A Scumbag Always Gets What He Deserves

2: The Earl of Flowervale

Five years later:

Several luxurious horse-drawn carriages were driving in a thick, dense fog. In the depths of the heavy mist, one could faintly see a series of low, dilapidated stone buildings.

The doors of the carriages depicted a delicately lined anemone flower, the heraldic device of a certain nobleman.

The sky, the earth, and everything around them was gray, and the clammy air penetrated through the gaps in the windows, carrying the odor of mildew and rotten wood.

In the lead carriage, a man tightly closed the window and muttered, "God, the smell is so bad!"

He covered his nose and mouth, revealing only a pair of brown eyes filled with disgust.

He was wearing a white shirt and red velvet jacket, black velvet breeches, and leather boots. He had sprayed heavy perfume on his neck and wrists, his cheeks were powdered and colored with rouge, and his long red hair was tied behind his head with a white silk ribbon. He was as exquisitely dressed as a nobleman.

But he wasn't a nobleman. He was just a nobleman's servant.

As long as the master they served had great enough wealth, lower class people like him could live more luxuriously than third-rate nobility.

He took a perfumed handkerchief from his pocket, wafted it several times in the air, then complained in a mocking tone, "It's hard to imagine the great Grande would be such an inferior place!"

The other servant sitting beside him also sneered, "Five years ago, the city of Desolette was a hundred times better than this!"

But that wasn't true.

Desolette was named for the word "desolation". The city of Desolette was originally a deserted city. The people there were hungry from morning till night. They couldn't even afford enough clothes to cover their bodies. Even the old earl and countess who ruled the city fell seriously ill because of the lack of food throughout the year. Later, they couldn't afford medical treatment, and eventually both passed away.

But Grande's name was from the word meaning "great". Grande City was indeed a great city, and it was also the richest city on the continent of Tortus. Although it was part of the Gloria Empire, it possessed completely independent political, military, and legislative powers.

It was said the wealth of the Lord of Grande was the highest in the entire continent of Tortus. If Charles III hadn't married the eldest daughter of the lord of Grande, he likely wouldn't have become king. The huge dowry and massive army brought by the queen helped the king clear all obstacles.

Therefore, Grande City was even more famous than Polsa, the capital of Gloria, and it was a paradise that everyone yearned for.

The two servants belittled Grande as nothing, but this was merely the inferiority complex of an upstart comparing himself to others. They came from the city of Desolette, which used to be the poorest part of Tortus.

But it wasn't anymore.

After the death of the previous earl, their young master Earl Jian Qiao made great efforts to develop floral horticulture and the mining industry. He invented unique fragrance-making techniques and jewelry processing technology, which lifted Desolette City out of poverty. In just five years it had become one of the richest cities on the continent of Tortus.

Today Desolette City was rich in rare perfumes, flowers, cosmetics, and jewelry, and these commodities were precisely the treasures every noble cherished most. They were willing to spend a lot of money to buy such luxury goods from Desolette.