Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 769: Section 522: The Choice of Man (Part 2)_2

Chapter 769: Section 522: The Choice of Man (Part 2)_2

"I need to have a word with the elders of the town," Sudel said, and Malin also felt he should go see Spare Food No. 2—although he was the second choice, Malin thought that if the pig really had to be slaughtered, its meat would probably be too tough to chew.

Besides, he had promised to feed it some delicious corn. Though it was just a Spirit, he still believed in keeping his word.

So, the trio braved the snowstorm to reach the quarantine area, where Malin sent the two young men to find their elders, and went to see the wild boar nicknamed "His Majesty."

It’s quite amusing when you think about it. Why call him "His Majesty"? Just because he’s a male wild boar? If it were a female, would her name be "Princess"?

From the caretaker, Malin got a look at the animal’s feed—excellent, all corn he had brought over from Farole. The creature probably had never tasted anything like it before, gobbling it down whole. The moment it saw Malin, it stood up as if it wanted to follow him.

Malin could only reassure the big fellow to be patient; he promised to take it out for a run when the time was right, and urged it to just eat and sleep here for now.

Hearing Malin explain this, Spare Food No. 2 returned to its sheltered haystack and flopped down.

Malin gave the caretaker a tip, asking him to take good care of No. 2, and then he returned to the entrance of the quarantine area. He lit up a cigarette for himself and offered one to each of the guards as well.

"Thank you, sir," said the guard with a large head, seemingly overwhelmingly grateful to meet such an approachable Legendary figure.

Ah, that poor big-headed fellow.

...

"What? You’re resigning as the acting town leader?" Rhodes looked at his cousin, feeling there was something off, "Why would you resign? You led everyone to Copenhagen, you’ve helped them. You’d make a fine leader, surely."

"I thought it over on the way here. Malin sir was right. The weapons produced by his workshop in the South far exceed those of the North. You must have felt it when shooting targets; it’s so much simpler, no cumbersome procedures. We just need to pull the bolt to eject the cartridge, and there’s no black powder smoke as with muzzleloaders, allowing us to clearly see the impact of our shots... Rhodes, I want to serve in Malin sir’s army, learn the new tactics of war. Like my father before me, I’ll eventually return to help our military." Sudel looked at Rhodes and asked, "What about you, will you help me?"

"...You must be crazy," sighed Rhodes. "Why would I choose to help a lunatic? I must be crazy myself."

"I knew you’d help me, Rhodes," Sudel said with a happy smile, patting his cousin’s shoulder. "My father also said that even though the food from the South doesn’t agree with his stomach and the wine is too weak, the weather is good. There’s actually a summer in the South. Think about it, have you ever seen a summer?"

"...I actually haven’t."

The two brothers chatted as they made their way to the isolation room where the elders were. After verifying their identities, Sudel began to converse with the elders through a partition. He hadn’t yet explained his wish to resign when he heard Elder Tolman’s words.

"Sudel, we elders have decided to relieve you of your acting town leader duties."

Rhodes was about to say something but was stopped by Sudel, who simply acknowledged, "I see. Then I’ll be leaving first."

With that, he left with his cousin.

"How could they do that!" Once out of the residential area, Rhodes complained about the heartlessness of the elders.

Sudel was nonchalant, "It’s okay, Rhodes. I was going to resign anyway. If I did, it would’ve been as if I was failing the townsfolk and my father’s last wishes. With the elders making this move, it’s actually helping both me and everyone else. Isn’t that good?"

"...Well, I’m still not happy about it," muttered Rhodes as he walked ahead, cursing under his breath.

Sudel frowned, finding himself, as Rhodes said, somewhat perplexed and dissatisfied with the elders’ decision.

But...never mind, since he was going to follow Malin sir anyway. It was better to let the elders take the blame, so he could leave without regrets.

"Let’s go," Sudel told himself, looking over at Malin sir in the distance.

The Goddess of Fate had already made her choice for him, so he bravely faced it.

......

After having a smoke at the door, Malin waited for the cursing Rhodes and the stern-faced Sudel. Guessing what the problem was, Malin didn’t point it out, thinking it was better to give these two young men some time, hoping they could figure it out.

With that in mind, Malin took them back to his mansion—where the two young men could rest in an annex for a day, as he would take three groups from the congregation on a ’hunt’ outside that afternoon, and only on the following day would they handle the serious matters.

When he arrived back at the mansion, Malin noticed that the princess maid was already waiting for him.

"Sir Malin, you have guests."

Guests? Malin handed Sudel and Rhodes over to the maid for arrangements, then entered the house.

At first glance, he saw the reclusive Thanan lady with tattooed arms. She was simply too conspicuous, sitting next to Lulu, which was quite normal considering her relationship with Lulu.

Then there was Christian, the young girl also sitting by Lulu’s side; it seemed they got along well and had a good relationship in the council.

There were also Colson and his friend; the two young men obviously couldn’t sit with the ladies, but they could still join in the joyous game of cards, so Malin didn’t take them seriously—by his judgment, these lads probably couldn’t even beat Lulu, let alone the War Witch miss, Malin estimated she could deal with the two of them using just one hand.

Then, Malin saw the eldest Mr. Fate, sitting by the window with a book in his hands.

Lastly, Malin noticed little Tim in the corner.

The kid’s face was plastered with paper slips, looking like he had lost until his heart was shattered.

Really a pitiful little guy.

Thinking this, Malin chuckled and said, "Is everyone here?"

"You’re back," Lulu said with a smile, rising to her feet, "I think you should meet my two sisters here."

"Of course," Malin smiled and nodded, also accepting the two young ladies’ greetings.

"Greetings to you, Sir Malin," Mr. Fate said with a smile, "As you can see, I have arrived."

"Yes, I know," Malin replied with a smile, then he looked at little Tim, "It seems you’re not having much luck, Mr. Tim."

"Ah, Sir Malin, yes, very unlucky, and nothing’s going right," the boyish-looking old Mage said and collapsed directly onto the floor.

It seemed he had lost disastrously, utterly defeated in both body and spirit, you poor sod.

Thinking this, Malin looked to his younger brother, "Colson, aren’t you going to introduce your friend to me?"

"He’s my best friend from childhood, you can call him Liam, Liam Neeson," Colson introduced him that way.

Wow, that name alone sounds powerful.

Malin nodded, about to say something, when he saw Colson perform a very fancy knee slide to embrace... his big brother.

Sorry, at only one meter twenty today, you can’t hold onto my legs, you little bastard, let go of me right now!

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