Count Reinhardt faxed Count Thompson, hoping that Count Thompson could help him think of a solution.
Pirates had attacked the Kingdom of Arthur. Once it happened the first time, there would be a second and a third time.
Moreover, the mysterious pirate crew that had attacked the Kingdom of Arthur had not been captured, which would encourage even more pirates to take action.
Therefore, Count Reinhardt urgently needed the Navy.
Count Thompson quickly sent a reply.
After reading Count Thompson's reply, Count Reinhardt suddenly understood.
"So he wants money!"
Count Reinhardt had never imagined that the Navy would extort money.
In the past, Colonel Malone of Branch 189 had never demanded money.
However, Oren was clearly different from Malone.
At that moment, the butler reminded him, "My lord, a few days ago, Colonel Oren invited you to William Port. You were unavailable at the time, so you sent someone else in your place."
"What do you mean?" Count Reinhardt was stunned.
The butler lowered his voice and said, "My lord, is it possible that the invitation to the banquet was actually connected to the attack on Fast Port?"
Count Reinhardt held his breath and paced back and forth.
The butler's words had jolted him awake.
Perhaps there really was a connection.
"If they really are connected, then the purpose must have been to get money."
Reinhardt could not help frowning. As a noble, he had met all kinds of people.
He simply had never encountered a naval officer who would extort money.
But now, he had.
Count Reinhardt said, "Prepare the carriage. I'm returning to the royal capital."
Count Reinhardt's older brother was Duke Richard.
Duke Richard was the heir to the Kingdom of Arthur and wielded considerable influence within the kingdom.
That very night, Count Reinhardt returned to the royal capital and met Duke Richard.
"Has the matter at Fast Port been resolved?" Duke Richard asked.
Fast Port was Count Reinhardt's fief.
Therefore, when pirates attacked Fast Port, Count Reinhardt had considered fighting back instead of thinking only of fleeing like the other nobles and wealthy merchants.
Count Reinhardt replied, "This attack may not have been carried out by pirates."
"Not pirates? Then who was it?" Duke Richard asked curiously.
Count Reinhardt said, "I suspect it was the Navy in disguise."
"What did you say?" Duke Richard was shocked when he heard this. He hurriedly shook his head. "Don't make reckless claims. We are an affiliated nation of the World Government. How could the Navy possibly attack us?"
Count Reinhardt said, "I don't have any evidence yet, but the circumstances are too coincidental."
"What coincidence?" Duke Richard asked.
"It was like this." Count Reinhardt told Duke Richard about Oren's invitation.
After hearing this, Duke Richard replied, "Indeed, Colonel Oren invited me as well, but I didn't go either."
Count Reinhardt said, "I heard that aside from some merchants, basically none of the nobles and officials of the Kingdom of Arthur attended."
"So because we didn't go, Oren couldn't collect any money, and he sent people to attack Fast Port?"
Duke Richard understood Count Reinhardt's train of thought.
Count Reinhardt said, "Yes. So at present, we can either report the situation to the World Government or invite Colonel Oren to attend a banquet in the name of the Kingdom of Arthur."
The implication was clear: they could either fight back or submit.
"Just a branch colonel."
Duke Richard snorted coldly before saying to Count Reinhardt, "We'll go see the king and tell him about this."
As the duke of an affiliated nation of the World Government, how could Duke Richard allow a branch colonel to extort money from him?
If word of this got out, the Kingdom of Arthur would become the laughingstock of the world!
Duke Richard and Count Reinhardt entered the palace.
The current king, Brown II, was Duke Richard's own elder brother.
However, Brown II was in poor health and had no children.
Therefore, after Brown II died, Duke Richard would inherit the throne.
Precisely because he was to inherit the throne, Duke Richard needed to adopt a "strong" attitude.
Otherwise, if the people learned that the entire kingdom had been extorted, how could he rule the country in the future?
"Cough, cough, cough." Brown II lay ill in bed, his health worsening by the day.
"Your Majesty." Duke Richard had just begun to speak.
At that moment, the queen shook her head at Duke Richard. "He can't speak with you right now."
"All right." After hearing this, Duke Richard told the queen about Fast Port and the Navy.
After hearing him out, the queen said, "The Kingdom of Arthur is an affiliated nation of the World Government. We certainly cannot allow ourselves to be treated like William Port."
Duke Richard said, "I intend to send a fax to the World Government to express our protest."
"Mm." The queen nodded. "Although there is no evidence, we can still warn those naval officers."
A mere branch of the Navy in the South Blue dared to extort money from them?
How utterly presumptuous!
After receiving the queen's approval, Duke Richard sent a fax to the World Government.
Of course, Duke Richard did not explicitly say that Branch 189 had demanded money.
He mentioned the matter at William Port.
This meant that Branch 189 had a prior offense at William Port.
He also listed all the coincidences.
As long as the World Government was not blind, it would certainly understand.
The Holy Land, Mary Geoise.
Pangaea Castle, the Chamber of Power.
Duke Richard's fax eventually reached the Gorosei.
In fact, affiliated nations of the World Government often voiced some "dissatisfaction."
The Gorosei knew about all of it.
Dealing with the affairs of affiliated nations was also part of their daily work.
"Branch 189? Colonel Oren."
After the bespectacled elder read the contents of the fax, he lost interest.
In his eyes, these were all trivial matters.
However, a mere branch colonel actually dared to extort money from an affiliated nation of the World Government.
That was somewhat interesting.
At that moment, the white-haired elder said, "We've already investigated. Oren is Victor's subordinate, and it was also Victor who recommended him for the position of colonel of Branch 189."
"Now I remember. Wasn't the matter at William Port something Victor allowed to happen?"
"Should we deal with it?"
"If we actually deal with something like this, the World Government will lose face too."
"But if we ignore it, the affiliated nations will have even more complaints."
"Then make them produce evidence."
"Exactly. With evidence, we can deal with it. Otherwise, there are simply too many matters like this."
The Gorosei all wore smiles.
If Oren had been an ordinary branch colonel, they would have dealt with him casually.
But Oren happened to be Victor's man.
Victor was a naval supernova whom the Gorosei were nurturing as a priority.
Given Victor's character, he would certainly protect Oren.
Therefore, it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble.
"Have CP4 investigate. Tell Ganna not to take the investigation too seriously."
Ganna was the commander of CP4.
They were sending CP4 to silence the affiliated nation and tell it that the World Government had already begun investigating.