Chapter 1363 - 582: Laine’s Banquet

Chapter 1363: Chapter 582: Laine’s Banquet

PS: Thanks to "Retained Veteran Brigade" for becoming another ally of this book! Throwing flowers!

That evening, under the summer night sky, Laine and Alfred sat on the castle balcony, enjoying a sumptuous dinner.

As time passed, the status of the two had changed. Laine hosted Alfred with the most standard Brittania cuisine, with the entire banquet process strictly supervised to ensure Laine, as the host, did not lose face.

The first course was a cold appetizer platter, consisting of caviar, salmon salad, and foie gras.

The second course was soup, Brittania onion soup.

The third course was a hot appetizer, Musillon specialty cheese-baked snail, which played its role well.

After the first three courses were served, Laine could finally speak with Alfred. However, the Duke of Musillon skillfully tasted the baked snail with knife and fork, glanced at his childhood friend, smiled, but did not speak.

On the contrary, Alfred had a lot to say to Laine. He simply didn’t know where to begin. The thirty-something Alfred had grown a short beard, and fine crow’s feet began to appear at the corners of his eyes, all signs of a man maturing.

However, judging from Alfred’s mental state, he was still full of vigorous vitality. His spirit was good, maintaining optimism and positivity despite facing some setbacks. Since being appointed by Laine as the head of Freya Ancient Church District, Alfred encountered many difficulties in constructing and restoring the entire church district.

In fact, since Laine returned to his Duke’s Castle, Musillon’s war had never stopped for weeks.

The first to start war was Lucian, Baron of the Sharp-Top Palace, leading two infantry battalions supported by Laine, launching the Battle of the Marsh. In this battle, Lucian made full use of the strong combat power of the peasant infantry battalions, faced with formations unfavorable to knight charges in the marsh. He drove some cattle to attract undead creatures and beastmen wandering in the marsh, then ordered knights to dismount and disrupt them arranged among the peasant infantry, using pocket formation and cross-firepower of longbowmen matched with the slow movement speed in the marsh, encircling and annihilating the remnants of undead army and Beastman Tribe near Sharp-Top Palace.

Moreover, Laine received news that his father-in-law Francois secretly granted Lucian a low-interest loan, apparently with an annual interest rate of only 3%. With this amount and Laine’s help, Lucian smoothly overcame difficulties.

Baron Richard Olivier launched the Richard Clearing War, eliminating a nearby undead stronghold.

Baron Biocari Juan initiated the Battle of Orphan Hill. He somehow persuaded the Wood Elves to join, this war greatly defeated the Skaven Ratmen hidden near Orphan Hill, with the ratman warlord killed by Wood Elf Hero Alaros the Brave. Juan temporarily drove Musillon’s Skaven underground through this battle.

This fully demonstrated that under Laine’s continuous victory, a large number of capable and battlewise knightly nobility had emerged under his leadership.

So what about Alfred?

The Temple Knight seemed to have found inspiration from the previous explosion. He fully utilized the power of gunpowder, defeating roaming undead during a Beastman gathering with a large number of hand grenades manufactured by dwarves, winning the Church District Defense Battle.

"In short, it’s much more troublesome than I imagined," Alfred didn’t know where to start his myriad words, finally just sighed: "Continuous battles are not too bad, the real trouble is, everything has to start from scratch, I don’t have my tax officer, nor my sheriff, I only have a few paladins and ascetic monks, those ascetic monks only know how to flog themselves all day long. Paladins are not good at management, they’ve turned everything into a mess. I’ve been forced to make every single decision, good friend, you know, I’m not you, you can always come up with solutions and lots of clever ideas, even bypassing knightly path and laws, but I can’t."

"But you’ve handled it quite well, I’ve heard that quite a few troubles have been resolved by you," Laine watched Alfred with interest.

The fourth course was served by dark elves, the fourth course was fish, the famous white wine creamy salmon.

"Thank you... that’s because I learned many things from you, good friend," Alfred lowered his head tasting the white wine creamy salmon, the fish cooked by the Winford Court chefs brought by Surya had a greasy feel, drizzled with sauce made from light cream to alleviate the greasiness, the smoothness of the cream with the delicacy of salmon, it could be called a worldly delicacy.

"Learned something new?" Laine had great interest: "What did you learn, Afu?"

"Like you, I suddenly realized the power of authority, good friend," Alfred showed an embarrassed expression, scratched his golden hair behind him: "I suddenly found myself seemingly becoming a hero, people worship me, fear me, my words seem to have turned into truth, into law, though I have some problems dealing with affairs, appear frantic in personnel arrangement, no one questions me, on the contrary, all my orders are carried out resolutely, so, I understood, I know how to use personal prestige to deal with matters, though it’s temporary, it’s effective. Sometimes, I have some illusions, I even think in that ancient church district, I’m the center of the universe."