Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 240 - 38 Weisbach Palace

Chapter 240: Chapter 38 Weisbach Palace

After being well-fed, Ludwig went to the counter to pay and immediately felt some pain in his wallet.

The pork knuckles and sausages were one thing, but the three outrageously priced dishes that Eleanor had specifically asked for—white asparagus, white truffles, and elephant clams—were all scarce and expensive high-end ingredients.

Back when he was still with his family, it wasn’t a big deal, but after he inherited his father’s Viscountcy of Gauting, he seldom indulged in these luxuries anymore. It was just too expensive.

Father, you really spoiled my sister too much. Look at how picky you’ve made her tastes.

After dinner, Ludwig called his chauffeur and valet, planning to have The Azure Longsword and the others sent to Mingxing City.

"Hey, it’s a car!" Peggy said immediately upon seeing the extended sports car parked by the roadside, "I can drive!"

She was about to pull on the door of the driving cabin when Eleanor quickly grabbed hold of her, "We have a driver," she whispered.

"There’s another one following," Ludwig said with a smile, "If the lady would like to drive, she’s welcome to."

"No, no," Eleanor hurriedly glared at him. If Peggy really drove in front and let the chauffeur sit at the back, The Azure Longsword would become the joke of the Weisbach Family’s staff by tomorrow.

Each of the two extended sports cars could seat about eight people. Normally, nobles travel with a driver, butler, personal servant, and attendant (bodyguard), adding up to around six or seven people, leaving the remaining seats for emergency use.

Emergency means: usually, the master and butler + 1 personal servant take one car, and the rest of the people take another. If they are receiving guests and the guests also bring their own staff, then the master and guest, along with their butlers and personal servants, would sit in one car.

However, The Azure Longsword now had nine people all of a sudden, plus Hood who had left his job, so the emergency seats were far from enough. Thus, Ludwig had instructed his butler in secret when they first came out to have a few personal servants return ahead of time to make room for the ladies.

Speaking of the ladies, Ludwig had felt something was off from the start. A normal Mercenary Group was mostly male with fewer females, so how come The Azure Longsword was all women?

He took the opportunity to quietly ask Eleanor about it, and she immediately retorted,

"Where did you get that it’s all women? Isn’t the Squad Leader a man? And isn’t Hood also a man?"

"Alright," Ludwig thought that if they were all men, he would still be worried about his sister mixing in with them.

However, admitting so many women into the group, this Aske Squad Leader might have some issues in his private life. Although Ludwig was confident about his sister’s standards in choosing a partner, the fact that a daughter from the Lixini Family had taken a liking to him suggested that maybe the Squad Leader wasn’t such an easy mark.

"I thought after the Magic Tide, all these cars would have been scrapped," Eleanor said as she settled into the car.

"They were scrapped," Ludwig replied with a smile, "These cars are a batch of new stock that we urgently ordered from Solomon City after the rise of the Magic Tide ended. The supplier happens to be Miss Nora’s Lixini Family."

"What exactly does your family do, Nora?" Thira asked curiously.

"It seems like manufacturing," Nora said uncertainly, "Precision manufacturing."

Ludwig remained silent; he naturally knew that the Lixini Family was far from just an ordinary manufacturing giant, but even her teammates weren’t clear on this?

Do you really know how terrifying the standing behind the girl sitting next to you is?

Linking her unabashed affection for Aske, Ludwig suddenly felt somewhat bitter.

It was like a person in relatively good financial condition suddenly discovering one day that their plain-looking neighbor had been chosen by the world’s richest person to be their son-in-law, and they felt nothing but sourness.

"Why are you always blinking, Brother?" Eleanor suddenly asked.

"Nothing, just got some sand in my eyes," Ludwig wiped the corner of his eyes, erasing the tears of envy.

Sand in his eyes, inside this sealed car? Eleanor wondered with bewilderment.

———

It was roughly 200 kilometers from Lifilah to Mingxing City; it took two hours by car, and they arrived in Mingxing City at 11 p.m.

Due to the effects of the previous Magic Tide, the power in the city’s residential areas had not yet been restored, and most buildings were shrouded in darkness or pierced by the faint light of candle flames, while the factory across the Isar River had already resumed production, becoming the sole source of light in the vast darkness.

The car drove into the inner city and stopped at the entrance of the opulent Weisbach Palace. The driver opened the doors for everyone, and more servants surged forward, ready to help carry the guests’ luggage.

Then they realized these young ladies had no luggage at all, and faces of confusion momentarily appeared, until the butler clapped his hands, prompting the servants to bow respectfully before retreating back into the palace.

Ludwig looked toward the butler, who subtly shook his head.

The shaking of the head was one of puzzlement. Even the noble butler, who had served the Duke of Bavaria and young master Ludwig for two generations and was extremely experienced, couldn’t discern where the girls might have hidden their luggage.

Could it be that they had been living outdoors, exposed to the elements?

Considering the night was deepening, Ludwig decided to leave the question for tomorrow and ask Hood—it seemed the mysteries surrounding the Azure Longsword were already plenty, from the disproportionate gender ratio, the age differences, the mixture of various races, to not bringing any luggage, all of which were baffling.

"You can get them settled into the guest rooms," Ludwig reminded his sister. "Father went to the Duchy of Franknia last week, so let’s make sure our guests are well taken care of for now."

"Do I even need to say that?" Eleanor said, clearly impatient.

Ludwig smiled and then led the servants into the palace.

Weisbach Palace was a huge complex of endless buildings, corridors, and gardens, enough to make a normal person dizzy just from turning around. Eleanor led the group down a familiar path, beside filigree corridors and delicately ornate carvings, as well as cleverly hidden decorative lights.

Every few meters on the wall hung expensive oil paintings, that almost had Mia drooling.

She paused at a small table, on which rested an ostentatiously shaped box embellished with tortoiseshell, agate, and jewels.

"What’s this...?" she hesitated to ask.

"A reliquary," Eleanor replied. "It holds one of my ancestor’s large bones, don’t open it to look."

"Ugh!" Mia made a noise of disgust, before asking hesitantly again, "It must be worth a lot of money, right?"

"You’re not thinking of selling my ancestor’s bones, are you?" Eleanor frowned.

"Haha, just curious, that’s all," Mia laughed it off.

"Which ancestor?" Aske suddenly asked.

"Let me see," Eleanor looked at the box, "It should be ’Madman’ Ludwig, a mad but talented artist."

"Oh," Aske said.

"What are you plotting now?" Medea’s voice echoed in Aske’s mind.

"You can read minds, can’t you?" Aske asked.

"I do occasionally respect my boyfriend’s privacy," Medea replied. "I’ll ask first, and if he doesn’t answer, then I’ll quietly read his thoughts."

Aske ignored the first part of her statement, saying, "Inside that reliquary, there’s a clue that triggers the start of a quest chain. One-third of the reason I agreed to come here at her brother’s invitation is for that quest."

"I knew you had an ulterior motive," Medea teased. "It couldn’t just be simply to meet the parents."

"Meet the parents?" Aske asked. "More like a warning than a punishment."

"I didn’t say anything," Medea quickly said.

Eleanor settled everyone into the palace’s guest rooms which were often vacant but maintained daily by servants in readiness for the occasional surprise visit from guests.

Aske stepped into his room, took off his chain armor and cloth armor to hang them up, poured himself a glass of lemon water, took a sip, and then looked out the window.

His room faced south, with a view of the city’s buildings outside and the huge dark outline in the distance.

That was the Alps, the highest peak on the North Continent, rumored to be home to a giant dragon.

And it was his hope to return to that other world.