Chapter 223 (1/2)

Chapter 223 Premeditation

During these days, Theo stayed in an inn of King’s City, anxiously waiting for the reply from Border Town.

A towering inner wall divided King’s City into two separate worlds, and the people would be strictly controlled when entering or leaving. No matter if they were aristocrats or wealthy merchants, everyone could only enter after going through a thorough inspection inside of a small room. Once they had any sign of disease, such as fever, flushes, or dark spots, they were not allowed inside. In case they left the inner city, they would have to return in the evening hours at the latest. Otherwise, when the sun went down, the gates would be closed and they would have to spend the night outside.

But this still couldn’t stop the spread of demonic plague, yesterday he had heard the rumors that there were also nobles living in the inner city who had become infected. In case the Church had not finally released their first batch of Holy Elixir, Theo believed that the nobles would have soon started to evacuate from King’s City.

Six days after sending out the letter, he was finally informed by Margaret’s Chamber of Commerce that news had arrived. He hastily rushed to the agreed location a tailor shop, where on arrival he was led into the basement by the clerk, and there he met the the Chamber of Commerce’s owner who had been waiting for a long time now.

On entering he saw Margaret sitting at a low table, a pot of ice water was placed in front of her, which continuously emitted bursts of cold air. Theo who was sweating from rushing over, sat himself cross-legged on the opposite side, only to suddenly feel a surge of cold breeze on his face, which immediately lifted his spirits.

“His Highness asked me to give you this letter,” with this words Margaret handed him a sheepskin envelope, taking a closer look the envelope’s sealing wax seemed to still be intact.

Theo was impatient to open the message, the letter he had taken out gave him a brief account of the operation plan, the news that the Army had set out, as well as the tasks he himself had to complete. After carefully reading through it again, he put the letter into his pocket, looked towards Margaret and asked, “Was there anything else His Highness requested you to do?”

“No, he just asked me to send a messenger informing you about the letter’s arrival. Of course, since it was an express delivery there are some extra charges, I was free so I already wrote it into the account.”

“Keke, all right.” Theo cleared his throat. “His Royal Highness wants all the refugees to be transported to Border Town in the shortest amount of time, so he wants you to supply a lot of ships for an uninterrupted transportation, not only those two fleets.”

“Even if they are already infected?” Margaret asked with great interest, “I do not think he wanted to turn the whole Western Territory into a death zone, so… has His Highness found a way to cure the demonic plague?”

“He did indeed,” he nodded, “In fact, there were already infected people present on the first transport, at the time we send them out the disease had merely not broken out yet, only when they came close to Border Town, was it discovered. They are already on their way back to King’s City, with all crew members on board, safe and sound.”

“His Royal Highness is indeed an incredible man, even the Church wasn’t able to come up with an antidote so quickly,” Margaret exclaimed, “Then, how many days does he intend to use for the boarding of the refugees? A week?”

Theo stretched out three fingers.

“This… impossible!” For a moment, the business woman was stunned, only to repeatedly shake her head soon after, “Even if half of those people died, there will be still be more than 5,000 people. Being able to transport them within three days means that I will need to prepare nearly a hundred ships. Even if the Chamber of Commerce stops all its other shipping transportation, I would just about to meet this number. However, this way the losses I would suffer will be in the thousands of gold royals or more. And the loss I would make by losing because that is uncountable, even if the steam engine was to become free of charge it still wouldn’t be enough. So… I am afraid I have to refuse. ”

“If all the people were sitting on the deck, rather than lying in beds in the cabins, the number of individuals a ship could carry would be doubled,” Theo insisted, “Furthermore, as long as we don’t pay attention to their comfort, the two masters which are used for the transportation of ore can also be used to move the people. As long as the top of the hatch is opened, one ship can then load about 200 people at the same time. This kind of vessels, your old friend Hogg should have a lot of it, right?”