The Predicament
The Predicament
The supplies and manpower from Eagle City dramatically boosted the performance of this harbor city. Every marauder came home with great profits. The slave market also prospered. The series of battles did not cause much loss on the Blacksail Fleet. Instead, the Blacksail Fleet recruited many slaves as their sailors. Right now, the newly recruited slaves were under some serious trainings. A few days later, they would head for the Fjords route and start the first plunder of the year.
The queen also promulgated a slave expansion decree. As long as these slaves, who were looted from Eagle City, were able to capture new people from the plunder to substitute themselves, they could become the citizens of Port of Clearwater. With such an exciting decree, the residents of Eagle City who were now slaves would endeavor in the battles.
[Now Timothy was utterly defeated. There would be no one to stop the Queen of Clearwater in the Kingdom of Graycastle. Soon enough, Garcia Wimbledon would sit on the throne of Kingdom of Graycastle,] Ryan thought, [but why didn't the queen show any signs of pleasure? Instead, there seemed to be a sense of low spirit on her face.]
"Your Highness, the tribe leader from Sandstone Clan and Black Bone clan request to see you." There was guard's voice from outside of the door.
Ryan looked at Her Majesty, who seemed completely indifferent. Ryan then called, "Bring them in."
Regardless of resting, meetings or seeing subordinates, Her Majesty liked to do all the activities on the top floor of this high tower. As long as the weather was fine, Garcia stayed most on the terrace. Most of the people were not used to standing up in the midair and conversing with the sea breeze of unpleasant smell blowing on their face. Even the residents of Sand Nation were not accustomed to such.
The leader of Sandstone Clan was a small-sized female, who was also the goddess of the tribe. Ryan scorned it in his heart when he first heard such introduction to her. There was no such thing as the goddess. She was merely a fallen witch. The leader of the Black Bone Clan was a strong guy with scars all over his face. His arms were the same size of legs of the ordinary people. During every meeting, there would be three to four guards surrounding him in case of any malicious attempts from him to the queen.
The two tribe leaders frowned at the instant when they stepped on the terrace. However, they soon appeased their expression and bowed piously to the Queen of Clearwater. "We wish that your road to the future will be covered with oasis and that the stars in the heaven will shine on your path."
"You may get up." Garcia seated with her back facing the fence. "How's your new house? Are you content?"
"Everything has been great," the goddess Kabala said, "there are forests and water sources in your domain. Living here is much better than living in the windy and dusty Iron Sand City."
"That's good. Why did you two come to me?"
"Your Majesty, last time you..."
The leader of Black Bone Clan was immediately interrupted by Kabala. "Your majesty, after last battle, many of our warriors have been weakened. They can only recover after taking the new pill periodically. However, we don't have many pills in our hand anymore. So, I came here to ask you for more pills."
"I came for the same reason," the tribe leader of Black Bone Clan glared at the goddess and said.
"The ingredients to compose this pill are very complicated. I don't have many pills left either. Don't worry. I'll give the pills to you two as soon as the production of the new pills is completed. However, don't forget to prepare the gold royals. If you two don't have enough gold royals, you could use the water of Styx's River instead."
"Your Majesty, may I ask. "Kabala hesitated. "When would next batch of pills be produced?"
"I couldn't release any information to you regarding that." Garcia smoothed down her hair that was ruffled by the sea breeze. "Anything regarding the pills is confidential. Wait patiently. Those warriors are just exhausted. They'll be fine after resting for a while."
The guards received the hint from Ryan. They came up and surrounded the two residents of Sand Nation and "escorted" them out even though they wanted to ask more.
Garcia sighed after the door of the terrace was shut.
It was extremely rare to hear any sighs from Her Majesty. He asked, "Your Majesty, don't you think it's the proper way to allow Sand Nation to reside near the border of the Southern Territory? If they grew stronger one day..."
"No, Ryan." Garcia shook her head. "I never worried about Sand Nation. They would not anyhow threaten Port of Clearwater. The lake in that territory is in the middle of the two clans. And the upstream comes through Port of Clearwater. As long as I block half of the river, the lack of lake water would make them fight with one another. That's why I picked the Sandstone Clan and the Black Bone Clan—their relationship has always been not so harmonious."
"Then are you worried about the pills?"
Garcia did not answer. At that moment, the guard knocked again. "Your Majesty, Priest Descartes from church requests to see you."
"Bring him in." Her Majesty stood up promptly. Her expression grew even gloomier.
"Your Majesty Garcia Wimbledon, I wish to greet you as the representative of Holy City." The priest came up to the terrace and bowed.
"Where are the pills? The delivery of the previous batches of pills was punctual. What's wrong with the delay for this time?" Garcia asked coldly.
"Please appease your anger, Your Majesty. I came here today for this issue." Descartes wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Your order of 5,000 pills was too overwhelming. Even if we devote all of our resources to produce the pills in Hermes, we couldn't satisfy your demand within such a short time. This time, I brought you a new batch..."
"How many?" Garcia interrupted.
"1000 pills," Descartes said while holding onto his chest, "and the rest of the pills will be delivered shortly afterward."
"What was the promise before?" The queen's expression was less gloomy now. " You promised that I would have as many pills as I wish. Where are the pills? I'll send my people to retrieve it."
"In the church, regarding the gold royals..."
"You'll have all gold royals that we agreed on," Garcia walked toward Descartes and whispered near his ear, "however, if the rest of the pills couldn't be promptly delivered, your head will be hung on the embolon of my Blacksail flagship. I believe that the archbishop would not shed a tear for you."
The priest excused himself with a ghastly pale face. The queen walked back to the fence, stared at the faraway sea antenna. The sea breeze blew her long gray hair just like the flags waving in the wind.
"You're right. I'm worried about the pills." Garcia's voice sounded far away, "If Timothy was late more another two months, I would have ample knightage of King's City to defeat him, instead of relying on the pills. However, he came too soon."
"You've done very well, Your Majesty." Ryan thought. [Who would have possibly done better? Garcia schemed a response right after they occupied Eagle City. She ordered people to take away the resources and citizens and at the same time started to dig ditches to pour the blackwater. Due to lack of human resources, she obtained the support from Sand Nation in exchange for a vacant territory in the Southern Territory. She ordered the warrior who took the pills to attack the knightage. Her loyal followers even took the pills without any hesitation to block the last savage assault."]
"The pills from the church were not as beneficial as how I described. Without continuing the prescription, the warriors who took the pills will become anxious and then weak. They'll eventually die in pain. I don't care about the death of Sand Nation. However, my citizens who're loyal to me should get better returns." Garcia paused." Ryan, you go retrieve the pills and give them to the warriors. Tell them to eat half a pill once, so that we can last a little longer."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
At the moment when Ryan departed, the guard knocked the door again. "Your Majesty, there's a letter from King's City."
"Read it to me before you leave," She said.
"Yes." Ryan took the confidential letter, cut open the seal with ease and took out the letter. This type of letter was usually from the scouts from the various districts. There would be no names on the letter, and the content of the letter would be very clear. However, he was flabbergasted when he saw the first sentence of the letter.
"On 22nd day of Spring, the church declared that Linna, the queen of Kingdom of Everwinter was a hidden witch, and then conquered the capital of the kingdom and claimed total control over the Kingdom of Everwinter."