75 They want war? We’ll give them war

Today, the town hall is even busier than yesterday. This is because today is the day that the envoy of Dumont Dukedom will arrive.

Blanc doesn't expect his negotiation with this envoy to go well so he is currently preparing himself both physically and mentally.

If this envoy oversteps his boundaries, Blanc will not hesitate to put him in his place.

For this, he prepared some necessary arrangements such as soldiers stationed right outside the meeting room and he hid his sword somewhere inside the room.

He wasn't nervous though. Even if their military is currently in a growing state, the numbers and the quality of his soldiers are at least enough to put on some kind of resistance against those who underestimate them.

After a few more minutes, all of his preparations are complete to deal with this envoy.

Just like yesterday, he sat on his chair inside the meeting room while waiting for the Dumont Dukedom's envoy.

A few hours passed, and Blanc was getting annoyed because the envoy should have arrived around an hour ago.

He was sure that this envoy was delaying his arrival on purpose.

"Acting all high and mighty, are we? That's good…Just keep treating us as lowlives. I'll show you who's the real lowlife…"

Blanc muttered to himself in annoyance.

Finally, a few more minutes later, the door of the meeting room opened. 

A middle-aged man with long black hair entered the room. He had hard-angled eyebrows and a goatee.

His facial features were somewhat average and he had an annoying arrogant look on his face which seemed to mysteriously attract people to punch him right in the nose.

Fortunately, Blanc had excellent self-control so he managed to hold himself back from punching the annoying middle-aged man's face.

A few moments later, Blanc's and the middle-aged man's eyes met.

"So you're the boss here?"

The middle-aged man said to Blanc in a condescending tone.

"Hello Sir Envoy, I am the Mayor of this town, my name is Blanc Rougenfort."

"Bah! Who asked for your name? I don't care who you are. Just know that you are very lucky that your backwater town has managed to get the attention of my honorable Duke Dumont."

Blanc knitted his brows upon hearing the rude remarks of the envoy.

"Yeah right, attracting the attention of your greedy duke is lucky?" 

Blanc inwardly thought.

"Sir Envoy, I still do not know your name. Can you tell me your name first so I can address you properly?"

Blanc replied to the envoy.

"Hmmph! I don't give my name to every Tom, Dick, or Harry. Duke Dumont has tasked me to make rounds inside your village so I don't have time to talk to you right now. We'll talk after I accomplish my task."

The envoy rudely left the meeting room without even hearing Blanc's reply.

Blanc gnashed his teeth in anger and smashed his hands on the table to release his pent-up anger. 

Then, before leaving the room to accompany the envoy, he took a deep breath first to ensure that his decisions would not be clouded by rage.

After taking a few deep breaths, Blanc also left the room and followed the envoy.

The envoy first headed towards the residential area and checked the living conditions of the town's ordinary citizens.

After a few rounds around the residential area, although the envoy didn't show it in his face, he was inwardly shocked.

The living conditions of the citizens here could be described as luxury when compared to their dukedom's citizens.

Even the ordinary people were eating meat and they had small Eternal Ice freezers inside their homes.

The envoy wanted to confiscate every Eternal Ice freezer inside the homes of the citizens right then and there but even he knew that he couldn't stoop that low.

He should at least demand it from the mayor and let him confiscate the items for him.

The envoy suddenly became enthusiastic about checking everything inside the village as if all of it were his duke's possessions.

Fortunately, Blanc already made preparations. He ordered the chiefs of every profession to hide the important stuff.

For example, Doran hid all of the mithril weapons and they started crafting regular Iron and weapons so as to not attract the attention of the greedy envoy.

Similar arrangements happened in the different associations and departments of the town.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to hide everything from the envoy.

After a few hours, the envoy "ordered" Blanc to go back to the meeting room to talk.

Although Blanc was incredibly pissed off, he didn't let it show on his face and he just followed the envoy to the meeting room.

At the meeting room.

"Hey you, I am impressed that someone of your caliber managed to create a flourishing town such as this one. I can say that the Duke will be happy to take you under his wing."

"You should feel honored that the Dumont Dukedom is willing to take your small town under its wing."

"As for our demands in exchange for our protection, we won't demand too much out of your backwater town"

"Just give us all the Eternal Ice freezers that we saw inside the ordinary citizen's homes. It is too wasteful to let such lowlives have luxury products."

"In addition to this, as long as you give us seventy percent of your harvests every year, then we will not make it difficult for you."

"Lastly, we want fifty percent of the Resonance Chamber of Commerce's annual income"

"As long as you can satisfy these conditions, then the Dumont Dukedom is willing to protect your little town."

Blanc stopped listening after the first demand. This guy's demands were too outrageous and it seems that it isn't possible to even start a negotiation with this envoy.

"Are you done? There's no way our town can accommodate your outrageous demands. Get the hell out of my town, you're just wasting my time."

"What…did you say to me?... You? A mere frog in the bottom of the well believes that you have the right to talk back to me?!"

The envoy couldn't believe that this little town mayor had the audacity to talk back to him. In his opinion, Blanc should know his place and accommodate all of his demands.

"The audacity! Men! Apprehend this lowlife! Take him back to the Dukedom and let the duke personally teach him a lesson about life."

The middle-aged envoy almost spat out blood in anger as he ordered his men to apprehend Blanc.

However, how could these low-quality soldiers from the Dumont Dukedom even pose any threat to Blanc?

He didn't even need to retrieve the sword that he hid inside the meeting room. Blanc just directly beat the shit out of the envoy's escorts.

The envoy couldn't believe what happened and he fell down on his butt while panicking.

"Y-You dare hurt me?! Do you know who I am?!"

*SLAP*

"Ahh that felt good. This guy's face is so suitable for slapping that I almost slapped him multiple times during his rounds around the town."

Blanc thought to himself. He has been craving to give this guy a solid slap since earlier and he was finally able to slap him.

He then narrowed his eyes and said " Do you think I care about who you are? You've been disrespecting me, my town, and my subjects since earlier."

"Clearly, you only want to loot our town. Get the fuck out of my face before I actually lose control of myself."

"Y-Y-You lowli–"

*SLAP* *SLAP* *SLAP*

"Uughhhh..."

Blanc didn't even let him finish his sentence as he slapped the envoy multiple times until his bloody teeth flew in every direction.

"H-Ho wo–"

*SLAP* *SLAP* *SLAP*

"Just shut the fuck up. I can't understand what you're saying nor do I give a shit about it."

After losing interest in slapping the guy's disfigured face, he dragged the envoy back to his caravan.

"Sir Envoy! You! What have you do–"

*SLAP* *SLAP* *SLAP*

"Shut up, I'm extremely annoyed right now. If you don't want your face to end up like this stupid bastard here, then just shut up and drive home."

"Also, take all your shit with you."

Blanc said as he threw the unconscious bodies of the envoy's escorts at the back of the envoy's horse cart.

The driver of the cart was so scared that he immediately drove the horse cart away from Resonance Town.

In front of the town gates, Blanc and Alenna were staring at the fading silhouette of the Dumont Dukedom's horse cart.

Alenna looked at Blanc's annoyed facial expression and she couldn't help but ask.

"M-Mayor, was it fine to leave things like that?"

"Hmmph! That guy had no intention of negotiating from the start. He was only here to demand outrageous requests."

"If they want war, then we'll give them war. After seeing that stupid envoy, I doubt that there's someone capable in the Dumont Dukedom."

"Let these stupid idiots invade, we'll teach them a lesson."