Chapter 107 Illusions of youth
As the goddess in the minds of countless people in Banta City and the surrounding cities, because of her outstanding appearance and aura, there were many people who turned on the street and she attracted people’s gazes.
When Xu Yi was window shopping with her, there would be countless looks of admiration and jealousy. There were even more looks of shock when looking at Still and there were even a few people who revealed looks of greed.
But no matter how shocked those people were from seeing Still, they would have scruples and restrained themselves because of Xu Yi beside her.
But this man that they met now, his eyes revealed an incomparably strong look of greed that he simply didn’t hide at all. When Xu Yi saw it, he immediately couldn’t help tightly knitting his brows.
When he turned to look at Still, he found that she had a strange reaction, so Xu Yi asked, “Is he an acquaintance?”
Still was only stunned for a bit before she revealed a deep look of disgust and gave a slight nod, “Un, he is Vincent.”
“Vincent?” Hearing this name, the first thing Xu Yi thought of was the Armani Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Vincent. After thinking for a bit, he finally remembered that Akali had mentioned this name before. It was the male student that Still had liked back when she attended the Lampuri Royal Academy.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi turned and seriously looked over this Vincent.
Putting aside the look in his eyes that made Xu Yi very unhappy, based on just his outer appearance, this Vincent seemed like a very outstanding fellow. Not only was he tall and strong, his face was very good, with close to perfect proportions. Coordinating with the luxuriously made that he was wearing, if he was placed on earth, he could be considered a “tall, right, and handsome man”.
This kind of man was indeed like the white horse prince that many little girls dreamed of, it was no wonder Still liked him at first.
After looking over Vincent, Xu Yi’s eyes fell onto the girl beside Vincent.
This girl wasn’t as shocking as Still, but she was still quite good looking with a weak aura to her. When she was placed by Vincent’s side, it created a sharp contrast.
Seeing Vincent holding the girl by the waist, Xu Yi asked Still in a somewhat strange voice, “Who is this girl? It seems like she’s quite close to him.”
“She is the one I mentioned before, Vincent’s fiancee.” Still replied in a small voice. She took another look at Vincent before turning while holding Xu Yi’s hand, preparing to leave. 𝚋ｅｄ𝚗𝚘𝚟ｅ𝚕．𝚗ｅｔ
Who would have thought that when they prepared to leave, Vincent would suddenly cross the street and run in front of Still, blocking the two of them.
“Hey, beautiful Still, when did you arrive in Anvilmar City? Why didn’t you contact me beforehand? I could have properly entertained you.” Vincent revealed a graceful smile, as he said to Still with a loud laugh.
“What would I contact you for?” Still looked at Vincent. Although her eyes were filled with disgust, she didn’t want to argue with him in public, so her expression was considered quite calm, “Grandfather and I, as well as some friends had some business in Anvilmar City, so we didn’t plan on bothering anyone.”
“How is it a bother?” Vincent shouted in an exaggerated voice, “We were the best of friends back in school and as long as you come to Anvilmar City, how could I not entertain you? Since Great Magician Camilla is also here, then that is even better. Please tell his excellency Great Magician that I am sending my invitation right now and I hope that you and his excellency Great Magician will come to be our guests tonight, we will treat you with the highest honour.”
“Want to entertain us?” Still looked at him finding it a bit funny, “I think you should ask the opinion of your fiancee first.”
“You mean Michelle? Relax, how could Michelle not agree, don’t you think so dear Michelle?” Vincent turned to the girl who looked rather hopeless as she followed him.
The girl called Michelle looked up at Still and a depressed look appeared on her face before she lowered her head again. She replied in a soft voice, “Un…..I…..I don’t mind.”
Xu Yi and Still looked at each other, instantly noticing that Michelle had a rather weak personality. It was no wonder that even though Vincent had a fiancee, he dared to treat Still like that.
“Look, I told you Michelle would definitely agree. She is very hospitable, isn’t that right, Michelle?” Vincent asked Michelle again.
Michelle still had her head down as she softly gave an “un” sound.
Xu Yi knit his brows seeing this, thinking that if Michelle was to get married to Vincent, that wouldn’t be a good marriage.
Of course, he didn’t care.
Hearing Michelle’s response, Vincent proudly looked at Still, “See, Michelle doesn’t care. Still, you should come by tonight with Great Magician Camilla, I will head back now and have the servants prepare.”
“Hey, even if your fiancee agrees, it doesn’t mean that I agree. Then again, even if I agree, you have to ask if he agrees or not.” Still pointed at Xu Yi.
“Him?” Vincent seemed like he only noticed Xu Yi and revealed a look of surprise as he looked over at him. His eyes passed over Xu Yi and Still holding hands and he narrowed his eyes as he revealed a look of hostility. He said with a cold snort, “Who is this fellow?”
“Be more polite!” Still reprimanded him, “He is Xu Yi and he’s my boyfriend. If you want to invite me over, if he doesn’t agree, I definitely won’t go.”
“Xu Yi?” Vincent looked over Xu Yi and shook his head, “I’ve never heard this name before, you’re not a noble from Anvilmar City, right? Could it be that you are a noble from that small Banta City?”
“You really are ignorant. Don’t you know that Xu Yi is……”
Still wanted to give a brief introduction to who Xu Yi was, but Xu Yi stopped her.
Xu Yi looked at Vincent and asked, “Mister Vincent, I’ve heard Akali mention you before. If I didn’t remember wrong, you should be from the Jole Family, right?”
Vincent was stunned, “Akali mentioned me to you? That’s right, I’m from the Jole Family, what about it?”
“Since you’re from the Jole Family, that’s much more simple. I don’t think you need to invite Still and me to be your guest. If nothing unexpected happens, we should be coming in two days.” Xu Yi said with a smile.
“You’re coming?” Vincent looked at Xu Yi in surprise before giving a cold laugh, “You think that you’re an honoured guest like young miss Still and Great Magician Camilla? Our Jole Family wouldn’t care about a little fellow like you,”
Vincent turned to Still after saying this and revealed a pained look as he said, “Still, if it is because I hurt you last time, so you found this fellow to be your boyfriend to make me angry, I really am sorry. Actually, after you left last time, my heart has been filled with regret and I even went three days without eating and drinking. Do you know? I’ve always been thinking about you during this time. When I saw you again today, my heart almost exploded from happiness, I……”
“Wait!” Still reached out her hand to stop Vincent from continuing with his speech that made her break out in goosebumps. She looked at him with a look of disbelief, “I say, Vincent, Michelle is here and she is your fiancee! You’re actually saying all of this to me in front of her? You don’t care about her feelings at all?”
“Fiancee?” Vincent turned to look at Michelle and he said with a bitter smile, “Still, you should know that the so-called fiancee was an arrangement between families. You can ask Michell if you don’t believe me, neither of us are willing to accept this. I only like you in my heart. If you give me a chance, I can even talk to the family and have them cancel this engagement! I will marry no one else but you!”
Still looked at Vincent in a daze for a while, she simply couldn’t believe that there was someone with such thick skin in this world!
Turning to look at Michelle on the side, she saw that she was looking down without saying a word, as if silently agreeing with what Vincent said.
After a long while, Still let out a long sigh and shook her head. Without another word, she pulled Xu Yi away.
Vincent behind them kept calling out to Still, but she moved even faster and quickly disappeared around the corner with Xu Yi.
When they couldn’t hear Vincent’s shouting anymore, Xu Yi finally couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“What are you laughing at?” Still snappily looked at Xu Yi.
“Because it’s just too…..too funny.” Xu Yi looked at Still’s angry face and he couldn’t help smiling, “It really has opened my worldview today. There’s actually such a shameless person, I’m really dying from laughter.”
“Humph! Although I already knew that he was shameless from the matter last time, I never thought that he would be even more shameless than I thought. It really angers me to death!” Still angrily said.
“What are you angry about?” Xu Yi said with a smile, “It’s like you said last time, you should be happy. For such a shameless fellow, the sooner you can see his true colours, that is a good thing. To be honest, I really don’t understand, what did you like about him before? Don’t you think that this kind of person is laughable?”
Still’s face turned a bit red as she angrily said, “I was very weak before. I was still a young girl back in school and I only liked him because he was handsome, he also had quite the demeanor before. Actually I never had contact with him that much, so of course I didn’t know that he was this shameless.”
“Then I’m even more confused. Still, you are such a beautiful girl, for that fellow to not endlessly chase you back in school, it really is a bit unbelievable.” Xu Yi said.
“I was focused on studying when I was in school and had as little contact with male students as much as possible, so he didn’t have a chance at all. To be honest, thinking about it now, when I said that I liked him, I only felt like he was the white horse prince of my dreams, I didn’t really like him that much.” Still explained.
“This should be the fantasies that every young girl has, right?” Xu Yi teased.
“What? It was my unreal fantasy, you have an opinion about it?” Still glared at Xu Yi.
“No, no, no, how could I have an opinion? I should be very blessed, that you abandoned this fantasy after meeting me. Otherwise with how I’m not handsome, you wouldn’t have liked me.”
Still suddenly grabbed Xu Yi’s face and said with an honest expression, “You’re not allowed to say that you’re not handsome. Xu Yi, you have to remember that since I like you, you are the most handsome. Perhaps in the eyes of many girls, Vincent is very handsome, but now I can see that he is very weak and he doesn’t even have ten thousandth of your charm.”
Seeing the honest look on Still’s face, Xu Yi felt a bit emotional. He kissed Still’s hand and said in a soft voice, “Thank you for your praise. Being able to receive your love, I feel very blessed.”
Still revealed a bright as a flower smile before taking Xu Yi’s hand and heading in the direction of the Lampuri Royal Academy.
Chapter 108? Poor military logistics department
The morning of leisure passed very quickly.
This time Xu Yi had many things to do in Anvilmar City, so naturally he didn’t have as much free time as he did this morning.
After having lunch with Still, Xu Yi and the people sent by the military headquarters brought Xu Yi to the military training ground not far to the west of Anvilmar City.
Actually the army headquarters wanted Xu Yi to come, but Xu Yi was always busy and found it hard to find time to come to Anvilmar City. Since Xu Yi finally had the time to come, the army headquarters wouldn’t miss this chance and had set a time with Xu Yi long ago.
When Xu Yi passed through the strict checks, he found an acquaintance waiting for him.
Of course it was major MacConley.
When he saw Xu Yi, major MacConley came forward with a smile.
“Hey, chairmanh Xu, you’re finally willing to visit, that really fills me with joy.”
Xu Yi shook his head with a smile, “Major MacConley is being too polite. Actually I wanted to come a long time ago and this is a good opportunity, so of course I wouldn’t miss it.”
After the two of them exchanged greetings, major MacConley introduced Xu Yi to some other people on the training field.
Other than some officers, there were some instructors and a total of twenty normal soldiers.
After meeting Xu Yi, these people were very friendly to Xu Yi. Although it was their first time meeting, they already treated him like a good friend.
Xu Yi was a bit surprised. Why were these people so friendly with him? It had to be known that he was just a normal merchant and it was normal for him not to get along with military people.
“The issue is that chairman Xu is not a normal merchant.” Major MacConley laughed, “Those other merchants are people who only care about money that we military people look down on, but you are different. It is because you and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce have ensured that every brother can have a set of equipment. On the battlefield now, they can ensure that they have a greater chance of survival, so why wouldn’t these people be friendly towards you?”
“That’s right, before the people of the logistics department had been worrying about the equipment our brothers had all day, but we couldn’t solve it because we didn’t have money. In the end, once chairman Xu made a move, you easily solved the biggest problem. How can we not treat you like a brother?” Another officer of the logistics department said with a smile.
“Oh? I don’t seem to have this amazing ability, right? I actually solved such a large problem?” Xu Yi said in a surprised voice.
“Chairman Xu, do you know how poor the logistics department was before? Let me tell you, before this, in the entire army, other than the northern army that had to fight with those Sack Kingdom bastards every day who had full support, for the rest of the army, one in five didn’t even have a complete set of equipment! As for weapons…..Can you believe this? The brothers of the Leica Regiment were using iron swords that were over five years old? Those swords were rusty and just by touching them, they were almost turned into short swords!”
“It can’t be that bad, right…..” Xu Yi was a bit shocked.
If the equipment of the Lampuri Kingdom’s army was really as bad as they said, the battle strength of the royal army was a bit worrying.
If they really were to fight a war, they would be completely routed if they met some powerful enemies.
“Who says it’s not?”
Once it came to going to war, those officers from the army headquarters were like recorders, incessantly saying the same thing.
The group came together and kept complaining to Xu Yi.
For a while, they talked about a conflict that had happened before where because of their bad equipment, they couldn’t beat two thousand with three thousand. Not only did they lose the battle, there were over a thousand people who died, as well as being called waste by the nobles of the kingdom.
For a while, another officer told the story of when he was ambushed as a soldier. After he woke up from his dream, he grabbed beside him and could only find an iron rod.
Because they didn’t have enough equipment, he could only use an iron rod as a weapon.
Then another officer said…...
…...
Hearing about the tragic stories the officers had, Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling for them and also finding it strange.
“Since our royal army is this weak, why hasn’t the Sack Kingdom ever successfully invaded us?”
Nonsense, naturally it’s because our brothers are going all out.” An officer angrily said, “Those old noble masters are calling us waste all day, but they don’t know that our brothers are fighting all out every day. Our equipment isn’t good, our brothers are going all out to stop them. In short, those grandsons from the Sack Kingdom won’t be able to charge in.”
“Ai……But fighting like this is tragic.” Major MacConley said with a sigh, “The northern army’s casualties are no less than five thousand each year. I think that if we keep fighting like this, the northern army will be crippled. At that time, who can withstand those fellows from the Sack Kingdom?”
The officers looked at each other in blank dismay and after a while, an officer spat out, “Pei, let those noble masters fight them!”
Everyone knew that he was just saying empty words. After pausing for a bit, major MacConley said with a forced smile, “Alright, let’s not talk about these disappointing things. Today is chairman Xu’s first time here, we can’t just let him listen to everyone complain, right? Then again, chairman Xu has already solved a large problem for us. I believe that everyone has seen the fifty thousand sets of armour, right? Let me tell you all, for these fifty thousand sets of armour, chairman Xu only charged me less than five hundred thousand gold coins!”
“Only five hundred thousand?” An officer looked at Xu Yi in surprise and he couldn’t help asking, “Chairman Xu, does your Frestech Chamber of Commerce have too much money? If we were to buy these armours from the Jole Family, they would cost at least thirty gold coins per set of armour. Fifty thousand sets of armour would cost one and a half million gold coins.”
“That’s right, wouldn’t you not only not make money, wouldn’t you also lose money? Although we as soldiers hate merchants who only care about making money, we still know that you need to make money. If you do this…..wouldn’t it be bad?”
Xu Yi looked at those doubtful gazes in front of him. These officers might not be part of the logistics department, so they don’t understand the situation, but major MacConley already knows about this. Could it be that he didn’t explain it to the other officers?
If it was like this, what were these officers here for today?
Seeing Xu Yi’s doubtful gaze, major MacConley clapped his hands and attracted the attention of the officers. He said in a loud voice, “Alright, brothers, whether chairman Xu earns money or not I think isn’t a problem that you really care about and it’s not something you need to care about. The reason why chairman Xu was invited today was because there’s some technical problems that we need his consultation on, so we need to make the best use of this time. Chairman Xu is very busy, so if we miss this opportunity, it will be hard to get this opportunity again.”
The officers all revealed looks of understanding and separated. After a while, there was someone who pulled one of the soldiers who was currently training over.
“Chairman Xu, look, the armour that he is wearing is one of the sets of armour from your company. I feel that there should be a change to the back. It would be better if the part there could be a bit thicker.”
“Chairman Xu, this is also the armour from your company. I feel it’s best if the joints are flexible, so the brothers can move their weapons more easily.”
“Chairman Xu, look at this, this is the spear from your company. I felt that although it’s sharp and firm, it should be a bit more lighter. I’ve heard that you use that whatever alloy thing and although it’s very good, there are many brothers who say they can’t use them. Moreover, the force behind this isn’t perfect, so there isn’t enough force, can you change it?”
“Chairman Xu……”
…...
Xu Yi looked over the soldiers one by one and heard the suggestions of the officers. He recorded everything down in the little notebook that he brought along and then he used the rulers and other tools that major MacConley had given him to take other measurements.
After the suggestions of the officers were taken down by Xu Yi, they left satisfied. Then with major MacConley’s instructions, the officers had the twenty soldiers perform a small scale engagement in front of Xu Yi to let Xu Yi see if there was anything that could be improved on.
Xu Yi watched this exercise while asking major MacConley beside him in a small voice, “For these kinds of problems, you just needed a few specialists from our company to come, so why did you have me come here?”
Major MacConley had the same smile on his face as he casually replied, “The brothers heard that we’ve solved the equipment problem of many years because of your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, so they were very curious about you and wanted to take a look at you,”
“They only wanted a look?” Xu Yi asked.
“You have to know that we soldiers have straightforward personalities. You are helping us all, so everyone supports you. The help that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has given can let less of our brothers die, so naturally everyone is treating you as their closest brother. Having you come here is to let you meet everyone and get to know them, it will be much easier to do things in the future.”
Xu Yi thought for a bit before saying in a soft voice, “I don’t want to do anything, I just want to simply open my business.”
Major MacConley looked over at Xu Yi and there was a deeper meaning to his smile.
“Chairman Xu, whether you’re willing or not, there are some things that you’ve already done.”