I Pioneered Scientific Magic - Chapter 459 (Patreon)

Chapter 459: Why Would You Rebel, Your Majesty?!

In the royal capital of Hadralata, within a luxurious fortress, Count Mortan suddenly woke up from his bed, drenched in cold sweat.

He had dreamt that the wizards were using magic to produce large quantities of bread, rendering his own wheat worthless...

But how could that be possible?

Using magic to make bread was simply absurd!

Mortan wiped the sweat off his forehead with trembling hands, struggled to sit up in bed, but soon noticed something was amiss.

"Bax... Bax!" Mortan continuously shouted the name of the steward, yet received no response. It was only after some time that a knight rushed over.

"Count Mortan, are you awake?"

"Where's Bax? Where did he go?!" Mortan anxiously grabbed the knight's arm and demanded.

"He left half an hour ago... and... took your favorite crystal wine decanter with him..."

The knight stuttered for a while before finally revealing the truth. Moreover, many valuable items within the fortress had been taken by the fleeing servants, and they neither had the time nor the ability to stop them.

"Bax, I raised him for forty years, how dare he?" Mortan's mind went blank with anger, almost fainting again. But what chilled him even more was the implication behind it all.

"Where's today's magic daily? Bring me the newspaper!" Mortan urgently demanded. "Also, send someone to the City of Fire Oil immediately, use all means necessary to find out if those wizards still have any food!"

Despite Mortan's reprimands, the knight remained motionless, cautiously speaking. "Count Mortan, it might not be necessary to confirm anymore."

An hour ago, the train from the City of Fire Oil had already arrived at the capital. Inside the station, heaps of food had already been unloaded, and some workshops had officially implemented a four-meal-a-day system.

All the evidence indicated that the Council did indeed have food, and plenty of it!

The entire capital's nobles and merchants were going crazy. Many were desperately trying to sell off their hoarded supplies, but due to the Council providing three meals a day, no one was willing to buy in large quantities anymore.

The price of wheat plummeted from five hundred copper coins to one copper coin for five kilograms, and nobody even glanced at it.

Rumors abound that the wizards could turn air into bread, water into wine. Their food was worthless because, from now on, the Council would take care of everyone's food and accommodation in the kingdom...

Moreover, the trade routes to the Empire had been blocked in both directions, and they didn't have enough capacity, nor could they conceal so much food from the Council to smuggle it out of the kingdom.

Every word from the knight was like a long sword, piercing straight into Mortan's chest.

He knew he was finished, everything was finished...

"Gustav, you lied to me!" Mortan roared in anger, but the commander of the Divine Punishment Legion in his mouth was clearly unable to help him anymore.

At that moment, there was suddenly a commotion outside the fortress, followed by intense arguing.

Mortan's face changed drastically, almost falling off the bed.

Before Mortan could ask, the knight took the initiative to speak. "It should be the debt collectors who have arrived!"

Mortan's anger surged, when did a few lowly merchants have the courage to intrude into a duke's estate?

If he couldn't deal with the wizards, could he still not deal with a few wealthy merchants?

With rage burning in his heart, Mortan drew the sword from the knight's waist and rushed out barefoot in anger.

In the front hall of the fortress, dozens of loyal guards were confronting a group of unwelcome guests.

The leader looked amiable, around forty years old, with slightly narrowed eyes and a very rich appearance.

"Stanford?! Who gave you the guts to trespass into my estate!" Mortan entered the front hall with a sword in hand, coldly saying.

"Your estate?" Stanford's face showed a slight expression of surprise, then he took out a land deed from his arms and said kindly, "Perhaps you're a bit forgetful, Count Mortan. This estate is already mine!"

"Of course, you can choose to buy it back for thirty thousand gold coins!" Stanford said indifferently.

Seeing the other party take out the deed directly, Mortan choked for a moment, and had to endure his anger to refute, "I remember the deadline on it should be one month!"

"This is thirty thousand Imperial gold coins, Count, you probably can't come up with this money within a month, so to prevent any accidents, I had to come and collect it early!" Stanford said apologetically, pointing to the fine print on the contract. "It's clearly stated in the contract!"

Mortan was instantly amused, he had never been insulted like this before. He was the dignified Duke of the kingdom, yet someone actually thought he couldn't afford a measly thirty thousand Imperial gold coins!

Although he had no savings now, his territory still had plenty of land, mines, slaves, and even subjects...

But before he could speak, as if predicting in advance, Stanford had stacks of vouchers appearing in his hands, and finally even piled them into a small booklet.

These were the pledge certificates for various assets within the duke's territory!

Mortan's face changed instantly. He wasn't surprised by these collateral certificates since he had personally ordered them to be pledged. What shocked him was that so many certificates were all in Stanford's hands alone.

"You're from the Wizard Council!" Mortan's pupils contracted.

He immediately understood why Stanford dared to barge into his estate directly, and why those merchants were willing to let him pledge the mines and assets within his territory at a high price...

Previously blinded by enormous profits, Mortan hadn't thought much. He thought the other party knew he had a large amount of valuable wheat in his hands, so they were willing to overpay for the collateral.

Now it turned out to be a complete trap!

"Of course, Count, everyone has been working for the wizards all along, haven't they?" Stanford also didn't bother to disguise, admitting openly.

Mortan was almost grinding his teeth in anger, but being cautious, he didn't dare to act recklessly. He had to endure and say again, "Apart from these assets, I still have countless wheat..."

"Don't joke around, wheat is not valuable now!" Stanford interrupted Mortan's words with a cold voice. Merchants selling grain are everywhere in the kingdom now, with a total of millions of tons of grain on the market!

Who else can take it? Who can transport it away?

"But it can still fetch a bit... Let's set the price at one copper coin for twenty kilograms!" Stanford said with a smile. "You have a total of two hundred thousand tons of grain. According to the current market price, that's one thousand imperial gold coins!"

The guards behind him took out money bags and threw them on the ground.

"Here they all are!"

What a load of nonsense...

Mortan was almost furious on the spot. With just a casual remark from Stanford, he wanted to purchase millions worth of wheat for only one thousand gold coins.

One copper coin for twenty kilograms is simply absurd. Even if no one in the market buys grain, he could still turn it into wheat beer, use it as livestock feed, or even sell some of it to the empire to cover the losses!

But making enough money from the first two options obviously couldn't be done in a month. There were certainly others with similar ideas as him, and there might even be instances of mutual undercutting.

As for selling to the empire, he had to do it in secret. Mortan wasn't stupid enough to mention it openly; otherwise, he would once again be accused of treason!

"Unfortunately, I can't give you those one thousand gold coins, Your Lordship!" Stanford shook his head, then had the guards take back the ten money bags, sighing. "You've borrowed five million imperial gold coins from various merchant caravans, but even if you sell off all the mortgaged assets, you can only repay seventy percent. You still owe a lot."

Mortan's face turned crimson. He realized that his situation today was grim.

The only thing he was grateful for was that although Stanford brought many guards, they didn't seem to carry those alchemical devices called firearms. With his strength, he might be able to keep them all here!

With this in mind, Mortan suddenly made a gesture, and the guards who had been confronting Stanford and the others immediately rushed forward like wolves.

They were all guards raised by the Mortan family since childhood, and they had long placed life and death beyond consideration. They wouldn't question the Duke's orders.

But faster than their swordplay was the art of drawing guns!

The guards behind Stanford, to the shock of the knights and guards present, drew short-barreled firearms from their waists!

These more sophisticated and portable firearms had been invented by Lydia a year ago, but usually, only the covert scouts on special missions were qualified to carry them!

After all, during infiltration and reconnaissance missions, short-barreled firearms were easy to carry, with excellent concealment and suddenness. Many scouts had honed excellent gun-drawing skills!

Among them, the best could complete the actions of drawing the gun, aiming, and firing in 0.1 seconds!

The next moment, sharp gunshots echoed in the hall of the fortress.

Although more than ten guards were all wearing fine armor, how could they withstand the penetration of armor-piercing bullets? They didn't even have a chance to resist effectively before they were riddled with holes!

Mortan was terrified. Even though he was a bloodline knight, he didn't have the confidence to withstand the attacks of so many firearms with his flesh alone. He was soon hit in the arm and thigh by several bullets and collapsed into a pool of blood.

"Treat his wounds, don't let him die. I suspect he has betrayed the kingdom. Let's interrogate him when we get back!" Stanford put away the firearm in his hand. It was his exquisite marksmanship that had disabled Mortan's limbs.

The skilled covert scouts immediately began to clean up the scene, disposing of the bodies. Stanford took out a magic radio and transmitted the message.

Count Bell dead, Viscount Sk imprisoned, Duke Mortan captured alive...

A large amount of information was transmitted via electromagnetic signals to Lorde's hands. Due to the sudden collapse of grain prices, these nobles and merchants they captured were often still immersed in fantasies of their immense wealth one moment and then had their homes raided the next, with no chance to react.

This meant that the vast majority of the arrests went smoothly, with one exception: Duke Gade had escaped!

Regarding this, Lorde was also very helpless. Over the past month, they had needed to monitor hundreds of targets and strike at the same time, but manpower was simply not enough.

Moreover, most of the people they were dealing with were wealthy merchants and nobles with a certain amount of power. It was not easy to capture them without a hitch.

Fortunately, the one who escaped was just a duke who had lost his territory and wealth and couldn't stir up much trouble. Their most important targets were always those who couldn't escape!

"Let's go, let's go to the palace!" Lorde put away the intelligence he had on hand, then led a large group of gunmen straight to the capital.

Along the way, they encountered no obstacles. Although the palace guards surrounded them, none dared to make a move, allowing Lorde to pass through most of the capital and enter the main hall.

At this moment, King Hatar was sitting on the throne, discussing with a group of ministers the sudden surge and subsequent plunge in grain prices within the kingdom.

And then Lorde suddenly burst in with a large group of gunmen!

The vast palace fell silent instantly. Several ministers who had been talking loudly just now all fell silent at once, as if their vocal cords had been cut.

Lorde didn't speak either. Instead, he respectfully took out the unique Magic Ring from his hand and placed it in the palm of his hand.

A blue light kept flashing on the ring, and then a familiar figure appeared in front of everyone.

"Long time no see, Your Majesty Hatar!"

Hatar looked a bit dazed. This scene seemed to be a replay of the war in the capital more than a year ago. The male wizard in front of him hadn't changed at all and was still so courteous!

The only difference was that the one sitting on the throne was no longer the old King Bazeel but himself...

Hatar held the hand of the throne next to him, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead, but he still forced himself to remain calm and said, "Long time no see, Master Lynn. Are you here to inform me of something?"

"You could say that!" Lynn nodded, then clapped his hands. Each of the bound attendants was brought over.

Hatar's face turned pale. He recognized these attendants. They were his trusted subordinates responsible for secretly contacting Duke Gade, instructing him to control the actions of those nobles.

But he remembered that these people had already been dealt with...

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