"Your Highness, this time forty-eight meritorious officers have been newly promoted to Baron, twenty-six from Baron promoted to Viscount, and two from Viscount promoted to Count. The promotion roster has been thoroughly verified with no omissions. However, this round of territory enfeoffments has allocated every last bit of available land in Dlamik Province and Weston Province — there are no surplus territories left for future enfeoffments. My suggestion is: should we transfer some of the enfeoffed territories to Yungeshangdra Province and Muyeyuan Province? Those areas are essentially blank slates..."
There was a saying — the ones on top move their mouths, and the ones below run themselves ragged. Although
Just like at the year-end New Year celebration, where the grand event was enfeoffing new territory nobles and promoting titles — Lorist had turned the entire affair over to Fatty to handle, and busied himself playing with his wife and children instead. Fatty gathered a team of family officials and worked them to a standstill, finally producing results after twenty days. Enfeoffments and promotions were serious business. The division of new territories, the expansion of holdings following title promotions — all required meticulous calculation and coordinated planning. For Fatty to complete this work within twenty days was nothing short of extraordinary.
Lorist gently shook his head and said to Fatty, who was holding a thick stack of documents as he delivered his report: "No need. Yungeshangdra Province is currently being developed and constructed under
As for Muyeyuan Province, Governor Hickod personally wrote to me requesting that we not enfeoff territory nobles there. Governor Hickod explained that Muyeyuan Province serves three purposes: first, to guard against raids by steppe barbarian cavalry on our family's territories; second, to maintain a strategic geographic advantage over the Fisablen family; and third, to establish an open market for trade between our
For precisely these reasons, Governor Hickod believes that enfeoffing newly promoted territory nobles in Muyeyuan Province would pose a grave threat to our family's rule. None of us can guarantee that those newly enfeoffed nobles won't abandon their loyalties for profit, using smuggling to collude with the steppe barbarian tribes, inviting wolves into the fold, and secretly undermining the family's interests. Given the rights and privileges of territory nobles, we cannot effectively police them.
Therefore, Governor Hickod believes that a strategically vital governed territory like Muyeyuan Province should likewise be managed directly by the family. That way, in the event of any contingency, we can respond promptly, without unnecessary delays caused by having to involve territory nobles. I find his reasoning entirely sound, which is why I've restricted the newly enfeoffed territory nobles and title promotions to Dlamik Province and Weston Province."
Fatty set the thick stack of documents he'd been carrying onto the desk: "But Your Highness, all the territories in both provinces have been fully allocated. What will the family do in the future if there are more enfeoffments and promotions?"
Lorist picked up a bottle of blackcurrant wine, along with two crystal-clear stemmed glasses. He poured the dark, ruby-red liquid into them, then used silver tongs to select two reasonably intact ice cubes from a glass basin nearby filled with half-melted square ice, and dropped them into the glasses. "Have a glass. This is our family's new blackcurrant wine from last year. With ice, it tastes wonderfully refreshing. Give it a try."
"Not bad." Fatty took a sip and nodded approvingly, though he looked puzzled. "It's October — where did you get ice cubes?"
The nobles of the Galentea Continent had a custom of digging ice cellars to store ice. Typically, this meant excavating a deep cellar lined with bluestone slabs, cleaning it thoroughly, and then in winter having servants select clean ice blocks from rivers and streams, store them, and seal them up. Come summer, the ice was brought out to beat the heat or used to make cold drinks. But ice didn't keep for long — it would usually melt before summer was over. It was now October, well into autumn, so Fatty was puzzled about where Lorist had gotten these square ice cubes.
Lorist chuckled: "Remember the gunpowder laboratory? Professor Bob discovered during his experiments that saltpeter has a cooling and freezing effect, so he used that property to make ice cubes for himself. Didn't I visit the gunpowder laboratory a few days ago? I just brought some saltpeter back to make ice."
Fatty looked somewhat sour: "You sure are having a leisurely time of it. We're dying over here with work, and you're strolling around everywhere, bringing back saltpeter to make ice. Hey — isn't the family's saltpeter allocation for gunpowder already tight? Won't it be wasteful to use it like this?"
"It can be recycled. Just evaporate the water and you recover the saltpeter crystals," Lorist said. "I was curious myself. This time, I also had two more valleys in the Blade Mountain Range opened up as saltpeter fields. Professor Bob believes we can double gunpowder production within two years, which will be more than enough to meet the training and stockpiling needs of our family's fleet and artillery battalion."
"In the coming years, what happens when there are more people to promote within the family? Dlamik Province and Weston Province are already fully allocated, and the family will eventually have no choice but to open up Yungeshangdra Province and Muyeyuan Province for enfeoffment. Since Muyeyuan Province concerns the family's strategic priorities, the only option would be Yungeshangdra Province.
My suggestion is, since that's the case, why not seize this opportunity of enfeoffments and promotions to pre-emptively transfer and enfeoff a batch of territory nobles to Yungeshangdra Province? The family has already invested enormous sums in the comprehensive development of Yungeshangdra Province, and will continue to pour large amounts of funding into it over the coming years. My personal idea is to enfeoff or transfer the undeveloped swampland and jungle territories to these nobles, compelling them to invest their own funds to carry out development according to the family's plans, thereby easing the family's burden..."
Fatty had good intentions. The family had already invested five million gold Forde over three years to develop the barren Yungeshangdra Province, and would continue to invest the same amount over the next three years. For the Norton Family, the development plan for Yungeshangdra Province was nothing short of earth-shaking — leveling hills and jungle, building dikes to dam White Egret Lake, converting swampland into farmland. Nearly two hundred thousand young male prisoners had been laboring there for two or three years already.
Fatty believed that those territories not yet developed could be enfeoffed to newly promoted nobles or transferred to those who had received title promotions. The family could provide appropriate subsidies to help them carry out development according to the established plans, reducing the family's development burden while also cultivating a spirit of hard work and pioneering among the vassal lords — rather than having them sit idle and enjoy the wealth of Dlamik Province and Weston Province.
Lorist pondered for a while, but ultimately shook his head and rejected Fatty's proposal. People — they didn't worry about scarcity; they worried about inequality. How did that saying from his previous life go? Perhaps Fatty was thinking too well of human nature. He himself could be selfless, even willing to lead by example and transfer his own territories to Yungeshangdra Province. But what about all those newly enfeoffed and promoted territory nobles? What would they think?
Clearly there were prosperous, surplus territories in Dlamik Province and Weston Province available for enfeoffment, yet they were being sent to barren Yungeshangdra Province instead. Why should others get to enjoy themselves in those wealthy provinces? Was the family looking down on them, sending them off to suffer? If so, the nobles enfeoffed in Yungeshangdra Province would be filled with resentment, completely wasting the family's good intentions of enfeoffing and promoting them to solidify their loyalty.
"Let's settle it as it stands — arrange everything in Dlamik Province and Weston Province," Lorist said. "Next August, His Majesty the King will ascend the throne as Emperor, converting the kingdom into an empire. In the coming years, it's very unlikely the kingdom will see any more wars, whether internal or external. Everyone has had enough fighting. The three-year blood war with the Commercial Alliance on the Mana Hill Plains left most of the kingdom's nobles severely weakened. Even the most warlike nobles would have to think long and hard before picking a territorial fight with their neighbors, wondering whether they still had the resources for another war.
In any case, peace has finally come to the Andinak Kingdom — or perhaps I should say the Krisen Empire. Our family's knights who hoped to earn their lordships and titles through wartime valor will likely be disappointed. There won't be another great war like the one against the Commercial Alliance. Our family's armed forces need to recuperate properly as well. The ambitious young fellows will have to channel their energy through daily training and hunts on the barbarian plains.
Perhaps our family's knights will have to bide their time just like the family's civil officials, earning their titles and promotions through years of service. So in the coming years, our family won't be holding grand enfeoffment and promotion ceremonies like this year's. Our Norton Family now controls five provinces of the kingdom, and His Majesty the King is hardly going to grant our family jurisdiction over any more provinces — in his heart, he'd love nothing more than to take back all four of our governed provinces.
So, I've decided that our family's future development direction lies to the north. You see, after defeating the hundred-thousand-strong barbarian mountain tribe invasion, this vast territory beyond our family's borders has essentially fallen within our sphere of influence. Twin Mountains Town has become the central hub of the region, and our family's mercenaries are active throughout it. The barbarian mountain tribes have retreated deep into the Demon Dragon Mountain Range. Moreover, whenever our family's forces head to the barbarian plains for hunts, they pass through this area. After repeated sweeps, it has become a relatively safe region — many mercenaries complain that it's now hard to find magical beasts or barbarian tribes there.
My plan is to bring this territory under our family's direct rule, establish it as a province, and develop it. Since this is territory our family has opened up, His Majesty has no right to interfere. Beyond this region, there is the barbarian plain to the north — an endless expanse of land where we can turn our gaze. So I'm not the least bit worried about a shortage of territories for enfeoffment. In a few years, once this region becomes a province, the family can enfeoff all its new vassal lords there."
Fatty's face lit up with sudden understanding: "So that's Your Highness's plan! No wonder you recently summoned Old Barek to organize a survey team to investigate mineral resource distribution in this region, and even had
"It's a secret brew from a certain kingdom," Lorist explained. "The Commercial Alliance destroyed and absorbed the Motbit Duchy, dividing up the brewing masters among themselves. This blackcurrant wine brewer refused to become a brewing slave to those trading companies, so he fled with his entire family to our Northland and set up this brewery. The first batch produced only a little over a thousand bottles, taking two years to brew. Our family has claimed the entire output — you won't find a single bottle on the open market."
Fatty was delighted: "Thank you, Your Highness. But one case is too few — at least three cases. You know I love fruit wine. This blackcurrant wine is sweet with a hint of tang, refreshing and crisp, with a pure, clean taste. It's perfect for quenching thirst. How can a dozen bottles in a single case be enough for me to enjoy properly?"
Lorist laughed and scolded: "Each bottle costs four gold coins, you rascal! You've gotten so used to raiding my wine cellar that you think you can just waltz in and take whatever you want? Go speak to Steward Bowery yourself."
Bowery was
"Very well, thank you again, Your Highness. I'll go speak with Steward Bowery in a moment and have him prepare a few extra cases for me," Fatty said. "Your Highness, I'll be heading back to Raging Bear City tomorrow. Do you have any further instructions?"
Lorist thought for a moment and replied: "There's not much else to say. I'm fully at ease entrusting the New Year celebration to your care. Director Spell and Director Kedan will cooperate with your directives. You all have plenty of experience organizing the New Year celebration, so I won't meddle. Sylvia and I will return to Raging Bear City at the end of November. Everything there is in your hands."
Fatty drained the wine in his glass and stood up: "Alright then, Your Highness. I'll take my leave now. See you in Raging Bear City."
...