My wife is an immortal black snake.

Page 144

[Event: Distinguished Guest from Kazdel]

Lady Therese, the Regent of Kazdel, has come to visit your territory. She seems eager to promote her Sarkaz mercenaries in order to extract resources they need from your lands. Perhaps you're in a mutually beneficial relationship, or perhaps you can freely...oppress her?

Friendly reminder——

She has discovered that you are the one in charge of this duchy—to be precise, the one responsible for the vast majority of the work.

'Isn't Kosiché responsible for the vast majority of the work?'

Yang Hao was completely baffled—after all, to be honest, why would a first-time guest think that I was the one in charge? To be fair, I had far fewer appearances in the audience hall than Kosicche, right?

In a sense, Monica even appeared in the audience hall more often than I did, didn't she? Ah, I don't mean to say I was slacking off or anything like that. But the thing is, if they weren't on our side, from an outsider's perspective, wouldn't Koschche be doing more work?

Why are they suddenly targeting me? Yang Hao was very confused, but as a mature adult, he didn't say anything. He just silently looked at the noteworthy words in the incident before examining the table of contents in his hand.

This is a very simple and clear catalog—basically, it lists the price for a whole squad of Sarkaz mercenaries for a month of service.

Their prices for their mercenaries were perfectly acceptable, and the Sarkaz mercenaries were indeed cheap; at least Yang Hao couldn't find a cheaper mercenary group in Ursus than the Sarkaz.

If I had to pick one, could the Gallic troops I'd seen before be considered one? But those Gallic troops are now almost all incorporated into our regular army, so it's free.

He touched his chin, stroking the hard, protruding stubble, making a rustling sound.

Um...

So, should we hire them after all? After all, if we drag this out any longer, the councilors from the Sherlock Holmes nightclub might actually be able to carry out the sordid ritual of killing a third of the Ursus Empire's population.

It's just some money and goods, right? Fine, give them to them, as long as these Sarkaz mercenaries can get the job done...

On another note, honey, why do you look so strange? Is something bothering you?

Yang Hao gave Koschei a questioning look at his strange and ugly expression. In response to her husband's question, Koschei's lips twitched. He thought to himself that he couldn't just say that he saw a woman staring at him.

so...

She didn't say anything, but simply squeezed the back of his hand, signaling him to make the decision.

"...In short, guests from Kazdel, we do indeed have a need for mercenaries. However, we need to discuss the specific number and the duration of the employment in detail." Since it's my turn to make the decision, then so be it. "Furthermore, we have doubts about whether Kazdel can provide the required number of mercenaries...Excuse me for being frank, but can Kazdel currently offer more than 5 mercenaries?"

The Kosiché Duchy's next plan requires at least 5 Sarkaz mercenaries—of course, these 5 Sarkaz mercenaries are not to be used as cannon fodder. Yang Hao needs them to cooperate with the Kosiché Duchy's regular army and the Templar Knights to complete the mission of harassing the Nikolai Duchy. After the harassment mission is completed, these mercenaries will be immediately deployed to defensive operations until Duke Nikolai has exhausted his main forces.

He has a rather brief military plan, which may require his generals to develop and overturn it later. The question now is, can Kazdel provide that many experienced mercenaries?

Even if they could afford it, how long would it take them to get here?

Yang Hao was very concerned about this. If these mercenaries weren't coming for two or three years... then it would be better not to hire them at all! Two or three years would be too long; what good would they do besides eat?

So, can you give me a definite answer?

Yang Hao sized up Kazdel's guests. After a moment, the Regent, who had been staring at him, nodded and replied in a simple, straightforward tone:

"Kazdel can currently provide more than 7 mercenaries, and they should arrive in Ursus by next month at the latest—but in return, we expect you to deliver the agreed-upon resources to us once the mercenaries arrive."

"As soon as your mercenaries arrive in the Duchy of Kosichear, our caravan carrying resources will immediately set off for Kazdel to unload the goods. Or, will your caravan take them back themselves?"

“We will have caravans accompanying the mercenaries. In return, we hope you can grant us the right to trade within the Duchy of Kosiché.”

"Trading rights? Sure. But the detailed exchange of trade tokens will primarily use red gold."

"Naturally."

They quickly finished discussing the matter of hiring mercenaries.

But Yang Hao had a feeling that things weren't that simple...

Because he noticed that the Kazdel people intended to bring their own caravans to trade—meaning, did they also intend to use the guise of sending mercenaries to open up trade routes with the surrounding major powers?

That's an interesting idea. If I remember correctly, the Kazdel region is a place oppressed by various countries.

Won't the Duchy of Kosice give other countries an excuse to condemn it by doing this?

He licked his lips, thinking that whoever condemned the Duchy of Kosiché would be a troublemaker on his list.

Chapter 62

After the signing of the relevant contracts and the final exchange of contracts, the surprise delivered by the Kazdel people finally came to a peaceful end.

The Kazdel people got the resources they wanted, and the Duchy of Koschche got the soldiers they desperately needed. Both sides won once, a win-win situation in short—Yang Hao liked this kind of win-win scenario. If possible, it would be even better if his side won twice...

Although the work-related matters were finished, Kazdel's distinguished guest was still in Duke Koschie's territory, so Yang Hao probably wouldn't be able to seek comfort from Mother Sonia today. Under Koschie's inexplicably wary gaze, Yang Hao shrugged as he got up to leave. Reluctantly, he took a few Templar Knights as guards and began to introduce his territory to the Kazdel Regent, who was very interested in it—in the form of showing her around.

"In conclusion, Your Grace, although our territory has not yet fully recovered from the shadow of the economic crisis, it is still the most economically prosperous city in the Ursus Empire. If you intend to find more trade goods in other Ursus cities by sending more caravans, I personally do not recommend that you do so."

“You discovered my identity? I didn’t say anything, and I was even dressed like an ordinary Sarkaz nobleman.” The Regent was clearly interested in Yang Hao discovering her true identity. However, she knew that continuing to argue here would be pointless and might even tear up the hard-won business contract—so she quickly calmed down and extended her right hand to Yang Hao, whether out of goodwill or to confirm his identity, “Well then, let me introduce myself—my real name is Therese, the current Regent of Kazdel.”

“Yang Hao, a duke and prince of the Ursus Empire, and also the Speaker of the Empire’s Council.” Yang Hao extended his hand to shake hers, and then announced a series of titles that would later become well-known to the people of the Ursus Empire and the world: “At the same time, I am also the husband of Duke Kosichä. However, I am not a native of Ursus.”

"How could a stranger who isn't from Ursus achieve such a position...?"

"Haha, that's a long story. Why don't we take a leisurely walk outside and talk about it over there?"

...

Yang Hao and Regent Tracy walked down the street, each accompanied by their respective guards.

On the other side, although Duke Kosiché was worried about this, she held onto the belief that "not every woman could have designs on my husband," and thus took no action to stop it, clinging to a sliver of hope. She was currently seated on her throne in the audience hall, deep in thought as she studied the latest battle reports from the front lines brought by the Serpent Scales.

"In short... His Majesty's army now has to use the tracks and cannons of the Saint-Germain-class fortress to clear away the corpses along the way before it can continue its advance... What does that mean? What are the other nobles of the Hercules Nightclub doing now?"

"It's unclear. Some of them are still drinking and having fun, while others are completely indifferent. The internal communication of the Sherlock Holmes nightclub is very chaotic. They don't seem to care about their impending downfall, so although some people are imitating the Earl's actions, their numbers are not large."

“If one or two people start to follow suit, it means bad news is coming. Alas, I grant you the freedom to move about, if you can stop them.”

"Yes."

Whether it was luck, some other reason, or the fact that creating the [corpse] was more difficult than expected, in any case, not all nobles intended to emulate that mad count—but even so, the existence of one or two imitators still made Kosichrie break out in a cold sweat for the future of the Ursus Empire.

So she gave her serpent scales the order to act freely—they could do so if there was any opportunity to kill those nobles. Of course, Koschei herself didn't think there was any possibility of that happening, so it was better than nothing.

In addition, the slow pace of His Majesty's army was also a headache for Kosiché... However, Kosiché could understand the slow progress of His Majesty's army - after all, they still had to deal with hundreds of thousands... no, more than two hundred thousand enemies made up of civilian corpses.

Those enemies might be very weak, but that number of beasts could crush an entire army group, so...

Your Majesty, keep it up!

Kosiché sighed softly. He thought to himself that not only had His Majesty the Emperor not come to assist in the attack on the Nikolai Duchy as they had hoped, but now it seemed they were the ones who needed to find a way to help them...

Sigh, let's just consider it leverage for signing the contract next.

Just as Kosich was thinking this and deciding to rest for the day, another snake-scaled creature barged in. Kosich looked closely and realized that, if he remembered correctly, this snake-scaled creature was in charge of reconnaissance work for Duke Nikolai.

What's going on? What happened over there? Kosiché frowned, and before he could ask, he heard Snake Scales say urgently:

"Lord Kosiché! The Duchy of Nikolai has begun sending troops to our passes!"

"...Speak slowly."

"They have amassed a large force, and there are many [Flesh Puppets] among them. At the same time, he has converted part of the mobile city into military land-based ships. Now, an army composed of land-based ships and ground troops is advancing towards our side and is expected to reach our border in 10 days!"

"...Okay, I understand. Now, go and have the troops at the border strengthen their vigilance, and then have them prepare to evacuate at any time—you can go now."

"Yes."

It's truly a case of misfortunes never coming singly.

Just when things seemed to be looking up from the mercenary issue, Duke Nikolai, like a shark that has smelled blood, is charging straight toward our territory.

Kosichelle sighed heavily. If it were a defensive operation, she was confident she could hold out Duke Nikolai for a year or two... but if Duke Nikolai had gone mad and slaughtered all his people, then holding out for a year or two would be pointless.

...It seems we must find a way to hold off Duke Nikolai's advance while allowing His Majesty's army to advance as quickly as possible.

Kosicie rubbed her temples, feeling that this year was the most tiring one she had ever had, truly.

Chapter 63

On the other side, Yang Hao was showing the esteemed Regent of Kazdel, Miss Therese, around his great achievements—more precisely, leading them on a tour of the infected gathering area he had established, as well as the Sarkaz gathering area that was still being planned [on the spot and then planned using puppet stages].

Considering the potential influx of Sarkaz immigrants in the future, Yang Hao thought it would be more practical to first let the Regent of Kazdel understand the advantages of his territory. Besides, Kazdel is just a tiny dot on the map, isn't it? Such a small place, even a province of the Dukedom of Kosichear would be too small, so...right?

Who knows, we might all become part of the Ursus Empire in the future! Isn't it a good thing to let you choose where you'll live in advance?

I strongly recommend that all the people of Kazdel come and stay in my Duchy of Kosichear! It's comfortable here, and the policies and conditions won't have any negative impact on you infected and Sarkaz, so...

What do you think?

Yang Hao blinked, his eyes filled with envy for the abundant Sarkaz manpower in the Kazdel region. Meanwhile, Therese was also surprised that there were cities in the world that didn't discriminate against Sarkaz and Infected people so much. This was something she had never heard of before—even after thoroughly researching with experienced caravans and intelligence personnel before arriving.

Although the infected individuals live in relatively closed areas, their lives are generally as free as those of people outside. Apart from the fact that they need to undergo checks before going out to prevent them from bringing any contaminated items out, they can do anything that ordinary people can do in the city within the closed areas—as long as it is not illegal.

Furthermore, Therese noticed that the infected area even had a dedicated clinic and a research institute for Oripathy, something she had never heard of before: even in Victoria, no city lord would do such a thing for his infected people.

Besides this, what concerned Theresa even more was that this cluster of infected individuals seemed to be expanding outwards...

"Mr. Yang Hao, is your cluster of infected individuals being expanded outwards?"

She pointed to a construction site on the edge of the city not far away and asked a question.

To her surprise, the duke gave a reply she never dared to imagine:

“Yes, our territory has been receiving more and more infected people recently. In order to avoid the possibility that new infected people might sleep on the streets or in tents, we need to expand the infected gathering area from time to time. When necessary, we will continue to expand the area to the outskirts of the city. This way, infected immigrants from outside will not have to go through the trouble of entering through ordinary customs and then taking special vehicles to settle here.”

"I simply cannot understand why the Infected are worth doing this for the Ursus Empire?"

Infected people face the most discrimination in most parts of the world, except in Kazdel. But that's because almost everyone in Kazdel is infected, not because the rulers of Kazdel have any pity for them. Therefore, Therese truly cannot understand how this works...

"I also cannot understand why so many people regard the infected as untouchable enemies—they are clearly just patients, patients who are almost no different from ordinary people as long as they receive infection prevention treatment and end-of-life care. As a lord, I have the obligation to ensure that these poor patients have the rights of being human and the path to improve their social class through hard work. Of course, this applies not only to the infected, but to everyone, including the Sarkaz people in my territory."

"...I see. I suppose you and my sister get along well."

Perhaps the duke and her sister Theresa would have more in common, Theresa thought with a touch of regret.

"Haha, but I'm not sure about Kazdel's current situation—but in short, please understand that neither I, my wife, nor my territory discriminate against the Infected or the Sarkaz. Of course, we don't discriminate against the poor either."

"Because treating the poor well...will bring you fame?"

"No, because they are my people."

"...so."

Another place that I can't understand.

Are there really city leaders in this world who treat their people as their own sons rather than as property?

Therese really doubted whether he was lying... but judging from the expressions of the pedestrians on the street and the infected, it seemed to be true?

...

The Regent of Kazdel shook her head. She hadn't forgotten her purpose. She knew very well that power should be earned by herself—perhaps the policies of this territory could be used as a model in the future, but before that, she had to get Kazdel out of this wretched, impoverished place.

She doesn't necessarily have to break free, but at least she needs to find external funding—otherwise, without funding, relying solely on Kazdel's own strength, it's not only a pipe dream to gain a foothold in the world, but more importantly, she'll need a lot of time to remain dormant.

As a Sarkaz, Therese certainly had time to wait—but if she could avoid waiting, who would want to wait for decades?

So after a brief visit to the Sarkaz settlement that the Duchy of Kosiché was planning to build, Therese decided to get down to business.

"I wonder if Duke Yang Hao is interested in investing?"

She saw the man pause for a moment, then immediately regain his composure and smiled:

"Investing? I personally enjoy investing, and in fact, I've invested in quite a few things... But the premise for investing is that what I invest in can bring me a return, right?"

"So, have you considered investing in Kazdel?" she asked somewhat nervously. Although she was a popular regent in Kazdel, in the outside world, she was at best the mayor of a city that didn't even qualify as a mobile city—and what's worse, that city was simultaneously isolated and despised by the surrounding countries and regions.

“Kazdel?”

Therese saw the calm smile on the man's face vanish. He frowned, his mouth was tightly shut, and he looked down at the ground as if deep in thought.

After a while.

"Kazdel... I have considered this for some reason. But if I may be frank, Regent, the only thing Kazdel can invest in right now, besides Sarkaz mercenaries, is the ancient witchcraft of the Sarkaz people—I don't mean to belittle your homeland, but Kazdel... is really too poor. It has nothing."

“Yes, there’s nothing.” Therese’s eyes dimmed slightly, after all, Kazdel was really too poor.

Even if it wants to attract investment... it doesn't seem to have anything worth investing in at all!

Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice... Investors also dread investing in a place with no good investment opportunities.

So Therese can understand, but understanding doesn't mean...

That doesn't mean she'll be content with that.

"Industrial production is in dire straits due to resource scarcity, and the same is true for the people's livelihood economy, which is located in a barren region. Although you have a large number of high-quality warriors and sorcerers, your economy has fallen to the point where you are unable to even begin to reform the government."

"You're right." She sighed inwardly. It seemed that this trip would yield nothing but a mercenary agreement and a temporary trade exchange that felt like "profiting" from something else.

She was unwilling to accept this! Did Kazdel really have no worthwhile investment opportunities left?!