Chapter 426 King of Angels: Ouroboros
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Backlund, Sivellaus Street.
Rafter bowed slightly and greeted, "Blessed of God!"
Hobert asked, "Are you ready to leave?"
"I am ready." Rafter picked up two small leather suitcases.
Hobert nodded: "Where are you planning to go?"
"I plan to go to the Rorsted Archipelago first." Rafter said, "Although it is a colony of Loen, the local official Beyonders should not have the energy to capture a 'fugitive' like me."
Dealing with pirates alone is enough to keep them busy, unless the royal family clearly knows Rafter's location. Otherwise, with the cover of the 'Crystal Mask of Order,' they won't know where Rafter has gone.
Rafter continued: "I plan to advance to 'Baron of Corruption' there, and then develop in the Southern Continent."
Hobert nodded slightly: "If you encounter any difficulties there, you can write to me."
After all, he had been used as cannon fodder several times, and it was not easy for Rafter to survive until now. As long as the request wasn't excessive, Hobert would help him.
Perhaps in the future, there will be opportunities to use such an 'ace cannon fodder'.
Using "travel" to take Rafter through a transfer, they arrived in the suburbs of Balam.
Then Hobert returned to his territory and, at nine o'clock, received Dean, the captain of the "Nohar," in the main hall of the lord's mansion.
After a brief exchange of greetings, Hobert asked, "I heard from Corwin that you want to buy two shops in Jeffrey Town?"
Dean clutched his hat and said, "Yes, my honorable lord. I would actually prefer to invest in the construction projects of Jeffrey Town, but my savings are only enough to invest in shops."
Hobert smiled and said, "I can guide you to a way to make a fortune. For a period of time, building materials sold to Jeffrey Territory will be tax-free!"
Dean's eyes lit up immediately. For a captain, the fees paid for a cargo ship to dock at a port are only a small part of the expenses. Paying taxes to the port is a huge cost.
As long as a transaction occurs in the port, taxes must be paid. Although the tax rates for different goods are different, generally speaking, goods shipped from Granada Port and traded in Feynapotter Port, the sum of the taxes from the two ports will double the value of most goods.
If the target port exempts a certain type of commodity from tax, it means that the port lacks such goods. As long as they are transported, they can be sold out, and basically one-quarter to one-fifth of the cost can be saved.
Hobert added: "You only have a few days. When your ship docks at Feynapotter Port, I will announce this news."
Dean nodded: "That's enough, that's enough!"
Doing this kind of business once can multiply his wealth several times!
Dean bid farewell to Hobert. He had to hurry back to the ship to send a telegram, asking his wife to mortgage the house and the stocks he had previously purchased, borrow some money from relatives, and add the family savings, which would be enough to order two ships of building materials from Granada Port.
Arriving at Jeffrey Town, he paid the management fee for the cargo ship to dock, and met Corwin at the pier.
Corwin instructed: "South Colson is still a bit unstable. Be sure to put the flag on the bow of the ship, and launch flares if you encounter danger."
"Yes, yes, yes." Dean quickly agreed, thanked him, and hurriedly sailed away.
In the lord's mansion, Hobert in the main hall was about to return to his study when Roy brought a list of required building materials.
The project is divided into five stages, with slight differences in the materials required for each stage.
Hobert estimated it and almost showed a surprised expression. The building materials required for the first stage alone amounted to 56,000 gold Lire!
The five stages will cost a total of 270,000 gold Lire. This is just a preliminary estimate, of course, some surplus must be left, and 300,000 gold Lire must be prepared.
Hobert's hands almost trembled: No, I have to find investment. No matter which country it is, this is a lot of money, a sum that a mere baron, a mere evil god, cannot bear!
This is just the cost of construction. The decoration of resort hotels and various entertainment venues is another large sum of money.
It must be decorated decently, otherwise the main consumer group, the nobles, will not be willing to come again after one visit.
Hobert suffered from the loss of never having done business. He originally thought that about 100,000 gold Lire would be enough to complete the construction, but the total cost was several times higher than he had estimated.
If only he hadn't generously rewarded Scholar and Valk so much money!
Roy also reported: "There are two new problems now. The first is that land acquisition is very troublesome, and the second is that the town's renovation project and construction project can start first, but we don't have enough building materials now."
Hobert nodded: "I will find a way, you still mobilize manpower first and do the preliminary preparations."
After Roy left, Hobert paced back and forth with his arms folded. He considered issuing stocks while looking for large investments.
These must be done in Feynapotter City.
As for the problem of insufficient building materials, the just-departed Dean's distant water cannot quench the immediate thirst, so he can only use "Creator Express".
Hobert, who had just made a simple plan, received a package from Bishop Simpson, a letter and a small wooden box.
This time, Hobert was not in the mood to tease the big dog. After having Allen bring raw meat from the kitchen, he quickly opened the letter.
This letter made Hobert feel a little better. The ancient Azure Dragon Beast's seven boxes of materials sold for a total of 16,000 gold Lire.
It was more valuable than Hobert had expected. This money also slightly alleviated Hobert's anxious mood.
After counting the money in the wooden box, Hobert closed the lid of the wooden box: "Eat one bite at a time, do one thing at a time! Don't rush, don't rush."
Just as he finished lunch, Philip presented Hobert with two banknotes, one for 5 gold Lire and one for 1 gold Lire: "Lord, this is the port management fee paid by the 'Nohar'."
After investing so much in the territory, he finally saw some return money.
But… Hobert looked at these 6 gold Lire and thought of the total cost of 300,000 gold Lire, and couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Find a booklet to save these two banknotes, their commemorative value is greater than their actual value."
"Yes."
At a little after two in the afternoon, Hobert, who had been thinking about where to raise money, adjusted his state and prepared to participate in the Tarot Gathering.
…
Forsaken Land of the Gods.
The City of Silver team established a camp in the leeward area. The Chief ordered the team to rest in the camp until the frequency of lightning became stable before exploring the abandoned temple.
In the open-air camp, where flames were burning and someone was always on duty, Derrick leaned against a stone pillar, sleeping to recover his strength.
As if in a dream, he saw the great and mysterious "Fool" sitting on the ancient high-backed chair: "Prepare for the gathering."
Yes, Mr. Fool.
Derrick responded silently, counting his heartbeats.
His eyes never opened, as if everything that had just happened was just part of a dream.
After 1000 heartbeats, Derrick waited a little longer before feeling himself entering the silent and peaceful Giant Temple.
As soon as he opened his eyes, scenes suddenly flashed back in his mind, as if an external force had instantly poured all the lost memories back into his brain.
Those scenes included: the temple of the Fallen Creator, murals detailing the scene of the coming of the apocalypse and the Fallen Creator resisting the six evil gods and protecting the surviving humans; murals of the pilgrim's team; beautiful and dangerous "mushrooms"; Jack, a strangely eerie pale yellow-haired boy of unknown origin.
Such scenes were repeated over and over again, a full five times! But each time there were some differences in the details: the first time, outside the temple of the Fallen Creator, all the animal skin lanterns were extinguished, almost causing a terrible tragedy.
The second time, someone couldn't control himself and almost swallowed the "mushroom".
…
Each time, it ended with the little boy Jack's mutation, or Chief Colin killing the little boy Jack, and began with arriving at that city and starting to build the camp.
We have explored the temple five times, we have been living in this experience, and there is no way to truly end it. The more Derrick understood the sudden increase in his memories, the more terrified he felt, the more his hair stood on end.
"Justice" Audrey, who was sitting on the other side of the bronze long table, originally wanted to greet Mr. "Fool" and everyone with pleasure and ease as usual, but her eyes swept over and immediately noticed that the "Little Sun's" emotions were not right, and immediately asked:
"Mr. Sun, what happened? Is the exploration of the Fallen Creator not going smoothly?"
Derrick grabbed at hope and quickly described the course of events in general, and finally said: "After that little boy mutated, or was cleaned up, we would be in a trance for a while, and when we came back to our senses, we would start building the camp and preparing to start a new exploration, with no previous memories.
"This process has been repeated five times, with only slight differences in the details. If it weren't for Mr. Fool's reminder, I wouldn't even know that I have been living a repeated life during this time."
He naturally thought that the extra memories after coming to the gray fog originated from the Fool's reminder, so he stood up and solemnly saluted "Fool" Klein, who was sitting at the head of the bronze long table.
Klein indicated: I still listened to your description before I understood what happened.
But the divine temperament that should be there still had to be there. He maintained his original posture, nodded slightly, in response.
Hobert sighed inwardly: "It's so fast, Little Sun has reached this point, then it's not far from Klein leaving Backlund. The Backlund smog! Should I participate in this event? Save…"
"Hehe, I think too highly of myself, I'm just a Sequence 5 who is worried about money, what can I stop? It was like this last time, I went to Tingen City with blind confidence, but nothing changed.
"Forget it, let the smog be the smog, I'm not the ruler of the Loen Kingdom, why bother with these trivial matters…"
"But, Old Kohler, whom I have never met, the shrewish widow who lived by washing clothes and supported two daughters, whose names I have forgotten, why do these people linger in my head?"
He remembered a sentence: "People like us are like straw in the field, we will fall when the wind blows, and even without the wind, we may fall by ourselves…"
"Mr. Emperor!" Audrey said: "Mr. Emperor?"
Hobert came back to his senses: "Oh, sorry, I was distracted just now, what do you want from me?"
It turned out that "Little Sun" was asking everyone how to solve this problem. As a result, Audrey and "Magician" Fors had no clue, and "Hanged Man" Alger and "World" did not speak easily. They all turned their attention to "Emperor" Hobert.
As a result, Hobert was distracted just now, so Audrey reminded him.
Hobert adjusted his emotions and asked Derrick: "You just said that there were pilgrimage scenes in the murals you saw, right?"
"Little Sun" quickly replied: "Yes!"
"Mr. Fool, please help him manifest the angel that appeared in that scene."
Klein nodded slightly, and with Derrick's cooperation, manifested a scene from the mural.
After seeing the mural, the other members were attracted by the holy wings of the figure walking at the front of the pilgrimage team.
Hobert nodded pretentiously: "Tall and thin, silver-white hair, beautiful face. Hmm, it fits the description of 'Ouroboros the Tail-Devourer' very well."
Hanged Man: "Tail-Devourer?"
Audrey: "Ouroboros?"
Everyone looked at me, and I looked at you, unfamiliar names and nicknames.
"I must declare." Hobert said: "The knowledge I am going to talk about next also has considerable value, but like last time, in order to help 'Little Sun' out of trouble, let's not talk about the price."
Derrick stood up immediately and bowed slightly: "Thank you, Mr. Emperor."
Hobert waved his hand: "Ouroboros is the 'King of Angels' of the 'Fate' pathway…"
Audrey said excitedly: "This is actually an 'King of Angels'! We know another 'King of Angels'!"
Like Audrey, the other members also recalled Mr. "Door" and the Emperor's explanation of the "King of Angels" at that time.
"No, no, no, Ouroboros is different from the Mr. 'Door' we mentioned before." Hobert quickly explained: "This is the real 'King of Angels', and the reason I called Mr. 'Door' 'King of Angels' before was just to indicate his level."
Everyone looked at each other, not quite understanding the "Emperor's" meaning.
Derrick scratched his head: "Sorry, Mr. Emperor, I don't quite understand what you mean."
The eyes of the other members turned to Hobert: We don't quite understand either.
Hobert smiled: "Okay, let me remind you again, do you remember? I said that the concept of 'King of Angels' seemed to be just a title at first, and later gradually evolved into a level between Sequence 1 and True God.
"My calling Mr. 'Door' 'King of Angels' is to indicate that he has reached this level."
Alger immediately understood: "Then Ouroboros, this 'King of Angels', is the source of this title, or one of the sources!"
Hobert nodded: "That's right."
Klein behind the gray fog: So that is to say, Ouroboros has a great background!
Audrey: There seems to be a lot of fascinating ancient history here, or high-level Beyonder history, but unfortunately Hobert's answer this time is of a "semi-public welfare" nature, and he is unwilling to say more.
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