บท 68: Struggle for survival III

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I may have more errors than usual as I am returning to writing in English again.

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Olenna tyrell POV

After another 5-minute walk, we entered the great hall where many groups of Prussian nobles were talking and all of them turned around when they saw us arrive.

With a quick glance at the hall I found the man who resembled the information the Finn had given me, a man with a serious face and a huge scar, was sitting at a table surrounded by other nobles who kept staring at me.

The Prussians were wearing that new helmet with a spike that had become very popular among the Prussians, but the one who seemed to be Helmuth was wearing a black fur hat with a skull cap in the middle.

I walked slowly towards them, as my body was already tired from walking around the huge Prussian fortress.

There was a chair available that was probably for me and I quickly sat down.

The men were staring at me, something that most of these Prussian nobles have is the enormous amount of scars they have on their faces and other parts of their bodies that are not covered by their clothes.

''I suppose you are the person that the Finn has asked us to help'' said the man who is probably Helmuth.

''Yes, that's me'' I said confidently

''Well you are late, we were expecting you 15 minutes ago'' said the nobleman while looking at his watch.

''I finished my meeting with the Finn only 10 minutes ago, you can't expect me with my old body to move so swiftly through the fortress'' I said looking at the nobleman's one good eye.

The look of disappointment among the nobles was extremely obvious, only the one-eyed man remained stoic as he stared at me with his eye.

''the Finn explained to us what we have to do, to help you and your relatives at the Prussian court to understand our customs and to be accepted at our social gatherings and if possible to get you positions of influence within the city'' said another Prussian nobleman.

''I need you to give me the names of your relatives that you need to be placed in the city guard, I was recently assigned as the leader of the city guard, and I was given free reign to choose my subordinates, I guess as long as they are not oafs I can make the respective arrangements within the 7000 guards that I will have to manage'' said Helmuth with a serious tone.

''at the moment I don't have all the names of my relatives, but I can give them to you through my grandson Willas, he is present every day in the fortress because of his work with the king'' I answered quickly.

''right, I'll be looking forward to speaking with the king's cup bearer to make the respective arrangements'' said Helmuth closing his watch.

''you have to learn our customs, tyrell, no silk, avoid wearing too flashy jewelry and remember only the king can wear other colors besides black and white, to wear other kinds of colors you can get royal permission, and otherwise you are openly insulting the Hohenzollern house, only the king and the court musician can wear other colors so the next time you come to court don't wear those green clothes because we can understand that it happens once but the second time we will know that it was with the intention to insult'' said one of the Prussian noblemen quite annoyed.

Well, now I understand why the Prussians were looking at me so much when I came here.

''Why does the court musician have that privilege?'' I asked doubtfully.

''every king has his fixation Friedrich Wilhelm I was the army, that's why he was known as the soldier king, king Friedrich III was the religion and the current king has a weakness for music, the current king's favorite musician is very talented and likes to wear silk and a wig for his performances,it was not difficult for him to ask the king's permission to wear bright-colored clothes'' said another Prussian nobleman

''I understand, I will avoid insulting the king with my attire,'' I said with an annoyed tone.

''When your relatives arrive, I will hold a party at my estate, I will make sure that most of the Prussian nobility attend, make sure that your relatives and your son remember our rules, this will be your best chance to enter the Prussian social circles, we must make sure to highlight their martial prowess and other events that will be well seen by our peers'' said Helmuth while watching me with his eye.

''I thank you for your consideration, Lord Helmuth and the rest of you as well'' I said with a sincere tone.

''That is where you are wrong tyrell, we are not helping you because we want to, we are paying a favor to the Finn, if it were not for we must return the help that was given to us in the past, you could drown and we would do nothing'' said a Prussian nobleman.

Simply keep silent, I do not wish to anger these men and lose their support by returning the insult.

''I have a question for you lady tyrell, why does the Finn want us to help you, we can't understand why he suddenly started collecting a lot of favors, we only owed him favors that he never collected, so enlighten us why the Finn wants us to help you''said Helmuth staring at me.

''He said that we have common goals and I could be a help to fulfill his objectives and avoid certain types of problems, besides annoying Friedrich von Roon since he dislikes my presence'' I said seriously.

The reaction of the Prussians was one of perplexity.

''We thought...'' said a Prussian nobleman, covering his face with both hands.

''that the Finn wanted to get rid of von Roon, but apparently his goals were different, we didn't think he just wanted to annoy Roon'' said another Prussian nobleman scratching his nose.

All the nobles looked at Helmuth, waiting for him to speak.

''I guess we are done, we cannot put a condition on our help to the Finn you will receive our support, lady tyrell'' said the one-eyed nobleman.

The rest of the nobles started to disperse to other groups, leaving me alone with Helmuth, who was moving his watch in his hand while he was thoughtful.

''Do you need anything else Lady Tyrell, it is critical to me that the Finn's request is completed in the best way possible'' said the one-eyed nobleman with a serious tone.

It was not easy to ask for financial help, but I cannot miss the chance that the Finn has given me, if I can put an end to the problem of our lack of funds now it will be a great day.

''Well, you understand we Tyrell have many distant relatives my son has several cousins and uncles who wish to join us in the city, but the monthly allowance we get from the king is barely enough for our expenses and when they arrive our little household will most likely not be enough, not to mention that we will not have the means to support them'' I said with a serious tone.

''So you need gold?, I suppose I can offer something, come with me to the treasury, I will have to ask to be paid in advance, let's hope he can understand the reason for my request for advance payment'' said Helmuth rising from his chair.

Together with the company of my bodyguards, we followed the Prussian nobleman.

''to whom are you going to collect that gold'' I said doubtfully.

''the king'' said the one-eyed man in a kindly tone.

As far as I know, the king in Prussia is richer than the Lannister, he can't possibly owe his banner men gold.

''the king in Prussia is the richest man in the seven kingdoms, why does he owe you money?'' I said surprised.

''when we were in the religious wars, the king had no gold, weapons or armor, as you understand, rearming an army without any of that is difficult, but it so happens that my family had always saved in an element that many would call stupidity, my family's storehouses were full not of gold and jewels but of armor and weapons enough to arm hundreds of thousands of soldiers the king had to buy my possessions on credit for 40 years, the king owes me a lot of gold and well a contract is a contract I am not going to demand payment in advance just because he has the gold, but now it is different, since I must pay the favor to the Finn, although he already offered to pay me, now it will seem very strange that I now request payment in advance ha ha ha'' said Helmuth in a kind tone.

''I didn't think the Friedrich Wilhelm owed gold but why are you willing to invest so much to help us just because that man asked you to'' I said with curiosity.

''the Finn not only helped my family in a time of need, he returned the insult our family had suffered and allowed me to spend a few more days with my father before he died, not only do I owe him a favor, he is a friend of the family'' said the one-eyed Prussian with a bit of sadness.

We continued walking silently as it was a sensitive subject he had touched on, but it seemed that Helmuth wanted to keep talking.

''My father was captured by the Russians and their Polish Cossacks whom we had expelled from their land many years ago, in the typical Russian raids where they sought to plunder our farmland, my father went to investigate the area but soon found that it was not a raiding force but a full army of over 100,000 men captured him and those bastards refused his request to pay his ransom instead they began to torture him to extract information about the weaknesses of our fortresses on the eastern borders, until the Prussian army was reunited my father would be under constant torture by those bastards, but that's where the Finn comes in he and 100 men infiltrated the Russian camp posing as some scouts managed to get into the camp poisoned the food and water and cut the necks of the army leaders and freed my father and left behind a rather weakened Russian army'' Helmuth said as we arrived at the treasury.

''Duke Helmuth, to what do we owe the honor,'' said a worker in the treasury.

''I need the king to advance me some payments on the debt he owes me'' replied the one-eyed man

''how much gold do you need us to advance you'' asked the worker.

''Will 80,000 golden dragons be fine?'' asked Helmuth.

''Yes, that would be a good amount'' I said kindly.

''80000 golden dragons'' said Helmuth to the worker.

''right I will make the preparations, please wait here'' said the worker as he entered a vault guarded by many knights.

''and what happened to your father, Duke Helmuth?'', I asked curiously.

''The Finn had rescued my father, but he was no longer the same, he was broken by torture, they had pulled out all his fingernails and toenails, they had pulled out several teeth, they had cut his nose and broken his legs with sledgehammers, my father only lived another 5 days, he died because of the severity of his wounds and the infections that were generated, he would have died in that camp until we could gather the rest of the Prussian army to expel the invaders, he allowed me to accompany my father in his last moments, and he allowed my father to die surrounded by his family, I will never forget that and whenever he has asked me to do something I have always done it is the least I can do to reciprocate what he did'' said Helmuth with a serious face.

''I am sorry to hear that duke Helmuth'' I said with sincerity.

''it is the destiny of soldiers to die in the line of duty and my father died with his honor intact as no word came out of his mouth even while he was being tortured, so it is not right to mourn his death, for sooner or later death will come for us and no matter what we do it will always come for our souls'' said Helmuth smiling even though his lower lip was unmoved.

''Duke Helmuth, here is the money you have requested'' said the treasury worker, handing the Prussian nobleman a piece of paper.

''thank you, you may return to your work, I hope I will not have to bother you again, I will inform the king of the reason for my request, here you have lady tyrell'' said Helmuth, handing me the paper.

I received the paper and stared at it.

''excuse me duke Helmuth, but what is this?'' I said worried.

''the 80000 golden dragons in the form of I.O.U. or do you have a way to take almost 360 kilos of gold with you? You can come and collect them whenever you want, so you avoid having to carry so many coins, because let's be honest, the idea of having to carry the gold around is annoying, it is better to leave it here where it is guarded by knights'' said Helmuth pointing to the storage room.

''you are right, but I must use this to buy property, you know my son's relatives, now I must find out who I should talk to about that'' I said, looking at the one-eyed man.

Helmuth pointed to the treasury again.

''that's where you should talk to buy properties in the nobility sector, it has a scaled version of the sector where you can choose the properties, I guess if you don't know, the property you have in the city was given to you by the king, right?'' said Helmunt with his rare smile.

With the help of the Prussian nobleman, I managed to choose 3 other properties which, according to his knowledge, were close to many nobles of whom were committed to the finn's request almost spending half of the gold he had given me.

After finishing my business at the treasury, Helmuth escorted me out of the fortress as my business here was finished.

''I thank you for everything, Duke Helmuth'' I said kindly.

''I insist again lady tyrell I only do what the Finn asked me to do, it is rare for him to make such requests'' said Helmuth as he scratched his sideburns with one hand.

''Does that man have so much power to move the Prussian nobility to do things they don't want to do?'' I said worriedly.

''the Finn is the most influential person at court because he knows everything, there are no secrets for him, as you know, information is power, some shameful secret, a dishonorable act or an ignoble way of acting, he knows it, he just waits for the moment to use it, like a snake waiting patiently for its prey, but the Finn has never used his influence, he always remained neutral to everything, that's why we were all surprised when he started collecting favors, we thought he had a serious quarrel with von Roon and wanted him out of the court or at least not near the king, but we were wrong, it seems he is content to just annoy von Roon with your presence'' said Helmuth adjusting his hat.

Thank you for everything anyway,'' I said as I prepared to leave.

Lady Olenna, I believe this is for you, the Finn gave it to me five days ago and told me I would know whom to give it to'' said Helmuth, pulling a letter from his tabard.

Receiving the letter, it was the same seal as the first letter I received.

I opened it to read its contents

(enjoy the gold, enjoy the power, enjoy the influence, but don't forget who is holding your leash because if you behave like a dog that doesn't recognize its owner I won't mind having to kill your entire pack).

Sincerely Aleksanteri the Finn)

''what does the letter say, I'm curious'' asked Helmuth

''a threat'' I said annoyed

''don't take such threats lightly, most of the nobility are afraid of the Finn, return home carefully'' said Helmuth before retiring to his business.

We quickly got back in my carriage and returned home.

I was very upset I was getting a lot of help but it was only at the whim of that man to upset von roon and apparently I put my family at risk by accepting his offer, but it seems I never had a choice if we consider everything that happened today.

We had arrived back at our mansion at night and all day long we had been on the move and tomorrow my whole body will ache.

when I got out of the carriage with the help of my bodyguards we heard something

a whistling sound coming from the road

There was a man standing in the middle of the road whistling, then with the fingers of one hand he pointed to his eyes and then pointed at us, and then ran his thumb across his neck.

after that he walked slowly backwards.

It must have been that Aleksanteri remembering what would happen if we didn't obey him.

I finally went home and I will keep this information to myself, I don't want to put my family in the knowledge of what happened today and now we were being watched by that madman.