Veronica Arrives
Victor rode his horse and led a squad of guards to the dock, where he saw several ships with Iron Birch crests on their bows docked and unloading cargo. A familiar figure was watching the workers unload the cargo on the dock.
Upon seeing this person, Victor sighed, then greeted him with a smile.
"Alex, what brings you here?"
"Haha, Victor, why can't I come? I'm an important partner of yours, and you're my brother-in-law. Isn't it normal for me to come to Two Rivers Territory?"
Victor shook his head. "You certainly didn't come just to see me. There must be something else going on. Besides, you only need to take one ship to get here. What are these ships doing with all this cargo?"
"Victor, who do you think I am Alex? I'm a guest, and you don't even bring any gifts? That's ridiculous!" Alex pretended to be angry.
"Okay, then tell me about the gift you brought me."
"It's nothing, just some daily necessities. You don't like gold and silver jewelry, famous swords, or beautiful women. You're particularly difficult to please. I can only prepare some things that your territory can use."
Alex, pointing to the wooden crates that several Dockworkers were moving with a crane. "They're full of flax and cotton. You said you planned to produce your own fabric, so I brought you a batch. 30 tons of flax and 10 tons of cotton. This stuff takes up too much space in the ship's hold. I also brought you a batch of copper ingots. This stuff is restricted in the duchy, and no one but me could get you so many. A total of 10 tons of copper ingots, worth 2,000 gold."
"That's great, Alex. This is the best news I've heard all day." In any case, Alex brought the supplies accumulated in Two Rivers Territory, Victor really had to thank him.
"Don't thank me yet. These supplies aren't free. I bought them with your guild dividends."
Victor smiled. His merchant guild's annual dividend was 1,400 gold, and this batch of supplies would add up to 2,400 to 2,500 gold. To put it bluntly, Alex had spent at least 1,000 gold.
"There's also good news: our flour business has started to turn a profit. The 200 tons of flour you gave me were all sold in the first month, for a total of 160 gold. Seeing how popular the flour was, I quickly got the flour mill built. The ten stone mill flour machines have been operating at full capacity. In the past three months, we've produced a total of 2,200 tons of flour. I've already sold 1,800 tons, and we still have 400 tons in stock. The market in the Three Counties of the Northern Frontier is already saturated. I'm currently distributing our goods to the central counties, and I estimate that by the end of the year, there will be a shortage. I brought all the profits from the past three months, a total of 1,000 gold. Half of it is your share of the profits, and the other half is intended for purchasing more stone mill flour machines."
No wonder Alex so polite this time; he wanted to buy a stone mill flour machine.
Victor waved his hand, "I'm not short of 500 gold right now. Let's continue investing together. At our previous price, a stone mill flour machine costs 80 gold. You can pick it up directly from the Machine Factory. Consider this 1,000 gold as a deposit. Take the 20 machines that have already been produced. I will produce 30 more for you, for a total of 4,000 gold. You can settle the payment by the end of next year. What do you think?"
Alex immediately gave a thumbs up. "You're the best, Victor. That's settled then. By the way, I also brought all 50 sets of Iron Knights Armor this year, as well as 200 warhorses. I won't go into detail about the Iron Knights Armor, but these 200 warhorses are no ordinary warhorses. Let me have someone bring one over to show you."
After saying this, Alex beckoned a guard to fetch a warhorse.
"Our Iron Birch Family has been developing the Northlands for 200 years. Our understanding of the Barbarians and the Northlands Wasteland is unmatched by ordinary nobles, and even the Silver Maple Family cannot compare to us."
"Our family's warhorses are a combination of the Northlands Wind Howler Horse and other breeds. They may not be as robust or hardy as the common Wind Howler Horse. However, our warhorses are generally strong, with a shoulder height of over 1.6 meters. They are very fast and, when paired with our Iron Knights, are invincible. Our farm can only produce about 3,000 horses a year. I can give you 200, all of which were specially approved by my father."
Alex was enthusiastically describing the unique warhorses of Iron Birch Territory to Victor, making Victor very excited. Just then, Alex's guard led over a white warhorse. Victor took a closer look and saw that it was indeed very tall, at least 1.7 meters at the shoulder, and very handsome.
There was a person riding on the horse. He looked to be a little over 1.7 meters tall and very thin. He was wearing black leather armor and a helmet with an iron face. He looked a bit out of place with the tall and handsome white horse.
However, the more Victor looked at this person, the more inexplicably familiar he felt. Until the horse approached, Victor noticed the pale golden hair peeking out from the gap in the helmet. He was startled and immediately spurred his horse forward.
Seeing this, Alex watched Victor's actions with a sly smile. When Victor's guards were wondering why the Viscount had suddenly ridden away and wanted to follow, Alex stopped them, saying, "Don't go up yet, watch the show first."
When Victor rode up to the white horse, he pulled on the reins. Grape reluctantly stopped and bared his teeth at the white horse.
Victor carefully examined the knight on the white horse, then suddenly exerted his strength and jumped off the Grape, landing directly on the white horse's back.
The white horse was startled and immediately reared up on its front legs, trying to shake Victor off. The rider on its back was also caught off guard by the white horse's sudden jump and almost fell backward because he couldn't hold onto the reins.
Just then, Victor put one arm around him, pulled the reins tight with the other, and clamped his legs around the horse's body, firmly fixing himself to its back. Perhaps sensing that Victor was not someone to be trifled with, the white horse slowly relaxed and stood quietly in place, no longer moving.
Victor put his arm around the knight and said, "Long time no see!"
"How did you find me?" A familiar voice came from under the helmet.
"Your hair betrays you; I'll never forget your beautiful long hair," Victor said with a smile.
Actually, what he was thinking was, "Your pectoral muscles are too exaggerated, they're making your leather armor bulge out." Victor had seen Veronica's figure back in Iron Birch Territory. Back then, when Veronica wore her hunting outfit, she had to wear a smock on her upper body, and she was so slim where she should be, and bulging where she should be.
"Welcome to the Two Rivers Territory, Veronica."