The brave man opened the coffin and rose

Chapter 171 Persuasion

Although it is a bit pua, when two standard answers, the first noble and possibly one of the oldest nobles, stand in front of them, what choice can they make?

Even if they have to choose, they can only choose from evidence, guilt, and prison; and honor, glory, responsibility, and daring to be the first.

Of course, if you still don't accept this, Abes has his own way of persuasion.

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A minor noble was walking in the corridor of the palace.

But he was not taken to the study or other places where kings usually held audiences.

What was surprising was that Lord Abes Grande, who controlled the royal capital, had simply chosen an ordinary reception room as his office.

This unexpected change also made the little noble Burton feel a little confused.

As a minor official who had once been in charge of the palace's medicine, he had also had the honor of being received by King Robert the Younger.

At that time, the other party chose the study. After meeting several times and using the medicine he provided to restore some "vitality", he was taken to a place near the bedroom.

In short, after entering what was originally a reception room and now became the studio of Lord Abes Grande, the soldier who led him in retreated to the door.

Hearing the sound, Abes, who was working at his desk, also looked up.

"Isn't this Burton? What brings you here?"

Then he stood up and quickly held the other person's shoulders, "Come, please sit down. If you say that you are willing to serve the people next, I will be very happy."

Therefore, at Abe's request, Burton had no choice but to give up kneeling and sit down as promised.

This attitude made Burton smile bitterly.

How could this happen? Wouldn't this make him even more shaken?

The tone was intimate and the manner of speaking was very polite, which was a completely different attitude from that of the previous king.

After all, since Lord Abes came to power, he has never declared himself king, and he has not even given himself a general or any other position.

It is precisely because of this that the existence before us is so terrifying.

Burton sat down in a chair and scanned the simple furnishings of the room.

Such a place was particularly simple and frugal, but it also gave him an illusion that he was like those guilty colleagues who had been imprisoned in prison, being interrogated under the solitary lights in the cell. This made him feel particularly alienated.

"Well, let's get started. Since someone brought you here, you must want to tell me something."

"Yes, I want to ask about your arrangements... I don't mean to pry into your deep thoughts, but we really just want to preserve our dignity."

Abes heard the word "we" in the other party's language and smiled.

Such a reaction made Burton's mouth twitch.

But he couldn't refute what was said next.

"It's still the same. When you're in a weak position, you call yourself 'we', trying to force me to submit by pretending to be on the opposite side of the public. And when the benefits come, you'll fight over the uneven distribution of benefits. Is this the united 'you'?"

Hearing Abes' words, the other party seemed to have sensed his unhappiness, and the thoughts swaying in the depths of his pupils also became confused.

"I dare not...it's just that people always want to know what will happen...but no matter what happens, I don't think anyone will dare to disobey."

"Oh, I heard that you guys are still thinking about banding together to resist. If I really issue a mission, will it be okay? Will you execute it?"

"Of course, we will all obey your orders. The capital belongs to you and to the people around you who hold high the banner of dignity and freedom. We cannot disobey your orders."

Abes finally laughed out loud without disguising himself. "That's true. You certainly don't have the guts to refute me directly. It would be easier for me if you were more direct. But how are you going to execute it?"

Abes stood up from his armchair and walked around the room.

He expressed his guess as he moved.

"Let me think about it. At the beginning, you thought that as long as you could save your life, you were willing to pay a fortune, or even spend a short time in jail;"

"And now you think that as long as you can atone for your sins without going to jail, it doesn't matter what kind of job you have;"

"If you are assigned an important position, you can stir things up; if it is an unimportant position, you can just lie down and live your life like before."

"If I indulge you again, you will once again use your connections, big and small, to amass wealth and marvel at my [greatness]; if I treat you harshly, you will use the power at hand to [harm] my people."

"These things would naturally arise in your minds even without the previous gathering and shopping exchanges you had."

Abes's golden eyes were fixed on Burton, and this made it impossible for the other party to hide anything any longer, so he lowered his head.

"It's useless for me to say that I don't think so... As expected of a hero from a thousand years ago, Lord Abes Grande, you not only have the military power to conquer the world, but also a shrewd mind."

"I heard that you gave up the path of the arcane knight and turned to the path of a bard. Did you... use that magic to see through my heart?"

Abes shook his head. "It's not magic, just some simple reasoning. I don't need to use magic to see through you idiots."

"That's terrible. What will happen to me?"

As if he had reached his intended goal, he began to completely relax in the armchair - while his whole body was relaxed, his teeth gradually tightened.

Abes shook his head at this attitude.

"Nothing special. I know what you are planning."

Abes's reasoning did not end there, but continued.

"I know what you are planning. You are the first little noble to come to me after that conversation. I know what you are thinking."

"Scouting, sacrificial lamb, chess piece... If I don't retreat here, you will start to provoke me as much as possible."

"After all, I have stripped you of your authority now. Even if there are many tasks, I can complete them by myself or hand them over to some soldiers who have been successfully educated to help handle them."

"You can't wait any longer for me to reinstate you, so naturally you won't get any authority. And you're not a noble, you don't have any property, and the royal charter you can rely on has disappeared. So the only thing you can do now is to muddy the waters of public opinion."

"If any of you died here, it would be a very troublesome thing. So - don't worry, I won't do anything and I won't let you get what you want. Even if you bite the poison in your mouth now, I am fully capable of curing you, so you should not let yourself suffer so much."

"...I won't thank you for that." Hearing his thoughts being pointed out, Burton, who was lying in the armchair with a rather leisurely mood, sat up again and gave up chewing the poison in his mouth.

"I don't need your thanks. Compared to this, it seems that I have to change my way of thinking when dealing with you. Responsibility and honor, these words can't move you at all..."

Fortunately, Abes was prepared for this. "You exist to pursue profit, isn't that right?"

The other party replied in a serious tone this time, "That's right. Although it's shameless to admit it directly, we are indeed such a group of inferior people. If the benefits are completely in our hands, we absolutely have no intention of participating in the confrontation."

"So pursuing as much profit as possible is definitely a life goal?"

Seeing the other party nod, Abes also took a deep breath. The main event was about to begin.

"Okay, after listening to your blatant statements, I'm going to ask a question as well."

"What do you think is the place, time, or other conditions that will allow us to get the most benefit?"

"What do you mean, sir?"

Burton had a puzzled look on his face.

Abbes paused and said, "Before I continue, let me answer your original question."

"Answer... the question you asked when you first came in."

What Burton said at the time was, "Yes, I would like to ask about your arrangements... This is not to pry into your deep thoughts, but we really just want to preserve our dignity."

"I have taken over the Ooze City... and I need a group of outstanding talents."

"What!!"

After the shock, Bourdain fell silent.

As a minor noble in the royal capital, he naturally thought about obtaining land and becoming a great noble in the small kingdom.

But, are even the great nobles so powerless in front of Lord Abes Grande?

How long was he out? How did he take over the Ooze City?

"Why, are you surprised by my expansion? You guys, you are so focused on doing something, trying to maintain your own little power, but why don't you think about looking further ahead?"

Burton seemed to start looking at Abes straight in the eye.

"You are offering medicine to the king, right? Then where do these medicines you manage come from? How are they made? What are the production, sales, and revenue?"

"...They are a few herbal farmers near the capital. Under my cover, they became specialized merchants supplying medicine to the king. The preparation... seems to be made manually by them using herbal tools at home."

"Is that so? Then why did you lose this official position?"

"Some new problems have arisen, and the little noble who presented the new medicine has taken my place."

"So," Abes snapped his fingers and asked immediately as if he had grasped something, "If you want to maintain absolute stability in donating medicine, what are you going to do?"

"...get more different kinds of herbs?"

"Hehehe," Abes crossed his arms and shook his head, "It's somewhere farther away, a newer place."

"Do you know how the lizardmen treat diseases? Do you know what new varieties of herbs the alien species in the East Wasteland have?"

"What about the North? We are located in the easternmost part of the North. What about the central and western parts of the North?"

"Things are interconnected. You are guarding the land near the capital, but you will never be able to grow a panacea."

“There are always unexpected disasters that may come and cause you to lose your authority. If you want to save your authority, you have to go to a farther place, a newer place.”

"You need to know more about the land and the detailed topography to facilitate commuting; you need to know the land's output map to confirm what kind of herbs there are; you also need to find out where the monsters live, after all, you don't want to throw away your life."

"Then, there will be more troubles. What if the monster habitat must be blocked? Do we need to use force to protect it?"

"What if it is located abroad? Should we enter the Eastern Wasteland directly? If there are no humans, or if there are no mainstream races, can we enter those places at will?"

"If it's somewhere else in the North, how do you secure the route? If you want to trade, do you have to reveal your identity as people from the small kingdom of Wommza?"

"Diplomacy...military...commerce...this and that."

"Look, don't you think the things you cared about and paid attention to before are so insignificant and scary?"

Burton was ridiculed, his lips pressed into a straight line, as if he hadn't put the two halves of a playing card together, "But, what does this have to do with me?"

But Abes changed the subject and said, "This is why your official positions don't last long. When it comes to interests, you will only separate and attack each other."

"If you were willing to unite for the sake of interests, how could your positions be taken away so easily?"

"Assuming that it really goes as I imagined just now, not only can you keep your official position as the medicine donor, but you can even create at least one official position for trade and one for military support."

"If you do nothing, fail to unite the country, and fail to meet the needs of the country, then the needs of you people will not be responded to by the country."

"You are small nobles without property. If you don't unite and safeguard your power, you will be left with nothing. You don't have that much time."

"Also, let me answer my question now - [Under what conditions can I get the greatest benefit]."

"Of course when the cake is still being made, or has just started being made."

"Now... Slime City needs manpower... And in the future, if you need more authority, will you still worry that I won't be able to get it?"

"After all, how can a small kingdom block my path? The brave man liberated... the entire continent!"

! !

Burton took a deep breath, as if he had sensed some kind of determination.

He changed his words to something completely different from before, "If the job falls to me, I will definitely do it seriously!"

His lips were a little red, which was the blood from being bitten earlier.

And Burton... was the first little noble to be persuaded.