Chapter 540 Visiting Leonard
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The old man in front of Hobert was wrinkled, but his beard was clean-shaven. His clothes were neither new nor old, but equally clean. He didn't smile, looking like the kind of very rigorous and serious elderly person.
The old man's words first stunned Hobert, then he quickly reacted and asked the specialty shop owner next to him, "I remember there's a small courtyard behind the shop, right?"
The specialty shop owner immediately nodded, "Yes, yes."
Hobert smiled at the old man, "Sir, let's talk inside, so as not to scare the pedestrians on the road."
The old man frowned slightly, but still said, "Alright."
The specialty shop owner quickly invited the two in, set up tea and snacks on the tables and chairs in the small courtyard, and then respectfully closed the door and stood guard outside.
A tourist was about to enter the shop, but the owner immediately shooed him away, "We're closed today, come back tomorrow."
The tourist took out his pocket watch and glanced at it. Wasn't it only nine in the morning? Many shops hadn't even opened yet.
In the backyard, Hobert drew out the black knife and handed it to the old man.
The old man took the knife and looked it over, tapping it with his finger, "The person who forged this knife should die."
Hobert was stunned, "Huh?"
"Such good materials, only to forge a weapon of this level!" The old man disdainfully threw the knife on the table, "And you treat it like a treasure?"
Hobert smiled helplessly, telling the truth, "I only knew one 'Artisan' at the time."
Then he tentatively asked, "Sir, may I ask who you are?"
"I know your father and mother," the old man said, "Both your biological and adoptive fathers, and both your biological and adoptive mothers."
Hobert immediately thought of the "Alchemist" that his adoptive father knew, the demigod-level "Artisan". Could it be the old man in front of him?
"Welcome to my humble abode," Hobert said with a smile, "Where are you staying now?"
"The hotel on the corner."
"How can you stay in a hotel!" Hobert immediately said, "I'll have someone arrange a villa for you!"
The old man smiled, "Your reaction speed is as fast as your father's. The first time I met him, he also looked very sincere."
Nonsense, any normal person would be polite to a demigod-level "Artisan"!
"I just heard from a friend that the scenery here is quite good, so I came to take a look!" the old man added!
Hobert immediately said, "I'll send servants to follow you. Go wherever you want, and leave it all to the servants to handle."
The old man sighed again, "You and your father are really alike!"
Hobert scratched his head, "It should be, it should be."
The old man then pointed to the black knife on the table, "You should have more of this kind of material, right?"
"Yes, I do!"
"Bring it to me later, and I'll forge a decent weapon for you."
"Thank you so much!" Hobert grinned, "I also have some Beyonder characteristics that I want to turn into mystical items..."
"Bring them all," the old man said with a smile, "Your shamelessness makes you even more alike."
Hobert knew that the old man was saying he was like Rex, but Hobert wasn't angry. Instead, he felt that Rex was also a person who knew how to be flexible.
Then he thought of the old man's bidding at the auction last night, "Sir, I know that the mystical item auctioned last night was your work. You won't be angry that I put it up for auction, will you?"
"No," the old man smiled, "My bidding yesterday was just to make my work look more valuable, even if that work wasn't very successful."
Hobert was relieved. He asked Allen, who was waiting outside, to quickly arrange a villa prepared for nobles for the old man, and send a few clever servants over.
Then he hurried back to Backlund using "Travel," found Christian at the Duke's mansion, and asked, "Father, do you know this person?"
As he spoke, Hobert picked up the black tea on the table. Under his "Tampering" and "Distortion," a three-dimensional face formed on the surface of the tea.
Full of wrinkles, beard clean-shaven, looking very rigorous, it was the old man he had just met.
Christian was first stunned, then smiled, "That old fellow Winston went to your territory?"
"It should be him."
"I knew he would go," Christian said, "I mentioned you many times in my letters to him. He must be very curious about you."
Hobert asked, "How can I keep him here for a longer time?"
"That old fellow loves fishing and eating fish, but he doesn't like socializing," Christian said, "When I asked him to forge those three mystical items for you before, I gave him a manor with a fish pond."
"But I heard that some time ago, many Beyonders came to his door, hoping he could help forge some Beyonder items, which made it impossible for him to fish in peace, so he left."
Hobert nodded, "I know what to do."
Returning to Jeffery Territory, Hobert first told Allen not to let any outsiders disturb Winston, and if necessary, he could ask members of the Special Operations Division to drive them away.
Then he gave Winston his own prepared fishing boat and went to Feynapotter to hire two chefs who were good at making fish to provide Winston with food.
After arranging all this, Hobert went to the "Nation of Disorder," took out the remaining piece of black iron-like material, as well as 2 "Faceless," 2 "Shepherd," and 2 "Traveler" Beyonder characteristics, and accompanied by Fors, sent them to Winston.
Winston was slightly stunned when he saw that Hobert had brought so many Beyonder characteristics, "You're really not being polite."
Hobert smiled and said, "Please make the two 'Traveler' Beyonder characteristics into 'Traveler's Gate.'"
Winston waved his hand impatiently, "I know!"
Hobert instructed the servants a few more times before leaving with Fors.
On the way back, Hobert explained the details of the old man Winston to Fors.
Fors naturally realized the importance of this old man, "Should I come over every day to ask him if he has any requests?"
Influenced by Hobert, Fors now clearly understood that in some places, one cannot be lazy!
"No need," Hobert said, "If he has any needs, let the servants help convey them."
Fors smiled, "This is a treasure your father left you!"
Hobert smiled, "Yes."
For him, Christian and Mona were father and mother, while Rex and April felt less close.
Even now, Hobert still referred to Rex as: Mr. Rex.
Half an hour later, Hobert appeared on the West Coast again. He originally came to deal with the affairs of the new territory, but when he arrived, he realized that because of the precedent of occupying the West Coast last time, Conrad and Seel could quickly deal with any problems.
Hobert was happy to be idle, waiting for Bishop Simpson in his tent.
Around ten thirty, Simpson arrived as scheduled.
After chatting for a few words, Hobert asked, "How many Beyonder characteristics do you need?"
Simpson asked in return, "How many are you willing to sell?"
"I have prepared 1 'Shepherd' Beyonder characteristic, 7 'Rose Bishop,' 15 'Shadow Ascetic,' 23 'Listener,' and 26 'Secrets Supplicant' Beyonder characteristics for you." Hobert didn't expect that the 'Shepherd' Beyonder characteristics would all be used in this way.
This sequence of Beyonder characteristics is one of the most popular Beyonder characteristics for making mystical items. Even if the mystical item only has half of the true "Shepherd" ability, and can only "graze" three or four souls, it is still a very good mystical item.
Hobert did not sell all the Beyonder characteristics to Simpson, because the quantity was too huge, completely inconsistent with the number of enemies killed.
"I want them all!" Bishop Simpson said seriously, "Let's talk about the specific price."
"According to the previous agreement, the Beyonder characteristics from Sequence 9 to Sequence 7 will all be given to you at the base price," Hobert said, "Which are 360 gold pounds, 720 gold pounds, and 1440 gold pounds respectively."
"'Rose Bishop' is 3600 gold pounds, and 'Shepherd' is 10000 gold pounds!"
Bishop Simpson nodded, "No problem."
The 'Shepherd' was only priced at 10000 gold pounds, which shows how much face Hobert gave him. Everyone knew how popular the mystical items made from the 'Shepherd' Beyonder characteristic were.
After agreeing on the price, Hobert, as usual, listed a list:
26 'Secrets Supplicant' Beyonder characteristics, 360 gold pounds each, total value 9360 gold pounds.
23 'Listener' Beyonder characteristics, 720 gold pounds each, total value 16560 gold pounds.
15 'Shadow Ascetic' Beyonder characteristics, 1440 gold pounds each, total value 21600 gold pounds.
7 'Rose Bishop' Beyonder characteristics, 3600 gold pounds each, total value 25200 gold pounds.
1 'Shepherd' Beyonder characteristic, value 10000 gold pounds.
Total: 82720 gold pounds.
Simpson wrote a check very readily, and after discussing the issue of preaching on Longtail Island with Hobert, he left with a wooden box of Beyonder characteristics.
Hobert also liked such large transactions, especially the Beyonder characteristics that he was only willing to sell to the Church, being able to sell nearly half of them at once, which saved him a lot of trouble.
Hobert planned to have Philip bring back the cash from these 80,000 gold pounds and then offer them to the "Nation of Disorder," to be spent in Jeffery Territory when he needed money in the future.
Currently, after compensating the families of the fallen, there were still more than 60,000 gold pounds in the lord's mansion account, enough to spend for a while.
After dealing with the transaction, Hobert immediately asked Dennis, who had ended his vacation, to be responsible for the first round of population introduction.
On the Backlund side, 800 impoverished people without a livelihood would be simply trained in two days, and then they would pass through the "Traveler's Gate" to the land that had been prepared for them.
On the Jeffery Territory side, Corwin was responsible for contacting this matter. Hobert first contacted Corwin with Dennis, and then came to Backlund to contact Todd.
Todd had been staring at the factory. The factory that Hobert had taken a fancy to was finally rented for 14,000 pounds for two years.
Hobert was very satisfied with Todd's ability to bargain and rewarded him with 100 pounds on the spot.
Todd reported, "While the factory doesn't have other employees yet, I plan to use the other dormitory buildings to train 1,500 people in the next batch, and then increase the number as appropriate after training several batches."
Hobert nodded, "How are Xio and Freya's jobs going?"
Todd sighed, "Their interrogation is really amazing. They easily found more than a hundred people with criminal records among so many people."
"However, most of them stole out of hunger. I had people record this on their resumes and warned them, but I don't plan to pursue it for the time being."
"There are also a dozen people who have seriously injured or killed others. Most of them were in self-defense. I also recorded it in their resumes, as a final chance for them."
"Only six people killed people proactively for food. I have sent them to the police station."
Hobert was very satisfied with Todd's handling, "There is basically no order at the bottom of Backlund. It is common for vagrants to fight to the death for food."
"Except for the criminals who proactively killed people, others should indeed have another chance."
"In the future, if you encounter similar problems, handle them according to this precedent!"
Returning to the Earl's mansion on Empress Borough, as soon as he entered the spacious hall, Dophis's report followed, "Tomorrow is the traditional social season of Loen. Many invitations have been sent one after another these days."
"The invitations are from His Majesty the King, Duke Negan..."
Dophis said a dozen or so great nobles including Christian in a row, and then he said, "If you don't plan to reject any of the invitations, you will have to attend balls every night for the next 12 days."
After working hard for a long time and listening to many reports, Hobert showed a wry smile for the first time, "I have a mystical item that can change appearances. How about you go in my place?"
Dophis smiled professionally, "Do you mean to reject all the invitations?"
"Forget it if you don't want to go," Hobert waved his hand, "I won't reject any invitations for the next social season."
To be precise, he doesn't have the qualifications to reject invitations yet.
Dophis invited Hobert to the study, "Ms. Lorotta brought you four checks yesterday."
As he spoke, he took out the checks from his inner pocket and handed them to Hobert.
Hobert took it and looked at it. The face values of the four checks were 42,000 pounds, 8,625 pounds, 4,085 pounds, and 3,990 pounds respectively.
This was the bounty for "Admiral of Blood" Senor and others, totaling 58,700 pounds, another considerable income.
Hobert handed the check to Dophis again, "Go to the bank to withdraw the money, and, by the way, buy some good coffee and black tea and send them to the Blackthorn Security Company on Church Street."
"Yes." Dophis paused and said, "The safe I bought before can no longer hold so much cash, so I bought a new safe."
Hobert nodded, sighing in his heart: It will be difficult to have such a large income in the next few months.
Finally, Dophis took out an envelope, "This is a letter that Ms. Lorotta brought with her."
Hobert opened it and saw that there was only an address on the letter. He immediately understood that this was Leonard's current address that Thomas had helped him find out.
He said to Dophis, who hadn't gone far, "Prepare two bottles of good wine for me. I'm going to visit a friend."
"Yes!"
...
In the evening, a luxurious Earl-class carriage arrived at 7 Pinstreet, North Borough.
Hobert, wearing a trench coat, got out of the carriage, looked at the surrounding environment, which was not bad, took the wine from the servant, and stepped forward to knock on the door.
"Earl!" As the door opened, Leonard's magnetic voice came, "Welcome!"
Hobert looked at the young man with the demeanor of a poet in front of him, "Old friend, your place is not bad!"
"It shouldn't be as spacious as the Earl's mansion, right? Please come in." Leonard invited Hobert in.
Hobert saw that the living room was fairly clean, and smiled while taking off his hat, "I guess you hired a maid to clean and launder regularly."
Leonard closed the door, "How did you know?"
Nonsense, Hobert thought: With your sloppy and undisciplined personality, it would be normal for your home to be like a pigsty.
He changed the subject and raised the wine in his hand, "Go get two wine glasses. This is the Earl's mansion's vintage wine. Let's taste what's different."
Leonard smiled, "Wait a moment."
He shouted to a child across the street at the door, "Little Nia! Help me buy a pack of freshly cut ham and roast pork from the next street. I also want some potato chips and roasted pork skin."
While Leonard was talking, he took out a 2 Soli banknote, "The rest is yours!"
On the streets where the Backlund middle class gathered, there were many such eight- or nine-year-old and teenage children wandering the streets, specializing in running errands for people.
Soon, the fragrant roast pork was placed on the dining table. The four kinds of food Leonard ordered were classic Loenese appetizers.
However, true gentlemen rarely eat like this. It is generally the kind of people who have escaped poverty but have not yet reached the middle class who like to use such food with wine.
Although Leonard's income had long exceeded that of the middle class, he liked this unrestrained way of eating.
The two poured wine, Hobert tasted a potato chip, and then sighed in his heart: Absolutely no peanuts are more classic!
After a bottle of wine was finished, the topics the two talked about became more and more extensive. Leonard asked, "I heard you are recruiting a group of vagrants?"
"Yes." There was nothing to hide, Hobert said, "There is still some vacant farmland in my territory, enough to feed tens of thousands of people."
Leonard smiled, "Hobert, you haven't changed at all, that's great."
"How can I change?" Hobert tasted a piece of ham, the taste was not bad.
Leonard answered irrelevantly, "You are an Earl now, and you still like to wear trench coats."
Hobert said seriously, "I am an Earl, why can't I wear a trench coat?"
The two looked at each other, then laughed together, and then drank the wine in their glasses together and opened the second bottle of wine.
"I have recently found some clues." Leonard suddenly said, "According to the usual practice, these clues can only be exchanged within the 'Red Gloves', but you are also a member of the Red Gloves, which does not violate the relevant regulations."
Although Leonard's words were incoherent, Hobert knew that he was talking about clues about Captain Dunn's enemy.
Hobert thought for a while, he couldn't tell Leonard that the Captain had been resurrected for the time being, at least until this guy became a member of the Tarot Club, and then find a suitable opportunity to tell him.
Leonard added, "We talked about the Lanevus case before, right?"
"Yes."
"Later, I came into contact with the Carpin case and the Backlund smog case, and found that a private detective Sherlock Moriarty appeared in these cases!" Leonard said seriously:
"Just a few days ago, I got accurate information that Sherlock is also related to the Lanevus case!
"This detective must have a major secret! He may know some inside information about the 'True Creator's Descent Case'!"
Hobert agreed, "Your logic is very rigorous!"
That is one of the parties involved, and his investigation is already very in-depth! Does this count as knowing important clues?
"Unfortunately, according to limited information, he went to the Berserk Sea to take refuge." Leonard said with some disappointment, "Maybe he will never be found again."
As far as I know, he is back now, Hobert thought: Returning to Backlund as a rich man.
Hobert directed the clues to another direction, "According to my investigation, Ince Zangwill appeared in the Backlund smog case."
At that time, Leonard only had very vague information about the demigod battle that took place in the underground ruins, "Can it be confirmed that it was him?"
Then he smiled, "You are indeed secretly investigating his whereabouts."
Hobert smiled and said nothing.
Leonard suddenly guessed, "Do you think Sherlock might be a believer of the 'Creator'? Or simply His Blessed?"
The wine in Hobert's mouth almost sprayed out, "Why do you think so?"
"The 'Creator' has been too active recently!" Leonard said, "I just got the news that the great adventurer Gehrman Sparrow is actually the Blessed of the 'Creator'!"
Hobert suppressed the urge to twitch his mouth, "Who said that?"
"'Sea King' Jahn Kottman's guess!"
"I..." Hobert took a deep breath, swallowed the "damn" back, and smiled, "I'm not very clear."
"Based on some recent information, I have some guesses." Leonard said, "Although the 'Creator's' main power is in the Southern Continent, He also has many subordinates in the Berserk Sea and the Northern Continent. He seems to be trying to influence the development of some things in this world.
"Then could Sherlock be one of his subordinates sent to the Northern Continent? To disrupt some actions of the Loen royal family, or to investigate some things.
"The 'True Creator's Descent Case' may be one of the targets of his investigation. Perhaps the True Creator is the 'Creator's' opponent."
Hobert thought: Your ideas are so wild and imaginative, and they seem to make sense, but the result is completely wrong!
Then he realized that the "Creator" had recently stolen the limelight from the "Fool", and many unsolved cases of the True God churches were attributed to the "Creator"!
Hobert didn't dare to say anything, so he could only listen quietly to Leonard's imaginative guesses.
Some guesses about the "Creator" made Hobert a little frightened. If he replaced Sherlock or Gehrman in the guess with Hobert, he would be very close to the truth.
Fortunately, this topic was only discussed for a while, and they talked about other things.
At more than nine o'clock in the evening, Leonard looked at the luxurious carriage disappearing into the mist. An old voice that only he could hear asked, "Aren't you curious about his experience in Feynapotter? Why didn't you ask?"
"Because he didn't say it." Leonard closed the door.
"He is already a demigod."
Leonard was slightly surprised, "No wonder he was titled Earl."
He recalled the first time he met Hobert, they were both Sequence 8.
Then Leonard smiled easily, "Old man, do you have any friends?"
A few seconds later, the old voice replied, "My friends are all dead."
"For a while, I thought my friends were all dead too." Leonard said, "Fortunately, the Goddess blesses me and left me a friend."
After another second or two, the old voice said, "They are not dead."
"Yes!" Leonard said, "Captain and Klein will always live in my heart!"
The old man did not make further explanations.
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