MC's career as foreign lord

Of course, Zhou Ren didn't know what was happening outside. Just as he was preparing to eat lunch, he heard someone shouting loudly at the entrance of the territory.

He hurried over and saw the town chief's secretary standing at the gate, the one who had been shouting.

For a moment, Zhou Ren thought about getting something like a doorbell, otherwise yelling was inconvenient. He could ask about it later.

"Lord Zhou Ren, the town chief and the priest invite you to the church!" the secretary said, bowing slightly.

Zhou Ren was used to this superior status and nodded slightly, "Now?"

"Yes, as soon as possible!" the secretary said, glancing at the wall outside, "If it gets any later, the strong wind will start to blow!"

Zhou Ren nodded, "Then let's go!"

He was just about to have lunch, and now that the town chief had invited him, he couldn't possibly not feed him, right? He'd just freeload a meal!

Zhou Ren was in a good mood and naturally happy. The mercenaries walking past him also looked good, apparently having gained a lot from last night's victory.

Only little Leah was unhappy, sulkily practicing magic at the door. When she saw Zhou Ren come out, she waved excitedly, hoping he would rescue her from her misery.

Zhou Ren shrugged and spread his hands, clearly indicating his helplessness, which made the little girl turn her head back unhappily, giving him the back of her head.

On the other side, the little bear Dagger was sleeping in a tree, looking like a pine caterpillar, arching its body slightly, dreaming of something.

If it weren't for the mercenary guards standing watch, it would have been a leisurely and comfortable pastoral scene!

Zhou Ren curiously noticed that Anna hadn't returned since finding a place to build a new house. She seemed to be very busy!

For some reason, the secretary always looked very eager and busy. Although he was walking in front, he had unconsciously quickened his pace.

Fortunately, the town itself wasn't far away, and the two walked into the town along with the sparse flow of people.

Due to the strong winds and the invasion of wasteland monsters, there were obviously fewer ordinary people, but many more combat personnel. Zhou Ren heard their somewhat vulgar jokes, knowing that they were all here to make a fortune.

With more mercenaries, the security naturally deteriorated. Some soldiers in steel armor stood in the town maintaining order. Some of them emitted strange fluctuations, so there should be professionals among them.

It wasn't hard to understand. Since Val City wanted to protect this place, it would inevitably send people. These people couldn't all be ordinary soldiers; they would have to be led by professionals.

Their destination was the church. The current town hall was already piled high with a constant stream of supplies. Some town staff and priests were managing the supplies, while distributing rewards to the mercenaries who had goods.

It was truly a money offensive. If you want to motivate the mercenaries to work hard, you naturally need all kinds of rewards. These large quantities of rewards transported from Val City were the greatest hope for Pine Leaf Town to withstand this tide!

Zhou Ren looked at so many people and sighed, "Do you usually defend this place like this?"

The secretary nodded, "Yes, Lord. We have defended this town for twenty years. The glory of the Silver Moon Empire will continue to be spread here!"

These words didn't sound like Zhou Ren's impression of elves at all. There was no detachment from the world, but a boldness to rule everything!

Just like most elves live in houses, these elves are not the legendary elves who live in trees, but are very secularized.

Even the Church has become like this. Perhaps this is what they have learned in tens of thousands of years of war?

Zhou Ren and the secretary walked into the church together. It was very empty inside, with only four people. Zhou Ren knew three of them: Antinoya, Town Chief Locke, and the violent, muscular old priest, Father Havari!

The last person was a plump middle-aged human man. He smiled and greeted Zhou Ren, who returned a smile.

"Zhou! I didn't expect you to be the last person!" Anna said, her familiarity causing the people around her to be a little stunned.

But they were all old foxes who had been around for years, and their facial expressions were naturally very well-managed. The only one whose expression didn't change was Locke.

After all, he knew that Anna had bought land next to Zhou Ren's, and after hearing from the mercenaries that Zhou Ren was holding Anna's little niece, their relationship was clear to him.

"Since Lord Zhou Ren is here, we can say that everyone is here. Let's begin!" Locke's face was noticeably pale, indicating that last night's injuries were very serious.

First, she introduced the middle-aged man to Zhou Ren. His name was Brown Brian, and he was the leader of the Val City caravan and also the president of the mercenary guild temporarily stationed here.

Val City was also a little worried that it would be difficult to manage so many mercenaries here, so they found a special person to manage them.

Then, she introduced Zhou Ren, explaining the location of his territory and his heroic actions last night. This made Anna's beautiful eyes flicker, as expected, this man still had many secrets that hadn't been discovered.

Then, Father Havari introduced Anna. Her identity was an elven administrator, who could oversee all affairs in one place. In fact, she was more of a figurehead, but everyone had to express respect to her.

"You guys talk about your business, don't mind me. In a couple of days, my administrative power will be transferred to Shia, just wait!" Anna waved her hand, dropping another bombshell.

Brown was a little shocked and quickly asked, "Could it be Her Highness Princess Shia Amastacia, the first in line to the throne? The first ray of morning light under the starry moon—Her Royal Highness the First Princess?"

Anna nodded impatiently, "It's her. The other little ones are still studying at the Royal Academy, how could they possibly come here?"

Now the expressions of several people were a little strange. Of course, they knew what it meant for a princess, especially the First Princess, to come here.

But they couldn't participate in the high-level game, otherwise they might be directly purged, so they didn't say anything.

The elves have been fighting a civil war for more than 10,000 years, and it's nonsense to say that they are kind or gentle. The struggle for power has always been naked and bloody, so Father Havari cleverly changed the subject.

"Last night's attack was the most ferocious in the past twenty years, and this was only the first day. I'm afraid it will become more and more dangerous later!"

Locke nodded, "If Lord Zhou Ren hadn't taken action yesterday, I'm afraid I would have died in battle. There are already gnoll souls of Yeenoghu among the gnolls!"

"Yeenoghu? Has a demon lord of the Abyss joined in?" Brown's expression was grave. If the Abyss really joined, then it wouldn't be a problem of one city or one pool.

(PS: As usual, the Abyss Blood War is in the work related section)

Father Havali shook his head, "When I purified souls last night, I didn't sense any aura of the Abyss. It should just be the gnoll tribe acting on its own!"

Brown breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good, that's good. Without the Abyss involved, even if there are high-level professionals... as long as there aren't too many, we have ways to deal with it!"

Locke continued, "The monsters from last night have all been dealt with. Now we need to figure out how many tribes this wind brought to attack the town."

The scribe added, "It may be related to the orc migration and kobold gathering these past two days!"

Anna asked with interest, "Kobolds? I heard... didn't a two-headed giant come last night too?"

Zhou Ren realized something was off about their conversation. They seemed to be deliberately hiding the fact of the two-headed giant from Anna, which he found very interesting.

Sure enough, after Anna said that, the entire room fell into a deathly silence. The four people opposite her didn't seem to expect Anna to say it directly, and the atmosphere was a little awkward.

"Hmph! Boring humans and elves!" Anna snorted, glanced at Zhou Ren, and turned around to kick open the door.

Zhou Ren shook his head helplessly, "Mayor, Father, Guildmaster Brown, if anything happens, please let me know in advance. I should be around during the day!"

He also turned and walked out. In any case, he had to stay aligned with acquaintances, especially since his impression of Anna was already better due to Leah.

"Anna!" Zhou Ren chased after her, looking at Anna's smiling face, "Why did you suddenly run off?"

"You actually came!" Although she wasn't very happy, Anna was still quite pleased that someone was willing to stand on the same side as her.

"You guys are all riddlers. You know me, I don't understand a single thing you're saying!" Zhou Ren spread his hands helplessly.

Yeenoghu, demons, the Abyss, this bizarre wind, and even the two-headed giant... they must all be allusions, otherwise why would they break up unhappily?

Anna then smiled and nodded, "I forgot that you don't know anything about the situation here. Anyway, it's not very urgent today, how about we find a place to talk slowly?"

Zhou Ren nodded, "Let's find a place to eat, I came in a hurry and haven't eaten yet! How about we talk while we eat?"

"Haha! You really are different from the people here!" Anna laughed, "The nobles here would never do such a thing, they prefer to talk at cocktail parties."

Zhou Ren scoffed, "Talk on an empty stomach? Forget it, it's better to talk with energy after eating, isn't it?"

"That's true, your views are similar to those of my family!" Anna said, "Maybe you'll have common ground!"

The two arrived at a small tavern that wasn't very crowded. After Anna led Zhou Ren in, they immediately closed the door and lit the magic crystal lamp.

"Lady Antinorea, everything as usual?" A young elven waiter walked in and asked softly.

Anna nodded, "Two, as usual!"

Zhou Ren looked at the room, his expression a little surprised. This wasn't a small tavern at all, it was clearly a huge restaurant!

They walked through a parallel passage, watching everything in the other passages. Each room had different guests and elven waiters wearing almost identical clothes.

He could only see a general outline. When he tried to look closely, he could only see blurry shadows and nothing else.

"Where is this...?" Zhou Ren asked. He considered himself someone who had seen the world, but the scene here was too wonderful, wasn't it?

Anna looked at his surprised expression and couldn't help but feel that she had regained some ground, and said with a smile, "Don't worry, keep watching!"

The two walked through the illusory passage, watching the people coming and going, looking at the huge building that shuttled back and forth, as if living in a dream.

Finally, they settled down at the end of the passage, and the surrounding space and figures suddenly disappeared, leaving only architecture and environment filled with elven characteristics.

Zhou Ren sat on a wicker chair, surrounded by a circle of small, shadow-like elves. Green branches and leaves filled the space, making people feel happy.

The table in front of him looked like a large tree root, and the window on the side was ajar, seemingly not closed.

Anna saw that he had noticed this, smiled slightly, and reached out to open the wicker window.

After the window was opened, Zhou Ren expected a scene like the changing of the sea, a vastness like space travel, or even the excitement of overlooking the world, but unfortunately, none of them were!

He found himself floating in an endless silver ocean. Soft gray clouds moved slowly in the distance, and a strange black light band twisted violently in the air. Its two ends were so far away that people could not observe them, while its middle part surged violently like a rope rolling between a child's fingertips.

He looked around again, and there were no gaps around or under his feet, but they were filled with silver, strange pearl-like things.

However, just as Zhou Ren looked forward, the silver light seemed to envelop his eyes, making everything around him no longer illusory, but gradually becoming real and solid.

He was still sitting here, but he had just experienced a silver adventure, experiencing a strange world experience.

He even realized that he was not breathing air, but those silver particles, with a faint sweetness and a special bitterness, completely filling his lungs.

He seemed to have completely adapted to the environment here. This special feeling made him somewhat intoxicated, and he even immersed himself in simple breathing!

After a while, until Zhou Ren was familiar with the atmosphere, understood the spatial relationship and perception here, he slowly opened his mouth and looked at Anna and said.

"We're no longer in Pine Leaf Town, are we?"

"Smart!" Anna said, "Not to mention Pine Leaf Town, we're not even in the Prime Material Plane!"

"Prime Material Plane? Is that like a main world setting?" Zhou Ren thought, quietly looking at Anna, wanting to see how she would explain it.

"Welcome to Silvermoon City! The greatest city of the Elven race, a miraculous building created by dozens of legendary mages together, a paradise creation promised by the Elven gods!" Anna said.

Zhou Ren pointed to the silver outside and asked, "What is this?"

"This? It's the Astral Plane, or rather, the gap between the Astral Plane and Mount Celestia!"