Chapter 149: Benefits
“I want to help her and make her realize that I’m her true friend. When she thanks me tearfully, I’ll give her the middle finger and call her a fool!”
Leona’s words were domineering.
Even she was touched by herself.
D*mn it, she was really too loyal.
She was guarded against and even misunderstood by her former good friend, but she did not cut ties with her. Instead, she worked hard for her and did not even hesitate to enter the dangerous place of Goethe. Even after being misunderstood by her best friend, she still had to deal with her best friend’s husband. This couple was really identical. They were both heartless.
When Leona thought of this, she was even angrier. She looked at Kang De’s face and said ruthlessly in her heart, ‘When the time comes, not only will I scold Tina, I’ll also scold you for being stupid!’
Then, she saw Kang De’s gentle expression and kind eyes.
She thought of that axe.
…Forget it.
‘I’ll just scold Tina.’
Feeling dejected, the girl heard Kang De ask, “Then?”
Leona was stunned. “What then?”
Kang De said matter-of-factly, “What does it have to do with you coming to me if you want to help your best friend? Don’t deny that you’re here for me, right?”
“…”
“…”
Leona looked at Kang De and hesitated. She took a deep breath and her expression changed.
In the end, she actually sighed faintly. “I’m so loyal. Can’t you praise me first?”
Kang De thought for a moment.
Although this woman had only said one side of the story so far and said it beautifully, who knew what she was thinking? At least from the looks of it, her credibility was only 40%.
However, it was fine to praise her. If she was really so loyal, not to mention praising her, she could even kiss her. If she had other intentions, he could pretend to be polite to her and not lose anything by praising her… In that case, he would praise her.
—After all, I’m not a male chauvinist.
Therefore, he stretched out his hand and pressed the top of the silver-haired girl’s head. He felt her soft hair and warm little head and smiled, “Yes, yes, yes. You’re really powerful and loyal. You’re a good girl…”
“…”
“…”
Leona’s eyes widened as if she had yet to react to what had happened. After all, this was all too shocking. Nothing like this had happened since she was ten years old.
Immediately after, her soft face was covered in red clouds at a visible speed. Her eyes were filled with embarrassment and even anger. She shook off Kang De’s hand and roared.
“Idiot! Where are you putting your claws?!”
Almost at the same time, the windows on both sides were pulled open. Hong San and the old butler’s heads entered from the left and right respectively and looked at the situation inside. After all, Leona’s shout was extremely easy to misunderstand.
They saw Kang De’s subtle awkward expression and also saw Leona shrink and pat her head gently, smoothing her hair as if there was something dirty on it.
Kang De looked at Hong San and then at the old butler. He was stunned for a moment before explaining, “Don’t misunderstand. She just asked me to praise her, so I touched her head…”
He paused for a moment. It was unknown what he was thinking, but he added.
“It’s the top of her head.”
No.
At the same time, Leona’s angry shout sounded, “Unbelievable! Touching a lady’s head. Where did you come from?! You know how to mess up my hair! It’s very uncomfortable!”
The old butler retracted his head without a word and closed the window.
Hong San did the same.
Only the two of them were left in the carriage looking at each other.
In the end, as if she was exhausted, Leona’s straight body relaxed. She heaved a sigh of relief and looked helpless, “Forget it, forget it. I’ve never seen a man like you.”
She leaned against the soft cushion and no longer looked like a lady. She even crossed her legs and looked at Kang De. “Let’s talk about you again… Do you want to start from when we discovered your traces?”
Kang De waved his hand and said, “There’s no need for that. Tell me why you want to contact me.”
Leona frowned. “Nonsense. You’re Tina’s lover. She thought you were dead. Now she’s almost a crazy woman with a dead husband. I found you. Of course I want you to reunite with her and wake her up while I’m at it. Don’t look at people like that all day.”
Kang De blinked. “…Wait, friend, wait. Do you want me to reunite with Tina? Then why do you think I traveled all the way from Glory Sand to Goethe? To cross the sea and return home?”
Leona bit her lip and her expression became very serious.
“It’s different.”
She said, “I hope you can recognize the seriousness of the matter and rush to her side as soon as possible to save you from being pestered by unimportant things—just like now.”
The girl straightened up and said seriously, “Kang De, the Cathayan, I bring you disturbing news. This might be only a guess, but it means an extremely terrifying ending. Tina is in a very bad state. I’m not sure what she wants to do, but I don’t doubt her determination and… madness.”
“Therefore, after we reach a consensus, I hope that you and I will immediately return to the city hall to see that bastard mayor and tell him everything honestly. Be it your identity or Tina’s crazy plan to persuade him to let you out of the city… Although I don’t trust him, this is the only way.”
“Or if you have enough strength and ability, think of a way to leave the city on your own. Then, immediately rush north and meet up with Tina’s team. Go see her and comfort her. Go…”
At this point, the girl revealed a sigh and helplessness.
“To help her… Although I want to say this, I don’t think you can help much. However, she might be happy to be by her side.”
Kang De frowned and said, “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. What exactly is Tina planning?”
The silver-haired girl looked at him, and a trace of a professional sense of superiority flashed through her eyes. Then, she said helplessly, “This is difficult. A guy like you is good at fighting and killing, and you’re good at using an axe to scare beautiful girls, but you don’t know anything about business and economics… It might be very difficult to convince you. I’ll try my best to tell you what Tina has been doing recently in a way you can understand.”
Leona organized her words and said, “Tina raised the flag in the north. Every city had to give a speech and call for people to form volunteer troops. Therefore, the great businessmen and nobles all generously contributed. Her reputation spread very quickly and she was pursued as a legendary princess with both beauty, intelligence, and decisiveness. More and more people joined her… Do you know what drove people to invest and follow her?”
After asking this question, the girl was already prepared to hear answers like “justice”, “beauty”, and “belief”.
Kang De said without hesitation, “Benefits.”
Leona’s eyes widened.
“What’s with your gaze? Are you very surprised?” Kang De said. “The people of the world can swarm over for benefits and also disperse for benefits. This is the way of the world. Everyone is running for benefits. It’s just that the manifestation and number of benefits are different. This depends on the role people play.”
At this point, he revealed a subtle look of disdain. “Don’t tell me you think those people were moved by Tina’s speech and her iron will and beliefs and decided to follow her?”
“…Of course not!”
Leona realized that she was being subtly despised and was very angry. She said angrily, “It’s benefits. Those illegitimate children and those who don’t have the right to inherit are doing it to take a gamble. Dejected knights are doing it for honor and land. Mercenaries are doing it for money. Just like you said, their status is different, and the benefits they seek are also different…”
“However, the true main forces supporting Tina are those rich and powerful merchants and nobles. They’re rich and have a large number of resources and connections. They’re the ones who provided many weapons and food. They’re the ones who integrated people to join Tina’s army, and they’re the ones who hired their subordinates and bards to brag and build momentum for her…”
The girl looked at Kang De and asked, “Then what benefits do these people who are not short of money and status have for investing in Tina?”
Kang De said impatiently, “Don’t keep me in suspense. Tina must have promised some huge benefit that she can’t fulfill or even doesn’t want to fulfill. That’s why she lured these rich and powerful guys to throw money out as if they had lost their minds. This is probably the dangerous and crazy thing she’s doing—please tell me.”
“…”
Leona’s expression was stiff. Her small hand trembled as she took out an exquisite small silver bottle from the secret compartment beside her. She placed it to her mouth and drank a few mouthfuls before panting.
This guy was not stupid! Why was he so rough, so unromantic, and so smart?! Where did such a strange person come from in the world?! Couldn’t he treat her better?!
She exhaled a few times and said, “…Selling shares.”
Kang De raised his eyebrows and said, “Huh?”
Leona said, “Tina claimed to those nobles and businessmen that Goethe had attracted the invasion of the elves and that the Empire had even stood by and watched because Goethe had discovered an ancient ruin with huge wealth and was about to decipher the secret. That’s probably the case. I wonder how she deceived them…”
“However, this is not the main point. The main point is that she claims to split the wealth and proceeds of this ancient ruin into shares and sell them to those merchants and nobles. As long as they subscribe in the form of support for Goethe, food, horses, money, resources, anything can be counted. In the future, when we excavate that ancient ruin, the shares can be divided.”
“Moreover, excavating the ruins had both long-term and short-term benefits. That share is also equivalent to borrowing money. After a period of time, there will be interest accumulated…”
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