Claude didn't know that his ruckus at the casino had been misunderstood as a murder for hire. Of course, he couldn't explain himself.
He had to live his life day by day. He decided to play the role of a responsible supervisor of the wood and the second son of the Ferd family.
That was why he spent the next few days running errands and patrolling the wood every day before returning home to be a filial child and an elder brother who doted on his younger siblings.
On the afternoon of the 8th of the 1st month, Borik finally returned from his trip to the royal capital. He was dressed in a new set of clothes and his face was glowing with health. He brought back Maria's letter.
According to him, his trip to the royal capital went smoothly and he was quite lucky.
After he delivered the letter to Baron Noriman's manor, Baroness Maria summoned him to ask about what happened in Whitestag and was very concerned about Claude's situation.
In the end, Maria even asked him to stay at the baron's manor for a few days. She would write a letter for him to bring back to Claude after she was done with her work. She also told Rodian to take good care of him.
So, Borik stayed at the baron's manor, eating and drinking to his heart's content. He even took a few strolls around the royal capital to see how prosperous it was.
After the new year, he stayed for two more days before Maria summoned Borik again and gave him the letter. She even had someone buy him a new set of clothes and gave him a crown.
Only then did he embark on his return journey. He spurred his horse on at top speed. Although the snow was heavy on the road, it only took him five days to rush back.
He regretted not thinking about his financial problems the night he caused the ruckus at the casino. He even gave the last thale he had to the two gang members who led him there.
When he returned home, he realized that he was out of money. Even though he found a few riyases in the wooden hut, it wasn't enough.
As for the eight thales he gave his sister, he was almost finished with the money he spent on his mother's potions and tonics.
If he had known this would happen, he would have just robbed the casino that night. Although the gambling table was filled with chips and not cash, he could have found the place to exchange them in the casino. He should have been able to make a lot of money there.
Since he was so poor, he could totally rob the rich to help the poor. He could only blame himself for not thinking of that at that time. He had fought for nothing. It was really not worth it.
Claude didn't have any moral boundaries. He didn't think that robbing Blacksnake's casino was wrong.
In any case, they were ill-gotten gains, and Lin Li didn't feel the slightest bit guilty about stealing them and spending them on alchemy experiments. It was much better than being trapped by money.
It was a pity that he didn't think of this at all. His heart was filled with the frustration of entering the treasury and returning empty-handed.
Claude and Borik were queuing up at the national bank to withdraw money. That was the reason why Claude regretted not robbing Blacksnake. He had to pay Borik a crown as payment. Only then did Claude remember that he didn't have any money left.
He didn't think that there would be so many people queuing at the national bank right after the new year. There was only one counter and the cashier was slow. The queue was long and many people were grumbling about it.
It was only then that he realized his mistake. If he had robbed Blacksnake back then, he wouldn't have to wait in line.
Fortunately, Madam Maria had given him an account in the national bank. Otherwise, he might have gone to Blacksnake's casino at night.
Last time, he went to settle scores with Arbeit. This time, he might really be robbing.
For the sake of money, Claude didn't mind giving Blacksnake trouble. Even if it was risky, it was better than losing face and not having the money to pay.
When he finally reached the end of the line, Claude received three crowns in advance from his account.
He paid Borik, who was waiting at the side, a crown in advance. That was the promised reward. He thanked him and took his leave.
He gave the remaining two crowns to his sister to use at home and kept one by his side in case he needed it.
After settling everything, Claude finally had the time to sit down and put away the thought of robbing Blacksnake's casino. He took out Maria's letter and read what it said.
When he wrote to Maria, he explained in detail what happened at home and how his father was arrested for endangering the kingdom's security. At the same time, he told her about his father's plan to open up a trade route from Whitestag to Tyrrsim in Nubissia. In the end, he also told her about how his father organized a trading fleet to start the trade route.
Claude knew very well that he had to show his sincerity to obtain Maria's help at a time like this.
He didn't have to hide his father's plan from her and told her everything he knew and guessed. Only then would he be able to ask her to find out what happened that caused the fleet to be unable to return on time and his father to be arrested.
Maria didn't disappoint Claude. Her letter took up quite a few pages as well.
Apart from expressing her sympathy for Claude's family at the beginning of the letter, she went straight to the point and told him what she had found out.
Something had really happened to the fleet, but it wasn't a shipwreck or a noble that Claude had imagined. Instead, they had unfortunately become the target of pirates.
Maria said that the five eastern anti-Aueran nations knew that they couldn't compete with the kingdom on Nubissia. So, they strengthened their naval forces and took control of the sea routes between Aueras and the seven colonies on Nubissia.
On the other hand, they lured and recruited pirate gangs of various sizes from the islands near Nubissia and sent them to the seven colonies to plunder and destroy them, forcing the people of the colonies to move inland and away from the coastline.
The kingdom could only send ships to the seven colonies twice a year, once in the first half of the year and once in the second half of the year.
Every time they did so, they had to send out a third of Fearless's strength to escort the ships and the fleet couldn't exceed fifty transports.
Even so, the fleet would suffer countless small scale ambushes every time they set out. It would be considered a smooth journey if only three to five warships or transports were missing on the return journey. Many sailors called the voyage to Nubissia the Path of Blood.
Under such circumstances, Captain Altroni's Shark of the Red Sea didn't attract much attention when it first arrived at Tyrrsim. Everyone thought it was just a lucky smuggler that had managed to avoid the patrols of the anti-Aueran Alliance and the pirate gangs that were active in the coastal waters of Nubissia. But no one knew if they would be as lucky when they returned to Tyrrsim. No one noticed that Captain Altroni had opened up a new route.
So, when Captain Altroni brought a huge fleet to Tyrrsim for the second time, everyone there realized that the red-faced captain wasn't just lucky. He was in possession of a secret route that no one knew about.
However, Captain Altroni stuck to his promise and forbade his crew and sailors from revealing the secret of the new route. Soon, the storm died down.
In the Tyrrsim region, no one dared to openly attack a merchant fleet from the mainland, but there were many people secretly making contact. The situation was like the calm before a storm, strangely calm and oppressive.
Mr. Morssen and his friends, who had plotted to open up this new route, saw only the glittering prospect of money, and neglected the risks that lay ahead of them.
They were just a group of petty officials and merchants. While they were adventurous and opportunistic, they didn't understand the real situation on Nubissia. It was inevitable that they would stumble.
This was what Maria lamented about in her letter. They clearly had good cards in hand, but Lord Morssen and his friends trashed them.
They could only blame Lord Morssen and his friends for being too greedy. If they had reported the new route to the royal capital, they would definitely have been rewarded with a noble title.
However, they just had to make a profit for themselves and sent a merchant fleet to Nubissia. That was how things turned out to be.
Captain Altroni also sensed that something was wrong. Instead of returning as planned, he secretly set out a few days earlier in the middle of the night.
However, the pirates had planted many spies in Tyrrsim. They might be able to hide from the first batch, but they couldn't hide from the second.
Five days after setting out to sea, countless pirate gangs swarmed the merchant fleet and attacked it.
After losing more than half of his men, Captain Altroni had no choice but to surrender in order to preserve the lives of the remaining crew. As a result, the new route fell into the pirates' hands.
It was said that Captain Altroni and a few sailors who didn't want to join the pirates were left on an uninhabited island in the Silent Ocean to fend for themselves. The rest of the crew and sailors were forced to become pirates.
They led the pirates through the Silent Ocean to the Stormy Seas, where they found a few islands to set up their base. They started raiding the merchant ships and transport fleets on the open sea routes.
That was also the main reason why the kingdom's navy requested for Morssen and his accomplices to be severely punished and charged with endangering the kingdom's security.
The blockade of the sea routes by the five anti-Auernian nations had already left the kingdom's Fearless powerless. Coupled with the fact that they had to carry out escort missions twice a year, most of Fearless' combat power was spent fighting the pirates back and forth. They could only barely ensure the safety of the eastern coast of the kingdom and maintain a strategic stalemate with the Alliance.
Nobody expected that the new route Morssen and his accomplices planned would be taken over by the pirates from Nubissia. In less than half a month, more than 20 merchant ships and transport fleets were hijacked. It was no different from stabbing a knife into the kingdom's weak spot.
Fearless had no choice but to send a temporary fleet to patrol the western coast and search for traces of the pirates.
They were lucky to have bumped into five pirate ships robbing them.
After an intense naval battle, one pirate ship was sunk and two were captured. Among the captured and surrendered pirates were the sailors and crew of the merchant fleet that had been forced to surrender. That was how the truth of the matter came to light.
The kingdom's navy was furious when they received the report. They believed that Morssen and the merchants who invested in the merchant fleet had to be killed to deter those greedy pirates who didn't care about the kingdom's security.
The new routes they had opened up had attracted pirates from Nubissia, causing immeasurable damage and damage to the kingdom's central and western seas.