328. Mercenary Leader

On the afternoon of the 32nd, Landen received Marquis Fiat's representative—the only member of the Fiat Family currently in Dragon Tooth City—Tony Gallop.

Marquis Fiat had already learned of the Dragon Kingdom's related proposal to the Supreme Council. He knew very well that the fund of several hundred thousand Gold Coins a year, once controlled by his family, would soon have a new master. As the leader of the Gallop Family for decades, and as a Gold Knight, in Fiat's eyes, what Landen was doing was snatching food from the jaws of a Sea Monster—even if that food should have been Landen's to begin with.

"My Lord Viscount, Marquis Fiat has always hoped to support the Gallop Plains. It is only that the two kingdoms of Girislav and the Dragon Kingdom have been secretly making trouble, preventing the family's mages and knights from passing through their portals," Tony explained to Landen. "If you open a portal in the Imperial Capital, or have the two kingdoms lift their bans, the family will naturally be willing to dispatch enough high-rankers."

"Since your family can send out so many high-rankers, why didn't you send them before? Three hundred years and you never had time, but now not only do you have time, you have enough high-rankers too?" Landen questioned. "Those high-rankers of your family all take subsidies from the fund, don't they? Taking the money and doing no work at all?"

"This is a very complicated matter, but I must tell you, aside from the Council being in overall charge of the entire fund, there is also the Secretariat and the Executive Committee beneath it. These two departments are extremely large, and the documents and materials involved are also extremely numerous. These two organizations also cannot leave the Gallop Family in the southeast.