Chapter 532 - You’re in Charge of It All
Chapter 532 You’re in Charge of It All
As the five military officials and the new temporary lord were about to clash, the three internal affairs officials calmly stepped back and took cover as a gesture of neutrality.
To put it bluntly, they were fence-sitters. The five military officials, including Judson, slowly approached Roland.
In general, territorial officials would not dare to threaten their superiors so easily.
However, the First Princess Stephanie was not in her territory all year round and everything was handled by the eight of them. Over time, they secretly grasped the majority of the power and resources in the territory and even secretly divided the power amongst themselves. Now that a temporary lord appeared out of nowhere, their power would definitely be thinned. This made them extremely uncomfortable.
Secondly, Roland was a man.
The First Princess was beautiful, powerful, and most likely to be queen in the future. Her ex-husband was dead, and now that she was single, she was an excellent “investment stock.” If they could benefit from her before she became queen, they wouldn’t say that they were the most powerful people in all of Fareins, but they could at least be ranked in the top ten.
Married to the First Princess, they could get three things: money, people, and power. And if this pretty young boy who came out of nowhere was the new paramour of the First Princess, then in the future, the affairs of the territory would definitely be under his control, not to mention people, money, and power. They might not even be able to keep their current positions.
How could this be tolerated?
In reality, when the steward came to inform them that a temporary lord was coming, they laughed at first.
How could that be!
They had managed the territory so well without any mistakes, so how could the First Princess, who did not care about the troubles in the territory and had her eyes on the throne, suddenly send someone?
But the steward’s expression was serious.
So they came over to see who had been sent.
Then they saw a Mage, a pretty boy.
In reality, to say that Roland was a pretty boy was just slander in their hearts. Mages were equal to nobles; this was the consensus of the human world.
Even if this pretty boy didn’t have any status, as long as he was a Mage with some power, then he was a delicious honey egg custard, and any noblewomen would want to have a taste.
This was why they reacted so strongly.
When they heard Roland say that if they didn’t listen, they would be sacked, they even had the willingness to kill.
This was a direct way to cut off their money and power; it would end them.
It was no wonder they resisted. In reality, Roland didn’t want to put on a display of power right off the bat, but the matter of the floating city was too important and he didn’t want this to leak out, so a Motasos County that was completely obedient to his orders was necessary.
If another choice had to be made, Delpon was actually easier to control, as it was already Roland’s territory.
But Delpon had one big problem, and that was that the country it belonged to was too small. Hollevin was too small.
Building the floating city required not only the builder to constantly create magic bricks to pave the “chassis,” but also a large number of magic materials to build many functional parts.
This large amount of materials was not something that a small country could freely provide.
Hollevin wasn’t too weak, and if they bit the bullet, they could indeed provide for it, but from then on, Hollevin might not have enough magic materials for Mages for decades. Moreover, a large purchase in a small country would be too conspicuous, and it would be easy for someone to find out the truth.
But in Fareins, a country with a super large territory and extremely abundant supplies, acquiring a large number of magic materials would hardly cause the entire market of Fareins to fluctuate significantly.
It would help hide his true intentions and prevent people from noticing anything unusual.
This was one of the reasons why Roland wanted to build a floating city in Fareins.
As the five military officers gathered around, Roland snapped his fingers, and fourteen huge blue Hands of Magic suddenly appeared in front of him.
Each hand, more than two meters long, lined up together, almost completely blocking the space in front of Roland.
The five military officers were also knowledgeable; except for the city guard official, the other four were all Master Warriors.
They could sense that it would be hard to break through the dozen Hands of Magic. Then they stopped in their tracks, and each of them looked at Roland with a fierce gaze.
Roland looked at them too.
Then, in a muddled tone, he smiled and said, “Either do it or do what I say.”
These words carried powerful confidence.
The military officials frowned even more. Warriors were a profession that paid much attention to the so-called aura, and they could also feel it; like big cats, most of the time, they had strong battle instincts. Whether the opponent was afraid or not, they could sense it.
And now, they could feel Roland’s aura rising constantly, and he was even about to take action.
In reality, their intuition was quite correct.
Roland just wanted them to make a move; in this way, he would have an excuse to suppress them.
Of course, Roland didn’t want to kill anyone, but just put them under house arrest to seize their power.
However, the other five were not fools. They felt Roland’s aura and desire to attack, but they wimped out.
All five of them retreated to their chairs and sat down, quite decisively, without a trace of delay.
Roland was a little stunned.
Actually, this was also the result of his inexperience.
He spent most of his time studying magic and had relatively fewer real battles compared to other players.
The average level of a professional in the Fareins Kingdom was much higher than that of Hollevin.
At the same time, most Master Warriors in Holleven were reckless, but in Fareins, Master Warriors were almost all foxes; only a few of them were reckless and didn’t live long.
So Roland’s use of Hollevin’s combat experience to provoke the Warriors in Fareins was ineffective.
On the contrary, it made them retreat.
One by one, they shrank back.
Fine!
Roland knew his plan seemed to have gone off the rails a little, but it wasn’t an irreversible mistake; it was troublesome at best.
“Since you are willing to follow orders, things will be fine.” Roland clapped his hands. “Everything can go on as usual.”
The eight of them all looked at Roland, contemplating Looking at the sky, Roland said, “It’s getting late, go back first. We’ll still have a lot of time to spend together in the future. This was just a greeting.”
The eight of them left unhurriedly.
The door of the main hall was closed, and the light inside was much dimmer.
The steward was greatly relieved. He was really worried that a fight would start just now.
Roland waved his hand, dispelling a dozen Hands of Magic, and then said, “Steward, you know where the entrance to the castle’s basement is, right? Take me there.”
“Yes.”
The steward bowed his head slightly and walked ahead.
The entrance to the basement was not hard to find. It was right next to the stable at the back of the castle. There was a small barracks with a hundred elite veterans, a direct unit of the royal family to protect the prince and princess, and under normal circumstances, they only listened to the orders of the protected person, that was, Stephanie.
Of course… when the appointment letter was issued, they naturally obeyed Roland’s orders as well.
More than a hundred soldiers in silver and white iron armor formed a circle outside the stable, and next to the stable, there was a small black entrance that he had to bend down to enter.
It was narrow inside, a flight of steps high above the ground to keep the rain from seeping in.
Then there was a stone staircase going down.
The entrance to the basement is so obvious? Roland glanced at the steward with a strange look in his eyes. The steward was old and smart and immediately understood the expression in Roland’s eyes. “It was the request of the First Princess.” The steward’s expression was rather helpless. “She said that the castle itself is already a defensive measure, and if there really is an enemy and even the castle is breached, the basement would be useless; but it would be better to build something more obvious, and it will be much easier to put something in there later.”
The veterans who surrounded the area smiled.
They all admired and respected the First Princess Stephanie, and this nonsense idea of hers was quite adorable to them.
The First Princess was very nice and took good care of them. They received the most pay out of all the troops in the territory, and the best equipment and provisions were provided to them first, before the other troops.
Many of them were grateful.
So toward Stephanie, they had no malice, only gratitude, and only two thoughts in their minds: to protect her, and to obey all her orders.
They knew very well what it meant that Roland was able to hold a letter of appointment signed by the First Princess herself, with her fingerprints on it.
The First Princess truly trusted this man. Then they should also trust this man.
Roland didn’t go into the basement but looked at the group of soldiers surrounding him.
Then he looked at the steward. “Did you call them out too?”
The steward nodded. “Let them meet and get acquainted with you, sir. Also, sir, the few military officials in the main hall that you offended, although they didn’t act out on the spot, they may use some rather dishonorable means when they return. So, sir, you need an escort, and they are completely trustworthy and capable of protecting you.”
As soon as the steward said these words, they knelt on one knee, and to the sound of clashing armor, the leading middle-aged soldier said, “The First Princess’s command is everything to us. You are the new lord she has chosen, so we are your shield and your spear, sir.”
Roland’s gaze swept over the group.
All of them were above level ten, and three were even at level thirteen.
A small, elite army of one hundred Master Warriors.
Put them in a small country like Hollevin, and they could directly break through the country’s capital without a sweat.
In other words, these people were Stephanie’s real “hidden pawns.”
Those strange people in the capital weren’t even pawns.
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Although they knelt for him, their loyalty was to Stephanie, not to him.
But it was enough; Roland didn’t need them to be loyal to him.
Just as long as they would listen to him.
“Rise,” Roland said with a smile.
The group of people stood up at the same time, moving quite uniformly.
Roland thought about it and said, “Steward, I have to trouble you again. This time, invite the tax collector over and don’t disturb the other officials. Then invite the masters of several big chambers of commerce in the city over.” The steward nodded. “It is no trouble, it is the servant’s duty to share his master’s worries.”
After the steward left, Roland looked at the middle-aged soldier who had just spoken. “How many other troops in the capital besides you are there altogether?”
“About three thousand three hundred.” The middle-aged soldier replied after some thought. “But two thousand of them are the militia, not much of a fighting force.”
“I’d like to put you in charge of these three thousand three hundred men. Do you think you’re up to the task?”
The middle-aged soldier’s eyes bulged in surprise.