World Development System 91 22. Initial Reactions Part I.

Duncan nodded as he gave his suggestion, "Well I can ask Georgio to schedule our meeting with Lord John. He is quite close to the knights when he was at the mansion previously. His friendly nature was one of the things why I sent him here, he is unlike the arrogant guys who are too full of themselves when it comes to important matters."

****

Marquis commented to Frank after watching this scene, "I guess there will be big turmoil in the kingdom after everyone hears of this weapon, especially the Dukes, the Radiant church and the Royal Family. I wonder if they will still try to pressure John via different means. Let's head to the ceremony. I hope to get some of those Ballistas for my Mansion and Our Naval Fleet. I guess it's good that your son took his independent decisions or everyone would be regretting their actions and try to mend our ways, however, I wonder how you would try to appease Joseph since you would be representing Morgan Family."

Frank nonchalantly said to Steve Ray, "Well I am not too worried it, I would rather have Joseph handle all the business in the north if there are some problems, As for both the duo of Grandfather and Grandson, they can pull their shit elsewhere, I am only interested in gains of Morgan family. Additionally, I am more interested in buying real-estate and local businesses, now that the laws have slackened here and they are encouraging trade and investment. Now I am pretty sure that this town atleast won't be devoured by Beasts unless a lot of people attack them. Though this is risky behavior, however last time when my son left the Morgan family, he reminded me of my past where I remembered that taking bigger risks could mean bigger gains as well. No big risks would mean no big gains aswell. I guess years of hardship made me a little bit precautious."

Ray nodded and agreed, "Quite true, Maybe that is one of the reasons we can't achieve our goals since we are afraid of failures."

***

Bishop Robert of Radiant church, "Hmm... So that was the reason why they were confident in making and confronting multiple enemies the last time around. It seems they have decided to show their hands now. We have a change in plans, we will try contacting the dukes and Royal family for cooperation from now onwards."

One of the clerics hesitantly asked Bishop Robert, "Is it really ok to cooperate with Royal Family? You know they are always hostile to us because of that incident 128 years ago where we exerted some of our influence on the kingdom."

Bishop Robert touched the scepter in his hands as he spoke, "Well, this Baron has quite a lot of guts since he is already confronting our interests whether it is mending relations with Demons or demi-humans. Plus he is the student of that Grand Potioneer Melanie so We always have to worry about them creating cheap drugs and reduce our influence. Additionally, we are only allying with the Royal Family on certain matters so it won't have any effect. However, we would need to tread carefully not to get bitten by those Jackals. However we can still try one last time as long as he ceases his relations with that Demon, you know the higher ups pretty much hate the guts of that demon as he has assassinated a lot of higher-ups in the past, however from the looks of the laws over here I don't think he will relent. Okay, lets head on and meet that head spy from the Royal family."

Cleric reacted as he heard this, "Well, we are already in contact with him, however, it will take a lot of time to convince them for cooperation as there is very little trust between us. However, we can still contact that Baron easily, maybe how about enticing him with money, our coffers are always loaded you know."

Bishop Robert gave a cunning smile as he replied to the cleric, "It's okay, even if it is done slowly it will be useful to us in the long run. Immediately contact their men. Meanwhile, tell that butler of the baron that I intend to have a meeting with the Baron and implicitly mention our conditions that they would have benefits as well, I want to see what sort of excuse do they have this time around to not meet me, if they ignore us again then you should know what is their answer. Well, I would still like to meet that Baron as I have one more hand."

***
Watching the Ballista,
The Royal family Ambassador Luke Greenwald sighed and said to one of his men, "The matter is quite serious this time around. From the looks, I can see that he intentionally revealed this weapon 5 days before Prince Hector's Banquet, Quite a cunning guy. However, he underestimates the influence of the Royal family because this very weapon will be his downfall and he is already enemies with 3 out of 4 dukes. However, I still worry if he turns to that madman. I guess the Royal family will try to use the carrot and stick policy until they get this weapon."
His right-hand man spoke, "Lord, it seems that the Radiant Church has finally set their sights on this Baron finally as they wanted to cooperate with us regarding a certain matter after watching today's show. It is a letter directly signed by Bishop Robert."
Luke rebuked as he replied, "Do they want a pie in that weapon? If that is the case, tell him to piss off, we can lure this baron as we bribed the elders of the Lorr family so the radiant church won't have to worry."

the henchmen reminded Luke of something, "Master, what about that spy of Prince Hector, who has recently stolen parts of the blueprints of that soap making machine? Don't you think the Baron would be quite angry if he knows of this."

Luke mocked as he said, "Hmph... what can he do, he is just a small baron with some fame in a small period of time. Just make sure to keep this news a secret as long as we try to make a deal with that baron, in front of interests and power, he too will bend his knee. If he doesn't bend in front of wealth that would only mean two things:
1- He is too stupid and makes decisions based on his emotions or
2- He has bigger ambitions and has no interest in money which would be a bigger threat to us.

***
Meanwhile, after this show, John saw various notifications on his menu which indicated that reputation and exp points were increasing in and around his domain.
"Congratulations to host on crossing the threshold of 80 reputation points. The fact that you decided to show your power has increased the faith among the people of the domain about the safety of this city. Your current reputation points are 81/100. Congratulations on acquiring 3 million exp points on showing Military power to the people your town."
"Congratulations on acquiring more reputation among the traders as they respect you more unlike previously. You have 25/100 External reputation points. Congratulations on acquiring 2.5 million exp points by showcasing your Military power to the surrounding domain lords."
"Meanwhile we have a special offer for you, you can acquire advanced and efficient agricultural machines to improve the productivity of your domain, it would only cost you 7 million exp points however you would need 85 internal reputations points or you can get it for 14 million exp points. As the population of your town increases you would need more food so I suggest you buy it."

John thought as he heard the notifications, 'Again with her scammy behavior. Nah, maybe I will need it later on so I shouldn't dismiss it already. And it seems there are a lot of eyes from the way my reputation points jumped instantly.'

Taylor came and said to John who was in his thoughts, "Lord, it seems we caught the attention of a lot of people today from the way they are reacting. The representative to the Radiant church again came today and wanted to make a meeting with you. They again implicitly said that we can have a lot of wealth as long as we stop associating or at least start distancing from the Demons. From the looks of it, it seems that the Radiant church has quite a big grudge with Vlad and his men."

Chapter end