Chapter 602 Trouble Comes Again
Now Charles regretted it.
Cornucopia had been wanted by the royal family and suffered huge losses, such that they had spit back all the gold they earned in the game, and even had to take money from reality and buy gold from players to fill the hole.
But the good thing was, as long as it was an organization, it was always possible to negotiate.
After paying a great price, Charles connected with the royal family, and again after paying a significant price, finally made peace with the Hollevin royal family.
Now Cornucopia could barely be considered a “royal merchant,” backed by the royal family to do business.
The connections were much better, but there was also less money to be made.
After all, if they earned a share, they had to give half the share to the royal family.
It wasn’t that Charles hadn’t tried to fight back, but the royal family had recently recruited several players into the royal bureaucracy.
These players literally used this game as a training ground for their “becoming an official.”
They were selfless and dedicated to the welfare of the royal family and the country.
They were still in a precarious position and hadn’t taken a cut at the noble class.
But instead, their hidden hand was extended to the merchant class, treating this as a millstone before doing greater things.
The big merchants of Hollevin were targeted by them, and along with them, Cornucopia, a players’ guild, the royal merchant of Hollevin, was also targeted by them.
Cornucopia had been impeded by them at every turn, and many of the businesses that were profitable and could be monopolized were destroyed.
For example, grain, salt business, and so on.
Then Charles finally understood why Douglas didn’t like to cross ordinary people or even made connections despite his status.
It was true that it was hard to produce talent from a poor family, but there were so many poor people that one genius out of a hundred was when the numbers were broken down, much more than the various second-generation rich. What was even more outrageous was that it was young people who were playing the game, and most of the young people who could save up 50,000 yuan and buy a virtual cabin were the elite in society.
Given a chance, they could prosper. When Cornucopia was targeted by these people, it became increasingly difficult to do things.
Previously, Cornucopia could sweep the entire Hollevin business circle, and that was because there was no advanced business operation experience in the feudal era, but now that other players who were also modern people had entered the playing field, the days of easy money for Cornucopia were gone.
Since the low-cost, high-profit business that concerned people’s livelihood was no longer good, they’d start a different kind of business.
They’d do high-end things.
The magical materials needed for Roland’s auto-repair technology, they had hoarded a whole lot of them and later “returned” them to the royal family.
So they planned to stay in the business of magical materials.
Only this time there was no more monopoly.
Rather, they would engage in differential pricing. Besides, Charles also realized deeply that personal strength and the overall strength of an organization was the capital to stand in this world.
Otherwise having any amount of money would be like wool on a sheep, ready to be reaped.
So when Roland’s Dragon Meat Reagent appeared, he knew very well that he had to get his hands on these things.
At least one for each of the guild’s core staff.
Otherwise, the gap with other combat players would become more and more obvious.
With this urgency in mind, Charles once again came to Delpon.
He came to this place where he felt some shame and helplessness.
He didn’t go to Roland right away but found Douglas first.
As a Chinese man, he was well aware of the important role that things like “favors” played in human relations.
“I want at least a hundred bottles of Dragon Meat Reagent,” Charles said seriously, “but my relationship with Roland is something you know well, so I’m begging you to hook me up with him.”
Douglas shook his head. “It’s not worth it.”
“What do you mean?” asked Charles, frowning. “Is our friendship, on this matter, not worth
it?”
“A true friend doesn’t threaten people with friendship.” Douglas shook his head helplessly. “Charles, you’re too egotistical in everything you do. You always think you’re doing the right thing. If we’re really friends, can I ask how many times you’ve come to visit my house since you were young, or how many times have we gone fooling around?”.
Charles frowned deeper. “Don’t b*tch about other things, just say yes or no.”
“No,” replied Douglis without hesitation, since the other had put it so bluntly. “I’ve never seen anyone beg like this.” Charles gave Douglas a good hard look and then left.
Roland didn’t know that Charles had made a trip to Delpon. He now spent his days crouched at the top of the Magic Tower, working on a way to split the dragon bones apart.
Dragon bones were just too hard. Even with a fierce blue flame of over 2000 degrees, it wouldn’t melt.
At best, it was just a little darker on the surface from roasting
At this time, Roland went to the Red Magic Tower again and asked if there was a way to handle the dragon bones.
As a result, the Great Elder shrugged. “No.”
“What about the other Magic Towers?” Roland asked.
“Also no.” The Great Elder explained, “Dragon bones are generally used to forge weapons and armor, and we don’t need either of those things at the Magic Tower, so naturally we don’t do any research on that.”
“That means… the Guild of Warriors might have such skills?”.
The Great Elder said with certainty, “Not perhaps, but certainly. But they claim to the public that they don’t.”
“Why?”
“Fear of retaliation from the dragons.”
Roland was quite surprised. “Then why aren’t we at the Red Magic Tower afraid? Great Elder, you dared to disclose the recipe of Dragon Meat Reagent to me.”
“Since when do we have the recipe for Dragon Meat Reagent?” The Great Elder blinked and laughed. “How come I didn’t know about this.”
Okay… Roland understood.
He left the Red Magic Tower and came to the capital of Fareins.
He found Stephanie, who was holding the second auction banquet and asked her to help introduce him to the chairman of the Guild of Warriors.
He had wanted to ask Schuck-after all, Schuck’s name of Saint Samurai worked a little better in this city.
But it suddenly occurred to him that Schuck had the little fire dragon princess with him and that the two stuck together almost constantly, so if she knew he was trying to figure out how to handle dragon bones, she might feel sympathetic.
Maybe it would even affect the relationship between the two of them.
So thinking about it, Roland asked Stephanie.
For this matter, Stephanie immediately agreed.
Roland gave her so much Dragon Meat Reagent that she had made a lot of money and connections, and the results were especially obvious on her father’s side.
After all, the Dragon Meat Reagent had the effect of an aphrodisiac and the king of Fareins was a man of music and song every night.
It would be strange if he wasn’t happy to receive this.
Later that evening, the Guild of Warriors’ chairman was invited to come to Stephanie’s estate.
He had dressed up specially, dressed to the nines.
The close-fitting black nobleman’s suit smelled of mystery and nobility, with dark blond hair worn in a center parting and a very expensive alchemical perfume.
When he heard about the private banquet, he thought that First Princess Stephanie had invited only himself.
His mind immediately harbored certain unnecessary fantasies and he dressed himself
up.
Then he entered the manor and was led by the butler to the parlor, where the first thing he saw was Stephanie in her strapless green and blue noblewoman’s dress.
Only afterward did he see Roland, who was sitting not far away.
There was actually another man!
The Guild of Warriors’ chairman immediately looked at Roland angrily.
He thought that this man was his love rival and opponent tonight. In the circle of noblewomen in Fareins, such “fights” were very popular.
Many times, they relied on the fist-to-fist victory to decide the man they would accompany today.
The chairman of the Guild of Warriors thought that Princess Stephanie was the same way.
After all, her man had been dead for a long time and it was normal to feel lonely now. Roland didn’t quite understand this “rule,” so he felt puzzled by the Guild of Warriors’ chairman’s hostility towards him.
But Stephanie was aware of it, so she laughed heartily and gently covered her mouth with her hand.
Roland took the initiative to say to the Guild of Warriors’ chairman who was staring angrily at him. “Honorable Mr. Martin, I have something very important that I would like to talk to you about.”
“Who are you and where does your family come from?” Martin sized up Roland. “If you don’t have the rank of marquis or above… it is impossible to get the favor of Princess Stephanie.”
Roland froze for a moment before he said, “I don’t mean to compete with you for women. The First Princess doesn’t seem to have that in mind either.”
Martin, the Guild of Warriors’ chairman, was only 37 years old now and was the younger of all the professional guilds’ chairmen.
His position came improperly, inherited from his father.
In reality, within the Guild of Warriors, many people did not obey him.
Though he was married, he was willing to toss his current wife aside if it meant getting Princess Stephanie’s heart.
Sons and daughters could also be thrown away.
After all, it was now clear to anyone that the First Princess was most likely the future queen.
Such a promising ally, if he didn’t cling on now, he would certainly regret it in the future for the rest of his life.
Hearing Roland’s words, Martin looked at the First Princess.
Stephanie explained, “Roland is my friend, and he has something he wants to talk to you about, so I invited you over.”
So that’s how it is!
What a pity!
Martin sighed in disappointment, then he looked up and smiled at Roland. “I wonder what Mr. Roland wants from me.”
His expression changed quickly.
What was hostile a moment ago was now full of intimacy and enthusiasm.
Roland was quite impressed to see him like this. “I want to talk business with you, sir.”
“Please go ahead.”
“I’ve heard that the Guild of Warriors has a forging method to deal with dragon bones.”
Martin’s eyes narrowed. “You have dragon bones?”
“Yes.” Roland nodded. He had known that the other man would be able to guess something about him if he asked. “So I would like to talk business with you, sir.”
“Sell us the dragon bones for five gold coins a kilo.” Martin’s expression became frenzied. “We’ll take as many as you have.”
“Sorry, I’m not selling.” Roland waved his hand.
“Then there is no more to talk about.” Martin’s expression was quite cold. “We, the Guild of Warriors, don’t have any dragon bone forging methods either.”
“You men are so hard-headed when it comes to business, it’s suffocating to watch.” Stephanie sat up straight, and as the host, she began to smooth things over. “Roland, just sell them a few, or even Martin, make a copy and give Roland the information, won’t that do it?”
“We don’t have the dragon bones forging method.” Martin shrugged. “How can we give what we don’t have.”
“Then I’ll have to look for Guild of Warriors in other countries, like the one in the Kingdom of Urganda.”
Martin stood up, looking serious. “In that case, you might not get out of Fareins.”
