Our Family Has Fallen

Chapter 1098: Chapter 608: Taking Your Money, Doing My Own Thing (Part 2)

"I’m not sure about that either, but I heard the rich district was breached by the mob, so I’m afraid..."

Vick wasn’t a rookie anymore; how could he not know what the Earl was thinking?

He just wanted to find some Nobility still alive, then march under their banner and use their titles as a pretext to send troops and indirectly control Ovando City, right?

Too bad his plan had long since been anticipated by the Lord; as far as Vick knew, not a single Noble had been left alive—every last one had vanished.

Hearing this, the Earl also fell silent for a moment.

And just as Vick had guessed, the Earl really did want to control the Nobility and gain a claim over Ovando.

A merchant, a bunch of rabble—he really didn’t take them seriously.

As long as he seized Ovando City, from a strategic standpoint it would cut the link between the Empire and Hamlet, and he’d be able to sit back and watch everyone else fight over it, then walk in last with confidence.

But just as Francis had said, Bastia might look like the strongest territory in the region, yet that was only on paper.

Years of seemingly strong façade had been torn apart by the Barbarian Tribes in one blow; who knew how many people were laughing at Bastia now.

Although that show of weakness was intentional on the Earl’s part, in reality there were plenty of internal and external troubles; he simply didn’t have the capacity for continuous war.

Because once he moved, it would definitely drag his own Lord into it as well, and would it really be that hard for someone to just push out some puppet to obtain the claim?

"Ambition beyond ability" was the truest portrayal of the Earl.

If he’d known, he’d never have taken the initiative to start that war with the Mountains; now he could only watch this golden opportunity vanish before his eyes.

But just because he couldn’t act openly didn’t mean he couldn’t start preparing in advance.

The Earl pulled his mind back from his thoughts and turned his gaze on the cringing Vick.

"Mike, are you familiar with Ovando?"

"My Lord Earl, I grew up in Ovando—how could I not be familiar with it?" Vick’s face was piled with a flattering smile. "If there’s anything you wish to know, just ask me."

"I want you to go back to Ovando and develop it for me."

"Ah! This... no, no, that won’t do..." An awkward expression surfaced on Vick’s face; his words jammed in his throat and came out haltingly as he gave a bitter smile and helplessly refused.

Looking at the shifty-eyed fellow in front of him, the Earl could pretty much guess he was a merchant who’d been squeezed out in a power grab, maybe even had a falling-out with that man, and now he dressed it up as ’opening trade channels’ to make it sound nice.

The contempt in his heart showed in his eyes, yet didn’t seem abrupt at all.

Because the Earl had always looked down on this fallen merchant from the start, hadn’t even really looked him in the eye once; his tone all along had been that of an interrogation.

"You don’t have to worry about that. Just do as I say—if you have my backing, what are you afraid of?"

Hearing the Earl’s undisguised words, Vick couldn’t help but lower his head.

Inwardly he cursed: Your backing is worth shit; standing behind Walter is Lord Lance.

Sure enough, just like the Lord said, these people have always wanted to set their sights on Hamlet.

A pack of damned opportunistic warmongers!

Of course he couldn’t say that out loud; when he looked up again, he still wore a helpless expression and kept dodging the assignment.

"My lord, Ovando is a complete mess right now. People have all fled, and the only commodity that still sells—grain—has been monopolized. Any other business is guaranteed to lose money.

And to be frank, I’ve got a bit of a grudge with that Walter. He definitely won’t let me have an easy time—otherwise I wouldn’t have come all the way out here."

"He’s a merchant who could become Governor; why can’t you? Once things are done, I’ll ennoble you as a Knight. And if you perform well, a Baron title isn’t out of the question either."

The Earl laid on the hyperbole thick, but according to Francis, you couldn’t trust a single word that old bastard said.

Vick, however, had to show some reaction right now.

Because a Noble title had an almost irresistible allure for people in this era.

More importantly, Vick was getting a legitimate pretext to go in and out of Ovando, and he could freeload on the Earl’s funds.

Using the Earl’s money, hand-fed into his mouth, to do his own business—this was the first time in Vick’s life he’d felt this damn good.

The thrill in his heart was almost impossible to suppress; the corners of his mouth tugged upward beyond his control, and he agreed on the spot.

"Please rest assured, my lord, I’ll get it done!"

The Earl was quite satisfied as he looked at Vick’s expression.

Getting a handle on a little down-and-out merchant like you is child’s play.

As long as he achieved his goal, who would ever know what promises had passed between the two of them?

After all, there were only two people here, and dead men don’t talk~

...

Back in Hamlet, Lance was busy organizing the gains he’d brought back from the Bay.

He was sifting that civilizational legacy for any recorded technologies.

At first, Lance’s focus had been on that special metal, but he quickly discovered something even more important.

Shipbuilding!

A civilization that had been scared off the land and forced to turn to the sea would inevitably drive shipbuilding technology forward in the course of their oceanic exploration.

Some of their unique techniques were very interesting; judging by the descriptions, their practical performance was remarkably powerful.

Metal smelting, metal casting, ironclad warships, giant whaling crossbows, a whale-taming manual, fish farming, monsoon current mapping, Celestial Navigation Charts...

Lance even dug out blueprints for building an ark-sized giant ship among the documents. Its name was "Doomsday Isle," which told him very clearly in what kind of mindset it had been conceived.

They were probably preparing to move offshore en masse, but Lance felt it was impractical—worse than simple Iron Chain Links even. Something that huge, once it hit a storm at sea, would likely be torn apart on the spot.

There was no mention of whether this thing was ever actually built, but it was certain they genuinely intended to do it.

Since this was what a civilization had produced after pouring in everything it had, some of these technologies were extremely important, in fact still more advanced than what was currently mainstream in the Empire, because they were interwoven with numerous Transcendent Rituals—things that simply don’t "go out of date."

Some of it, however, probably wasn’t very useful—for example, the monsoon current charts and the Celestial Navigation Charts didn’t quite match Lance’s own understanding, especially the Star Formation data.

But taken as a reference, they still offered a glimpse into how things had been back then, so they were worth studying.

As for taming whales and the ability to communicate with sea creatures, that was even more abstract, but he could always look into it when he had time.

The other material, though, was very important—especially the processing of metal materials. Lance found it was far superior to what was currently popular in the Empire, and it contained several alloy formulas with distinct characteristics and unique forging techniques.

If he could digest all this, Lance felt Hamlet’s current tech level could jump severalfold, replenishing a huge chunk of the foundation that their ancestors had completely burned through.

To be honest, Hamlet’s technological development had actually been very slow, even with Lance pushing it.

He’d never expected to transmigrate; he barely had time for gaming after work, so who the hell stockpiles relevant technical knowledge for fun?

He could only use his middle- and high-school theory, plus all the random stuff he’d picked up from games, to point out directions.

And that was after forgetting most of it and only half-understanding what he did remember; you could imagine how limited that kind of guidance really was.

Because this stuff still follows rules, like an Ability tree: if you want to unlock one Ability, you need not only the Ability itself but also the prerequisite nodes.

Lance was still young, and he was confident he could pull it off.

Bread will come, milk will come—everything will come...

With that conviction, Lance threw himself into work, filtering out more applicable technologies and beginning to study them.

It wasn’t just the technologies—some of the short stories recorded in the trove also revealed interesting details.

In the section on building ironclad warships, there was an account of them sailing deep into the ocean to test the ships’ performance, and there they encountered certain eerie and horrifying events.

The author, despite being one of the high-ranking officials, was astonishingly vague on the details; all he said was that most of the people on board died, and when the ship came back it didn’t even return to harbor normally—it just drifted onto shore and was discovered.

The few surviving crew members couldn’t clearly explain what had happened, and soon afterward, they all went insane...