"Ariella, you're getting more and more clingy." Hastur lifted Ariella out of the carriage several times after it slipped inside.
He had business to attend to this morning and didn't plan to bring Ariella along, but the moment it saw him board the carriage, it jumped out of the maid's arms and leapt inside, ready to go out with him.
After being stopped by Hastur several times, it still kept coming back. In the end, with no other choice, Hastur brought it along.
"Meow." Seeing that Hastur was no longer trying to chase it away, Ariella jumped onto his lap and let out a soft meow.
"I've never seen you this persistent even when hunting at night." Hastur rubbed Ariella's little head.
Ever since he returned from the suburban estate two days ago, he had been driving Ariella out every night, making it practice hunting skills to help digest the potion.
Unfortunately, Ariella had no interest at all in the rats crawling out of the sewers and never took the initiative to hunt them.
Even when they occasionally ran into each other on the rooftops, it would only scare them away, with no desire to attack whatsoever.
When it encountered a few stray cats fighting with a stray dog, it watched with great relish, fully adopting the posture of a spectator enjoying the drama.
This made Hastur feel it was a pity. If he had known earlier, he would have let Ariella choose the Spectator pathway and properly satisfy its love for watching the excitement.
The carriage passed through the streets and arrived at Bavart Bank, where Hastur was to meet a noble who was also from Southville County.
It was said that because the situation on the Southern Continent was becoming increasingly tense and chaotic, many nobles and wealthy merchants feared being affected sooner or later.
As a result, many people from the Southern Continent fled to Southville County, while most of the nobles of Southville County chose to flee to Backlund.
Recently, many people from Southville County had been selling land.
Hastur only met this one because the land this noble owned happened to be the missing plots around Hastur's territory. It was very suitable for purchase, and once acquired, it would connect Hastur's entire territory into one continuous area.
When Hastur appeared holding Ariella, the noble from Southville County was clearly taken aback, probably not expecting the buyer to be so young.
The transaction went very smoothly. Due to the well-known situation, Hastur managed to press the already low land price down even further.
For less than 5,000 pounds, he successfully bought a large amount of land connected to his territory from the noble.
If calculated, it was even a bit cheaper than the already heavily discounted land he had previously purchased from Viscount Abel.
After all, land was currently something that had a market but no buyer, especially land in Southville County. Very few people truly dared to take it over.
Some believed that as the chaos on the Southern Continent reached its peak, the flames of war might spread to Southville County to ease internal pressure.
Hastur did not rule out this possibility and likewise believed that the future situation in Southville County would not be very good.
As many wealthy merchants and nobles from the Southern Continent fled to Southville County, pirates would surely follow the scent of money.
The coastal defense line of Southville County would definitely be under increasing strain. For this reason, Hastur even wrote a letter to His Majesty the King, suggesting strengthening the coastal defenses.
As for whether the King would see the letter and whether he would adopt the suggestion, that would depend on Earl Hall and Duke Negan.
As long as the King publicly brought up the matter of Southville County for discussion, Hastur's suggestion would most likely be adopted.
After finishing the transaction, Hastur asked some questions about Southville County and the Southern Continent.
Regarding intelligence about Southville County, what the noble said was more or less the same as what Viscount Abel had said. Comparing the two, the credibility was quite high.
As for matters on the Southern Continent, most of what he knew came from a Southern Continent noble who was on good terms with him.
At the beginning, when members of the Churches of the Seven Gods entered the Southern Continent, they claimed they would not interfere with or affect the civil war there.
But slogans were only good for shouting; over time, they lost all meaning.
Unable to locate the true foundation of the Rose School of Thought for a long time, the Churches of the Seven Gods, especially the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, advocated launching a war that would sweep across the Southern Continent.
When that happened, no matter where the remnants of the Rose School of Thought hid, they would be affected by the flames of war and have their tracks exposed.
There was another claim that the reason the remnants of the Rose School of Thought could not be found was because they were hiding under the protection of the Balam Empire.
The Churches of the Seven Gods were preparing to completely tear off all pretenses and, at the same time, take the opportunity to leave behind their faith on the Southern Continent.
Some radicals on the Southern Continent were spreading the idea that the arrival of the Churches of the Seven Gods was not to deal with the indulgent branch of the Rose School of Thought at all, but merely an excuse to ignite a war on the Southern Continent, then join forces with the Northern Continent nations to occupy the rich lands of the south in one fell swoop.
This claim spread widely and was also the common sentiment of Southern Continent residents.
If not for knowing that the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun had come specifically for the Supernova Dominator, Hastur himself would have been inclined to believe this claim.
Especially the Evernight Goddess, she definitely coveted the faith of the Southern Continent.
Perhaps before long, the Kingdom of Loen would send its navy closer to the Southern Continent under the pretext of aiding the Churches of the Seven Gods.
....
At night, Hastur followed Grey to pay a visit to Duchess Georgina Augustus.
The Briber potion in his body was close to being fully digested. As long as he followed the usual process, it would take about ten days to half a month.
He originally had no interest in meeting this Duchess Georgina Augustus. It was Grey who invited him, saying it was a gathering with many nobles in attendance, which was why he came to see the Duchess.
Perhaps it could also help his potion digest faster.
The gathering was held at Duchess Georgina Augustus's private estate. Before even reaching the entrance, they could already see many noble carriages parked along both sides of the road.
"Duchess Georgina Augustus is a legendary figure, exceptional in both wisdom and ability, and deeply trusted by the King. Even the princes are scrambling to curry favor with her."
"There will definitely be many royal family members present tonight. If you're interested, you can try to make some connections. But you'd better rein in your charm, royal women aren't easy to deal with. If you catch their eye, it'll be very troublesome."
"Of course, if you want to please Duchess Georgina Augustus, you can fully display your masculine charm. She likes men who are handsome and valiant."
Faced with Grey's nonstop chatter, Hastur was already feeling a bit regretful for agreeing to attend this gathering before even getting out of the carriage.
They got out and entered the estate gates.
As the heir to Duke Negan, Grey naturally drew much attention and conversation. While Grey was busy socializing, Hastur quietly took a plate and began searching for the best dessert of the evening.
He sampled a little of each dessert and finally chose a rather crowd-pleasing filled cake as the winner of the night.
Compared to the desserts at Earl Hall's estate, the desserts here could only be considered average. Clearly, Duchess Georgina Augustus did not like sweets.
Hastur then went to try some meat dishes and found that both the cooking skill and flavor were excellent, far surpassing those of ordinary restaurants.
What a distinctive set of food preferences.
While Hastur was busy tasting the food, a figure emerged from a room on the second floor, took a glass of red wine from a nearby attendant, and looked down.
A gaze filled with authority swept across the downstairs crowd, paused on Hastur for two seconds, then moved to others, and finally returned to Hastur.
Someone beside them immediately said, "That's Voltaire's son."
"So it's him." The figure watched for a while longer, then swept its gaze elsewhere and never looked back.
Until the gathering ended, Hastur never saw Duchess Georgina Augustus.
Grey's expression regarding this was very strange. When Hastur asked him the reason, he refused to say anything.
Only when Grey was about to leave did he say meaningfully, "If I'd known there was this layer of connection, you really didn't need to come here tonight."
A riddle-speaker.
Hastur had the urge to punch Grey into a pig's head and then shout, "Riddle-speaker, get out of Backlund!"
Fortunately, thinking of his identity as the grand Sovereign of the Stars, he forgave Grey's behavior.
....
Late at night, in an alley between the West Borough and the Empress Borough.
Two drunkards passed through the alley and saw several stray cats rummaging through a trash bin for food. When they passed by, the stray cats did not flee, but stood on the edge of the bin, their eyes still searching inside for food.
They should have passed by without incident, but one of the drunkards suddenly grabbed a chestnut-colored stray cat close to him, lifted it high, and smashed it hard against the wall!
"Meow!" A painful scream startled the nearby stray cats, sending them scattering in all directions.
The two drunkards burst out laughing. Then one of them kicked the trash bin, overturning it, and the two of them walked off with their arms over each other's shoulders.
As for the chestnut-colored stray cat curled up in the corner, already unconscious, they didn't spare it another glance.
High up on the rooftop, a small black kitten walked gracefully and lightly in the direction the two drunkards had gone.
"Ah!"
"Ah!"
After a while, two screams pierced the night sky.
The next day, two unlucky fellows appeared in the West Borough with white bandages wrapped around their faces.
According to people who knew them, the two had been attacked by a black cat while drunkenly passing through an alley the night before.
Their faces had been clawed beyond recognition, the pain sobering them up instantly.
In the following days, another unlucky person appeared near the West Borough. He too had been drunk while passing through an alley when a black cat clawed his face, nearly blinding him.
Someone even went to the police station because of this, reporting the incident and asking the police to send officers to clear out the stray cats hiding in the alleys.
The stated reason was: to restore quiet nights to the West Borough.
The incident even made it into the newspapers once.
When Hastur saw the newspaper, he was sitting on his balcony at home, he held the weary-looking Ariella, lifting its little paw and shaking it, declaring it responsible for the attacks.