone.

Xia De said quite firmly:

"The industry in Green Lake City is not developed, so it is the pollution of Mikaela Furnace City that spread to Green Lake City?"

"Yes, the Green Lake area blows south wind all year round, and the black smoke from the chimneys of the factories that make glass in the City of Glass will eventually drift to us. So although Green Lake City doesn't have many factories, it is like the City of Glass, foggy all year round. I heard that Tobesk City is also gray and foggy all year round, I don't know if it is the same as ours."

The coachman's voice came from the wind, and Xia De continued to look at the southern city with narrowed eyes:

"Don't the locals have any opinions on this? I heard people say that living in such a fog is easy to get lung disease."

"Of course there are opinions, and even many people want the City of Glass to compensate us for the cost of air pollution. The newspapers have talked about this many times, so even a coachman like me can say a few words. But this kind of thing is pulled and pulled, who can say clearly? The Pantanal area has valuable trade routes, which is worth the kingdom to negotiate, but what do we have here?"

The coachman said, Xia De nodded, and just as he wanted to say something else, the coachman reminded:

"Sir, in a while, I can only send you to the border checkpoint, and then you have to take another carriage on the other side to enter the city."

"Kingdom checkpoint, don't they allow you to cross the border?"

"Of course not, but crossing the border is the territory of Mikaela Furnace City. How could the local coachmen allow us northerners to make money on their land?"

The coachman said with a smile, flicking the reins to make the running horse faster.

The so-called border checkpoint was responsible by the Delarion Army, similar to the "Red Water Camp" Xia De saw on Xikar Mountain. The military camp was established near the border. Travelers passing through the checkpoint needed to have their luggage checked and register the reason for crossing the border.

If it were a carriage carrying goods, it would need to wait for a long time, but for pedestrians like Xia De who didn't even have luggage, they only needed to queue up for registration.

The coachman sent Xia De to the entrance of the checkpoint and told Xia De many ways to deal with the soldiers' difficulties. And when Xia De paid the fare, he gave an extra 1 shilling, and the coachman took off his hat to express his gratitude to Xia De.

Xia De planned to spend the whole afternoon in the City of Glass, and even thought about buying a few glass artworks to take home as gifts for friends. So he didn't carefully observe the camp, but entered the muddy camp post because it had rained in the past few days, and soon found the place to queue for registration.

Waiting in line here were mostly villagers from nearby, old women carrying baskets, farm women with children, traveling merchants carrying backpacks, and even young travelers traveling together. Fortunately, although there were many people in line, the registration speed was fast, so Xia De didn't have to worry about wasting too much time.

However, he had been in line for less than two minutes when he caught sight of a rather familiar figure at the edge of his vision. Xia De paused for a moment:

"Didn't see wrong, right?"

【It is your friend.】

The Outlander's face showed joy. He took the initiative to leave the team, waved his hand, and shouted at the figure in the distance:

"Captain Lades!"

The middle-aged officer who was checking the shift situation of the night patrol with his subordinates turned around. After seeing Xia De waving, he was also stunned, but immediately recognized Xia De who was disguised with witch eye shadow:

"Ham... Mr. Watson?!"

He said in surprise, then walked over quickly with a smile and shook hands with Xia De tightly. "Eight-Gun Captain" Lades, on this ordinary early spring afternoon, met Xia De unexpectedly in a distant foreign land again.

Relying on the border checkpoint and military camp, there were hotels and taverns in the "Crossroads Village" outside the camp. In this strange land, the two friends who met unexpectedly left the camp temporarily and came to the country tavern.

Pushing the door and entering the tavern, people automatically gave way to the road inside after seeing the dress of Captain Lades. After sitting down, Xia De opened his mouth to ask:

"Captain Lades, I really didn't expect to meet you here. Since you won the 'Gold Star Medal' and left Tobesk in January, this is our first meeting, right? Oh, aren't you stationed in the Pantanal area, serving as the camp commander?"

Xia De asked curiously, quite happy to meet a friend in a foreign land.

The fat woman wearing an apron and a headscarf delivered beer in wooden mugs to them through the noisy crowd. Probably because of the uniform on Captain Lades, she was quite polite to the two.

"Thank you, just put it here. Oh, Mr. Watson, now Delarion and Karsenrik are gathering troops at the border. Our early deployment troops have to be rotated to let elite troops enter the camp, so I was transferred here."

Talking about this, Captain Lades was quite worried:

"I was the camp commander in the Pantanal area for two months, and two weeks ago, I was transferred here to be responsible for border registration by a transfer order. Although there are more things to manage and more people under my command, I have become the deputy camp commander."

"The two-nation negotiation is a major event, maybe it can make you make great contributions like on Xikar Mountain, and then go further."

Xia De comforted.

"In my opinion, it is possible in the Pantanal area where the smell of gunpowder is strong, but here..."

The captain sighed.

"Be careful."

Xia De reminded, the captain looked left and right cautiously, nodded, picked up the wine glass and took a sip:

"However, there are advantages here. The big swamp was too humid, and there were so many insects in the camp that it was scary. I have never seen so many insects in my life. Although the Green Lake area has poor air quality, at least the camp is very clean, and there is a small tavern by the camp. In the big swamp, you have to say hello to the quartermaster in advance if you want to drink a glass of light wine."

There were quite a lot of guests in the tavern. The captain looked left and right again, then lowered his voice slightly:

"In my opinion, this negotiation is definitely not simple. I also have connections in the army, and many people think that there must be at least one small-scale contact battle before the negotiation can have results. However, it is unlikely that we will fight here, it is probably still the Pantanal area."

This made Xia De think of the topic about negotiations and war that he had talked about with Lei Qianya again:

"If we can not fight, it is better to be more peaceful."

"Yes, I don't want to fight either, but it's hard to say what the big shots above are thinking. What we care about is our military pay and lives, what they care about may be 'greater interests'."

The captain shook his head. He was not eagerly longing for war or pessimistic about the world, but just felt that the possibility of fighting was greater based on experience.

Of course, while reminiscing about the past, Xia De didn't forget to talk about his purpose of coming to the Green Lake area. Captain Lades vaguely knew that Xia De was not an ordinary person, so he didn't ask how Xia De came.

"I was entrusted by someone to investigate an ancient family locally. It is the Edwards family that once existed on the island in the center of Green Lake."

"I know this."

The captain pointed to the direction of Green Lake outside the window:

"After I was transferred here, my superiors said a lot of precautions. One of them is that under no circumstances are you allowed to land on the central island of Green Lake. This sounds very strange, that place is clearly a good water port and is a recognized territory of Delarion."

Thinking of the terrifying things that appeared in the Battle of Xikar Mountain, the captain withdrew his sight from the window and asked his friend across the table cautiously:

"So, on that island..."

"I haven't investigated yet, but it's definitely not safe."

Captain Lades nodded slowly:

"Now that you say so, I understand. It seems this world is more dangerous than I thought. Oh, were you queuing to cross the border just now? In a while, I will give you a special pass, so you don't have to queue for inspection in the future, just show the pass."