The capital of the island republic is located at the bottom of a U-shaped bay. The narrow seaway leading there is dotted with many cities of the Seven Hills Empire and the Alemannic Federation, as well as some independent small countries. Ayla's fleet enters
After entering the bay, these cities were immediately alerted.
Fortunately, most of these cities did not have enough troops. Apart from strengthening their defenses, they did not have the guts to interfere with the fleet's progress.
Originally, if 10,000 people arrived as planned, Ella was prepared to forcibly threaten the Island Republic to give them money, but now that there were only 2,000 people left, they had to worry about being surrounded by the Island Republic. So when they were approaching the Island Republic
, Amy suggested that Ella send a team to explore the situation in the island republic first.
This small team soon brought back news: the island republic's army was on the front line, the capital had only a few garrison troops, and a medium-sized naval fleet protected the island where the capital was located.
In this way, they sailed towards the Island Republic with confidence. Her fleet sailed through this strait safely, and was only intercepted by the fleet in the report when it finally approached the capital of the Island Republic. After Ella pointed out her identity and
After hearing the news, the fleet sent several people to ask the governor for his opinion, and finally brought back a positive answer.
In this way, Aila successfully arrived at the island republic with a force of two thousand people.
The envoy named Giovanni had been waiting for Ella at the port early. He was obviously very surprised by Ella's arrival. But he quickly wiped the surprised expression from his face, with a hint of sarcasm.
He said to Ella: "King of Sweden, it seems that the people you have brought are not as many as ten thousand."
Ella looked a little embarrassed. Amy, who was following Ella, glared at Giovanni so hard that Giovanni hurriedly avoided looking.
"The Governor just said that he can increase the agreed fee to 100%."
Giovanni said while avoiding Amy's eyes. Ella was about to meet with their governor, and he had to find a way to hide the fact that he was taking kickbacks.
"Ten percent is the price of an ordinary soldier! I won't accept it!"
So Giovanni turned around and made a "please" gesture: "In that case, then come with me. The Governor is waiting for you in his mansion."
"Your Majesty, what kind of person is the Governor of the Island Republic?"
On the way, Amy asked Ella curiously.
Ella shook her head: "When my grandfather was in power, each governor of the island republic was appointed by the Seven Hills Empire from the local business aristocrats. But when my father was in power, it was changed to be elected by the island republic itself.
It was born. Although it is a vassal state of the Seven Hills Empire, I have never seen the governor of the island republic."
"Have you never seen a governor? These republics should start new elections every four or five years, right?"
"The Governor of the Island Republic is lifelong and is actually the same as the king during his term. I have heard that many business nobles in the Island Republic want to weaken the power of the Governor, but I have not inquired carefully. Amy, you know
,I used to not care much about the political situation in other countries..."
While they were talking, they had arrived at the governor's private residence. Ella asked the guards to stay outside the house and only took Amy inside. Giovanni took Ella into the living room and asked her to wait here for a while.
Then he went to inform his governor.
It was a magnificent hall, with all kinds of expensive decorations piled on the walls. On one wall hung the coat of arms of the island republic: a lion with wings and a codex under its feet.
Ella walked around the room and then commented seriously: "Amy, I always thought that the Island Republic was very rich, but looking at this room, it seems to be much worse than my room in the Seven Hills Empire..."
"Your Majesty lives in a palace, and this is the governor's private residence. There must be a difference. I can't tell. Anyway, these things must be very expensive..."
"Amy, you are a member of the royal family now, so you should learn to distinguish the level of luxury goods. No, if nothing else, the stone used for this wall alone is not on the same level as the Kingdom of the Seven Hills Empire."
Ella knocked on the stone wall of the living room indicatively. It was okay if she didn't knock. After knocking, she suddenly discovered something new and put her ear to the wall: "Amy, come here and listen.
The wall seems to be hollow..."
There was a cough outside the door. A woman's voice rang out: "Is it the King of Sweden? Our governor has arrived."
Ella hurriedly moved her ears away from the wall. Two people appeared at the door. One of them was a fat and oily man, who must be the governor of the island republic. Standing next to him was a maid-like person with a long hair.
He has rare silver hair and a rope strap tied around his thigh, with several knives stuck on it.
With the support of the maid, the chubby governor walked to a chair as big as a bed on the east side of the room and sat down. Before he could say anything, the maid came again for Ella and Amy.
Got two chairs.
As soon as Ella and Amy sat down, the governor asked: "I heard from Giovanni, King of Sweden, are you dissatisfied with the agreement we reached before?"
Ella cleared her throat: "Governor, I just learned that before your merchant ship was robbed, the island republic had already gone to war with the Republic of Liguria. Why did you hide this fact from me?"
"King of Sweden, you didn't ask, how could we hide it?" said the silver-haired maid, "The agreement you signed with us didn't mention anything related to the war at all. We can't possibly tell everything that happened.
I’ll tell you everything.”
Ella slapped the armrest of the chair hard: "We signed a protection trade agreement in peacetime, right? If wartime is included, then the fee you paid is simply unreasonable!
"
The maid still said with a cold face: "The King of Sweden, at that time..."
"Ippolita, I haven't let you speak yet."
The governor waved his hand to signal the maid to shut up. Then, he said to Ella with a smile: "King of Sweden, although it is not written in the agreement, I understand your actual situation and have promised to pay you in full for the cost of this operation.
That’s it. If you add in the spoils from your capture of Azov City, you should still be able to earn something, right?”
"Where's the profit! You are completely treating me as a mercenary! Why do I have to pay the price of a mercenary?"
"If you must regard yourselves as mercenaries, then the city of Azov should belong to us." The governor said slowly, "After all, you have never seen a city captured and taken as your own, and the employer has to spend money to buy it.
Mercenaries, right?”
"Gu?" Amy looked at Amy dazedly, "Okay, that seems to be right?"
"Is something wrong?" Amy frowned and said, "We are not mercenaries, so the deal we proposed after capturing Azov City was a smooth process. But we are not allies either? You are asking our country to send troops to fight against another country, you must
Do you want to provide corresponding benefits? But the 'benefits' you provided are just to reimburse us for the cost of sending troops. We have no enmity with the Republic of Liguria, but just because you reimbursed us for the cost of sending troops, we went to war with them.
?We won this time, so we made money, but what if we failed this time? We should bear such a huge risk just because you reimbursed us for sending troops? No matter how much you think about it, it’s not enough, right?"
"How can you say that? I gave you an opportunity to plunder the Republic of Liguria without spending any military expenses. Isn't this the biggest benefit? Did you agree to send troops at that time because of the constraints of the agreement? Aren't you also fancying it?
Did you get this benefit?"
"Your Majesty thought that your merchant ship was hijacked during peacetime, so you agreed to send troops! If she knew that you were at war, there would be no way you would attack the Republic of Liguria with such fanfare! You used almost deceitful tactics to attack the Republic of Liguria.
The tactics made His Majesty stand on your side and destroyed the relationship between the Pirate Kingdom and the Republic of Liguria, so you can only reimburse the military expenses?"
"Yes, yes!" Ella reacted and slapped the chair again, "The Republic of Liguria is our beloved relatives and friends, brothers and sisters! We need to pay more!"
