Unknown Knight

Aix, who had been full of energy for the past two days, suddenly fell ill when he returned to Talboliya. He only said that his wounds hurt and he had a headache. He couldn't even get out of the car. He was pushed to the door of the lord's castle and then carried into the house.

After James examined him, he found his wound to be quite scary, nearly two inches long. After a careful examination, he found that the wound was healing well, without any signs of pus or inflammation. Finally, James concluded that the pain might be caused by the accelerated healing of the wound inside, and the headache might be caused by the recent high stress. If it really couldn't be relieved, he could only try bloodletting.

Catherine rushed over after hearing the news. After taking a look, she also said that the wound was healing well and there was no serious problem. As for the headache, she couldn't say anything.

In short, these two best doctors in the territory, one had an evil treatment method, and the other had limited ability, which made Aix "inevitably" sick for several days.

Until this day, the official announcement made by the lord in Wocheze and Miss Gangde spread widely and reached the ears of Yamila and Cress. Under the severe questioning of the two women, Aix's condition improved rapidly.

The side effect of this rapid recovery was that Miss Yamila developed acute avoidance disorder and moved to the valley in a fit of anger, while Miss Cress developed acute aphasia and would not say a word to him all day.

In desperation, Aix had to choose to stay in the unfinished villa, for fear of meeting an acquaintance and not knowing how to explain. However, the core members of the territory would not allow him to play ostrich anymore, and there were many things that needed him to decide.

Especially the more than 100 people who came back with him. These people were said to be the lost clansmen of the lord. After Amanti and Old John arranged some tasks for them, they did it. However, they didn't know whether the arrangements were to Aix's liking. Moreover, it was difficult for them to communicate verbally, and many things could not be arranged.

As a last resort, a group of core members came together that night and blocked Axe at home. Axe had to organize a small meeting for everyone. Fortunately, although Axe did not go out during this period, he was not completely idle. He thought a lot about the construction of the territory.

First came the report from Archon Amanti. He informed everyone of the recent progress of various tasks in the territory: the first phase of the project (inner village) has been basically completed, including the city wall, and the second phase of the project (outer village) has also been constructed as planned, and the overall progress is close to halfway.

Finally, there is the issue of wasteland reclamation. The original planned 1000 acres of wasteland outside the village have been reclaimed. Yamanti means to reclaim another 1000 acres of wasteland outside the village.

At this point, Aix interrupted Amanti's proposal. The reason was that Talboliya was a village on a hillside. The nearby arable land was sloping and not suitable for reclamation. There were also many stones of different sizes on it that needed to be cleared, making reclamation difficult. Aix planned to reserve the remaining wasteland near the village as a pasture to graze cattle, sheep and horses on it, so that it could be put into use without consuming a large amount of manpower.

As for cultivating the land, Aix's opinion was that the terrain near the Black Forest at the foot of the mountain was relatively flat and without rocks, making it easy to cultivate. Aix decided to build a village of more than 100 people on the west and east, and then cultivate the land with the village as the center. He could also build some defense facilities as the outer barrier of Talboliya.

In the future, these two villages will serve as the grain production base of the territory, mainly planting grain crops. The arable land near the village of Tarbolya on the mountain, due to the lack of water sources and sufficient sunshine, will mainly plant economic crops such as grapes, olive oil, and medicinal herbs.

As soon as Aix's opinion was put forward, it was unanimously agreed by everyone. Before, they were not broad-minded and everything revolved around the village of Tarbolya, ignoring the various conditions and restrictions in the vicinity.

Then Old John reported on the population of the territory. In the more than one month since they were gone, the territory had gradually increased by more than 200 people. Now the population of the territory, plus the tribesmen brought back by Aix, has exceeded 900, and is about to break through the 1000 mark.

The food problem has always been tense. The food reserves in the warehouse are not enough to support the wheat harvest season. If the population remains unchanged, about 5 kilograms of food still need to be purchased. Fortunately, the gathering and hunting teams are very skilled in their operations, otherwise they would need more than 10 kilograms of food. In addition, the vegetables planted in the early stage can also be harvested, which further alleviates the food pressure.

After listening to the report on the main issues, Aix proposed that his people be organized into two separate resident groups. Since they did not speak the same language, it would be inconvenient to manage them if they were mixed with other groups, so he would be directly in charge. He also asked Amanti to vacate two groups in the settlement near the castle for them to live in, so that he could manage them nearby.

After the main issues were reported, Aix listened to reports on some minor issues, such as insufficient water in some places, conflicts between two residents' groups, etc. Aix dealt with them one by one.

When all the problems were basically dealt with, Bandak finally raised the issue of marriage with Iayayal, the lord of Wocheze City. Once this issue was raised, Aix, who was sitting in the lord's seat, rested his hands on the armrests and his head on his clenched left fist. He was petrified like a thinker and did not dare to look up at any other core members.

His silence did not mean that the matter could be brushed aside. On the contrary, a heated discussion ensued. Everyone divided into two factions, arguing fiercely over the matter. One faction was composed of Bandak, Catherine, and Desevi, who advocated that Aix should marry Jamila; the other faction was composed of Amanti, Fatis, and Manide, who advocated an alliance with Wocheze.

Both sides insisted on their own opinions and neither was willing to give in, which eventually led to a quarrel and even personal attacks. One side accused the other of being ungrateful and disregarding territorial unity; the other side accused the other of being conservative and not considering future development.

Seeing that the situation was becoming increasingly outrageous, Aix realized that if it continued like this, it would likely lead to internal division, so he had no choice but to punch the table to stop the quarrel.

In fact, he didn't want to be like this, but some things have been done and happened. It is not something he can decide, and avoiding it will not solve any problems.

In fact, he felt very guilty towards Old John and his daughter. After all, without them, he would have starved to death long ago, and he wouldn't have everything he has now. But because of everything he has now, he has to weigh the pros and cons and consider many aspects. After all, he is not alone now, there are nearly a thousand people who are closely related to him.

This matter is actually easy to solve. The key lies in the opinions of Old John and his daughter. Taking a deep breath, Axe said to Old John who was sitting next to him:

"Old John, I feel so ashamed of you and your daughter for this matter. Without you, I wouldn't be who I am today. So if you say one thing today and ask me to marry Yamila, I will say no. We came from nothing to begin with, and now we have such a large fiefdom. In the future, we can make a living just by farming and hunting.

So I want to hear your opinion. No matter what you say today, I will do it. After all, you saved my life, and I can't be ungrateful. "

Old John was looking at Aix with a smile, looking very relaxed. He stood up, limped over to Aix, patted Aix on the shoulder and said:

“Your Excellency, there is no need to be modest. I have saved your life, but that was just a matter of convenience. I chose you to lead the caravan because I hoped you could lead us all to find a way out, but I didn’t expect you to be able to do this. So your achievements today are due to your own abilities.

I never thought that my daughter would marry a lord in the future. But as a father, I hope that you and Yamila can be together. My legs are broken, and my biggest hope in this life is that I can help you take care of your children one day.

But I also know that although the territory seems to be thriving, it has great hidden dangers. Not only are Dilinard and Lady Anna eyeing us covetously, but Lord Eden of Tiha City probably also bears a grudge against us because of the snow salt incident. Even Chief Atis, Lord of Barie City who is far away in the sky, has sent assassins to kill you.

Moreover, the caravan has to hand over 1500 silver coins to King Harlaus and 1000 silver coins to King Ragnar every year. Once there is a problem with the supply of coarse salt and the snow salt business fails, we will be in a very difficult situation.

I have watched you lead us to where we are today, step by step. We have just had a few days of good life, and we, father and daughter, cannot hold you back, let alone drag down the people of the entire territory. So I agree to the marriage with Iaya, the Lord of Wocheze City."

He said the last few words while looking at Bandak and the others. After Old John finished speaking, Axe felt touched and sad. He stood up and gave him a deep hug. Only then did he realize that Old John, who used to be very strong, was now very weak.

After helping Old John back to his seat, Aix looked at Bandak and the others and said:

"I'm not an ungrateful person. As I said before, without Old John, we wouldn't have everything we have now. Since we're all gathered here today, let's discuss it together and see if there's any way to compromise. We can't treat them unfairly."

When Bandak and his companions saw that the parties had expressed their opinions, they stopped arguing and started discussing a compromise with others.

In fact, there was no restriction on monogamy in this era. It was normal for a capable lord to have several wives and lovers, but a family of marriage alliance could only have one legal wife, the partner of the marriage. Now, the legal wife definitely could not be Yamila.

After some discussion, everyone came to the conclusion that Aix must have more than one son with Yamila, and in the future one of the sons must be awarded at least the title of lord and be given a certain amount of territory as compensation.

Of course Aix agreed, and he also promised that as long as the sons were born to Yamila, he would try his best to give them at least the title of lord. Everyone ended the meeting happily.