Lord of Lowland

Chapter 17 The Earl's Mission

Earl Kasikkud smiled and said to Cecil, "The income of our Earl's Mansion mainly comes from our land in Capeda Province in the south of the Kingdom. Including your Lord's Knights, I, Kasikud All the territories of the De family are in this area.

What you need to go now is Kent County in Capeda Province, which is one of my domains, with 120 of my manors, including your knight's domain, where the lieutenant Henry used to be my father's confidant .But in recent years, he doesn't know whether he is getting old or something. In recent years, the tax burden he has collected has become less and less.Either there was a disaster here or there was a plague there. The surrounding counties were fine, only his territory was suffering from various disasters. He really treated me like a three-year-old child. "The earl suddenly laughed when he said this.

"Cecil, you should go to Kent to visit the agent now to see if the situation in the territory is really as bad as he said. By the way, help me check his accounts to see if there are any problems. If possible If you want, kill him. If you can do this, you will become Kent's acting magistrate."

After listening to the earl's narration, Cecil knew that he would be in a big trouble all of a sudden. Cecil had heard about the system of deputy officials and nobles in the Soloran Kingdom before when he knew the background of the game, but because he was too confused The Luke Empire didn't have such a system, so Cecil didn't really care about it.Now when he heard that the earl had handed over such a difficult matter to himself, Cecil's head was dizzy.

In fact, it starts with the founding of the Soloran Kingdom. The current Soloran Kingdom is the eighth king. When the first king was the king, the kingship was extremely powerful. In order to control the lords of the country, the king at that time Forcing all the nobles with fiefdoms to live in the royal city, on the one hand, it prevents the dukes and marquises who own a large amount of land from supporting themselves and dominating one side, and on the other hand, it also allows these nobles to live in the royal city. The unprecedented prosperity of commerce has quickly turned into a giant city. The commercial tax collected by the king from the royal city has accounted for 1/4 of the national tax revenue every year, so the fiefdoms of the nobles in other places are all appointed by the nobles To expropriate, over time, the rights of these acting officials will be enormous.You can even become the local emperor. When the king governs the kingdom, sometimes he can even bypass the nobles and directly contact these deputy officials, but fortunately, the appointment power of these deputy officials rests with the nobles.The nobles can replace those deputy officials who have lost control over time and alienated the nobles.But when it was the second king, in order to further strengthen the royal power, he wanted to take back the right to appoint officials of all generations. This was tantamount to making enemies of all the nobles, so it was unclear why the king died.But in the third generation of kings, the king still did not give up on this idea. Later, there was a long quarrel between the king and the nobles, just in time for the invasion of the orc kingdom in the north. Under the mediation of the temple, the third generation king and the nobles reached a mediation .The lifelong system of acting officials has been implemented, that is, the right to appoint acting officials is still in the hands of the nobles of the territory, but the term of office of acting officials is lifelong. Before the death of this acting official, the lord of the territory cannot appoint a new acting official.

In this way, acting as an acting official becomes a complex power game. When a large noble appoints an acting official, he will often choose his most loyal subordinate, but from then on he loses the right to control this subordinate. Even in the center, once acting as an acting official for a long time, he becomes The local emperors who had conquered a certain country would also have evil intentions, withhold annual taxes and rents, line their own pockets, and secretly cultivate their own power. Many generation officials became local gangsters.Even if he dies, he will leave behind a huge political force, making it more difficult for the new agent to control the place.

In short, after the appearance of this proxy system, intricate relationships were formed between the king, the nobles, and the proxy.Generally speaking, the king usually prefers to help the nobles to suppress the nobles, but when the power of the contemporary officials is really great enough to replace the nobles, the king will help the nobles get rid of the nobles. Places become private domains.Otherwise, wouldn't it mean that the front door beats the wolf and the back enters the tiger?Moreover, once this kind of down-and-up thing happened, it would be the king at the top who would suffer the most damage.Therefore, for the king, acting officials are only a means to weaken the nobles, and will never really help acting officials replace the nobles.

Although Cecil has traveled through time, he still has the mentality of a player. Although he has experienced a very cruel battle, it was also a real fight. It is really not what he wants to engage in such a vertical and horizontal political struggle. long.What's more, it also involves activities such as assassination, although the Earl promised himself a very generous reward.But it's not what I want.My original goal was to improve my strength first, and then become a real noble in an upright and dignified way. Because of the regulations of the kingdom, real nobles (at least barons) cannot hold the position of deputy official, and deputy official can never become a real noble, so Although becoming a deputy officer brings great benefits and the actual power will be greatly increased, in Cecil's eyes, he will never have the opportunity to achieve success and will never be able to become a true noble.

Thinking of this, Cecil respectfully said to the earl: "It's really shameless for such an officer to be so. You and your father have valued him so much for two generations, Mr. Earl. It's really a crime for him to be so perfunctory to you." Forgiveness, I will go to investigate this matter thoroughly. If this matter is true, I will definitely deal with this person severely to repay the trust of the earl. But it is not necessary to become a new deputy. Managing places is not my strong point, I still I am willing to follow the earl on the saddle and make meritorious service on the battlefield."

The count laughed, very satisfied with Cecil's answer.Said: "If that's the case, then I won't force it. It's getting late, so you should go home early and have a rest."

After speaking, the two walked out of the study and returned to the hall. The count's daughter Ofelina was still reading a book boredly by the big table in the hall.After picking it up, the count said, "Ophelina, Cecil is going back, you go see him off."

Cecil was quite surprised by the earl's arrangement, so Fiorina and Cecil walked out of the earl's mansion and walked into the manor.Cecil had never been in such close contact with a woman before. Walking side by side with Fiorina, a girlish aura rushed over his face, and Cecil suddenly felt a little intoxicated.

Ophelina suddenly spoke at this moment: "Cecil, do you still remember Talis?"

Talis?Isn't that my past fiancée?When Cecil heard her asking this question, his face changed a little: "Of course I remember, I saw Viscount Darcy at his funeral a few days ago."

"Really, Talis and I are best friends. She became a knight taught by the champion knight of Roint a year ago because of her excellence, and then fell in love with Darcy, who was still an apprentice knight at that time." Ofelina Then he said.

Cecil didn't say anything and could only listen quietly.

"At that time, Talis was very distressed. One was whether Darcy's family could accept him, and the other was the issue of her marriage contract with you." Ofelina continued.

"At that time, my father and I helped out. My father went to Duke Elt and acted as a matchmaker for Duke Elt to accept Talis. I tried hard to persuade her father to break off the engagement with your family."

Cecil suddenly felt a little uncomfortable when he heard this.

But Ofilina continued: "Your behavior was indeed a bit out of line at that time. What you did was completely contrary to the manners of a knight. My father used this as an excuse to give you a letter of reprimand, and then we gave the news to Talis's father made him make up his mind to renege on the marriage."

Cecil was extremely angry when he heard this: "Thank you for your outspokenness, miss. I now fully understand what is going on. I always thought that it was because of my unruly behavior that I received the Earl's scolding letter. I I was still deeply repenting at first, but I just found out today that you did this intentionally to undermine my self-confidence, and then let me be immersed in self-blame and unable to resist when Baron Cuesta came to regret my marriage? You are really thinking carefully. Is it just to let Talis climb into the Duke's house? That's really great."

"Don't say that about Cecil. The end of this incident is a tragedy. Darcy died to save you."

"Yes, Darcy is dead. He died like a hero. This young master robbed me, a country bumpkin, for his fiancée. I should have hated him, but now I don't even have the right to hate him, because he came to save me. Damn it. Do you know how I feel now? I feel like a clown and a complete wimp."

"Also, why do you tell me this? Are you telling me this to humiliate me? Or to show your sincerity to me? I don't need it. If I can, I'd rather not know. You don't have to send me Now, I can go by myself."

After finishing speaking, Cecil turned around and ran away. Ofelina smiled and returned to the building.

When Ofelina returned to the mansion, the Earl was waiting for her to come back.

"Well, tell him the matter?" asked the count

"Yes, Pa, I told him, and he was furious, and fired up like a charging bull, and not at all a gentleman."

"Haha, young people are young, they always look like this. My daughter has been wronged." The earl comforted.

"But Dad, why tell him? As he said, it's better not to tell him, right?"

"There is no impenetrable wall in the world. This matter cannot be concealed. It is better for us to tell him than for him to find out from other places. I did not expect that his progress in this month would be so fast. Just now I promised him to become a deputy official." He actually refused. I could see that his ambition was to become a real nobleman. I really wanted to see how far this magical young man could go.

(End of this chapter)