Chapter 640 - Contracting System (1/2)

Chapter 640 Contracting System

The King of Fareins was named Edward, but people generally called him His Majesty King Fareins, or His Majesty the King.

Edward, a fairly popular, common name for eighty thousand if not a hundred thousand people in the entire world, was not called that to his face anymore after he ascended the throne.

So when Roland called him His Majesty King Edward, he froze for quite a while, and only then did he remember that this was his name.

“It’s been twenty years, hasn’t it?” Edward clicked his tongue in irritation. “I’d almost forgotten I was called that.”

Roland shrugged; after all, it was Stephanie who said that the king’s name was Edward.

Although under normal circumstances, he should be referred to as His Majesty King Fareins, Stephanie was also a Fareins, so… it was easier to distinguish by simply calling him by his first name.

It was a family feast, and in a side room of the palace, His Majesty the King sat at the main table, and to his left sat Her Majesty the Queen, newly promoted for less than three years. Opposite the Queen sat Stephanie, and as for Roland, he sat opposite the King.

The king took a sip of fruit wine from a golden cup encrusted with fancy green gems and said, “Roland, I hear you want to talk about some business with me? What kind of business?”

“People.”

“Since when did you turn into a slave trader?” The king scratched his head, feeling somewhat awkward. “We forbid slave trade in Fareins, though this law is almost nonexistent for the great nobles, who still deal in slaves secretly. But you, a Mage… don’t have much influence here, only backed by the Association of Mages, as well as Stephanie. And talking about strength, you have a little but not enough to let you openly deal in slavery on my land.”

This king seemed to be a bit of a bigmouth. Was it appropriate to speak of the dark side of his own country to an outsider like him?

“It’s not slave-trading, we’re saving some humans from the Realm of Devils,” Roland said.

Now Edward was interested.

He put down his knife and fork and asked curiously, “Are you trying to say that you Golden Sons are ready to take on the Realm of Devils?”

“Indeed.”

The king pondered for a moment and laughed. “I know that you Golden Sons generally have a stronger sense of justice, so I can understand that you intend to save the humans who were taken captive by the devils in the past, but the question is… what benefits do we, Fareins, get from it!”

Roland said, “A large number of people.”

“That’s not enough.”

Not enough?

In this world, population was very important.

Because of the high premature death rate, even the population density of Fareins wasn’t high.

Another reason was that their country was super large. If a comparison had to be made, it was roughly America plus Australia. It was easy to accommodate a hundred or two hundred million people in such a country with a low population density.

And the people of this world were quite easy to support; just give them a piece of land and a house, and they would be able to feed themselves.

Of course, this was in the absence of natural or man-made disasters.

And a country that suddenly had an extra hundred or two hundred million people was bound to have access to an extremely high resource for as long as it could support them.

The population could also be converted into combat power.

The nobles everywhere were happy to recruit an extra group of tenant farmers to their empty territories.

And the king who had the substantial power to distribute the population could surely receive greater benefits with a little work. These are real benefits… Even so, he’s still not satisfied?

Roland frowned.

Looking at Roland’s puzzled expression, Edward clapped his hands and said, “Indeed, what you offer is very interesting and of great importance, worth many gold coins. But I am the king, I have enough gold coins; I do not need so many of these useless things, you understand? I need something more interesting, more pleasurable.”

Putting it that way, Roland understood immediately.

“Please, Your Majesty, build an expeditionary force to participate with us. Normally, they won’t need to fight, but we, the Golden Sons, will announce to the public that this expeditionary plan was made possible by His Majesty King Edward, and that it was you who provided the funds and intelligence so that we could enter the Realm of Devils and bring those miserable fellow humans back.”

“Hahahahahaha!”

Edward laughed heartily as he poured himself a glass of wine and downed it before continuing with a wide grin. “Smart, it’s a pleasure talking to someone like you.”

“You flatter me. It’s all because of your great foresight, Your Majesty King Edward.”

Roland had never been fond of bootlicking, but when he thought about the humans who were raised as pigs by the devils and were so miserable, Roland felt that it was not a bad idea to bootlick for the sake of justice.

Edward laughed again at this, looking quite happy. Stephanie looked at Roland, rather surprised. In her mind, Roland was an extremely arrogant person… arrogant to no end. She even had a feeling that Roland might think nothing of the gods.

But now he was bootlicking… not for money, not for power, but simply to resettle some rescued humans, and he was sucking up to her arrogant, conceited, and extremely clueless father!

It must’ve been hard for him.

And the queen, who was sitting on the side, was also a little surprised. It was the first time she had seen the king so happy.

Indeed… the more Edward looked at Roland now, the more pleasing he seemed.

He wasn’t very tolerant of alcohol and was already a little drunk after a few cups, and his mouth was even less controlled.

He spoke about everything.

For example, what kind of relationship he had with some noble family’s lady, and what kind of affair he had some time ago.

The military minister was actually impotent, and then the youngest son of General Biden and his sister-in-law had unspeakable secrets.

Roland crinkled his eyes at this and gave Stephanie a series of looks, telling her to mind her old man.

But the expression on Stephanie’s face was flat, as if she was not surprised. It was the queen who fidgeted a bit. Although a bit tipsy, Edward wasn’t truly drunk, and as he watched Roland give Stephanie the occasional wink, he laughed and said, “By the way, I heard that you and my eldest daughter have quite an ambiguous relationship!”

“No,” Roland denied flatly.

Stephanie also shook her head. “Roland keeps his hands clean; he only has two women!”

“Heh, who are you fooling.” Edward naturally didn’t believe it. “There is no such thing as pure friendship between a man and a woman. Besides, my daughter is so beautiful.”

Roland was slightly bummed out.

He suddenly felt that this king was not at all kingly.

Instead, he kind of seemed like a street punk.

“So Roland, do you think my daughter tastes good?” continued Edward.

Roland sighed. “I really don’t have that kind of relationship with Her Highness, the First Princess.”

“Heh!” Edward had a “just keep pretending” look. “My daughter is beautiful and has a great body, as beautiful as a goddess. How sexy and seductive! If she wasn’t my daughter, I’d…”

A glass of red fruit wine drizzled over Edward’s head.

The king was instantly almost fully sobered up from his tipsiness.

Stephanie said glumly, “Father, I hope your mouth would say less misleading things. It’s because you keep saying things like that that I have an extremely bad reputation in the capital.” Edward wiped his face. “It’s just that those people have dirty minds.” The queen covered her face with her hands, no longer having the face to watch.

Stephanie sat back in her chair and stopped talking

“All right. Let’s talk about some business,” King Edward said while wiping his hair and face with a white towel. “I will send an expeditionary force, but this expeditionary force is full of noble sons and daughters, so don’t expect them to go into battle. But if anyone dares to disobey you and mess around… you can teach them a lesson on my behalf, got it?”

Roland nodded. When it came to business, the king was still quite reliable.

“So Roland, I have a question I’ve been holding back for a long time that I want to ask you.”

“Your Majesty, please go ahead!”

“I heard that you stole the heart of the Queen of Hollevin, how did you do it?” Then he pointed to the queen beside him. “Try it on her. I want to see what you are capable of that makes a queen willing to go with a poor Mage like you.”

The queen’s face went ashen!