Everyone chatted happily. Dokes and Jack gave Han Shuo a detailed account of Buleiteer City's current situation. Naturally, neither concealed anything from him, telling him even the things that were not publicly known.
Gilberto had probably visited Buleiteer City often over the past three years. He seemed very familiar with the people here, chatting and laughing with Dick and the others at the banquet, an open smile on his face and looking perfectly at ease.
From Dokes and Jack, Han Shuo learned more about the difficulties Buleiteer City faced and understood that beneath its seemingly glorious exterior, crises lurked within the city as well.
The Lancelot Empire was now internally stable. Lawrence wielded supreme authority, and after a purge, no voices of resistance remained in the empire. Thus, the problems it faced were no longer internal, but threats from several neighboring countries.
As the easternmost major city, Buleiteer City faced threats from foreign enemies just as the Lancelot Empire did. As the threat it posed to the Seven Grand Duchies grew, the other five countries, apart from Hailan Tina's and Bert Zili's duchies, had begun making increasingly frequent contact, and the fighting between them had subsided.
Besides the threat from the Seven Grand Duchies, the Bart Trade Alliance, separated from Buleiteer City by the Seven Grand Duchies, also eyed the city hungrily. This was partly because Han Shuo had once killed Selt, the Bart Trade Alliance's Violet Thorn Knights Commander, and partly because Buleiteer City's existence seriously threatened the alliance's interests.
Before Buleiteer City prospered, the Seven Grand Duchies had purchased the vast majority of their supplies from the Bart Trade Alliance, and all their local specialties had flowed into the alliance as well. The enormous profits the Bart Trade Alliance reaped from the Seven Grand Duchies had long made