Imperial Crown

The business alliance proposed by Raven was unanimously agreed. Every noble wanted to benefit from it and ensure their own interests as much as possible.

So the meeting, or rather the bickering, began.

For this meeting, Raven was quite well prepared mentally. After all, when discussing military merits, it took more than ten days.

But Raven still overestimated the efficiency of the nobles.

It was said that there would be a meeting, but in fact, the time for serious discussion did not even exceed two hours a day.

Breakfast should be eaten well.

After eating, there was grinding of teeth and bickering. It was lunch time without any results. After lunch, there was a nap and a walk in Eagle Town in the afternoon.

Dinner was rarely provided by Eagle Castle, because at this time the nobles would scatter into the streets and alleys of Eagle Town, eat at Wallace Hotel, go to Lion King's Pride Tavern for entertainment, and enjoy the fun brought to them by Crystal Palace, Paramount Hall and Arena.

This process lasted for nearly a month, until the beginning of February, when Raven dragged everyone to the conference table for a day to finally finalize the details of the business alliance.

The goods of the nobles of Xuefeng County must be sold through the alliance. Transactions within the alliance enjoy preferential prices, and the Mon'en City Chamber of Commerce is also considered a member of the alliance.

The headquarters is located in Xiongying Town, and various nobles jointly invest in a business center.

For this reason, Raven also "cut flesh and make concessions". The Angel's Tears, which originally cost 2.88 gold coins, only cost 2.6 gold coins if purchased by members of the alliance; the Angel's Kiss, which cost 99.99 gold coins, has been reduced to 98 gold coins; the Angel's Embrace, which cost 6.9 silver coins, has been reduced to 5.5 silver coins.

Everyone praised Raven's generosity.

Of course, the premise is that they don't know the production costs of these three products at all.

In contrast, although it is located in a remote area, the nobles in Xuefeng County also have their own specialties, such as flowers and fruits produced in Ms. Doreen's territory; high-quality wood in Baron Kate's territory; copper mines produced in Viscount Brocka's territory; cotton cloth in Baron Wessin's territory...

These things can be supplied to Eagle Territory at preferential prices, which reduces Eagle Territory's production costs by at least 15%.

After eliminating tariffs and storage costs, not only is the purchase price lower, but the actual profit of each family will increase.

There is no middleman to make a profit.

However, it is another price to the outside world. At this time, Raven is the middleman.

After all, it is better to be a platform than a channel.

After the details were determined, although many nobles still missed Eagle Town, they still had business to do, and they all set out on the return journey.

The departure of these people made Raven breathe a sigh of relief. He finally had the leisure time to enjoy life, and he didn't have to think about how to deal with those guys every day when he opened his eyes.

After sleeping for a whole day and night, Raven, whose muscles and bones were relaxed, finally woke up from the bed.

He took a bath and changed clothes with the help of Petty, and had breakfast in his bedroom.

Thanks to the establishment of the Merchant Alliance, Baron Seleva sent rice, a specialty of his territory, and breakfast was white porridge cooked with it.

The quality of this rice is quite good, crystal clear, distinct grains, and slender rice. After boiling, it naturally exudes a rich rice fragrance. You don’t have to eat it, just smelling it is a kind of enjoyment.

Blow away the hot air on the porridge bowl, scoop a spoonful into your mouth, and the saliva breaks down the starch melted in the porridge into sugar, which is both fragrant and sweet. After taking a bite, you can’t help but take a second bite. With the pickled crisp cabbage, dried radish and wild garlic, Raven quickly filled a bowl of porridge into his stomach.

Indeed, this kind of breakfast only has carbon water and is not healthy.

But this is Raven’s taste. He can’t change it and doesn’t want to change it. After eating it this time, he will want it next time.

After eating three bowls of porridge in a row, Raven felt full of energy. Suddenly, he found that Petty was looking at him secretly, so he asked, "Are you worried?"

Petty shook her head, then nodded, "I heard some rumors recently..."

Raven raised his eyebrows, "Tell me about it."

Petty whispered, "That is to say, you are going to confer knights..."

"Oh, I see." Raven nodded calmly, but did not continue to express his opinion. Petty did not say anything more.

Raven did mention the canonization of knights to others in the meeting.

The reason was that many nobles said in the chat that Raven was a baron, his territory was larger than that of a viscount, but he did not have a knight under his command, which was really outrageous.

I don't know which servant or noble was too talkative and spread the content of the chat.

Not only Petty, but now the entire Raven's territory, including the Snow Maple Territory and the Eagle Territory, has heard the news.

Xuefeng Town's political officer Kuman was also among them. After hearing the news, he sighed with regret.

He knew that he had no chance, after all, he had been with Raven for too short a time and had not experienced any twists and turns together.

Despite this, he still mustered up his strength and continued to urge the construction of the two new factories.

He definitely had no chance this time, but he might not be without it next time!

As a political officer, Philip's thoughts were different. Since he got the news, in addition to handling daily affairs, he had only this matter in his mind.

His family had been doing business for generations, and because of this, he had a clearer understanding of the title.

No matter how successful a businessman is, he is just a pig or sheep to be slaughtered, while a knight has the qualification to eat meat at the table.

Feli's heart was burned, but every time he came home and saw his wife and daughter - although these two people didn't talk to Feli very much now - Feli would think of Baron Raven's restraint and calmness. He will calm down and analyze whether he has the possibility of being canonized.

The final conclusion is that there is no conclusion.

Although he has followed Raven for a long enough time, his specific achievements are actually lackluster.

It would be a big surprise if he could really get the knighthood; if not, then Fili wouldn't be surprised either.

There is still a long way to go, Baron Raven is still very young, and Fili can afford to wait.

Old Gordon also heard this rumor.

At first, he actually didn't take it too seriously.

Baron Raven would definitely discuss such an important matter with him, but he had never heard of it, so the news was destined to be false.

Moreover, in the history of the Griffith family, there is no precedent for canonizing a butler as a knight.

But after listening to it a lot, Old Gordon couldn't help but be a little tempted.

If Baron Raven really wants to be knighted, he will always have to fight for himself shamelessly.

At Old Gordon's age, no matter how great the title or the money, he would never bring it with him in life or death.

What he cares about is his granddaughter, Fiona.

This child is good at everything, smart and beautiful, but she doesn't know anything about the world. If she marries someone with a temperament like hers, she will definitely be pinched if she has a strong natal family.

If Old Gordon can become a knight, then Fiona will be a child of a knight family, and the scope of mate selection can also be extended to the aristocratic circle, which will be a guarantee for her future.

Taking a step back, even if Fiona becomes an old girl and cannot get married, Old Gordon can still hand over the knighthood to Fiona to inherit.

Although there are not many such things, there are precedents.

"It's nothing to be looked down upon by others." At this age, Old Gordon has looked away from many things: "Living well is the real thing."

As an "old man" who followed Raven from the beginning, Eric did not have the meticulous thinking of Old Gordon. He was stuck in the military camp and rarely had contact with the outside world, and he did not even hear the news.

On this day, Eric returned home. His son Thor was wearing a suit of large armor that didn't fit well. He held a sword in both hands and said harshly to the mirror: "Hurry up and salute Knight Thor!"

"Hello, Lord Knight."

"Well, that's a good point." After responding casually, Thor felt something was wrong. He turned around and saw Eric, his face froze: "Father, why are you back...?"

Eric said angrily: "If I don't come back, I'm afraid you won't be a knight, but a king, right?"

"I told you, your basic skills are not up to par yet, it's too early to put on armor now, take it off!"

Thor nodded immediately, took off his helmet, and then began to remove the armor hurriedly.

His appearance is sixty percent similar to Eric's. His face is square and he doesn't have one big eye and one small eye like Eric. Instead, he inherited his mother's big eyes.

Although he is only sixteen years old, he already looks a bit as powerful as his father.

"Father, I can't take off this breastplate."

Hearing these words, Eric snorted, walked behind him and began to remove his armor, instructing him: "It's a good thing that you are ambitious, but this is Eagle Castle, so you can't talk nonsense..."

"I'm not talking nonsense!" Thor defended: "Now there are crazy rumors outside, saying that the Baron is preparing to canonize a group of knights - you must be here!"

"You are already a knight, so it doesn't matter if I call myself a knight..."

Eric stopped moving his hand: "Are you telling the truth?"

"Really! If you don't believe me, just ask, my mother also knows!" Thor said.

"You know, but you can't talk nonsense!" Eric said with a stern face: "What will people think when you call yourself this now? Will they think that I am arrogant and arrogant, and use this to force the Baron to grant me a knighthood?" ?”

"In this world, there are many people who are angry and people who are laughing. Don't say that this incident is just a rumor. Even if it is true, it will not be safe until the day when it is confirmed!"

At this point, Eric had already helped his son take off his breastplate. Seeing that he still didn't understand, he reached out and patted his back: "Take off the rest and hang it on the shelf. Take care of yourself again, remember, don’t talk nonsense!”

"Oh, okay!" Thor nodded, hugged the breastplate and left.

After his son left, Eric stood in front of the bronze mirror, looked at himself, raised a smile on his lips, coughed, and whispered: "Hurry up and salute Sir Eric, the knight!"

After saying that, he laughed.

At the same time, in Meng'en City, as a batch of goods arrived from Xuefeng County, rumors about the canonization of knights also spread to Vesdon.

Since becoming the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Denise, who was already clean and aloof, has become even more aloof. Not only does she never attend any private receptions, she rarely attends even business receptions.

Businessmen who wanted to close relationships and please Denise had no choice but to start with Vesdon. No matter where he went to spend money or what he bought, there would be people rushing to pay the bill.

And Weisidong is no longer the playboy he was before. He spends his own money to eat and drink, and he will never let any favor go in vain.

Therefore, many businessmen pushed their children towards Vesdon intentionally or unintentionally, and accompanied him to eat, drink and have fun. Vesdon was also happy to be held up in the clouds, and there were many "doglegs" gathered around him.

No, as soon as the news came, before Vesdon himself said anything, his friends started to support him.

"Knight Veswinter, my God, you are going to become a knight!"

"Lord Knight, do you need some followers? What do you think of me?"

"Forget it. Even if Wei Dong chooses, he must choose someone with a better figure, such as the girl who sang on the stage just now!"

There was a burst of laughter, and someone with a short-sightedness asked: "Veston, do you really want to become a knight? This news can't be false."

Immediately, someone next to me said, "Can this be false? Baron Raven loves Master Vesdon the most! He deserves to be punished for saying this!"

Next, in the excitement, these dandies drank and had fun, and covered up the matter.

After finishing the drink and returning home, Vesdon felt unsure.

The bullshit has been blown out. It would be too embarrassing if he was not canonized as a knight!

He wanted to ask, but didn't know who to ask. After thinking for a long time, he decided to write a letter to Raven.

This letter used the rhetoric method that I had studied carefully some time ago. It was written by a person with great literary talent and all kinds of self-effacement. He said that no matter in terms of age, ability, or prestige, he was not enough to be canonized as a knight. .

In the last third of writing, Vesdon changed the subject and said that since his elder brother trusted him so much, he would definitely live up to his expectations and fulfill his duties as a knight. No matter whether the fiefdom was large or small, poor or rich, he would manage it well. Be well organized!

He seems to consider himself a knight.

After I finished writing, I read it carefully three times and transcribed it from beginning to end to make sure there were no errors or omissions before putting it in an envelope and giving it to the Mercenary Guild. I spent five gold coins and asked them to hurry up and send it to Eagle Castle!

When Raven received this letter, it happened to be early February. After reading the content, I couldn't help but laugh and cry.

Raven actually had plans for knight canonization.

With the improvement of his status, the recovery and expansion of his territory, he is no longer the lord who can't even give out a fief, and the frequency of communication with other nobles is also increasing.

If you don't canonize a few knights, it would be extremely rude to send commoners to communicate with other nobles every time.

More importantly, being a knight is the best reward for followers' loyalty and dedication.

Originally, Raven was going to choose a suitable opportunity - such as when the new castle was completed, and announce this decision at the same time.

But now that the news has reached Meng'en City, it definitely can't be delayed for that long, but Raven is not ready to canonize it immediately.

Firstly, he wanted to show his attitude that he would not be swayed by so-called public opinion; secondly, the specific candidates for the canonization had to be carefully considered.

It's early March, and the days are gradually getting longer than the nights. The snow on the ground begins to melt, but will quietly freeze into solid ice at night.

As Raven remained silent, the rumors about the knight's canonization gradually subsided.

And Raven also received the first good news since the beginning of the year.

After spending a large amount of gold coins, from the end of July last year to now, the two new factories built in Xuefeng County were finally completed!

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