Dear Broom Knight.

Chapter 905 First, get your brother out.

Of course, Brutus paid special attention to the location of his foolish younger brother.

The woman that the silly child is paying attention to is indeed very suspicious.

After all, even if the others didn't have any ill intentions, they certainly wouldn't be able to remain calm after discovering Yuri's sudden arrival.

In this hall, there is no one below the level of a professional.

Even the waiters carrying trays inside were proper knights.

For this banquet, the Edwards family even brought almost half of their knightly order that guarded their territory.

Fortunately, their territory was actually quite close... Edwards was a clever man who chose a relatively barren territory in order to be closer to the capital.

Of course, the Marquis Edwards was indeed very confident at the beginning, after all, he was closely united around His Majesty the King and was one of the commanders of the Royal Guard.

Although not palace guards, they are still guardians of the inner city.

His son also gained a foothold in the king's army and had no worries about not being able to support a small territory.

As for whether they could afford to support their own knightly order... In their eyes, the Northern Kingdom must be the strongest country in the world for thousands of years to come, so how could it possibly encounter any danger so close to the capital!
That's certainly true.

Unfortunately, the White Dragon invasion occurred, and the Marquis Edwards, who was in his prime at the time, along with his heir, perished on the battlefield following his loyal king.

The territory economy, which was already barely maintained by the lords paying out of their own pockets, collapsed completely.

Although the knights of the territory kept their promise, even though their wages were often delayed, they did not abandon the poor, newly-adult marquis.

She even tried her best to stop the young marquis's mother from using her dowry to support the knights.

Anyway, the king's pension will still be paid out without any reduction... but the Northern Kingdom lost too many noble knights during that period, so the Ministry of Finance couldn't pay out the money once a year, and could only send it out once every three months.

Sometimes it has to be delayed.

If this money is used to maintain the castle, the knights will have to wait six months to receive their wages.

Everyone needs to support their families.

Even if one accepts that their abilities may not have the opportunity to continue growing, no one can bear to watch their children go hungry.

If in the past there were still reserve knights with decent strength who were willing to join the Edwards family, then after that... only those children that the royal army could not accept and who could not find any other way out would join the Territory Knights.

From then on, things went from bad to worse.

Even if a few marquises manage to make a name for themselves, they still have to first develop their own territories, establish some handicrafts based on those territories, or purchase some real estate in the capital... All of the previous ones were sold off by the heartbroken and bewildered young marquises long ago.

Of course, he was also mainly unlucky; the king he encountered was the one who had ruined the Gezar family.

He was stubborn and had no conscience; the war compensation was delayed for several years before it was finally paid out.

Unable to bear seeing the families of the knights who had died alongside his father and brothers fall into hardship, the young marquis had no choice but to shoulder the burden himself.

As for the subsequent pension payments, the young marquis could not possibly accept them himself.

At that time, the nobles, who had already determined that the current king's thinking was somewhat strange, would not leave him even the slightest 'suspected' crime.

It's better to lose money than to be seen as corrupt by some self-righteous king.

That guy really doesn't care about the facts at all; he just acts according to his own thoughts.

Most importantly, even when he knows he's wrong, he won't change.

The Gezar family's unfortunate example is there for all to see; nobody wants to be associated with them.

Even when the families came to repay the money themselves, the young marquis 'screamed' and refused.

Even if someone feels uneasy, they can't possibly repay the money just to put their mind at ease, once they realize that doing so will only cause trouble for the lord.

It's not a bad thing.

But they did indeed follow Edwards faithfully for generations.

They just don't have much new talent, but their core base remains very stable.

As long as the head of the family is capable, everyone can make some money.

This is also why, when the current Marquis Edwards took over the family, although the family was in dire straits, at least there was still some foundation for development.

Then, based on that knightly order that was always on the verge of collapse and barely surviving, he built a formal knightly order that was commensurate with the size of a marquis's family.

Not a single Edwards would doubt the loyalty of the knights who had followed his family for tens of thousands of years without wavering.

Of course, these people were a bit of a stretch as waiters, since they didn't know how to smile politely or bow to people.

But it was enough to leave those who wanted to stir up trouble momentarily at a loss when facing them.

Some behaviors, even if they are impolite to ordinary people, are... well, what can ordinary people do about it?

Even if the patriarch is the famously benevolent Lord of Qingfeng Territory, he can at most slap the person who attacked him twice, but he cannot force him to apologize to the weak.

Doing that might seem impressive, but it actually offends the vast majority of professionals. Do they work so hard to climb the ladder just to be treated the same as ordinary people?

Even the fairest god wouldn't dare say such a thing.

Even in Qingfeng Territory, salaries can only be paid according to rank!

Even the fairest world cannot be without hierarchy; at most, it can maintain the living standards and seemingly good treatment of ordinary people.

A place that provides ordinary people with a path to upward mobility is already their greatest aspiration.

For example, there's Qingfeng Territory, which also ranks ordinary people according to their skill level.

It may seem like it's categorizing ordinary people into different classes, but in reality, it gives them something to strive for in life.

At least their lives didn't become stagnant after the awakening array passed by.

Marquis Edwards was very interested in the practice of Green Maple Territory, and he introduced it to his own caravan as well... which indeed brought a lot of vitality to the caravan.

Even if all they're arguing about is who can calculate faster and more accurately.

This alone would be enough to persuade some knights who still cared for their families to choose to join the Edwards family.

Otherwise, his father wouldn't have been able to spare so many knights to do the work.

There's no way around it; having your own people do certain things is a sign of trust, but having ordinary employees do them is an insult.

Like the Knights Edwards who come and go in the hall, doing their waiters' work with great enthusiasm, even hoping that someone would 'insult' them... those who have just been hired from outside might not be able to do it so easily.

But precisely because these knights' expectations were so obvious, none of them actually made a move... even though they were about to get two slaps in return.

Brooks' main purpose in welcoming Yuri by opening the mural wall was to express the Edwards family's gratitude and loyalty.

Yuri did indeed do everything a superior could do, and His Majesty Leon, who allowed him to do so, also showed the utmost sincerity.

But can the Edwards family just accept this so easily?
Even if every step is the same, you can still make a few slight changes.

No one could say anything, after all, the welcoming ceremony hadn't changed much.

But the specially lowered magic wall still provided Yuri with a unique opening.

Incidentally, it also allowed Brutus to see the energy fluctuations of everyone in the hall by the instantaneous burst of spiritual light from the magic circle on the wall.

The greater the emotional fluctuations, the stronger the reaction.

When most people are in a similar psychological state, energy really does fluctuate like ocean waves.

Those that jump particularly high will naturally attract attention.

But those who don't jump at all are even more terrifying.

As always, Wyatt used his unparalleled judgment to choose the lowest point of the peak.

Seriously... that's weird!
Brutus had no energy to pay attention to the infighting among the big shots. In any case, those old guys combined couldn't outmaneuver Yuri's scholars, and his father had clearly sided with Yuri, playing the role of a supporter very well.

It was thanks to the arrogance of the Storm Nobles that Edwards had such a good opportunity to express his opinion.

But Brutus would never thank them.

For that younger brother who dances on the edge of danger... Ah! What is he doing there?

Brutus snapped his eyes shut, trying to convince himself that the foolish man carrying a half-open rose and radiating sultry aura at the lady wasn't his own brother.

Wyatt, you're really asking for it!
“David…” Brutus, who felt completely powerless for a moment, decided to rescue the other person who had just joined in the fun first. “Think of a way to get your brother out.”

Be subtle, be natural.

David paused for a moment, then immediately understood.

His father wanted him to use the methods of young people.

"Uncle...?" he asked hesitantly.

He knew from a young age that if his uncle continued to live a dissolute life, he would be the one to cover up his uncle's past misdeeds.

David, who only knew about Wyatt's apparent wealth, was able to genuinely accept this outcome entirely because his uncle had doted on him and his brother since childhood.

It could even be described as pampering.

If Brutus hadn't been watching closely, Wyatt would have almost taken them to see Luscania in the palace.

Simply because they wanted to get up close to the flying dragon after seeing it.

Otherwise, who would take on such a huge responsibility for such a small amount of property?

David's mother had said long ago that she would divide her dowry in two, with the two brothers sharing it equally.

When Brutus married, the Edwards family had already risen to prominence again. Although they couldn't marry the daughters of the highest-ranking noble families... well, not that they couldn't marry them, but the Edwards family couldn't reach the level of the more outstanding ones.

(End of this chapter)