For
Since returning to the family's territory from Shilowas Island, Lorist had been busy dealing with these affairs. Great Swordmaster Kruder and Instructor Anfia, the married couple, declined Lorist's offer to personally escort them. Instead, they took a few instructors from
Lorist had originally wanted them to establish the academy in Northsea City, but unexpectedly, on the ship back to Northland, Baron Kenes, Baron
For Dawn Academy, Northland alone had 1.2 million people within the Norton Family's territory, and with the territories of Count Kenes, Baron Filim, and Baron Shahin, there were roughly another 800,000 or so. If Dawn Academy were to open in Northland, student enrollment would absolutely not be an issue—selecting one in a thousand would yield at least two thousand new students.
Moreover, after years of development in Northland, not only were the Norton Family's subjects prosperous, but the people of the other three territories also enjoyed relatively comfortable lives. Everyone had adopted Lorist's approach—prioritizing commerce and industry rather than squeezing money from their own subjects. So for most commoners, pooling the family's resources to put one child through school was entirely feasible.
For these four noble families of Northland, what they lacked most was talent—educated, knowledgeable people. Dawn Academy was a comprehensive institution ranked in the top ten on the Galentea Continent. The students it produced were both scholarly and martial. If it opened in Northland, never mind providing each family with the talent they needed, simply taking over the burden of cultivating each family's own talent would relieve them of a tremendous load. That was why Count Kenes and the others were so eager.
At the end of October, after about a month of scouting in Northland, Great Swordmaster Kruder's party returned to Rock Fortress. Count Kenes, Baron Shahin, and Baron Filim came along as well, because the location Great Swordmaster Kruder had chosen turned out to be at the foot of Mount Bin. This area was not currently within any of the four families' territories—or rather, it was a region that had yet to be developed.
Great Swordmaster Kruder had likely chosen this spot precisely for that reason. Another factor was that Mount Bin happened to be at the center of the four territories, roughly equidistant from each. Great Swordmaster Kruder said that establishing Dawn Academy here was meant to recruit students from all across Northland, showing no favoritism toward any single family.
After deliberating with Count Kenes and the others, Lorist immediately designated an area the size of a barony at Mount Bin as the new site for Dawn Academy. All four noble families co-signed the deed, gifting the land to Dawn Academy. At the same time, they jointly pledged one million gold Fordes in funding—the Norton Family contributing half, the Kenes Family contributing thirty percent, and the Filim and Shahin Families each contributing ten percent—as construction capital for Dawn Academy's establishment in Northland.
Once this matter was settled, Great Swordmaster Kruder and his party hurried back to Morant City to begin the relocation. The following year, the Norton Family's transport fleet would be extremely busy, spending an entire year moving everything belonging to Dawn Academy to Northland. Perfectly replicating Dawn Academy in Northland would take considerable time. Lorist estimated it would be at least two years before the academy could begin enrolling and teaching students in Northland.
Lorist resumed his document processing work. Sometimes, when he grew tired of reviewing, he would puzzlingly prop his feet up on the desk, lean back in his chair, and wonder: why was it that other transmigrators, upon arriving in another world, went on to dominate everywhere and cut such impressive figures? Even if they got a territory and focused on farming it, that only took a bit of lip service, and immediately their subordinates would put in the effort to get everything done—no supervision needed. How was it that he, on the other hand, had to exhaust himself both mentally and physically and still manage to mess everything up? Other transmigrators' subjects were all well-behaved like NPCs, doing whatever they were told without ever causing trouble for their lord.
He picked up another document from his desk and read it through again. Lorist frowned, drew a circle on it, and wrote a line: "Heinous crime. Execution warranted!" This was the first murder case to occur in the family's territory. It had only been a few years, and now that people were well-fed and warmly clothed, all sorts of trouble started emerging. Two neighbors had gone into business together, opening a beef offal snack shop. They made good money over two years. Then Person A began an affair with Person B's wife. The two plotted together, smothered the drunken Person B to death, and dumped his body in a well to make it look like he had accidentally drowned.
Such a case would normally have been covered up without anyone knowing. But Person A then brazenly moved in with Person B's wife—while Person B's corpse was still laid out in the front hall, not yet cremated. This aroused the neighbors' suspicions. Word reached the patrol squad, and the adulterous pair were arrested. They insisted that Person B had simply fallen into the well by accident. In the end, it was Kriston—the former constable of White Bird Town on Shilowas Island, now the Norton Family's Chief Criminal Director—who uncovered the evidence.
The first murder case. The adulterous pair were sentenced to hanging. All that remained was Lorist's approval.
Sigh—how exhausting! The larger the territory and the more people there were, the more problems arose. When Kriston had come to report this case earlier, he pointed out that the family lacked investigative personnel. While every town had a patrol squad, they were only good at maintaining order—breaking up fights, catching petty thieves—with absolutely no experience in criminal cases, and often making things worse. Furthermore, as far as he knew, several towns in the more recently developed areas like Fengle Plains and Xing'an Plains had already seen the emergence of underground gangs. The family needed to take early action to crush these illegal organizations in their infancy.
Additionally, Kriston recommended that the family draft a new criminal code as soon as possible to keep pace with the territory's development. When the family's territory had fewer people, using the family's traditional customs as governance had been acceptable. But now that the population had reached over 1.2 million, lacking a comprehensive legal code would inevitably lead to chaos.
Sigh... Lorist felt like he had used up a lifetime's worth of sighs in this short period. Which other transmigrator was entangled in trivialities like this? Thinking back to those web novels he used to read in his previous life, other transmigrators could mobilize thirty thousand people to build a wall fifty meters high, fifty meters wide, and five hundred li long—in just three months, no less. They could even command a hundred thousand iron cavalry, hiding them in a small town for a month until the enemy fell into their trap. Or they'd pull a coin purse from their robes and toss it on the table to settle the bill: "Three thousand taels of silver—keep the change!"
Compared to other transmigrators, he was hopelessly inadequate! They could maintain vast harems of dozens or even hundreds of beauties without a single problem, and here he was with only five, already feeling overwhelmed.
Over the past two months, Lorist had made a trip to Maple Forest Manor and then visited the Niko Academy. After returning to Rock Fortress, the three Dinah women were consumed with jealousy—the aunt and two nieces joined forces to wring Lorist dry. The young aunt, Diliana, was thinking about bearing Lorist a child so she'd have someone to rely on in old age. But the eldest Miss Dinah, Adori, had more ambitious designs—she wanted to push her own sister into the position of principal wife. In her mind, the woman at Maple Forest Manor was a former maid-servant, of far lower status than her own sisters. The one at Niko Academy was a bookworm who had voluntarily given up the position of lawful wife. She herself and her aunt had unpleasant pasts and little hope, but her sister Fennagali was pure and innocent—she had given her first time to Lorist, and being dismissed with just a concubine's status was far too insulting.
Lorist found Adori's relentless pestering to be a headache. He couldn't scold his own women too harshly, but Fennagali actually satisfied him quite well. The second Miss Dinah didn't share her sister's ambition—as long as she had fine food, fine clothes, fine things, and could enjoy herself as she pleased, she was content.
But people could change. Like Elina at Maple Forest Manor—what had once been a small maid-servant was now a proper noblewoman, imperious and commanding. At Maple Forest Manor, she was the mistress, and no one dared defy her wishes. Lorist finally understood why Elina had insisted on never leaving Maple Forest Manor. If she went with him, she was merely a concubine. But there, she was the mistress. That the trembling little maid in his arms had developed such cunning truly took him by surprise.
Ten years had passed, and Elina was only twenty-seven—the most beautiful and alluring age for a woman. And she was particularly skilled in bed, giving Lorist immense pleasure. Perhaps because she had borne Lorist two sons, Elina was no longer the timid figure she once was before him. She had learned to act coy and throw little tantrums, and would even demand gifts from Lorist.
But those two sons gave Lorist no end of grief. The younger was only a year and a half old, at the age of crawling everywhere. Apart from clinging to Elina to sleep at night, he had no other faults. The older one, however, was nearly eight and misbehaved beyond all bounds. As Lorist's eldest son and the current first in the line of succession for the family, this boy had been spoiled into a little tyrant by everyone at Maple Forest Manor. He demanded that everything go his way, and threw tremendous fits when it didn't. Lorist had endured it and endured it, but finally, when he caught the boy sliding his hand under a young maid-servant's apron to grope her backside, he could restrain himself no longer. He grabbed the boy and gave him a thorough beating that left the child screaming for his parents, his backside swollen for seven or eight days.
The beating had been satisfying in the moment, but the aftermath was utterly frustrating. Not only did Elina weep and wail before him, but the boy cried every time he saw Lorist and refused even to call him "Father," his eyes filled with nothing but hatred. This boy couldn't stay at Maple Forest Manor any longer—otherwise he was bound to become a wastrel and a profligate.
Lorist felt he was a very failed father, but he had no choice. The family had come this far and could not do without him. With the territory's affairs binding him so completely, his son's education had truly become a major problem. Ah, yes—Lorist recalled something. This trip to Maple Forest Manor had two purposes: to see Elina and his two sons, and to retrieve Heracles—his deceased elder brother's illegitimate son, whom he had placed in the care of Knight Pacheco to raise as his own.
After this year, Heracles would turn twelve. According to their agreement, he would leave Pacheco's household. Lorist planned to send him to the Niko Academy for a few years of study, and when he turned fifteen, bring him back to his side to train personally. Whether to learn the family's Red Blood
Unfortunately, Knight Pacheco had taken leave to go into seclusion in preparation for advancing to the Gold rank. Otherwise, Lorist would have very much liked to entrust his eldest son to him as well. But after more thought—no. He couldn't keep having Pacheco raise his family's children. Besides, Pacheco's home was at Maple Forest Manor, and that eldest boy of his wasn't the least bit afraid of the couple. He needed someone more formidable to keep the boy in line.
After much deliberation, Lorist thought of Iron Face Malek. The family's
After making his decision, Lorist wrote a letter summoning Malek back from Shilowas Island. He entrusted his eldest son to Malek and, ignoring Elina's tearful protests, had Malek take the boy away. Malek didn't mince matters. He hauled the young master to his family's knight estate on Xing'an Plains and handed the boy to his wife, saying: "This is an orphan of a fallen comrade. He's been naughty out in the world and a compulsive liar—claims he's the lord's eldest son, running scams left and right. I was worried something would happen to him, so I brought him back for proper discipline..."
His wife believed every word. After Malek clapped his hands clean and headed back to Shilowas Island, the Norton Family's eldest young master, crying and wailing that he was the lord's eldest son and demanding to return to Maple Forest Manor, prompted Malek's wife to think he was trying to escape. She gave him a severe thrashing with birch rods. And so the young master began to behave...
The affairs at Maple Forest Manor left Lorist in low spirits. Elina, especially after her eldest son was sent away, gave Lorist nothing but cold looks and refused to share his bed. Lorist could only swallow his frustration and leave Maple Forest Manor. Before departing, he warned Elina: if she wanted to bring the eldest young master back, that was fine—but he would strike the boy's name from the line of succession. Elina was frightened into tears, but she dared not disobey Lorist's wishes.
Then Lorist visited the Niko Academy. Miss Teresse rejected his advances, saying she would devote all her energy to academic research—with the exception of their two daughters, of course. Lorist could only spend a few days with his daughters, leave Heracles at the academy as well, and return in a sulk to Rock Fortress—only to be greeted by the three bottles of vinegar from the three Dinah women...
Strange—how did other transmigrators manage their harems? He only had five women split across three locations, and it was already driving him to distraction. Especially now that children were involved, it was even more worrisome. Though he was busy running around, none of his four children were close to him. So how did other transmigrators, who were like stallions sowing their seed among every beauty they found—at least a dozen or more—manage it all? As the saying went, three women were like five hundred ducks. With over a dozen beauties in a harem, wouldn't it be absolutely deafening? How could any man stand it?
Lorist had his feet propped up on the desk, lost in idle musings, when Schward pushed the door open and walked in. Seeing Lorist's posture, he sighed: "Ah, my lord, you are a noble, a lord—you should carry yourself with dignity. What kind of image is this!"
Lorist said: "Nonsense—who else would barge in without knocking? The moment I hear a knock, I sit up straight. Out with it—what is it?"
"Ah, well—Princess Sylvia has come to Northland. We just received a messenger from the Kenes Family. She should arrive at our family's territory around noon the day after tomorrow," Schward replied.
...
(To be continued.)