Chapter 137: Arrival in the Territory

Page 1 of 3

“Your Highness Trennell, the knightly fief assigned to you lies just ahead.”

After Lee Jue and his party passed through the woods, they arrived at a broad, open plain. Captain Rama pointed toward several villages beside a long river in the distance.

As Lee Jue and the others entered the village, the farmers and children hid behind their houses, watching them from afar.

“It doesn’t look too bad,” Etris murmured as she surveyed the village.

“After all, it lies right beside the Wisteria River. The soil is fertile, and resources are abundant. In the past, lands bordering the Wisteria River were all administered directly by the family and were never granted to subordinate nobles. It is only because Your Highness Trennell has arrived that you were able to receive a fief near the river.”

Captain Rama spoke casually.

While the others in the procession chatted, Lee Jue observed the village.

This village, which Rama and Etris considered relatively prosperous, was in fact desperately poor in Lee Jue’s eyes. The farmers were dressed in rags, their faces sallow and gaunt. Children ran naked through the streets, playing and shouting. Every family lived in a thatched hut or a ramshackle wooden shed. Here and there stood a few families with no house at all, living beneath crude shelters made from a scrap of cloth stretched over several sticks.

Whether the lower-class farmers of Great Yong or those in the world of *Might Shaking the Heavens*, people lived far better than the farmers here. At least, Lee Jue had never seen villages so desperately impoverished in either of those worlds.

And yet, this village was still considered one of the more prosperous settlements within the Earl of Irongold’s domain.

The reason was not that the soil under the Irongold family was infertile or that its harvests were poor. In fact, according to what Lee Jue knew, the grain produced by this village each year far exceeded the harvests of the villages he had once seen under Great Yong’s rule.

The villagers were poor simply because the Irongold family exploited them too harshly—or rather, because all the nobles of this world exploited their people with excessive cruelty.

In both the world of Great Yong and the dungeon world of *Might Shaking the Heavens*, lower-class farmers might fall into poverty for a time, but one day they could unexpectedly encounter martial arts through sheer luck. With the right opportunity, they might even become powerful martial artists and rise above their station. Countless stories of the poor young man who must not be underestimated had taken place in those two worlds, so the upper classes there did not dare push the lower classes too far.

Of course, the Zhao family of Brightplain County was an exception. The Zhao family had grown arrogant beyond reason because of its cooperation with the Black Lotus Cult. They had also been carrying out the cult’s orders. In the end, however, they were annihilated by Lee Jue—the very man who had happened upon martial arts through a stroke of fortune.

In that respect, the Black Lotus Cult deliberately refrained from acting openly against local communities, choosing instead to support local forces and have them do its work. This was also meant to prevent the cult from attracting too much hatred. They had already accumulated more than enough enemies, but whatever could be avoided still ought to be avoided.

The Nest World, however, was different.

In this world, individual strength could never rival that of landed nobles who possessed nests. To say nothing of the fact that cultivation methods were not circulated among the lower classes, even if someone obtained one and painstakingly cultivated to the Lord level, it would still be extremely difficult for them to kill a landed noble controlling a Knight-class nest. Yet a landed noble who controlled a Lord-class nest could kill a Lord-level powerhouse without a nest with ease.

You were only one person, while we had an entire horde—and we did not fear casualties. How could you possibly fight us?

Humanity possessed only individual experts, but nests could give birth to hordes of monsters.

As for farmers controlling nests, the odds were even lower. Farmers did not know how to refine a nest core in the first place. Moreover, every nest was protected by nest creatures. An ordinary farmer would be torn to pieces by those creatures before ever getting near the core.

Thus, the landed nobles had no fear of the lower farmers causing trouble and showed them no mercy when exploiting them.

Rebellion?

Then kill a batch of them first. There would always be people willing to crawl through life in exchange for survival.

Page 2 of 3

After several generations of this cycle, the lower-class farmers of this world had been tamed into meekness. No matter how miserable their lives became, they no longer dared to rebel.

“Greetings, Your Highness Trennell.”

At that moment, a finely dressed man accompanied by two soldiers in leather armor stepped in front of Lee Jue’s party.

“Your Highness Trennell, I am Short, the reeve of your domain.”

When the man saw Lee Jue turn his gaze toward him, he immediately introduced himself.

“Take us to our residence first.”

Lee Jue glanced at Short and spoke casually.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Short accepted the order and led Lee Jue’s party to a large villa.

According to the laws of the Sea Serpent Kingdom, only nobles of baronial rank or higher were permitted to build castles within their own domains. As a knightly fief, Lee Jue’s territory did not qualify.

Even if he had the money to build one in secret, it would still be forbidden, because doing so would challenge the noble hierarchy recognized throughout the Sea Serpent Kingdom.

If a knight violated the law and built a castle on his land, the other nobles nearby who learned of it would surely have no objection to judging him under the pretext of defending the kingdom’s system—and then dividing up the knight’s territory and fortune among themselves.

Inside the villa, Lee Jue sat in the principal seat. Captain Rama, Muel, and the others stood behind him, while Short stood opposite him.

“Tell me what condition my domain is currently in.”

Lee Jue leaned back in his chair and spoke with a hint of languor.

“Your Highness Trennell, your knightly fief contains three villages, with a total population of 1,023, as well as three thousand nags of land, including the area around the Wisteria River. Last year, when your territory was still administered directly by the earldom, its grain production was…”

Short seemed to have prepared for Lee Jue’s questions in advance. He pulled a notebook from his pocket and began reading from it.

Lee Jue listened to the report with mounting boredom.

“At present, your domain has one reeve—that is, myself—one treasurer, one warden, three village chiefs, and thirty militiamen…”

“Disband the thirty militiamen.”

Lee Jue interrupted him.

“They won’t be needed.”

Page 3 of 3

Lee Jue added another sentence.

“But… even if you possess a nest and have no fear for your own safety, if trouble breaks out in your domain after the militia is disbanded, who will maintain order?”

Short hesitated before speaking.

“Captain Rama brought one hundred elite soldiers from the earldom this time, and they have accompanied me here. Do you really think those militiamen could be stronger than the family’s elite troops?”

Lee Jue looked at Short with a smile.

“Of… of course not.”

Short answered.

“Where are the documents concerning the domain kept?”

Lee Jue asked.

“Before you arrived at your loyal domain, I had already transferred all the domain’s documents to this villa where you are staying.”

“They are in this room.”

Short pointed toward a room on the first floor.

“Captain Rama, take some men and assume direct responsibility for the defenses of the three villages. Keep watch over the entire domain. Do not allow a single person to leave.”

“Muel, take the scholars the family sent with me and inspect every account in the domain. Check them one by one, and report every suspicious account to me.”

“At the same time, Captain Rama, spare a few more soldiers to search the homes of every official in the domain. Investigate them thoroughly for any signs of embezzlement or bribery.”

“And one more thing…”

After hearing this string of orders, Short stared at Lee Jue in stunned disbelief.

“Mr. Short, as the reeve, I assume you are an incorruptible official with nothing to fear from an inspection, correct?”

After issuing his orders, Lee Jue looked at Short with a smile.

“Yes. Your Lordship is absolutely right.”

Short forced a smile that looked worse than tears.