Chapter 56
Chapter 56
Xiao Yu returned back to Lion Town. Housekeeper Hong had made preparations for the travel and gift for the family members of the fifth sister-in-law. She had to give gifts to her friends and relatives from her hometown so they couldn’t just send her back empty handed. It was normal among nobles to give gifts. Moreover, they had to make sure that people didn’t feel that Siwen has lived a shabby life in Lion town. In fact, Lion town wasn’t poor anymore. Xiao Yu had looted a lot of valuable things in the last few months.
The northwest wasn’t a rich land but it was an important route for trade from inland to Western Cloud Empire. There are many bandit groups in the northwest but because of high-profits there were many merchants that would take the risk to travel.
Bandits robbed from merchants and Xiao Yu robbed from bandits.
There were some things that even housekeeper Hong hadn’t seen in his life. There were many antiques, jewelry, spices and other valuables that were taken from bandit camps.
Nobles of the Western Cloud Empire were rich but they lacked exquisite handicrafts, spices from the south and other valuables. That’s why the merchants would try to transport these valuable to make profit. Xiao Yu’s sisters-in-law would give him list of things to get when he would go to rob bandit camps which made him shocked at some point.
As of now, all sisters-in-law had expensive rings, necklaces and they changed them on daily basis as the Lion town didn’t lack jewelry. Xiao Yu needed gold coins for his base. The jewelry had to be converted into gold coins before being used in the base. As a result, most of the times he didn’t sell those jewelry but gifted to sisters-in-law.
As a result, Siwen was going to take a lot of things back to home.
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Housekeeper Mo tried to contact Xiao Yu but saw that he was missing from the Lion town for few days. He thought that Xiao Yu had again went to gamble. The city of Hui, capital of Wei Principality, was bustling place and famous for gambling arcades. Housekeeper Mo decided that Xiao Yu had gone to the Hui city to continue his debauchery.
Fortunately, Xiao Yu had come back few days after he was gone. He told to Housekeeper Mo that they would leave in two days.
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Housekeeper Mo woke up in the morning after those two days passed. He took Wang family carriage and was ready to leave. He found out that Xiao Yu and others were waiting for him there when he reached the gates of the Lion town. The other sisters-in-law were chatting with Siwen.
Housekeeper Mo snorted as he looked at them: “Fortunately, she wouldn’t have to come back to this broken down place anymore.”
“Miss, please get on the carriage as we don’t want to lose anymore time.” Housekeeper Mo came over to urge Siwen to set out.
Housekeeper Mo couldn’t help but despise the place more as he looked and see that Siwen didn’t even have gifts with herself. He was going to point it out but changed his mind. Again, he thought that it was fortunate for little miss that she won’t come back to this place again.
Siwen nodded but she was reluctant to let go of other sister-in-law’s hand.
“Please miss.” Housekeeper Mo said once more. According to the rules, Siwen had to get onto the carriage first and Housekeeper Mo had to enter afterwards. It was the rule and housekeeper Mo had to follow it.
“Bring fifth lady’s carriage.” Housekeeper Hong shouted out at the same time.
Housekeeper Mo’s eyebrows wrinkled up as he didn’t expect Lion town to sent a carriage. He intervened: “Housekeeper Hong no need to be polite. Normal carriages would be slow and the road is bumpy. We don’t want to be delayed on the way back home.”
The carriage of the Wang family was a luxurious one. There were two wind magic arrays drawn on the carriage which made it very comfortable. Moreover, two selected horses were pulling it so its speed was fast too. The Wang family carriage was almost as fast as a normal cavalry. In addition, the carriage was spacious enough to host 7 or 8 individuals at the same time. That’s why Housekeeper Mo was reluctant to see some shabby carriage from Lion town to lead the way.
Housekeeper Hong smiled: “We aren’t being polite. Housekeeper Mo isn’t aware but our fifth lady has been living in the Lion town for long and isn’t used to ride other carriages.”
Smoke and dust rolled up as soon as Housekeeper Hong finished his words. Eight white horses ran while they pulled a large luxury carriage embodied with gold engravings.
All of the horses had pure white hair. They were neat and clean. Housekeeper was perplexed to see that all of those 8 horses were rare Snow Pegasuses.
Snow Pegasus was a rare breed of horses used by high-level aristocrats. The horses weren’t just good looking but almost a head higher than average horses. They were extremely fast and difficult to obtain. A snow pegasus would cost tens of thousands of gold coins in the central plains. The emperor of the Sky Lion Dynasty had 16 of Snow Pegasuses pulling his carriage.
The 8 horses were allowed on carriages of princes and dukes. So normal aristocrats couldn’t have 8 horses pull their carriages. It was the traditional rules. Now, the rule of the Sky Lion Dynasty had weakened so many nobles secretly used 8 horses and even some of them had 16 horses pull their carriage.
But, Xiao Yu was a duke and it was completely legal for 8 horses to pull his carriage. Xiao Zhan Tian had saved the dynasty from the barbarians and was a great general. As a result, the emperor had bestowed the title of Duke upon him too. So it was normal for 8 horses to be used in their carriage.
After Xiao Yu’s brothers died the title of Duke naturally was his.
In addition, to snow pegasuses, the carriage was extremely luxurious. It was very large. The carriage was almost four or five times bigger than the wang family’s carriage. There were many kinds of beautiful decorations carved outside the carriage which looked more like a masterpiece than a tool for traveling.
Normally, it was very rare to find a carriage with two wind magic arrays. The mages were rare and precious so carving a complex magic arroy onto a carriage was a costly matter. But Xiao Yu’s carriage had 8 magic arrays carved on it. Moreover, it didn’t have 4 but 8 wheels. The carriage was divided into two large compartments. The first compartment was meant to watch the scenery while the second compartment was meant for the noble to rest in it.
Housekeeper Mo was dumbfounded as he looked at the carriage. Isn’t Lion town declining? How come they have such a luxury carriage? The carriage was worth millions of gold coins…
Wang family’s best carriages used just four horses. Moreover, they weren’t as white and magnificent as these ones.
How come Lion town had such a luxurious carriage?
Housekeeper Mo wasn’t aware that Xiao Yu had robbed this carriage from the bandits. He wasn’t concerned who the bandits had robbed the from.
The carriage didn’t have pegasuses with them when Xiao Yu had robbed it. However, he was able to loot those horses from different bandit groups that had originally robbed from Western Cloud Empire merchants. He was able to cobble together 8 of them so he had ordered Housekeeper Hong to arrange those 8 horses to pull the carriage. It was a symbol of identity and as a Duke Xiao Yu was worthy of using such horses.
Good horses were never missing in the vicinity of the Lion town. The bandit groups would always try to rob from fleets and caravans of merchants coming from the Western Cloud Empire.
Xiao Yu’s own horse was also a pegasus.
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Housekeeper Mo was shocked but at the same time a malicious thought emerged in his heart. He knew that as a Duke Xiao Yu was qualified to use 8 horse carriage. Although the family was in decline but it meant that other nobles had to salute Xiao Yu and give face to him when they met him. It was the rules of the nobility. Now, his lord was planning to remarry 4th miss by force. Wouldn’t it be a problem if this kid didn’t agree?
“Screw it! Nothing changes even if he is a Duke. He has less than 50000 people in his territory. So being a Duke is just a useless title. I don’t think I need to worry about this small matter.”
Housekeeper Mo ‘hmpf’ed but there was envy and jealousy in his eyes as he looked at the carriage. After all, this carriage was status of symbol. Everyone would want to ride such a carriage. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the qualification to ride one.
It was no wonder that Housekeeper Hong said that 4th miss wasn’t used to ride other carriages and used to their own. Wang family’s carriage was a good one but it couldn’t be compared to the one in front of him. It was like comparison a kitten to a lion.
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Two maids helped Siwen to enter the second compartment of the carriage. The first compartment was meant for Xiao Yu.
Xiao Yu had his own horse but he liked to drink wine and enjoy the scenery more.
“Since this is the case then let’s leave.” Housekeeper Mo said as he looked at Xiao Yu.
Xiao Yu smiled: “Housekeeper Mo, my guards aren’t here yet. I know that there are lots of small bandit groups throughout our territory so I must take some to act as my bodyguards. I would be good if I went alone but I fear that those small bandits will aim at my fifth sister-in-law. I know that her beauty had caught attention of many parties.”
Xiao Yu was using a pun trying to instigate Housekeeper Mo.
Housekeeper Mo grunted for a moment: “Wang family is aware of your poor governance so they have sent 100 elite cavalrymen with me. 5 of them are warriors so they are enough to cope with any bandit group. I know that Lion town doesn’t dare to move freely but our Wang family isn’t afraid of anyone. You will be safe with us.”
Housekeeper Mo tried to undermine Xiao Yu with straightforward sentence.
Xiao Yu smiled but didn’t speak. It didn’t take long before roars began to echo from the outside. More than dozen figures caught cavalry’s attention.
One of them shouted: “ORCS! How come there are orcs in here? Get ready to fight!”
The cavalrymen were well trained but they were caught by surprise when they saw dozens of orcs. Everyone knew about reputation of orcs in the continent. The word orc was synonymous with the word brave.
Xiao Yu waved his hand as he indifferently said: “No need for panic. They are my bodyguards.”
“What? Bodyguards?” The cavalrymen were dumbfounded.
Orc bodyguards?! It had been many years since they have heard of such notion! Only the most powerful lords had resources to tame those wild and brutal orcs and make them their bodyguards. It was a symbol of absolute glory and meant much more than having elf pets.
Xiao Yu had recently read a lot of history book regarding the continent. He still couldn’t find out why Tyrande was regarded as the Goddess of the elves but he had learned a lot about continent’s history.
Orcs didn’t go extinct all of a sudden but they were suppressed by humans little by little. The orcs weren’t completely extinct even now. They were hidden in the depth of the mountains away from the eyes of the humans.
The orcs weren’t rare in the old times. They would be caught by humans but they wouldn’t be killed on spot. The orcs would be used as gladiators to fight against creatures or other orcs.
Later, some nobles began to train orcs to use them as bodyguards. It was a fashion for upper nobility to have team of orc bodyguards.
It was about 100 years ago when the number of orcs got less and they gradually withdrew away.
However, it was said that there were orc fighters in large cities where they were still used as gladiators.
Xiao Yu knew that he was going to have some problems with Wang family. He needed to increase his bargain chips so he used the notion of orc bodyguards from the history. It was a show off of his strength. In addition to the ten grunts he was taking Tyrande, Grom and Archmage Antonidas with himself.
The reason for taking Tyrande with himself was that the existence of an elf bodyguard was more attractive than orcs. Although the nobles desired having elf women as private pets but everyone was aware that the noble elves didn’t like to bow in front of humans. They would only act as bodyguards for human heroes. The famous Augustus the Great had a number of elf bodyguards as well as 1000 orcs.
Xiao Yu’s status and identity would improve greatly if he showed that he had orc and elf bodyguards.
Moreover, mages were rare and precious in this world. Only the most powerful nobles would have high-class mages by their sides. Xiao Yu brought Antonidas with himself to fill the facade that he was pulling out. Archmage was level 13 and was equal to second-rank mage of this world.
Xiao Yu was planning ahead by creating a hero image for himself.
“If they act shamelessly then I will just get her and run back!”
All the grunts that he took with himself had reached level 6. They were not inferior to any first-rank human warriors. Actually, human warriors of first-rank weren’t their opponents because of their strong build. Xiao Yu knew that he couldn’t face an army with them but it was enough to escape from anywhere.
There was shock in Housekeeper Mo’s eyes and his eyes almost popped out of its sockets. Xiao Yu entered the carriage and waved: “Let’s go.” He didn’t care about Housekeeper Mo as the latter was still in shock and by Wang family carriage.