Chapter 279 “Boat Ride” (Part two)
After killing so many people, Du Wei couldn’t just leave immediately anymore. Getting his people to clean up the bodies and wash the deck, this easily took up half the day before everything’s done. Besides, the matter was done by him, he can’t just leave like this; otherwise the river official will be screwed. He’s after all not the type to do things without worrying about the consequences. Others may enjoy themselves and leave behind a mess for others to clean up, but not him, he’s not that repugnant. Once the river official made his report, he will sign his name on the document. This way around, those above will know what to do and not make things difficult for the poor guy. At the very least, his career will be protected.
As for the security officer, Du Wei could care less after witnessing his performance today. The guy may be a low ranking officer, but he’s still a ranked personal in the imperial military! But in the face of aggressive provocation from foreign personals, this incompetent fool actually fell into the river without so much as a blow!
As a military officer, such incompetence was beyond rescue. In Du Wei’s opinion, it be better if this guy was removed from his post!
Just like that, Du Wei spent another day in Mingfan Port before raising his sail and heading off for his destination.
In order to leave from the dock, every ship must wait their turns in line to depart onto to the main river, but when they saw Du Wei’s banner flying overhead, every ship nearby proactively moved out of the way in concession.
Du Wei didn’t know why at first, but when someone from down below reported to him it was all because of yesterday’s massacre, he finally got it. These people were showing their gratitude for helping them vent their frustrations at the prairie merchants.
“Your command from yesterday differs from what I know of your human customs.”
On deck and facing the gentle breeze, Queen Medusa raises her own doubt in a gentle whisper while standing shoulder to shoulder with Du Wei.
“Hmm, say it then.” Du Wei smiles.
“According to what I know, most of you humans believe in the goddess of light, and the teachings of the goddess of light are based on forgiveness, not advocating violence. Hmm, besides, I’ve heard that you humans have philosophers that preaches, ‘Violence can’t solve all problems’, isn’t it so? But yesterday you used the most violent and bloody means possible to solve the issue the moment you stepped in. I’ve always found you very different from the people in those books I read.”
Du Wei ponders the question for a while, then showed a great smile: “Well then, dear Nicole, why don’t we continue on our lessons today?”
Looking back and forth, his sight quickly fell onto a boat parked not far away next to the shore. The vessel was vastly different from the merchant ships actively moving about on the river. With brightly colored sails, one could faintly hear the sounds of woman giggling from the inside. In addition, the ship wasn’t packed with the usually rugged looking sailors found elsewhere, instead, there were many gorgeously dressed women waving their silken handkerchiefs at the passerby’s. If sniffing the air, a faint aroma of strong wine could be caught fluttering about.
“There’s a boat over at that place.” Du Wei stretches out a hand and points to the distance. Chuckling, he continues: “I know you can’t open your eyes and see, but with your spirit senses, I know you can determine what’s happening inside.”
“Yes.” Medusa answers with her usual indifferent voice.
“Then, I tell you, that ship is not some proper place. Technically, it’s a brothel on a river. These plying merchant ships with their sailors on board must find some kind of entertainment after spending so much time on the water. With nowhere else to vent their manly frustrations, these kind of brothel ships are one of the most popular attractions to a sailor.”
At that, Du Wei inadvertently peered over to his side. Sure enough, several of the sailors were wandering their eyes over to that ship, a sense of longing were plastered onto their faces.
“Brothels?” Medusa frowned: “What is a brothel? The books I read never mentioned anything like that.”
Du Wei bellowed out a laugh: “The books you know are all read to you by my fiancé. Haha… The little sweetheart is super shy herself, how can she possibly recite such embarrassing things to you? Besides, most of our human books only know how to record pious things, rarely would you find anything demeriting in those literary books.”
“You don’t have to laugh at me, tell me what is that place.”
“A brothel, is a place where men find women.” Du Wei’s face was frank when he said it: “Men always want to vent their desires, and these women are using their bodies to make money by satisfying that desire. You can say it’s a kind of exchange.”
“You mean to say… Mating?” Medusa bluntness left Du Wei speechless. Smiling wryly, Du Wei replied: “Hmm… yes, it’s mating.”
Even for Medusa that had always remained disturbingly calm; a faint blush could be clearly made out on those cheeks. This sort of redness was extremely rare for a beauty of her nature. While her appearance could kill with that level of beauty, she had always lacked a sort of human flavor, “a human but not so human like” nature. Just getting close to her would make others lose their breath.
And now, with the added blushing on her cheeks, her attractiveness immediately increased exponentially, but in a good way. Losing some sharpness, and increasing in tenderness.
She’s a beauty among beauties to begin with, a rarity at the level of a disaster that could only be matched by someone like Mrs. Lister. Now that a rare hint of shyness appeared on that dangerous face, Du Wei became stunned after being caught off guard.
With reddish cheeks, medusa’s brow wrinkled with a slight disgust in her murmuring voice: “But… I’ve heard that one of the greatest distinctions between humans and beasts are your mating rituals, according to your books that is. The mating between animals are a blind yet simple estrus process, but humans… Often because of love, will have physical contact, is that not so? If you can mate by spending money, then what about love? I remember your books stated money cannot buy love.”
Bellowing out a laugh without restraint, Du Wei reacted like he’s just heard the funniest thing in this word after listening to her words.
Oh heavens, the level of simplicity of this lady can compete with his stammering little fiancée!
“Fine, my dear Nicole, I have to say that you were deceived once again by the books.” Upsetting Medusa with his laugh, Du Wei hurries to his explanation: “Remember when I told you humanity is complex? Let me tell you, humanity is this world’s fakest race! Human beings tend to set lofty moral standards for themselves, and then place these codes into our books to advertise it… However, most people in this world will never adhere to such social standards. This is the so called say one thing and do another.”
“You mean… Lying?”
“That’s right, a lie.” Du Wei answered without disguising anything: “Dear Nicole, I know you must not like to lie, but I can tell you, humans are born to be good liars, and most people would lie. Lying is one of the skills that you must have to survive in the human world! If you want to fit into the world and become a real human being, then whether you like it or not, you’ll have to learn to lie! Otherwise….” Du Wei made a faint smile like he didn’t want to spell it out: “Otherwise, even if you are more powerful, sooner or later, you will die a miserable death. In this world, those that don’t lie don’t live very long.”
Although his speech was a bit extreme, but it must be said, his words do carry wisdom in them. The world of humans was like this.
However, Du Wei seems to be oblivious to one important factor!
The state of Medusa right now was very close to that of a white paper, simple yet pure. Among her understanding of humanity, there are many blotches of blank empty space. Like a newborn baby, whatever you teach her will make up her personality in the future!
So, with Du Wei’s evil mindset, instilling such dark “truths” into Medusa’s infantile mindset would be no different from a dark overlord reshaping a good consciousness into an evil one!
Du Wei may be clever, but he’s definitely not a qualified educator. Blindly staining this white paper with dark blotches of evilness, it will merely be a matter time before this queen gets reshaped into the darkest form of humanity’s horror. What will become of Nicole at this rate? That will truly be something to look forward to later in the future.
All in all, Du Wei naturally wouldn’t think much of it right now. Making a slight grin, he concluded his lesson with a final summary.
Pointing to the distant brothel boat, he smiled and said, “Look at this hooker boat, and think about how many people I killed at the dock yesterday.”
Pausing for a moment, Du Wei inhales deeply: “Money can’t buy love, but it can buy a woman! Violence cannot solve all problems, but it is often the most effective and direct solution.”
Musing over his words, Medusa’s expression right now was hard to determine.
Another two days have passed since then and the ship had to make another stop at a nearby port to replenish their food and water supplies. When Du Wei’s boat first landed, the local port official was already standing there in wait.
So the news of Du Wei making a big ruckus at Mingfan Port had long spread without his knowledge. On land, the message was carried using horseback to swiftly pass the news to all layers of the regional government, and due to Du Wei’s slow pace on the river, the news arrived before he did.
It’s only natural that the local officials in town would do their upmost to welcome him now that the Duke of Tulip’s boat was moored here. He originally wanted to ignore the flattering officials and stay aboard his ship, but those down below came to him saying the locals had something important to report. Reluctantly, Du Wei can only agree to let the mayor in.
Coming in, the mayor respectfully bowed to Du Wei and rigidly explained something.
The matter wasn’t too difficult to solve, but the way he said it sounded like the mayor was afraid he would offend the Duke at any moment.
“What did you say? Someone wants to ride my ship to the capital?” Du Wei smirked, intrigued by the request.
“Yes, it’s the Archbishop of the northern diocese of the Temple of Light, Lord Maximos and his entourage.” The mayor smiled bitterly: “Your lordship, it’s like this. Archbishop Maximos and his entourage is heading to the capital from the northern diocese in order to attend the year end celebration. But you know, it’s difficult to find a boat on the river during this season. Originally his holiness had his own boat, but that blasted ship broke down all of a sudden, leaving lord Maximos stranded on land. Now they are heading to this town using the main road after abandoning their boat. The order given to me from above was that no matter the circumstances, I must locate a ship in the dock within a day’s time. This way around, the archbishop could sail for the capital and not be delayed. Your Excellency, the order was sent directly from the governor’s office of the province, and you know, our governor is a devout follower of the Temple.”
“So you chose our boat?” Du Wei makes an indecipherable smile.
Spilling cold sweat on his forehead, the mayor would cry if he could right now as his knees went limp: “Your lordship… I’m out of options now. I don’t know who spilled the beans to those merchant ships docked in the port, but once they got wind of the order, those people fled like no tomorrow! The remaining boats are either too small or too retched to carry the Archbishop. His holiness brought along many attendants and luggage, I’m afraid there’s no other ship around big enough…. Other than yours that is….”
Speaking up to here, the mayor muttered bitterly: “Those black-hearted businessmen, refusing to let the archbishop ride their boat and running away, I’ll be sure to give them a hard time when they come back again.”
Listening to the story, Du Wei immediately understood why those businessmen ran away and was unwilling to let the Archbishop board their ship.
If they had to make room for the Archbishop and his entourage while their vessel’s full of cargo, there had to be sacrifices, meaning the one to lose out would be the merchants. What are merchants? Businessmen that puts materialistic profits above all others. In front of their own interest, who would care about some religious faith? Moreover, these people from the temple would never pay any compensation. For them, it’s only a matter of course for others to pay their dues as a form of devotion to the goddess.
Du Wei may not be a stingy person and had little affection for the temple, but he’s also unwilling to offend the temple over nothing.
On the Roland continent, the archbishop of a diocese can be considered to be a very powerful figure! The Temple of Light divided the continent into eight dioceses, each with their own archbishop overseeing four Archdeacons, whom was responsible for administrating the diocese’s affair like: tax collection, appeasing the faithful’s, managing the state, and preaching the teachings of the temple and so on.
Speaking about it, this would be the Temple’s equivalent form of a “governor”!
And, judging from the territory overseen by an Archbishop, the land this person controls far exceeds that of a real governor of an empire. After all, a governor only controls one province, while the territory within a diocese spans over four to five provinces!
Even more importantly, aside from tax collection and management of the state, the Archbishop also controls their own military force!
The Holy Knights Order was stationed across each diocese district with around a thousand knights per brigade.
With their own finances and military, what difference was there between an Archbishop and a real governor of the empire? Moreover, their influences were far greater than their status.
And most importantly, according to the tradition of the Temple, every single one of these Archbishops was a true core member of the Temple of Light. After the death the current pope, these Archbishops would converge and choose the new pope within their ranks!
At the time of selection, the public standard was to list the achievements of each archbishop during their time of tenure. This includes tax income, indoctrination of believers, number of new believers, etc.
In other words, the archbishop who had asked to take his boat back to the capital, whatever his achievements or status in the temple, he was still nominally one of the successors to the Temple’s throne.
This alone was enough to strike fear into people.
Towards such individuals, though unwilling, Du Wei nevertheless didn’t want to offend such a personal: “Alright then, I have a lot of empty space on the ship anyways. What time will he be here?”
“Should be around tomorrow morning.” The mayor loosened his voice and hastened to answer: “After the archbishop’s ship broke down, they immediately abandoned the ship ashore. His carriage is currently on the road and should be arriving shortly in the morning.”
“Then I’ll stay here one day and wait for the archbishop to arrive.”
Sending away the mayor, Du Wei made a deep sigh.
After all, the mayor already went so far in his request. Regardless of his answer today, the outcome will definitely reach the ears of that Archbishop.
Besides, although he’s afraid of the temple with his current strength, Hussein’s not with him right now! Even with someone so high up there in the temple with him, there’s nothing to be worried about.
As long as… Du Wei touches his head reflexively.
He was already accustomed to having long, thick hair covering his horn. Du Wei designed the hairstyle himself, this way he can cover what’s needed without anyone noticing.
If anything, he can just wear a very big mage’s robe with a large pointy hat. Humph, there’s no way an Archbishop would randomly come up to him and pull down his hat to check his hair right?