Chapter 215 Disembarking
In the port of Thunder City, the soft spring breeze ruffled the sparkling sea surface, and the squawking seagulls circled the mast hanging the purple moon flag.
People walking on the shore are walking in a hurry, like pocket watches that are wound up, for fear of being delayed for a second.
But even in such a busy port, when passers-by see Mr. Roxey Colin standing on the deck, they will still stop involuntarily, take off their hats to him, and express their heartfelt respect and piety.
Most of them are people who have made money from Colin Mining Company.
Of course, there are also some people who have lost money or accidentally sold too early.
On the deck of the ship, Punk stood with a respectful nod, facing Mr. Colin who had his back turned to him.
"Sir, according to your instructions, our newspaper has occupied more than 60% of the market share in the port of Thunder City."
When he said this, he hesitated for a moment and continued.
"Actually, this number was still 80% a few days ago, but recently the Andes family has begun to enter this market. Not only have they used their advantages in the banking industry to monopolize information channels, they have also poached many capable employees from us."
Punk's voice was quite critical.
In his opinion, Andes did not do this very kindly. The two families were obviously allies, but they stabbed him in the back.
What’s more, what they did was not just in newspapers, but also involved exchanges.
The Andes family’s bank also operates the exchange.
It's just because of people's inertia and the growing share of transactions outside the Red Leaf Tea Shop, plus the fact that the Sheriff of Queens has become a member of the Brotherhood, it is difficult for them to take away the market share easily.
After listening to Punk's rather critical complaints, Luo Yan just smiled. Instead of getting angry as the former expected, he said nonchalantly.
"Punk, you have been following me for a while. When have I ever asked you about specific recruitment matters."
Punk was stunned for a moment, shook his head and said.
“No.”
Luo Yan continued.
"Then do you think Mr. Andes, who is busier than me, would personally care about such details?"
A hint of understanding appeared in Punk's eyes.
"I see... I understand."
Looking at Punk who seemed to understand, Luo Yan nodded slightly and looked at the prosperous port with a smile.
"It's normal to have friction. You can never stop them from doing the same thing as you. Besides, it's not a bad thing to let them participate in making the cake bigger. There is a market outside Thunder City that encompasses the entire empire waiting for us."
“This is healthy competition. They can poach your people, and you can naturally poach their people with your skills, or even bribe insiders to dig out secret intelligence and throw dirty water on the other party... These are normal business competitions, as long as they don’t go too far, such as touching the other party’s real core interests, such as exposing the scandal of the Andes family.”
"You have to remember that a true ally is not one who only follows each other, but two hands held tightly together, so tight that even a needle cannot be inserted. Everyone thinks that we are a force that checks and balances each other, but in fact we are touching When it comes to the soul, we are always in the same group. "
"When anyone tries to replace one of the hands, the force of mutual checks and balances will immediately turn into a pull between each other, and no one can really separate us."
"More than that, these two hands will join together to crush them."
Punk carefully memorized every word of Mr. Colin's instructions, absorbing the knowledge he taught like a hungry sponge and turning it into a part of his own memory.
In just these two short months, he gained more knowledge than he had ever heard of in his life.
Praise Mr. Colin!
Praise to Saint Sis!
He felt that he was gradually comprehending the truth of the world and saw the gears hidden in the pocket watch.
Although he did not realize it at this moment, these truths were actually told to him by the devil.
The devil did not tell him everything he knew.
The time is almost up.
After training his men, Luo Yan glanced at the time on his pocket watch, and then looked closer to the port, just in time to see a carriage coming in a hurry.
Not long after, Lumil, the captain Jack introduced to him, came from the direction of the cabin.
"Sir, Her Royal Highness the Princess has just arrived at the port, do you want to see her?"
His expression was respectful, even better than Punk who was still kept in the dark, as if he had seen a real god.
And he is a god on earth.
Seeing Irene hurriedly jumping out of the carriage, Luo Yan happened to meet the emerald green eyes and saw the panic, reluctance and sadness filled in them.
He did not tell her in advance that he was leaving, but instead revealed the news to her brother, His Majesty Edward.
Judging from His Majesty Edward's palace, he would almost certainly leak the news to her inadvertently, and then use her to retain him.
It doesn't matter even if His Majesty Edward didn't use this little cleverness. Anyway, he didn't turn around and leave immediately. Instead, he pulled Punk and stayed at the port for a while.
"Of course, I still owe her a farewell and an apology."
Leaving these words, Luo Yan softly recited a spell,
A stream of cyan air lifted him from the deck, and then gently placed him on the pier of the port.
At the same time that the heels of his shoes touched the ground, the pair of small horse-leather short boots had already soared into the air, flying over the sea more than ten meters wide with the aqua blue skirt, and landed in front of him.
The pair of emerald green eyes stared straight at Luo Yan, and the mist of sadness almost condensed into water droplets in the red eyes.
"Why? Why didn't you tell me that you were leaving!"
Looking at the emotional Princess Irene, Luo Yan pondered for a long time and made a heavy expression.
"I'm worried that you will be sad."
"Do you think I will be happy if you leave without saying goodbye?" Those emerald green eyes were full of sadness. Irene's eyes were red, she bit her lip lightly and said in a hoarse voice, "This will only make me sadder."
Luo Yan lowered his eyebrows and said softly.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness, please forgive my selfishness. I really can't bear to be separated from you, let alone see you sad. It's been a pleasure spending time with you. If possible, I really want to stay in this beautiful land forever. However, after all, I am the eldest son of the Colin family, and I have obligations and responsibilities that I must fulfill... I can only promise you that I will return to you as soon as possible. ”
“As for my farewell words, I left a letter for you, which will be sent to you after I leave. But now it seems that this is obviously a smart thing on my part, and I did a bad thing.”
Looking at Mr. Colin’s sincere apology, Irene felt that the dissatisfaction and grievance in her heart were diluted a lot.
Especially at this moment, she suddenly realized that it was not that he didn't care about her feelings, but on the contrary, he cared too much about her.
It is precisely because he cares about himself that he does not want to see himself sad.
Scenes from the past emerged before her eyes, including the pocket watch he put in the palm of his hand that night, including him going deep into the enemy's position to help her regardless of the danger, including the bowl of mushroom soup and bread he sent when she was most vulnerable...
It was at this moment that she suddenly realized that he had actually expressed his feelings a long time ago.
Perhaps he is not the one who is slow.
But myself.
He has always cared about his feelings meticulously, but he has been asking for things from him...
Behind the sad and complaining mood, a trace of shame gradually appeared, and then it was gradually replaced by self-blame.
It was at this moment that she not only understood his thoughts, but also finally faced her own heart——
She found that she was so reluctant to let him leave her.
Irene's lips moved slightly, and she suddenly took a step forward. Under Luo Yan's surprised gaze, she put her forehead against his chest, as if to hide the expression on her face.
Just when Luo Yan was thinking about what to say to break the silence, she spoke in a hoarse voice.
"The reason I'm sad is not at all because you're leaving. As a member of the Campbell family, I also shoulder the obligations entrusted to me by Saint Sith. How could I not understand your difficulty? The reason I'm really sad is that you didn't tell me anything..."
"Sorry——"
“Please don’t apologize to me, dear Mr. Colin,” Irene raised her head and looked at him, a forced smile appeared on her tear-stained face.
That smile is like a rushing river under the setting sun, shining but shaky.
However, he could still see the strength in those eyes, like real gems.
"...I will wait for you to come back, no matter how long it takes!"
When she said this, she held his right hand and placed an amethyst brooch engraved with the Campbell family coat of arms into his palm.
Looking at Mr. Colin, who had a look of surprise and emotion on his face, Irene smiled shyly and whispered.
"I have always wanted to give you a gift in return, so I made this without permission. It may not be very good, I hope you don't dislike it..."
"No, Your Highness, how could I dislike your gift?" Luo Yan shook his head, looked at the eyes full of expectation, and said the words in a serious tone that made her heart beat. The words almost leapt out of his chest, "Thank you, I like it very much."
"I will keep it with me forever and regard it as a treasure of my life."
He kissed the back of her hand, and then boarded the steamer next to the pier under the watchful eyes of countless citizens and crew members.
The steam boiler made a harsh buzz, and the huge chimney spewed out milky white clouds, pushing the huge steamer gradually away towards the west.
Erin's eyes were always fixed on the giant ship, or rather on the figure on the deck.
Her hand tightly held the pocket watch hanging on her belt.
Until the dirty cloud disappears at the end of the sea, until only the sound of seagulls is left on the noisy pier.
"What a pity... I thought she would confess." Floating beside Luo Yan, Yuyou sighed softly, as if she was regretting something.
Luo Yan did not speak, but withdrew his gaze from a distance, turned and walked towards the other end of the deck.
He felt that Irene was actually a very good girl, just like she had stepped out of a fairy tale.
It's just a pity that as the devil, he is destined to be unable to respond to her pure feelings like the prince in the fairy tale.
Of course, this regret does not belong to him.
After all, he did it on purpose from the beginning.
"Thunder City has fallen."
After pausing for a moment, Luo Yan continued to speak to Yoyo floating aside, answering the question.
"When Edward's New Deal is completed, our corruption will quickly spread to various ports in the Whirlpool Sea along the routes under our feet, until it spreads to the entire empire."
The supernatural power and the power of faith in this world are ultimately the choices of everyone, and the so-called God's Chosen One and even the gods themselves are nothing more than "the choice of everyone."
They are superior to everyone, but they are not truly invincible, let alone omniscient and omnipotent.
Once people abandon their original way of life, the towers built on this soil will also collapse, and not even the gods themselves can stop this vigorous change.
This is actually Linte Isaac’s helplessness.
He wanted the men of the Lion Kingdom to live a good life with the wealth accumulated through hard work, and to use prosperity and wealth to crush the lies of the Emperor and Saint Sith. However, some people first used money to humiliate their compatriots after becoming rich, and seek to make up for their lost dignity from the weak. He wanted the women of the Lion Kingdom to break the feudal shackles, but some of them first put down their shame in the name of independence, and then used their inexhaustible strength to destroy the moral bottom line of the entire kingdom, and allowed the feudal shackles on their feet to drag everyone down together.
Of course he knew the importance of education, so he placed his hopes on children. However, the literate teachers he could find were either aristocrats with a grudge or priests, or guys who he thought were crazy, teaching him a group of more arrogant little lunatics.
When people get older, they suddenly realize that they have clearly set out to crush lies, but instead they have been burning for bigger lies all their lives. No one has truly loved himself, and he has never truly loved anyone. His whole life was scrawled on the tombstone, but not even a single sentence could be made out.
If this is the new world that Lint Isaac calls, then the Emperor is pretty good, even if this goodness is illusory.
Compared to the lunatics of the Mechanicum, even the knight chasing the windmill became a lovable person.
The moment Isaac's revolution was abandoned by everyone, the divine power he possessed immediately became rootless, and only the technologies he brought remained.
He couldn't even find a specific person who betrayed him, because everyone who wanted to go back to the past automatically became his enemy at the moment they faced a choice.
And when he lost everyone's support, the only extraordinary power he had left was even given to the Isaac family by Saint Sith, which was full of feudal background from head to toe.
In the end, after losing his godhood, he was defeated by another extraordinary person chosen by God. Just like what is told in the epic...the evil devil will eventually die under the sword of the brave.
Since it was the will of the gods, it was also the choice of everyone at that time.
Trying to use the stones of the old world to build a new century building is in itself a ridiculous thing.
Luo Yan not only inherited Lint Isaac's godhead, but of course also learned his lessons.
The citizens of Thunder City wanted a fire, so he handed them gasoline and lighters, and told them how to play with a big one in the name of Saint Sith in his back garden.
When the stone is burned into bricks and the wood is burned into carbon, the castles of the old era will naturally collapse.
Then it’s time for the devil to step onto the stage of history.
I believe Linte Isaac will be pleased.
After all, Luo Yan didn't think that this fellow countryman chose him to repay someone's kindness.
"As expected of the Demon King, hehehe." A nostalgic laugh came from Youyou's mouth.
Luo Yan glanced in its direction and was speechless at this childish imitation behavior.
But then again.
This time he played such a big game of chess, and it's time to return to the magic city to report his results.
At this time, Captain Lumil returned to Luo Yan again, nodded respectfully and said.
"Sir, where should we go next?"
Luo Yan said casually without thinking.
"Continue driving in the direction of the New World, and then find an inaccessible port to park, or simply find an uninhabited desert island, and then use the method I taught you to draw a teleportation array on the shore, and put enough magic crystals on it until I reappear in front of you."
There are sufficient supplies on the ship, enough for Lumil to eat alone for a long time.
As for why Lumil ate it alone, it was because everyone except him was a corpse.
If it were not to maintain a decent image of human beings, it would be okay for these ghouls to sleep in coffins or eat rotten food.
Luo Yan paused and continued.
"My only request to you is not to be followed. If you really can't escape, find an uninhabited sea area and use the magic crystal cannon I put on the boat to deal with them."
"Remember, your ship carries the dreams of the citizens of Thunder City and even everyone in the Principality of Campbell. You must not let them down."
"Yes, sir." Lumil nodded slightly and accepted the order respectfully.
At the same time, a small fishing boat slowly approached the steaming cargo ship, and then a shouting sound was heard.
“Gentlemen on the boat, does anyone want a fish? It’s just been caught from the sea.”
The boss standing on the bow of the boat and yelling looked very much like the vendors who sold their catch to passing merchant ships, but he looked a little more menacing.
Not only that, there is also a man who is out of tune with the surrounding people standing on this fishing boat.
She was wearing a black cloak and a short sword on her waist. She exuded an aura that kept strangers away from her, and her fierce aura was not inferior to the monsters in the maze.
She raised her head and looked at the man standing on the deck of the ship with full eyes.
The eyes full of expectation seemed to say——
"Welcome home, Lord Demon King."
Looking at those talking eyes, Luo Yan smiled and nodded, and then said goodbye to the men behind him.
It is far enough away from the port of Thunder City.
It's time for him to get off the boat.