Chapter 340

On the night before Advent, a dinner was held in the Lord's Mansion in Lake Town. Paul invited important figures from the military and political departments to gather together to celebrate the coming of the new year.

According to custom, as a lord, he should give a speech at the beginning of the banquet. Everyone saw the lord holding a piece of paper and staring at it intently while reading the contents on it.

In fact, this article is quite good (people who work with Paul can easily recognize that it must be written by the chief secretary Baron Bernard Francis). In terms of the text alone, it uses gorgeous but not exaggerated words to praise everyone's hard work in the past year, and passionately introduces the major achievements made in the territory, including agriculture, industry, and commerce, and focuses on reviewing the major victory achieved in the usurper war. This victory not only destroyed the major threat that the Kent family has always posed to the territory, but also brought the rich land of Emden under the jurisdiction of the Council of State, with more population, more wealth, more raw materials, and a larger market. More importantly, this war greatly changed the embarrassing position of the Graman family in the Northwest Bay. Not only did it make a name for itself, but it also established a relatively solid friendship with the Parker family, the Heller family, and even the newly promoted Duke Henry Ferdinand of the Northwest, forming a de facto community of interests.

In particular, the Northwest Industry, initiated by Alda and participated in by all the lords, the so-called arms company in Paul's mouth, continued to supply low-priced but high-quality weapons to the kingdom's army. Not only did it make the Northwest Bay, a barren land in the eyes of the world, enter the vision of the kingdom's top leaders for the first time, but it also earned gold coins to allow all the lords of the Northwest to share the benefits, making Alda's image among the lords rise to a higher level.

However, once the magnificent development history was spoken by the lord, it sounded as bland as boiled water to everyone.

This was a torment for both sides. After finally finishing the last word, Paul announced the start of the banquet as if he had been pardoned, and the atmosphere in the hall suddenly became warm.

"Great, Lord Earl! Your speech really inspired us!"

After Paul [escaped] to his seat, Hansel smiled and clapped at him.

Paul ignored Hansel after giving him a blank look. This guy was obviously teasing him.

"Lord Earl, you really need to practice the art of speaking in front of the public." Irene said helplessly. She had seen her father's deep and powerful voice when he summoned ministers in the court, and she had also seen her sister passionately motivating her subordinates in the military camp. Compared with them, Paul's speech just now was really not up to the stage. He didn't uplift when he should, and didn't pause when he should.

"This is already very good." Lord Earl was very satisfied with his performance, "At least I didn't read a word wrong."

He thought of his experience on Earth. In front of the leader or in front of the crowd, even if he was reading a script, he would make mistakes while reading, and his brain gradually became blank. After a long conversation, he didn't even know what he had read.

Sitting near Paul were the core personnel of the State Council and the army. They met frequently on weekdays and were no longer restrained. They talked and enjoyed the wine and food.

Among the people present was the naval commander Austin who came from Fulan Port. After drinking half of the wine, he suddenly slapped his forehead and said with some annoyance: "I was busy drinking and almost delayed things."

He stood up and walked to Irene's side, and the director of education showed a curious look in his eyes.

Austin carefully took out an envelope and handed it to Irene, "Miss Betty, this letter was asked to be handed over to you when our fleet was in Xigang. The other party claimed to be from Jingyao, the capital, and was your relative."

Jingyao? Irene's heart suddenly jumped, and then she looked at her assistant Liya next to her, and they saw the doubts in each other's eyes.

Since it was from Jingyao, it was most likely her parents or sister. Did they know that she was in Northwest Bay?

"Miss Betty? Miss Betty?"

Austin saw Irene was stunned and called her out.

"Eh? Ah, OK, thank you."

Irene came back to her senses and responded hurriedly, standing up and taking the envelope with both hands. She nervously handed the letter to Liya for safekeeping, and gave Liya a scrutinizing look at the end.

Liya, who was both an assistant and a guard, felt nervous. Would Her Royal Highness suspect that I had informed Jingyao?

Paul asked with great interest: "Betty, do you have relatives in Jingyao?" Then he immediately reacted, "Oh, I'm sorry, I was confused, haha."

He suddenly thought of the surname [Dias]. The current Queen is also from the Dias family of the Gabela Empire. Isn't this obvious?

"Haha, that's it..."

Irene smiled awkwardly. At that time, she just said her mother's surname in a hurry. It seems that Earl Graman now really regards her as a member of the Gabela Dias family.

Forget it, that's it.

Irene and Liya spent the entire banquet with mixed feelings.

After the banquet, Irene hurriedly took Leah back to her residence, and immediately interrogated her female guard and assistant. Of course, Irene did not doubt the female guard's loyalty to her, but even for the sake of loyalty, Leah might have informed the capital. After all, most people would not think it was a good thing for a princess to wander outside for a long time.

After the interrogation, Irene concluded that the female guard had not informed the capital of the situation. So who found out where she was living now?

Irene thought about it and couldn't figure it out, so she turned her attention to the content of the letter, and a strong sense of homesickness surged in her heart.

During the banquet, she left for a while on the pretext of something, and went to a place where no one was around to quietly read the letter over and over again. She didn't recognize the handwriting of the letter, but from the style of wording and sentence structure, it was easy to tell that it was written by her mother.

No mistakes, one post, one content, one book, one forum!

Perhaps because she was afraid of being seen in the middle, she used the names [you] and [I] throughout the letter, and did not reveal any specific identity information.

The letter expressed her longing for Irene, complained about why she was still angry and didn't go back, and repeatedly emphasized that she would not force her to compromise on marriage. Finally, she begged Irene to go back and reunite as soon as possible, preferably before the Holy Day.

This letter made Irene burst into tears, and she took a long time to clean up before she dared to go back to the banquet and take a seat.

"Miss, we have been away from home for a long time. It's time to go back and take a look."

After reading the content of the letter, Liya also persuaded Irene.

After hearing this, Irene felt a strong sense of guilt. The other party accompanied her for nearly two years in an unfamiliar place without complaint, but she also had her own relatives.

Finally, Irene wiped her eyes. The longing for her relatives overcame everything. She held the female guard's hand and said, "You are right, Liya, we should go home and take a look."