Lollister regretted spending 1,400 gold fords on the market to buy those 300 weapons and dozens of sets of armor. He thought of the armory of Dawn Academy and the armory of other academies, so he went to find El and asked him to help. As expected, after giving a red packet of 100 gold coins to the Swordsman Academy's Armory Manager, he only spent a little more than 500 gold coins to purchase nearly 120 sets of so-called scrapped training plate armor and scale armor, as well as nearly a thousand spears.
Lollister told El that this was actually a way to make money. If he befriended the armory managers, he would be able to get many scrapped weapons and equipment every year. Look, Lollister said, picking up a piece of plate armor. It looks old, but after some polishing, it'll be 80% new. If it's sold in bulk, it can be auctioned off. Many mercenary groups will pay a high price for it.
Spending money like water, Lollister soon realized that he was almost out of 3,000 gold coins, but he couldn't bear to give up on buying the so-called scrapped weapons and equipment in the armory. He had already done everything he could, and the pockets of the armory managers were stuffed full of gold fords. This was the time for a great harvest, so how could he drop the ball at this critical moment?
After thinking about it, Lollister decided to take a risk and auction off his treasures. In fact, Lollister's treasures were actually mirrors, which he had made himself. When Lollister had designed and decorated the boutique women's clothing store for his girlfriend, Lady Windsor, he had spent more than ten gold fords on a batch of transparent white crystals. Lollister had chosen a dozen or so small pieces of colorless crystal and had a craftsman polish them, which he kept with him. Originally, Lollister had wanted to use these crystal pieces to make telescopes, but a few of them were damaged, so he had to put them aside.
Later, Louise was getting married to Old Carl, and Lollister wanted to give them a rare gift, so he used these crystal pieces to make nine mirrors. As the director of a small handicraft factory in his previous life, Lollister was very proficient in making glass art. It wasn't as difficult as polishing lenses. After the mirrors were made, he gave one to Louise, and then another to Anfiya. Now, he had seven mirrors left.
The process of making mirrors was not complicated, and the materials were simple. Laurist was worried that these mirrors would attract the attention of people with ulterior motives and bring him unnecessary trouble, so he kept it a secret. Now that he was short of money, he couldn't care less about the risks. Thus, Buckingham sent Redi to invite Aire over.
Loriste decided to auction off the four mirrors. When Ell came in and saw the four mirrors on the desk, he was shocked. "So the mirror that Louise treasured was a gift from you."
"You knew Sister Louise had a mirror?" asked Loriste.
"Of course, Louise treasured the mirror and wouldn't show it to anyone. But who am I, El? I've long since had enough of it in my hands. Even the day before yesterday, I shaved in front of a mirror. It's much clearer than a silver plate. But when I'm done with it, I always put it back where I found it, and Louise doesn't know. "El admitted without shame that he often took Louise's mirror to play with.
Loriste explained why he was looking for El. He hoped that El would send someone to auction off the four mirrors. His excuse was that these four mirrors were found in some ruins, and were suspected to be magic mirrors that had lost their magic power. Later, they were kept by a certain family for nearly a hundred years. Now, something had happened to that family, so they put these four mirrors up for auction.
Each of Lollister's four mirrors had their own unique characteristics. The first mirror was round and half a foot in diameter. It was tightly wrapped by a round silver plate, and Lollister had ingeniously engraved messy English and Pinyin letters on the sides of the silver plate and mirror. Although it was simple, it gave off a mysterious feeling.
The second mirror was square and the size of a book. Loriste had wrapped a book in gold leaf, dug out the middle of the book, and placed the mirror inside. He had even written the poem "Moonlight Before My Bed" in gold on the page in front of the mirror. He believed that there would definitely be people who would be interested in these square words and spend their entire lives to study them.
The third mirror was oval. Loriste had made it into a dressing mirror with a handle. It was made from a special black wood from Galintea. Loriste had obtained it by destroying a black wooden chest that was said to have been passed down for thousands of years. Since the chest wasn't worth much, Loriste had bought it from the market for a few gold coins. After returning, he had dismantled the chest and carved the wood into the mirror's base and handle. Loriste had also engraved the Chinese tradition of the Five Blessings and complicated patterns on the base and handle.
The fourth mirror had taken the most effort. Loriste had cast an ancient bronze mirror from China, and then embedded the glass mirror into the surface. The ancient bronze mirror had also been treated by Loriste. It looked rusty and antique, and the words "Mirror of the Bright Moon" were engraved on the back of the base in clerical script.
Ell had agreed to Loriste's request. He played with them for a long time before putting the four mirrors in a box and taking them away.
Ten days later, the four mirrors were successfully auctioned off without any mishaps. The total value of the auction was more than 13,000 gold coins. After deducting the auction fees and handling fees, Loriste had earned more than a few hundred gold coins.
When Ell had delivered the money, he had told Loriste that the four mirrors had caused a sensation in Morent City. Especially those strange characters, which had convinced the experts that they were indeed four magic mirrors that had just lost their magic power. The strange characters on the mirrors were most likely the incantations that Magicians had used to activate the magic mirrors thousands of years ago. Thus, the price of the four mirrors had skyrocketed during the auction. Ell had even raised the price a few times during the auction.
Loriste was very happy. Now he had money on his side again. However, this kind of thing could not happen again, so he shook his head and rejected Ell's suggestion to make a few more mirrors to auction off.
With the money, Loriste had wantonly purchased the scrapped weapons and equipment from the various academies' arsenals. By the time Yuri returned to Morent City with the 353 warhorses he had purchased, Loriste had enough weapons to equip an entire army.
There were more than 5,000 spears, nearly 2,000 sharpened longswords, and nearly 1,000 double-handed broadswords, heavy swords, and short swords. There were more than six hundred standard training square shields, more than eight hundred other types of shields, more than seven hundred ballistae, more than two thousand lances, more than one thousand five hundred javelins, seventy-one sets of knight armor, five hundred and eighty-three pieces of heavy swordsman plate armor, nearly a thousand pieces of chain mail and scale armor, and more than two thousand pieces of leather armor. Finally, there were twelve chariots equipped with the small ballistae.
These weapons and equipment had all been refurbished and repaired. Just the materials alone cost nearly 2,000 gold coins. The shields and metal armors were all engraved with the Norton Family's emblem of the Raging Bear. The wages were not expensive. Lollister gave each of the four craftsmen ten gold coins, and even the dozen apprentices five gold coins each. They had only been working for a little over a month, and they had earned so much, which was more than enough for them to be grateful.
Sometimes, Loriste thought that if he sold all these weapons and equipment, the profit would be no less than 100,000 gold coins. However, this was just a thought. He had just received a letter from Fatty Shi. The letter said that he and Bofinger had bought 700 strong slaves at Nubit Port. Together with their families, there were more than 2,800 of them. They had already boarded a ship to Amitlin Port in the Duchy of Lulm. They would wait for Loriste and the others there, and then they would embark on their journey to the north. What puzzled Loriste was why Fatty Shi had asked him at the end of the letter not to forget to bring along the hollow wheel and swivel chair in the yard.
What was Fatty Shi trying to do? Loriste could not figure it out. When Fatty Shi first saw the hollow wheel and tried it, didn't he cry for his parents after coming down? No matter what, Loriste had said that training with these two things would allow him to gain dynamic vision, and his swordsmanship would improve by leaps and bounds. However, he had still rejected it, and even swore that he would not try it again even if it could help him gain the ability to fly. What was he trying to do now? Could it be that he was training with these two things on the way north? How was he going to travel if that was the case? Forget it. I can't figure it out. I'll think about it when the time comes. Transporting these two things is just a matter of adding more carriages.
Now that Padt had recovered, he had grasped the basics of dynamic vision. However, it was still artificially trained. Although his reaction was faster than the average person's, it was still very slow for Loriste's body that was born with dynamic vision. Padt's heart would palpitate every time he talked about the training. It was almost two months of hell, and there were a few times when he wanted to die. Being dragged by Redi to run circles on those two things every day was too unbearable.
Looking at the days, it was about time to move. Loriste went to find President Peterson, and through the Peterson Merchant's Association, he mobilized three large ships to transport the weapons, equipment, and horses. There were also the thousands of clothes that Fatty Shi had ordered in Morent City, and the thousands of old leather coats and pants that he had bought from a clothing store. Although the quantity of these clothes was large, they were the least expensive, only about seven hundred gold fords. Over the past few days, Terman had led some people to sort out and pack up the clothes.
They had to wait for another two days, as the three hundred horses that Yuri had bought still had to be made into saddles, stirrups, and shoes. This cost Loriste another thousand gold coins, and he could only sigh at the huge cost of building an army. In the blink of an eye, he had invested forty thousand gold fords. Now, he only had less than two thousand gold coins left, and he had not paid the two hundred and forty gold coins for the three large ships that were discounted by twenty percent.
The day before departure, Loriste visited Instructor Kelud, who had become a Grandmaster Swordsman. He entrusted nearly a thousand books that he had collected to Instructor Kelud. On this trip to the North, Loriste packed the one hundred books that he felt were the most important, and decided to leave the rest of the books with Instructor Kelud for safekeeping. They would be transported back to the North when the time came. Instructor Kelud and Instructor Anya agreed to Laurist's request without hesitation.
Finally, it was time to depart. The three large ships of the Peterson Merchant's Association slowly left Hidden Gold Bay, then raised their sails and headed north.
Looking at Hidden Gold Bay and Morent City that was getting smaller and smaller, Loriste had mixed feelings. He was finally going to leave the city that he regarded as his second home, and he did not know when he would be able to return. His future was uncertain, and he did not know if he and his companions would be able to make a difference in the North … Loriste sighed.
Alisa's cheerful laughter reached his ears. The little girl thought that they were going on a long trip, and was very happy when she heard that they were going to see their father. She was playing around on the deck of the ship.
Schwald saw that Loriste seemed a little depressed, and asked, "Teacher, what's wrong? You seem a little unhappy?"
Loriste smiled and said, "No, it's just that when we set off today, your Uncle El did not come to see us off. I am very puzzled."
As soon as he finished speaking, a familiar voice sounded, "Sir, your knight Brunan Evanbert reporting for duty."
A figure lightly leaped down from the mast and knelt on one knee in front of Loriste. "I, Brunan Evanbert, am willing to be loyal to Lord Norton Loriste, and become a knight of the Norton Family. Under the guidance of the Furious Bear's banner, I will charge and break through enemy lines until the last moment of my life."
Loriste was surprised and happy. "Why are you here, El?"
El did not speak, and only pointed at his own shoulder, meaning that Loriste had not yet made him a knight of the Norton Family.
Alright, Loriste took out his sword and patted El's shoulders twice, then threw the sword to the side and pulled El into a tight hug. "Welcome to the family, my knight and brother."
El reached out and touched Loriste's body. "Where's the badge? It's time to give me the badge."
Loriste pushed El away. "F * ck, I don't have a badge on me. Don't touch me. Do you like men?"
"You're the one who likes men. I just wanted to see if you had a badge on you. I didn't mean anything else. Don't spout nonsense and ruin my reputation." When Ayer heard Laurist say that he liked men, he became anxious and jumped up.
"Alright, alright. Sederkamp, go get a Knight's Badge for Knight Aire," Laurist ordered.
"Why are you here? Did old Garken let you out?" Loriste asked.
"He doesn't know that I snuck out. But I left a letter for the old man. After I leave, I'll let Ledos be the leader of the club. The old man doesn't have to worry about other people's business anymore. He'll just stay at home and raise his son. Ledos is much smarter than him. I believe that the club will develop well under his management. I still think that going north with you guys is the best choice for me. "El looked at the hatch as he spoke, complaining about Sederkamp's slow movements.
Fortunately, Sederkamp soon brought the Norton Family's badge over. As El put on the badge, he asked Loriste, "Why don't I see Terman and Yuri?"
Loriste pointed at the two large ships behind them. "Those two ships, one is responsible for escorting weapons, and the other is responsible for escorting horses. In a few days, you'll be able to meet them at Amitlin Port. I believe they'll be shocked to see you. "
El finally put on the badge. He lowered his head and looked left and right, satisfied. "I don't care if they're shocked. I only care about that damn fatty. Let's see who's calling who a knight now."
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