Chapter 57 Renting a Boat

The women's protest in the Imperial City concluded with the sudden death of Duke Darocross. Furious about the incident, the Emperor personally issued a critical directive demanding the severe punishment of the Duke's assassin.

Guards swarmed the streets in groups, armed with swords and spears, knocking on doors from house to house, dragging out the female occupants preparing meals to interrogate them, and arresting hundreds within a matter of days.

Various media outlets fiercely condemned the protesting masses, labeling them as "rioters," "executioners," and "sinners bound for hell." Even the Amazon Association, previously renowned for its unyielding posture, did not dare to brazenly swim against the prevailing current of public opinion.

Her Majesty the Empress maintained absolute silence on the matter. When questioned about it during a high-society salon among noblewomen, she merely offered a cold and detached "Handle it according to the law," and said no more.

Anyone with even a shred of intelligence could perceive that appeasing the Darocross family and pacifying the rage of the Imperial City's nobility had already become the consensus among the grand figures at the top.

Rayan Fahel, commander of the Imperial Garrison, resigned to shoulder the blame, and the palace promptly announced the name of the next commander:

Ryloth Darocross.

As everyone knew, the illustrious Imperial Prime Minister Nemoton had reigned for over forty years, pushing the prestige of the Darocross family to its absolute zenith—which meant the only way left to go was downhill.

Following Nemoton's passing, his descendants never attained any court position for the rest of their lives, making it abundantly clear that the royal family would never permit a second Nemoton to emerge.

One could only say that Duke Darocross's death came at a brilliantly opportune moment, perfectly shattering the royal family's confinement of the Darocross lineage. His death yielded greater contributions to his family than he ever could have achieved in a lifetime of living.

Ryloth Darocross, though sharing the same surname as Rayan, possessed a temperament that was diametrically opposed; he belonged to that breed of aloof, out-of-touch young aristocrats.

On his very first day in office, he announced plans to overhaul the finances, audit the accounts, and demanded that all imperial guards turn over every single copper of the security and cleaning taxes they collected directly to the public treasury.

Magus dropped veiled hints to him, explaining that by long-standing tradition, a portion of these taxes was set aside to fund the guards' field operations. In response, Ryloth screamed at him in a furious tirade, threatening to "drive you tax-thieves out of the barracks altogether."

That threw the entire garrison into an uproar.

With the meager salaries paid to the imperial guards, supporting a family was simply out of the question. Everyone relied on collecting taxes from local shops to put food on the table, yet this newly appointed commander wanted to ban it with a single word?

Brothers, it's time to revolt!

An open rebellion was obviously out of the question, so the Golden Cloak captains held a private meeting and decided to write a letter to Rayan, who was currently returning to the Riverbend Province, to brief him on the situation in the Imperial City.

The sky does not brook two suns; in our hearts, there is only one sun, and that is Rayan Fahel. As for this Ryloth... some unknown nobody, is there a way to make him pack up and get lost?

When Rayan received the letter, the family caravan was resting temporarily in the Riverlands.

The return journey carried many court-bestowed treasures presented by Her Majesty the Empress, and they had to be wary of bandits along the way, making their pace much slower than the trip there.

After reading the letter sent by Magus, Rayan paused in brief contemplation before promptly picking up his pen and writing:

"Regardless of what orders the new commander issues, first gather and preserve all corresponding evidence, and then execute his commands with two hundred percent effort."

As he wrote the letter, Ellyrina happened to be seated beside him, her peripheral vision catching the contents of his reply.

With the Elven Princess's fully rounded court education, she naturally understood what "executing with two hundred percent effort" implied.

Ryloth Darocross would not last much longer in that position.

Inherently evil necromancers were always this cunning, though fortunately, that Ryloth was no saint either. Two villains locked in mutual combat—regardless of which of them ultimately failed and descended into the abyss—could only be considered a blessing for this world.

Such was Ellyrina's assessment, though she privately considered herself among the villains bound for hell.

Rayan, come away with me.

When the procession reached the banks of the Longwater River, a fleet flying the banners of the Night Wraith Legion had already been waiting there for quite some time.

Ellyrina could not help but glance once more at Rayan's profile.

Was the fleet here to pick him up? When had he ever been in contact with the Night Wraith Legion?

Unfortunately, because extracting answers from Rayan required incurring a personal favor, Ellyrina was mostly reduced to observation, guesswork, and deduction.

Rayan never did anything without a purpose, so his stop here was not merely a casual detour to visit the Night Wraith Legion's garrison, but rather a deliberate trip to see Legion Commander Claudius for a specific matter.

Then what could that matter be?

Combined with Rayan's upcoming destination of the Rainforest Peninsula, the answer was practically jumping out at them:

To borrow ships.

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"As you can see, our Night Wraith Legion indeed possesses a vast number of vessels." Legion Commander Claudius led the group on a tour of the port along the Longwater. "However, the overwhelming majority of them are in active service and cannot be spared."

"The total area of the Riverbend Province is roughly equivalent to all four borders of the Empire combined. Furthermore, rivers are ubiquitous and water networks are dense; once vessel supplies become insufficient, it severely constrains the mobility of our legion's soldiers."

"Mm." Rayan naturally knew that everything his counterpart said was the truth. "I am not looking to lease vessels currently in active service. What about those that have exceeded their service life?"

The moment Rayan hit upon the crux of the matter, Claudius knew this fellow could not be easily fooled.

All military equipment had a service lifespan, and vessels were naturally no exception. Every year, the empire's appropriations to various garrison legions included funds specifically designated for equipment replacement.

As for whether retired military equipment was completely broken and unusable, or if the legion had alternative arrangements for it, the imperial authorities did not keep overly strict oversight.

The Night Wraith Legion's approach was simple: sell them.

In a region crisscrossed by rivers like the Riverbend, traveling by boat was frequently much more convenient than riding a horse. The demand for merchant vessels among both nobles and trade caravans was far from small. Some had even privately signaled the Night Wraith Legion that they would buy up every single ship offered at whatever price the legion named, with terms entirely negotiable.

Of course, the fundamental objective of stationing the Night Wraith Legion in the Riverbend Province was to ensure that the Riverbend nobility posed no threat to the Empire. Consequently, providing long-term financial or material backing to specific noble houses to the point of allowing their strength to balloon out of control was strictly prohibited—that would merely be inviting trouble upon oneself.

What about the Fahel family, then?

As the border margrave family guarding the south of the fertile lands, the Fahels were actually the type of ally the Night Wraith Legion trusted most. This was because they bore the ceaseless threat of the wild elf tribes inhabiting the southern mountain ranges.

Should they ever raise the banner of rebellion, the Fahel grand army might march into the fertile lands on one end, only to turn around and find their own SeaRock City sacked by savages on the other.

Politically speaking, this business transaction was entirely viable, leaving only the question of the price.

After careful consideration, Claudius quietly flashed two hand gestures at Rayan and spoke:

"Vessel count, price."

"All small-scale ships?" Rayan confirmed.

"Of course." The Legion Commander answered decisively. "Larger models cannot possibly be sold to nobility. But to my knowledge, your SeaRock City is hardly lacking in shipbuilding capacity."

Indeed, the Fahel family's shipyards on Salt Island did not lack shipbuilding capability; what they lacked was shipbuilding efficiency.

With lizardman refugees from across the entire Rainforest Peninsula needing to be evacuated, the family's existing fleets were utterly insufficient. And the White Walkers certainly would not wait around for Rayan to spend several years building an adequate armada before launching a full-scale assault.

Therefore, leasing a massive quantity of vessels from the Night Wraith Legion was a deal that had to be struck.

Rayan quickly recalculated the rental costs in his mind and realized the Legion Commander was still offering a friendly discount rate.

Deal!