Historically, Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone, who likewise completed explorations of Central Africa, received only £15,000 and £23,000 in funding for their respective teams.
Henry Morton Stanley's additional reward was merely a job with an annual salary of £1,000. By comparison, the two million Florins Franz offered amounted to £200,000. That was already an exceedingly generous figure.
Celestina was truly startled. She now understood why so many people were utterly devoted to Franz, and why so many wished to serve him.
Celestina was no frog at the bottom of a well who had seen nothing of the world. After all, she had once been the daughter of one of Galicia's most influential families, and later had seen much of the world in Paris.
Yet spending £100,000 in the blink of an eye was still a shocking display—especially when those so-called contracts were very likely nothing but forged scraps of waste paper.
As a professional intelligence agent, Celestina was certain that more than one of those so-called contracts was fake. In fact, perhaps most of them had been forged.
Franz could not possibly have been unaware of this. He merely wished to spend a fortune to buy the bones of a horse.
However, the price Franz offered had clearly not yet met Heinrich von Schneider's expectations. The latter gathered up the contracts one by one.
"Your Majesty, you are being far too stingy."
The moment those words left his mouth, Celestina pulled out her hair ribbon. If Franz gave so much as a nod, she would immediately strangle this greedy, insolent wretch before her.
Franz waved a hand. He was not that stingy.
"It's not a small sum."
"Farewell!"
"As you please."
Before long, attendants and guards escorted Heinrich von Schneider out.
Celestina looked as though she wanted to speak