“Yes, white liquor! Compared with this ale and wine are absolutely bland and tasteless,“ and with a grin, Hogg tossed the cup of liquor down. “Your Highness, this stuff, you must sell me a few boxes of it.”
“I think its flavor is too hot, or with to say it differently, the fruit wine is more suitable for me,” the businesswoman smiled and shook her head.
Roland smiled, “That has to do with personal preferences, the high concentration of distilled liquor isn’t with everyone taste. I also don’t plan to spread it out, but since I happened to have made some, I thought I could let everyone have a taste.”
In this era brewing and drinking wine was still the mainstream, but distilling alcohol clearly offered a great potential to open up a new market. Like the White Liquor, Rum, Whiskey, and Vodka were all distilled spirits with higher alcohol content. And together with these distilled spirits, they also came the corresponding string attached to the bartending culture. However, for the present, it was still too early to open up this industry in Border Town.
“Your Highness, I have brought some news with me according the matter you mentioned in your previous letter,” Margaret began, “Now, after the Church has taken over the Kingdom of Endless Winter, they haven’t brought up many changes. Currently they are facing a very strong resistance of the Wolfsheart Kingdom. Because of this they have gathered all their troops at the Broken Tooth Castle, but even with them they have not been able to take a step forward during the last two months. In addition, the Kingdom of Dawn has sent a message to Graycastle, that the Church goal should be to eliminate the witches, instead they want to take over the Four Kingdoms. They suggested that the two countries should establish an alliance, expelling the forces of Church out of the kingdom, and jointly fighting against the Holy City of Hermes.”
“How did the King’s City respond?” Roland asked
“The Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Marquis Wyke, has immediately refused this proposal, and even denounced the other side for speaking nonsense.” Margaret shrugged her shoulders, “This matter has caused a large commotion in King’s City; even the nobility is unable to reach a consistent view. As far as I know, many people are in support of the idea of an alliance. After all, at present, the Church hasn’t shown a sign that they will return the sovereignty to the successor to the Kingdom of Eternal Winter.
“Did Timothy not step forward?”
“The answer was certainly to incite Timothy, at the moment he himself is rushing with his army to the East,” Margaret showed a somewhat dignified expression.
“I heard that there was a massive fleet east of the Seawind Region, which attacked and looted the eastern coast. They stopped at nothing, even the churches hadn’t been spared and there were also many merchants of the Fjords who met with disaster.”
“Many people have now become fugitives in the Eastern Region, Hogg and I have already given shelter to many of them.”
Margaret then added, “They said that the looters were no longer only snatching just money. Nowadays they are even taking people with them, and after everything that could be moved was taken, they would burn everything that was left down. It seems that they want to turn the whole eastern territory into a white land. This is absolutely a severe blow to the eastern aristocracy who had recently been subdued by Timothy.”
Normally, hearing that Timothy was suffering under massive attack should be a joyous message, but when he heard that the other side even captured the population, Roland’s heart was hit by waves of pain, “Those who were able to escape…”
“Are you interested in them?” Margaret lightly smiled, “After reading the letter, I already guessed that you might want to buy a large number of slaves to enrich the workforce in your territory. However, compared with the foreign refugees from the Kingdom of Endless Winter and the Wolfsheart Kingdom, the refugees of Graycastle may not be willing to sell themselves into slavery.
“I do not need them as slaves. As long as these people are willing to come to Border Town and settle down, there will be food and housing for them, and they will also be paid for their labour.” Roland corrected, he also realized that this was a good opportunity to expand his number of people, even though the news arrived slightly late. “How many people are there?”
“Most of the robust and powerful refugees have already been taken in by the nobility and caravans, but there should still be nearly ten thousand people gathered outside of King’s City, however, most of them are younglings or women.”
“Well, I’ll still send someone on the way to screen them,” the Prince said. “In case I want to take them, do I need to deal with the officials of King’s City?”
