Book 6: Chapter 72: Warning from the two empires
Under his lead, Xu Yi and Eitro came to the reception center in the center of the main base.
When they came in, Xu Yi could feel the stiffness in the air. There was a silence that was hard to believe in the large reception hall and even the soft sounds of the two girls serving the guests could be clearly heard.
Other than the two who were serving them, there wasn’t any other large movement in the hall. They were all careful no matter what they did, as if they were afraid of breaking the silent atmosphere.
Everyone’s eyes were staring at the people on the other side of them and the eyes of these two rows were staring right at the other side. Without needing to do a thing, one could easily smell the scent of gunpowder in the air.
Eitro looked at the two groups before looking at the delegation from the Marlow Empire’s army that he was leading on the left. He walked over and asked a few things in a low voice before turning to the other group with a strange expression.
The group on the right side watched Eitro’s movements before noticing Xu Yi appearing and one of them raised their hand to greet Xu Yi.
“Chairman Xu, you’re back.”
Xu Yi nodded at him with a smile, “Sir Russell, didn’t you say that you would arrive the day after tomorrow? Why are you here today?”
The Candra Empire’s navy’s deputy chief of staff looked over the group from the Marlow Empire in front of him and gave a cold snort, “If I didn’t come two days ahead of schedule, how could I have found these surprising guests?”
His tone was filled with taunting and based on his expression, one could tell that there was a certain amount of dissatisfaction and even anger in his heart.
However, Xu Yi acted like he couldn’t hear the meaning in his words at all as he continued smiling. He took two steps forward and came in between them before raising his left hand to gesture at the group from the Marlow Empire, “Come, let me introduce you. These are the guests from the Marlow Empire.”
Russell gave another soft snort, “Chairman Xu, there’s no need for introductions. They are from the Marlow Empire’s army, how could I not know them?”
“Oh?” Xu Yi turned to Eitro, “Then do you all recognize these guests?”
Eitro knitted his brows and looked at Xu Yi with a confused look, but he still said with a nod, “Of course, they haven’t hidden their identities and if we don’t recognize them, that would be a bit too much. Don’t you think so, dear Fox of the Jungle sir Russell from the Candra Empire?”
“Fox of the Jungle?” Xu Yi looked at Russell with a surprised look, “Sir Russell, I never thought that you would have this nickname.”
Russell waved his hand, “That is a nickname that others gave me, it isn’t anything.”
“Sir Russell, it’s not right to be this modest.” Eitro raised his voice to say, “When you were still in the Candra Empire’s army, our Marlow Empire has suffered at the hands of your subordinates many times. Giving you a nickname is respecting you. If you don’t think it’s anything, isn’t it too embarrassing for our Marlow Empire?”
“What does it matter to me what your Marlow Empire things?” Russell said without any expressions, “Not to mention that I’ve already been transferred to the royal fleet. The nickname of Fox of the Jungle doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“That really is a pity.” Eitro shook his head, “The Candra Empire’s army gave up a strong jungle commander like you and move you to the navy, that really is stupid.”
Russell didn’t say a word, not actually refuting this.
Based on his reaction, he agreed with what Eitro was saying, but he couldn’t state that with his status.
“Alright, sir Russell, no matter what you did before, since you are here now, if my guesses are correct, it should be here for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s military magic machines, right?” Eitro asked.
“That isn’t related to you.” Russell casually replied.
“No, of course this is related to me, or rahter to our entire Marlow Empire.” After saying this, Eitro turned to Xu Yi with a trace of doubt in his eyes, “Chairman Xu, sir Russell isn’t willing to speak, then are you willing to tell me?”
Xu Yi gave a shrug, “I’m sorry, protecting the privacy of our customers is something we must do. Without the approval of the customer, I can’t reveal this to other people.”
Eitro gave a nod, “Good, I understand.”
He turned to take a deep look at Russell after saying this before turning to call the Marlow Empire’s group behind him and leaving after bidding farewell to Xu Yi.
After he left, Russell looked at Xu Yi with a questioning gaze and asked in a deep voice, “Chairman Xu, can you tell me just what is going on here?”
Xu Yi replied with a faint smile, “It is as you can see, this is what it is.”
Russell narrowed his eyes and there was a dangerous glow in them, but he didn’t keep asking.
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Two days later, the Marlow Empire’s delegation led by Eitro left the Stantine Duchy and returned to the Marlow Empire.
In his final talk with Xu Yi, he had told Xu Yi that if nothing unexpected happened, the Marlow Empire’s army would be ordering a large number of military magic machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. He also wanted to establish a long term working relationship to maintain their military magic machine supplies.
At the same time, he was also a bit dissatisfied with Xu Yi. It was because while the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was working with the Marlow Empire, they were also working with the Candra Empire.
He warned Xu Yi that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce doing this would create distrust in the Marlow Empire towards the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, which would affect their long term cooperation.
Four days after the Marlow Empire delegation left, Xu Yi sent off the Candra Empire navy’s delegation led by Russell.
Russell’s goal this time was very simple, he wanted to order ten guard ships along with the various military magic machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
At the same time, the Candra Empire navy hoped that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would give them more technological material on the guard ships, making it easier for them to maintain them in the future, as well as launching more training programs.
But after seeing the people from the Marlow Empire, Russell found Xu Yi in secret to have a talk with him.
In this talk, Russell seriously told Xu Yi that because of the hostility between the Marlow Empire and the Candra Empire, he and the Candra Empire’s army didn’t want the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to cooperate with the Marlow Empire.
If the Frestech Chamber of Commerce insisted on doing this, it would cause the Candra Empire’s army to lose faith in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce which would affect their cooperation.
In short, Russell had said the same thing as Eitro. He hoped that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t have a foot in both ships, working with both empires.
But Russell’s warning was more direct. He stated that if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce continued working with the Marlow Empire, it wouldn’t just affect their cooperation in terms of military magic machines, it would also affect their cooperation in terms of household magic machines.
To be specific, the Candra Empire would deem the Frestech Chamber of Commerce as hostile and would stop the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s products from entering the Candra Empire.
“I believe that chairman Xu is very clear that if you lose a large market like our Candra Empire, this would be a very serious loss for your Frestech Chamber of Commerce. So…..I ask chairman Xu to seriously consider this and not make a mistake.”
Russell’s warning could even be considered a threat to Xu Yi, but when it fell onto Xu Yi’s ears……
“These fellows, why do they like wasting words so much?”
Xu Yi dug in his ears and didn’t look like he cared about them at all.
Although the two empires had quick responses, knowing the importance of the military magic machines, they were trying to make themselves seem aloof without knowing the situation. They acted like they were giving the Frestech Chamber of Commerce a chance to cooperate with them.
But in reality?
“What does the old proverb say? The wheels of history are already turning and anyone who tries to stop them will be flattened.”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile. He threw Eitro and Russell’s warnings and threats to the back of his mind.
The current situation was the two empires looking to cooperate with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it wasn’t the Frestech Chamber of Commerce begging to cooperate with them. It had no meaning if they still had this high attitude.
Even if the armies of the two empires were vigilant and dissatisfied with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, was this something that could be stopped just because they were unwilling?
Especially the Candra Empire who had lost twice to the Rudson Kingdom, they felt the threat that the military magic machines posed to them.
If they didn’t care about face, they would have directly asked to buy military magic machines like the Marlow Empire and wouldn’t need to beat around the bush like they were doing.
There was even less to worry about when it came to the Marlow Empire. Although they didn’t have a deep grudge like the Candra Empire, since the Candra Empire was interested in the military magic machines the Frestech Chamber of Commerce produced, the Marlow Empire would follow along. They wouldn’t let themselves fall behind the Candra Empire.
To put it simply, Xu Yi was treating the two empires like chess pieces and using their hostile relationship to increase his own price.
This was what Arch Magus Camilla and Xu Yi both recognized as playing with fire, which was very dangerous.
But Xu Yi was confident in the results because with the current situation, the two empires couldn’t pose any threats to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
But putting aside the military magic machines, what Xu Yi cared about the most was the household magic machines that Russell had mentioned, which was something he needed to worry about even less.
If it was said that military magic machines was something where problems could occur because of the scruples of armies of the two empires, the household magic machines were already a billowing wave that no one was willing or even able to stop.
Xu Yi took last month’s financial statement in his hand and seeing the rows of data on it, he narrowed his eyes and revealed a smile like a fox who was plotting something.