"Connor, no need to worry. I’m fine. Don’t worry."
Hughes reassured the anxious old butler while changing his clothes.
Although the journey to the Abyssal Trench with the Sirens had been full of twists and turns, the return trip was surprisingly smooth.
The fish-men had mysteriously disappeared—perhaps they had been frightened by the massive explosion earlier.
He needed to change his clothes quickly.
The Symbiotic Contract made him immune to the pressures of the deep sea, but it couldn’t prevent his clothes from being soaked by seawater.
Although Hughes didn’t particularly care about maintaining the decorum of a noble, walking around covered in seaweed and small fish was indeed quite inappropriate.
After all, he still had to meet those pirates later.
After gaining the allegiance of the Sirens in the Abyssal Trench, he didn’t waste any time and immediately set out to return to his territory to make it in time for negotiations with the pirates.
With the Sirens assisting him in the sea, the pirates’ threat to him had significantly diminished.
Even if a battle were to break out, he might actually stand a chance. At the very least, protecting himself would not be an issue.
Not to mention the Sirens’ overwhelming combat power against ordinary humans—just their reconnaissance abilities in the sea alone allowed him to gain an absolute advantage over the pirates.
He even suspected that Ash alone could sink an entire pirate ship.
However, he had no intention of dragging the Sirens into war.
They had just escaped slavery and needed time to recover.
As for the pirates, he had other plans.
With the support of the Sirens, everything was starting to fall into place.
Not only regarding the pirates, but he also planned to reorganize the development of his territory.
"Let’s discuss the negotiations first."
"Master Hughes, two sea merchants have arrived this time."
Connor hesitated for a moment.
Looking at Hughes, he couldn’t shake the feeling that his master seemed different.
In the past, Master Hughes would never have spoken with such a calm yet firm tone.
Like any illegitimate child, he had been sensitive, suspicious, and hesitant.
Under Hughes’ gaze, Connor lowered his head. "Two pirates have arrived. Since you were absent, Scribe Alexei went to negotiate with them."
"Wasn’t he supposed to wait for me?"
"I did inform him, but this morning, he refused my request in his capacity as the Chief Scribe. He claimed that without an official order, he would only accept your direct command."
Hughes raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Did I hear that right?"
Wasn’t he a feudal lord of the empire?
Weren’t his subordinates supposed to be his vassals?
What was this? A rebellion?
Connor hesitated before speaking softly, "Lord Hughes, your Chief Scribe, Alexei, is a seventh-rank civil servant appointed by the royal family to assist you in managing your territory."
In the third year of the Empress’s reign, she dissolved the cabinet and implemented a thirteen-tier civil servant system, making all imperial officials answerable only to her, no longer under the control of local lords.
Flipping through his memories, Hughes realized that his document Chief Scribe’s background was not simple.
He was an orphan raised in a royal orphanage in the North, given the opportunity to study due to his outstanding performance, and eventually graduated from the Royal Army Academy before being assigned to Hughes as a document Chief Scribe.
What did it mean to rise from an orphan to a seventh-rank civil servant?
Hughes’ title of Frontier Count was something that Duke Cohen had arranged for him, meaning his official rank was only one level higher than Alexei’s.
Although a Frontier Count was a feudal noble and part of a different system than civil servants, the difficulty of Alexei’s rise was evident.
Moreover, considering his background—the Royal Army Academy...
The empire’s navy was a joke, but no one dared to mock its army.
When the Empress first ascended the throne, the royal family was weak, and several grand dukes were arrogant and defiant. But eleven years into her reign, only one voice remained in the empire.
The entire nation moved forward according to the Empress’s will.
Every lord stayed obediently within their territory, watching as the royal army expanded the empire’s borders time and time again, and as the Frontier Count title certificates piled up in the Empress’s study.
The Royal Army Academy was the foundation of all this, and Alexei had been its top graduate. Had he joined the army, he would have started as a mid-ranking officer.
So why had he become Hughes’ document Chief Scribe? And why did he dare to defy him?
The document Chief Scribes assigned to Frontier Counts were all Royal Army Academy graduates.
On one hand, this was to monitor and infiltrate.
These graduates were all fiercely loyal to the royal family. On the other hand, there was a practical need.
The territories of Frontier Counts were always embroiled in war, where every inch of land was fought for with blood.
A Chief Scribe with connections in the Royal Army Academy could easily assemble a military force.
Of course, this also meant that a Frontier Count was completely tied to the royal family’s war efforts.
As for why Alexei had defied him...
Hughes smirked self-deprecatingly.
"Can’t blame him. I kept sending money to the pirates before. Now that he has no war to fight, he must be getting anxious."
"Exactly, my lord. If you send him away over this, you’d only be granting his wish. He’s probably been longing to join the Western Front. You’d best hurry over."
"Then it seems he won’t be negotiating with the pirates honestly. We should hurry, lest he plays any tricks."
Hughes stood up and walked toward the door, with Connor following closely behind.
Hughes’ suspicions were correct—at this moment, Alexei was indeed contemplating how to stir up trouble.
He was here to assist the Frontier Count in conquering the Storm Ocean, not to be some document Chief Scribe managing paperwork.
The last time Hughes had him send money to the pirates, he had already been displeased.
And now Hughes had gone missing at such a critical moment? Did he expect Alexei to deliver money again?
The old butler claimed the lord was missing, but Alexei didn’t believe it.
A lord disappeared overnight, within his heavily guarded estate?
Might as well say he fell into the ocean.
When he first arrived, he genuinely wanted to help his lord expand his territory and build his legacy.
But Hughes’ weak attitude was unbearable.
Now, his patience had run out. He had to consider his own future.
With a cold expression, Alexei pushed open the door to the meeting room.