Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 513 Interventionism and Internationalism

It had been more than a year since Alexius last saw Alan Houghton.

At that time, Alexius was still the president of the "Infernal Fire" Chamber of Commerce, which was in its heyday, and was engaged in the lucrative business of smuggling bulk commodities from the Demon Realm to Frost Maple Ridge. Alan Hotlin, the deputy chief of staff of Frost Maple Ridge, was in charge of the military logistics affairs of Frost Maple Ridge on weekdays, so he had many interactions with Alexius when purchasing military products.

Of course, Frost Maple Ridge had a ton of military affairs to attend to, and Allen was busy with all sorts of things every day, so it was hard to say that he had any deep friendship with Alexius. The two of them were just a superficial acquaintance who had drank together a few times.

However, Alan Hotelling was still shocked by Alexius who suddenly appeared at the door of Phoenix Terrace:

Because he had heard that the demon leader of the "Infernal Fire" Chamber of Commerce had disappeared for no reason nearly a year ago and had not reappeared since then, so he must have died...

As far as Alan knew, after the "Inferno" Chamber of Commerce received the news of Alexios' disappearance, it quickly set up a tablet for the first president, and then voted to elect the second president to take over his position. In these chaotic times, the death of a president is not a big deal. If the business of the chamber of commerce was delayed due to the absence of a leader, a lot of people would starve to death.

Alan Hotlin intuitively felt that this demon merchant who was believed to be dead but returned from hell unscathed would definitely cause a huge uproar within the "Inferno" Chamber of Commerce...

……

Every Monday evening at 7 o'clock, the top leaders of Frost Maple Ridge hold their weekly routine meeting at Vincent Palace.

This practice was established by the lord himself after the Igor family initially gained a foothold in the wilderness. According to the lord, the various affairs in the territory are complicated. If the leaders do not communicate and supervise each other, sooner or later there will be such blunders as "the lord's intentions are good, but the subordinates have poor execution."

Although the lord has led his army north, this weekly meeting tradition is still meticulously adhered to by the Igor family members who remain in the territory.

The only difference is that the host of the weekly meeting has changed from the lord himself to Miss Katarina Igor.

In a sense, the scoundrels of Frost Maple Ridge actually prefer to work under Miss Katarina: although the Lord is wise and brave, and is the indisputable leader in the construction of the territory, it is really difficult to fool him - once someone makes an unforgivable mistake, the Lord will really get angry and hit you on the butt with a big stick;

Miss Catalina, on the other hand, was much gentler and more tolerant in her dealings with others. At the regular meetings chaired by the eldest lady of the Igor family, the senior family members attending the meetings were generally more relaxed, and were far from being as stressed as when the lord presided over the meeting himself.

So, when Mr. Tom Lawrence, director of the political department of the Igor Pioneer Army and vice-president of the Huangpo Military Academy, stepped into the Vincent Palace conference room at the sound of eight o'clock struck by Zombie Dave, he did not feel guilty about being late - Miss Catalina, who was sitting at the head of the conference room, just glanced at him with dissatisfaction and then looked away indifferently.

Unfortunately, Tom Lawrence soon saw Karim Lodge, who was sitting in the shadows, giving him a sharp and cold look.

Lawrence suddenly realized with dismay that he would definitely be reported to the lord by this stupid spy chief.

Tom Lawrence walked dejectedly to his seat and sat down.

When he entered, the regular meeting was still going on. Alan Hotelling, who was speaking impassionedly, did not interrupt his speech because of the late arrival of the Director of the Political Department. When Lawrence sat down, Alan just said:

"...I have already settled Mr. Alexius in the guesthouse. But how to deal with the Hellfire Chamber of Commerce depends on your opinions..."

"Alexius?" Lawrence was stunned when he heard the name. "Didn't he die a long time ago?"

"At first they said he was dead, but a few days ago, he suddenly showed up at the gate of Phoenix Terrace again..." Master Donald, the director of the Construction Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who was sitting next to Tom Lawrence, lowered his voice and explained to him, "According to Alexius, he was not dead when he disappeared, but was accidentally trapped in Thorn City. But Tom, you also know that the current 'Infernal Fire' Chamber of Commerce is dead, and a new leader has been replaced! At noon today, Alexius found Allen and asked us at Frost Maple Ridge to intervene in this matter and help him regain his power and status in the Chamber of Commerce..."

"Huh?" Tom Lawrence was amazed at this miraculous event of a dead man coming back to life and returning home to seize power.

After Allen finished explaining what happened, Miss Catalina rang the gavel in her hand:

"So, everyone, what do you think should be done about Mr. Alexius's request?"

"I think... we don't need to intervene in their business..." Mayor Joel, who was sitting below Miss Katarina, muttered, "Although the 'Infernal Fire' Chamber of Commerce has been helping us with business in Frost Maple Ridge, it is an independent business organization in name after all - their leaders are selected by themselves, not appointed by us, so why should we intervene in this matter?"

"I actually thought so at first..." Alan Hotlin said with a wry smile, "But Alexius is determined to regain his position as the guild president, so it is inevitable that he will conflict with the new guild president. If the power conflict within the 'Inferno' Chamber of Commerce escalates, it will inevitably affect the trade affairs of our territory. So, I brought up this matter to let everyone discuss whether it is necessary for us at Frost Maple Ridge to interfere in the affairs of 'Inferno' and control the situation?"

The family leaders present were whispering to each other.

  Mayor Joel, who is calm by nature, always prefers to keep out of trouble, and he certainly doesn't want to get involved in the mess of the "Yehuo" group of demons;

However, it is not unreasonable for Allen, as the deputy chief of staff, to worry that the internal struggle of "Inferno" will get out of control.

The discussion gradually died down, and everyone's eyes finally turned to Miss Catalina.

Everyone knew that just as when the Lord was still alive, all decisions had to be made by the Lord, all the democratic opinions that emerged in the high-level regular meetings would ultimately be decided by Katarina Igor, the Lord's sister.

Catalina frowned slightly, apparently unable to make a decision for the moment.

Karim Rocky, who had been sitting in the shadows, spoke up:

"Miss, I do have an idea."

As soon as this guy spoke, all the senior officials felt a chill - people had no good feelings towards this big spy who was responsible for monitoring the internal operations of the territory.

"Karim, you go ahead." Miss Katrina said gently, apparently not noticing the subtle emotions of the participants.

"Miss, gentlemen and ladies..." Karim Lodge moved his chair, so his upper body moved out of the shadow, revealing his pale cheeks, "...I think that when dealing with such matters, we should always ask ourselves: If the Lord were here, what would he do?" Tom Lawrence sincerely believed that if the Lord was at Phoenix Terrace now, he would just wave his hand impatiently in response to Alexius's request:

"If it rains, it will rain. If ...

Unfortunately, the lord is not in Frost Maple Ridge now, and no one dares to guess his intentions.

  So, Karim Rocky pondered and said:

"...After a long period of observation, research and study of the Lord's political art, I have the courage to sum up the Lord's ruling philosophy in a few words: Respond to ever-changing situations with constancy, and use a little force to achieve a great result! In my opinion, we can also use this strategy to deal with the problems of the 'Infernal Fire' Chamber of Commerce..."

"If you have something to say, just say it now. Don't waste time." Mayor Joel glared at Karim Lodge with dissatisfaction.

  If there was anyone in the family who Rocky didn't dare to offend, it was Mayor Johnson Joel, an old revolutionary who had served the Igor family since the Eagle's Rest Castle era. Rocky smiled awkwardly and continued:

"Look everyone, isn't the president of the Hellfire Chamber of Commerce elected by internal vote? Since the former president, Mr. Alexius, has reappeared, why not hold another election for the president? Whoever gets the most votes will be the president. No one can raise objections to the voting results, right?"

Lawrence felt that Rocky was a little too optimistic - during the last "Infernal Fire" Chamber of Commerce election, there were incidents of public questioning of ballot fraud and people mailing ballots.

"But Mr. Alexius is the former president after all. Since he is not actually dead, legally speaking, the position of president should be his..." A clerk from the Ministry of Internal Affairs also raised doubts, "Voting is fine, but if the new president gets more votes and is elected as the president in the end, Mr. Alexius will definitely not be able to accept it emotionally..."

"This is the key!" Karim Rocky winked slyly. "Since it's a vote, it should be reasonable for our Military Statistics Bureau to organize and count the votes, right? We can use some 'technical means' to ensure that Mr. Alexius gets more votes and is elected president. With the endorsement of fair, just and open 'voting results', the new president shouldn't be able to make a fuss even if he loses his position, right?"

Everyone was stunned by this "genius" idea.

"Let's do it this way." Catalina sighed. "Elliot wrote to me before and said that he had found a business talent in the north and offered him the position of 'General Manager of Frost Maple Ridge Trade'. After this general manager takes office, any problems within the 'Infernal Fire' Chamber of Commerce will be handled by this general manager."

Based on Lawrence's understanding of the lord, he was quite suspicious of this new "General Manager of Frost Maple Ridge Trade", a beautiful girl that the boss had gotten from nowhere.

"Everyone, do you have anything else to report?" After resolving the troubles between Alexius and the "Inferno" Chamber of Commerce, Miss Catalina looked at the other territory leaders present.

"There is indeed something that I need you to hear, young lady..." Mayor Joel said slowly, "A few days ago, I received a letter from Commander Paulus of the Arcane Spire Defense Line, saying that a group of demon merchants were preparing to go north through the Arcane Spire Defense Line to Frost Maple Ridge."

"Demon merchant...is there anything special about this?" Katarina blinked and looked at Mayor Joel in confusion.

This year, thanks to the tax reduction agreement privately reached between the Igor family and the Imperial Southern Army, the number of demon caravans crossing the Arcane Spire defense line and heading north into the empire has almost doubled compared to previous years.

Although the peak trading season had passed, it was not uncommon for a demon caravan to pass through the Arcane Spire Line of Defense and head north. The Southern Empire Army guarding the Arcane Spire Line of Defense had long been familiar with handling the customs clearance of these demon caravans, and there seemed no need to write a special letter to Frost Maple Ridge for such a trivial matter.

"This is really unusual..." Mayor Joel said with a wry smile, "Commander Paulus wrote to me and told me that this demon caravan behaved a little strangely when passing through the Arcane Spire defense line. They called themselves a caravan, but they didn't carry much valuable goods, and their members didn't look like serious merchants. In addition to more than 20 mysterious demons who called themselves merchants, there were more than 30 beautiful young demon girls."

"Ah?" Tom Lawrence stared, "Could it be some slave trader smuggling people?"

"It's even more exaggerated than this..." Mayor Joel said with a bitter face, "After a careful inspection by the Southern Army, we found that the more than 20 so-called 'Demon Merchants' were not ordinary people at all, but disguised Demon Priests!"

Everyone was shocked.

Demon priests are elemental power users who are comparable to imperial magicians, and users of any kind of elemental power are as rare as giant pandas among the human population.

  More than 20 demon priests, this has already surpassed the size of many imperial territorial mage groups! Everyone has no doubt that if such a large group of demon priests disguised as merchants were allowed to sneak into the empire, with their power, they would probably be enough to overthrow the regimes of some small territories, and even burn, kill and plunder in the imperial metropolis!

"Sending a team of priests to infiltrate the Empire... What on earth do the demons want to do?!" Alan Houghtling said in shock, "Have they finally been unable to resist and want to take a piece of the pie in the continental war and declare war on the Empire?"

"That would be great..." Mayor Joel pinched his brows and said, "After Commander Paulus interrogated the group of demon priests pretending to be merchants, he actually found a pass signed by our lord himself on them. The demon priests then revealed the truth. It turned out that they followed the order of the demon prince Michael Gowther and came to join our Frost Maple Ridge Dark Moon Priest Team as foreign reinforcements with the permission of Lord Elliot Igor! As for the group of demon girls, they were all maids given to us by Prince Michael!"

There was dead silence in the conference room.

Even Tom Lawrence felt that the reinforcements invited by the lord were a little too damned powerful.

  The demons and humans have a feud bound by the "Claudia Blood Oath"! In the "War of Doom" five hundred years ago, the imperial soldiers who died in the great war between humans and demons are still buried in the cemetery of heroes on the north bank of the Lionheart River. And now you tell me that a group of demon foreign aids who have a blood feud with the empire are going to join the imperial territory of Frost Maple Ridge? !

If this mess were to be exposed to the imperial court, His Excellency Duke Elliot Igor would be stabbed in the spine by the angry young people of the empire for decades!

"Commander Paulus said in the letter that he is the commander of the Southern Army of the Empire. From his standpoint, he absolutely cannot let a group of demon priests into the Empire." Mayor Joel sighed, "However, Commander Paulus suppressed this matter out of consideration for the friendly relationship with Frost Maple Ridge and did not make it public. Now the group of demon priests are stranded at the Arcane Spire defense line, unable to enter the country and not wanting to return to the Demon Realm. They are stuck... Commander Paulus asked us to find a way to solve this mess."

"We can't let those demon priests go back home..." Catalina said while gritting her teeth.

——After spending a long time with her brother, even this noble lady knew how precious the elemental power of a team of demon priests was: if she finally got such a reinforcement from Prince Michael Gowther but let it go because of some "racial feud", it would be the behavior of a complete prodigal.

"The problem is how to explain it to Commander Paulus." Alan Hotling nodded.

"What else can we say? Let's just insist that those demon priests are merchants who came here to do business. What? Elemental power users can't do business? As for the foreign reinforcements, Commander Paulus can only pretend he didn't see it..." Karim Rocky said sullenly, "Paulus wrote to us to inform us of this matter instead of directly sending back those priests. Isn't he trying to make a fortune? As the price for making him suffer from amnesia, I'm afraid we will have to send a lot of real money to the Southern Army..."

"It's the only way." Catalina felt like she had sighed out all the anger she could in her life today.

Of course, it is a good thing to gain a group of demon priests, but Frost Maple Ridge actually has to pay a bribe to others for no reason... This is a little difficult to accept for the scum of Frost Maple Ridge who are used to cheating others' money.

But they really couldn't blame Commander Paulus: allowing a group of demon priests to enter the country was a dangerous act tantamount to treason, and Paulus himself was also taking a huge risk.

  Just when everyone was depressed, Karen Lepage, who had been reading a book in the corner without saying anything, suddenly raised her head and remembered something important:

"More than twenty demon priests can be allowed in, but forget about the group of demon maids that Prince Michael sent along. Let these little hooves go back to where they came from!"

Miss Catalina nodded vigorously.