Lord of the Oasis - Chapter 220
Chapter 220: The Tense Atmosphere Between the Two Sides
Early in the morning at the beginning of the month.
Kant woke up from his sleep, and a little noise entered his ears.
He frowned slightly and glanced at the bright sky outside the window. He quickly calmed down with a bit of his morning breath. Kant paid attention to the noise. It was the neighing of the camels, and he already understood what was going on.
Manid and his camel caravan had returned.
He put on his clothes and went to the window.
Kant looked down. Many peasants were carrying the goods on the backs of 30 camels and piling them on the side of the street. Manid stood by the side and busy commanded them. Looking at the thick fur coat on his body, Kant knew that he had just returned in the early morning.
He retracted his gaze.
Kant washed his hands and face and walked out of the room.
There were a few beautiful maids with fair and supple faces waiting on him outside.
When they saw Kant walk out, they hurriedly bowed. “My lord, good morning.”
“Yes, good morning.”, Kant nodded.
These were all immigrants from cities and towns. Bunduk had specially picked them out and arranged them to serve as maids in the council hall.
Beautiful young girls between the ages of 18 and 25.
Their faces were cute and pretty. Many of them were girls from wealthy families. That was why they were arranged to serve Kant as his personal maids on the sixth floor. They would usually clean Kant’s exclusive room and serve him with food, clothing, and travel.
Bunduk had chosen unmarried young girls.
He also vaguely hinted that they could also work in bed in the middle of night.
Kant understood what he meant.
After all, “Mount & Blade” was a western game, so it was more open to such things.
Moreover, this was the medieval background in which a lord was above everything.
If he moved his finger, these beautiful maids would wash themselves clean and lie on his big, soft bed, unlocking any position and fooled around over and over again.
But Kant did not make such a gesture.
Even if these beautiful maids were really gorgeous and they were much more eye-catching than those old ladies with bucket waists.
But he thought these were not the things he should considered at the moment.
Kant’s body was only 16 years old.
Excessive indulgence would affect the development of the body, which was worth noting. Even if he had the physical strength of a knight, but his body was still developing, it would still be irreparably affected by such things.
Therefore, Kant had sufficient self-control to allow himself to stay rational.
He would not be seduced by beauty.
Excessive indulgence would destroy a person’s spirit. In history, more than one person had fallen due to trapping in the embrace of beautiful women. If one was unlucky, the end result would be miserable.
No one leave him a way out unscathed.
History could be the proof.
Kant waved his hand to dismiss the maids and continued to clean the room. He walked down the spiral staircase and left the sixth floor. Soon, he reached the first floor.
This was a floor that used for greeting guests, banquets, and administration.
Currently, there were not many people in duty.
Only Kant and Firentis were handling the matters of “Drondheim” Castle. Although Manid would help occasionally, he would deal with business matters alone most of the time. After all, as the table salt trade expanded, his task would become more and more important. He basically could not be distracted to help with other matters.
In fact, the current administrative matters were relatively easy to handle, so Kant and Firentis could handle it.
Therefore, they did not hire additional government employees.
However, Kant sensed that something was wrong.
With the development of “Drondheim” Castle, it was not only a military center, but also a commercial and political center. All kinds of matters that needed to be handled and decisions began to increase.
The intelligence came from the Stone Pass. All kinds of matters in the “Aaron” Village in the Senwaya Range. In addition, there were spies spying on this place all the time. These were all the things that Kant needed to deal with next.
Moreover, he was secretly guarding against the Kingdom of Grey Mane from the Mannheim Coast which located on the opposite side of the Nahrin Desert . It was already exhausting for him to think about it.
“I really need to hire some employees.”, Kant sighed.
This plan was put on the agenda in Kant’s mind.
He was thinking about it.
The faint fragrance of food appeared in the council hall.
In the kitchen at the back, the chefs were preparing breakfast. According to the usual time, it would take less than half an hour for everyone in “Drondheim” Castle to eat.
Kant sat in his seat and waited.
The maids brought a tray with silver bowls and plates on it.
“My Lord, please have some sweet porridge and dessert first.”
She put down the tray.
The silver bowl was filled with soft porridge with honey, date palm powder, and a little malt wine.
On the silver plate next to it was a bread strip the size of a finger. It was wrapped with egg liquid, honey, date palm powder, and a layer of flour. After that, it was put into a frying pan and fried into a crispy little dessert. It was a dish brought by the immigrants from these towns, and it tasted very good. It was also a good dessert to appease the hunger before meals.
Kant fell for it since he had it during the supper last night. He even had the maid to specially arrange this dessert before his breakfast. Looking at the still steaming hot dessert, one could tell that it was made by the chefs of these immigrants from the cities.
After tasting a piece of dessert, the taste was sweet and crisp.
Kant nodded in satisfaction and said to the maid, “Please help me prepare four more delicious desserts.”
“Yes, lord.”
The pretty maid chuckled. She happily turned around and ran to the kitchen to instruct the chefs to prepare.
Kant turned his head at the same time and instructed the Swadian knight who was standing guard at the door, “Go and invite Firentis and Manid to come to the council hall to have breakfast with me. Hurry up.”
“Yes.”, the knight nodded and left the house swiftly.
Kant was still making arrangements.
Bunduk and Rolf, who were temporarily staying on the fourth floor, walked out of the stairs.
When they saw that Kant was already sitting in the main seat, they immediately tidied up their collars and quickly walked over to greet him respectfully. “Good morning, Lord Kant.”
“Mm.”, Kant smiled and nodded. “Take a seat.”
“Thank you very much.”, the two of them thanked him and sat down.
However, when Kant saw that the two of them still had black circles under their eyes, he smiled and asked, “What’s going on? It seems that you two don’t have a quality sleep last night?”
“I just came to the land of miracles. I’m under a lot of pressure,”, Bunduk said honestly.
Rolf also shrugged. “A looooot of pressure.”
“Relax.”, Kant could not help but laugh.
He understood their pressure, so he comforted them. “This world is no different from Caradia.” As he spoke, he used the knife and fork in his hand to cut open the crispy dessert, after chewing it in his mouth, he swallowed it. “Just like these delicious desserts, we still use this method to eat them. What’s the difference from before?”
“Perhaps.”, Bunduk nodded with a bitter smile.
Even so, regarding the land of miracles, the Continent of Caradia had long been the talk of the town.
Especially the construction workers and trade caravan guards who had come here before and had actually seen Kant, as well as the King Yarogelk of Vaegirs, who had a letter exchange with Kant, all held deep respect for this.
This further glorified the legend of the land of miracles.
As they were chatting, the door was opened, and Firentis and Manid came in.
“Lord Kant.”
The two bowed and greeted him.
Manid was slightly surprised. He looked at Bunduk and smiled. “I didn’t expect to see your figure in the land of miracles. Brother Bunduk, it’s so good to see you.”
“Me too.”, Bunduk nodded with a smile.
Their relationship was good to begin with.
However, Rolf sat awkwardly by the side. Manid had no intention of greeting him.
Clearly, the relationship between the two was very stiff.
It could be seen from the seating arrangement.
Originally, Bunduk and Rolf were sitting on the left and right side of the long table.
However, after Firentis and Manid arrived, they both sat beside Bunduk on the left side. As for Rolf, he was the only one on the right side. He looked lonely and a little pity.
Both sides did not talk much throughout the conversation.
It was obvious that the three of them formed a small group and left Rolf out.
“Breakfast time.”
Kant opened his mouth and broke up the awkwardness and tension in the atmosphere inside the council hall. At the same time, he instructed the maids, “Since we are all here, bring the desserts and breakfast to us.”
“Okay.”, the maids nodded and turned around to get ready.
Kant was also somewhat helpless about the situation.
Rolf, this unscrupulous scoundrel, he would try to get denar in his hands by any foul means.
In the background of the characters, he could not be considered a good person.
He would have conflict with Firentis and Manidwere, especially Bunduk. Although both of them appeared to be friendly because they came at the same time, in fact, they had a fundamental conflict with each other’s personalities, temperaments, and conduct. There was no possibility for them to become friends with just normal communication.
Therefore, the atmosphere was not only awkward and tense, but also filled a hint of hostility.
“Let’s separate them as soon as possible.”
Kant shook his head and sighed softly.
From the looks of it, if they did not have a life-and-death experience that was engraved in their hearts, their relationship would not be much better.
After all, this was the system setting.
When recruiting NPCs, there were actually two lines.
The first line was the line of justice. NPCs’ personalities were both lawful and kind, or they had sense of justice and stayed neutral. They refused to commit any criminal acts such as burning villages, robbing, or extorting.
This was also a line prepared for the kind-hearted players.
The second one was the line of evil. NPCs’ personalities could either be bad but still followed the law, lawful and stayed neutral, or complete chaotically evil. There were absolutely no taboos for them, and they had no bottom line.
This was a line prepared for players who liked to conquer and destroy, as well as players from the dark side.
Of course, these were also the game settings.
However, as Kant’s golden finger, he inherited this point.
But it was no longer a setting of the game.
It was more of a complicated character’s personality!
To truly communicate with these NPCs who had come alive, even if they were loyal to Kant, they could not change their personalities in a short period of time. They could only be trained slowly and subtly influence them.
As for whether if the two NPCs could get along with each other, that would be a matter of opinion.
Now, Kant alone could maintain a basic peace stance.
If both sides worked together.
It would probably be quite difficult to work together just because they had different ideas from each other.