331 Liberals (1/2)
Chapter 331: Liberals
Translator: Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion
Seeing that the coachman was being this emotional, Lucien almost burst out the answer—serve the people! Fortunately, he was able to stop himself in time and instead said to the coachman gently, ”It's just my conscience. It's what I should do.”
Maybe because opera was very important in Holm, the way that the coachman showed his gratefulness was also a bit dramatic.
Poc was not a poet and was also not very well educated, thus he kept repeating the words like ”thanks”, ”thank you”, ”survive”, ”farmer”, and ”harvest”.
Finally, the coachman realized what his job was, and he hurriedly said, ”Mr. Evans. I'm so sorry… I'm just too excited… Please, please get on the coach.”
”It's okay. We're not in any hurry,” said Lucien. He casually looked around and noticed that there were quite a few people looking at them out of curiosity, wondering why the coachman was using such a courtesy.
Lucien and Arthur got on the coach painted with a purple and red royal coat of arms, followed by Arthur's guards.
”Rustic countryman!” Arthur murmured. In his eyes, what Poc just did was a shame representing the royal family. However, he did not show it directly on his face. Instead, Arthur flattered Lucien, ”You're such an angel! An angel of harvest, ha! We are lucky that no one really got close to us on the platform, or you'd probably be thrown into the prison because the coachman just used the highest courtesy…”
Lucien looked aside as if he could see through the board of the coach, smiling, ”According to some historical documents, after the establishment of the Saint Truth, there were divinities of death, sun, moon, life and harvest/hunting, and then more gods and goddesses followed. Now, only a bit more than ten countries in the northwest beside the Dark Mountain Range were still worshiping them.”
Very long ago, human beings had started to worship the divinities, but most of the heritages failed to be retained because of the harsh, pre-historic environment. What was left were only some wall paintings. Meanwhile, when human beings were suffering at the bottom of the food chain, some people born with greater spiritual power gradually figured out how to cast magic using the special patterns of the magical creatures. Finally, the ancient magic empire arose.
Many years later, within the empire, nothing related to divinity could be found. Therefore, if a sorcerer wanted to study divinity, he or she needed to invade other dimensions.
The Saint Truth, together with the powers worshiping other divinities, defeated the ancient magic empire. Then, however, the Saint Truth, after growing strong, changed the side of the war and ended the power following other beliefs. Only some small countries in the far northwest managed to survive. Now, there was a subtle balance between these small countries and the countries of other races.
Hearing Lucien's words, Arthur didn't dare to make any improper comments. Although he was totally fine with working with sorcerers, and honestly speaking, he already started to doubt the Church after Creationism had been overthrown, what he was taught during his early childhood still had a great influence on him.
Lucien noticed the look on Arthur's face. So he switched the topic back to business. Then they had a pretty good conversation.
...
The party was held in a private villa beside Verosa River in Rentato. The villa faced the river that looked like a golden strip of light, and in the back, there was a big garden where many flowers were blossoming. The view was wonderful.
In the villa, Lucien saw Prince Patrick, Natasha's uncle, again. He looked even more aged and slim than a year ago. Lucien could hardly tell that the prince was only in his middle age.
”Welcome back, Evans. I thought it was going to take longer.” Holding a glass of wine, Patrick stood in front of his several guards who were protecting him from the cool wind from the patio, ”I've always been longing for a trip throughout the continent, but my health condition won't allow me to do so. By the way, how's my niece doing? She must be much taller now.”
Lucien grinned, ”Your Highness, Natasha's doing fine. She's gradually stepping out of her bad memories.”
The conversation was warm and casual, mostly about Natasha, Aalto and Lucien's trip. Patrick patted Lucien's shoulder and said, ”Evans, I'll introduce some friends to you before the dinner starts.”
Not coughing much, it looked that Patrick was in a good mood today.
Leading Lucien through the hall, the prince nodded to the several nobles slightly and then entered a separate room. Then the three nobles and a middle-aged man wearing a long black magic robe followed in.
”This is Count Hackson, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the kingdom,” introduced Patrick.
Count Hackson, the elder man wearing the white wig, had sharp blue eyes.
”This is Russell, Duke Wolfburg, and this is James, Duke Paphos. They're both very influential members in the Parliament.”