Rose Empire

Volume 26: Chapter 23 Chapter The Truth and Old Friends (Revised)

When Celine woke up, it was already dusk outside the window.

Being in a strange environment, lying on a strange soft bed, Celine's thinking was a little slow for a moment. She stared at the food that the servant had already prepared at the bedside, in a daze.

"Do you want me to feed you?" A familiar voice sounded.

Hearing this voice, Xilin's body trembled: "No, no need."

But Charlotte had already picked up the exquisite porcelain bowl and handed a spoonful of stewed apple to Celine's mouth. Celine could only open her mouth and take a bite of the stewed apple.

"Really?" Charlotte put down the bowl and asked again.

"Well... I'm not hungry yet." Celine nodded, saying words that she herself didn't believe.

"Really?" Charlotte leaned over and touched Celine's lips with her finger. "You're not hungry, but I am a little hungry."

"Huh?" Celine didn't react for a moment.

However, Celine soon understood that what you feed to others can also be "eaten" back.

At midnight, Celine sat up at the head of the bed with her sore and painful body. She turned back to make sure Charlotte was asleep. She quickly picked up the cold stewed apple on the bedside table and ate it in two or three bites.

It was impossible not to be hungry; she hadn't eaten properly since yesterday.

Moreover, Celine felt a little dehydrated. When her calves touched the wetness on the bed, the girl couldn't help blushing in the dark. She couldn't imagine that she could be so embarrassing in bed.

Just when Celine wanted to drink some more milk to replenish her water, a soft little hand hugged her waist again.

Celine thought she had been miserable after a day of torment, but she didn't expect that she would spend the next day in bed as well.

On the third day, Celine learned from the lessons of the previous two days and prepared a cup of tea in advance and placed it beside the bed so that she could replenish water at any time.

On the fifth day, Celine felt that she had accumulated a lot of experience. She thought that with her physical fitness, she would be able to turn the situation around after getting familiar with the "battlefield". However, the reality proved that the damned Charlotte had many tricks in bed that she had not yet used, and Celine was no match for her.

Seven days later, Charlotte finally told Celine that she had released Ed Adkins and that Celine could go home at any time to see if Ed Adkins was safe and confirm whether she had kept her promise.

Celine immediately decided to go home. She didn't want to stay in the castle any longer.

Putting on her gray leather armor again, Celine felt unprecedented peace of mind. She had hardly worn any clothes in the past seven days.

But after getting on the horse, Celine suddenly felt a little uncomfortable between her legs. She didn't dare to whip the horse all the way. The journey that was supposed to start early in the morning and could be completed before noon, but this time Celine took most of the day to walk.

"Celine, how come you have time to go home today?"

Ed Adkins, who was practicing swordplay in his yard, said happily when he saw his daughter come home.

Xilin jumped off the horse and asked her father as soon as she saw him. "Father, did that guy abuse you?"

"Which guy is going to abuse me?"

"That Charlotte Mellerfield!"

"Why did the Viscount abuse me?"

"Didn't she put you in the dungeon?"

Celine gradually realized that something seemed to be wrong.

"Why did she put me in the dungeon? Besides, the Viscount Castle is not very large, and there is actually no dungeon."

Ed Adkins also kindly explained something to his daughter.

"It doesn't matter whether there is a dungeon or not!" Celine stared at her father and wanted to ask a serious question, "Where did you go the day after the dinner? Why didn't you go home with everyone else?"

"The Viscount kept me here to discuss the formation of a territorial guard and the issue of preparing for the tribesmen in winter. Oh, that guy Eric Scamario was there too, so I didn't go home until the afternoon," said Ed Adkins.

Celine stood there in a daze, her face gradually turning red from her neck to her cheeks.

I was deceived, and deceived so badly, for seven whole days...

Suddenly, Shilin turned around and drew her greatsword from the saddle.

"Eh? Why are you going?"

Ed Adkins asked.

"I'm going to kill Charlotte!"

Celine held the sword in one hand and grabbed the saddle with the other, ready to mount the horse and fight back.

Ed Adkins quickly stopped his daughter and said, "Let's not talk about whether you can beat the Three-Winged Knight. The Viscount is your lord. How can you kill your lord?"

"Don't call her Viscount. Charlotte Mellefield is a big liar! A shameless liar!"

Ed Adkins was wondering why Celine suddenly had such a strong grudge against Charlotte. Didn’t Charlotte say before that they hit it off right away?

"How did Lady Charlotte lie to you?"

Xilin blushed and hesitated for a long time before she said, "She lied to me and said that she locked you up and forced me to be her servant. If I didn't become her servant, she wouldn't let you go."

"So that's how it is," Ed Adkins said with a smile, "It seems that the Viscount really likes you. This is also a good thing for you."

"How can it be a good thing? I don't want to be a bodyguard for that guy!"

Her father's reaction made Celine even more angry. She wanted to say that her job as a guard was not just standing there with a sword, but she couldn't say it.

It seemed that his daughter really didn't know the difference between this guard and that guard, so Ed Adkins had to explain the meaning of "Hermeo" to his daughter.

After listening, Celine sat down dejectedly. She didn't understand Charlotte's flowery ancient Chinese "Hemeo", but she had heard of "Companion Knight". After all, Celine's dream was to become a knight. Generally, the title of Companion of a noble like Melfield would only be given to their own family's confidants, or those well-known knights who had been famous for a long time. How could a country girl like me who didn't even earn the title of knight have a chance to be associated with such a title?

For a moment, Celine actually felt a little inferior - were seven days not enough?

Ed Adkins was confused by Celine's reaction. He suddenly noticed that Celine's right arm sleeve had been pulled up during her struggle, revealing a very obvious red mark on her forearm: "What happened to your arm? Are you hurt?"

Celine glanced at her forearm and her face turned even redder. She was now covered with such marks. After seven days, Celine didn't know where on her body she hadn't been tasted by that person. How could I have thought that seven days was not enough? I must have not slept well these days and my mind was confused. Charlotte is a liar and a shameless pervert!

She dropped her sleeves in shame and annoyance, and struck her father's toes with the heavy hilt of her sword: "What do you care?"

Then, he jumped up nimbly and went back to his room.

Ed Adkins grimaced in pain and jumped around on the spot for a long time, holding his toes.

During these seven days, Charlotte had nothing to do except tasting the delicious girls in her boudoir. It was the end of the autumn harvest, the busiest season for farmers and tax collectors, but in Charlotte there was neither harvesting crops nor collecting agricultural taxes.

The northern knights planted a lot of land and should have paid taxes to Charlotte, but they all said that their crops had been harvested before Charlotte came, so Charlotte could only let them go for one year.

Although the formation of a guard has been put on the agenda, it can only really begin after the relocation of the Southern Knights is completed.

The southern knights still had some attachment to their homeland and were reluctant to move.

Following the aristocratic ruling philosophy of giving a sweet date after a slap, and then another slap and another sweet date, Charlotte felt that she had given a sweet date by offering the guards a high salary of three fusos, so the next step should be a slap.

So she sent Jarrod Garcia to take people to the homes of those "fake knights".

These "fake knight" families had long been controlled by Charlotte's people, but Charlotte deliberately delayed and did not deal with them immediately.

This time, Jarrod confiscated all the property of these families, hanged all those who pretended to be fake knights, and demoted all their families to slaves and sent them to the castle. In a few days, they would be used by Charlotte to build various new facilities in the territory.

It was inevitable that some resistance would be encountered during this period. Under Charlotte's strong order, Jarrod Garcia killed people in a bloody battle.

Jarrod Garcia was almost speechless. He was obviously just a traitor sent by Rosie, but now he was almost becoming the executioner who specialized in doing dirty things for Charlotte.

The killing started again, and the southern knights moved more efficiently. Although the northern knights did not understand the honor of paying taxes, they still sent some new grain that had just been harvested this year to the castle, saying that it was for Charlotte to use to form a territory guard.

On the eighth day, not long after Celine left, a convoy, which was considered huge for a poor place like Lanwan, drove into the Viscount Lanwan's territory from the direction of the Green Plains Principality.

After hearing Old Jack's report, Charlotte immediately rushed out of the castle excitedly.

Seeing Charlotte appear, a knight on a tall horse in the team, who was fully armored even for a long journey, immediately rode out of the team, came to Charlotte, knelt on one knee, saluted meticulously and said: "Miss Charlotte."

"Get up, Knight Hermann," said Charlotte.

This person is Knight Hermann Green, who was escorting almost all of Charlotte's belongings and was slowly traveling with Charlotte leaving him behind.

"Miss Charlotte, you are a viscount now, so you don't have to come out to greet us in person." Hermann Green stood up and said.

"These are all trivial matters," Charlotte waved her hand and asked straight to the point, "Knight Hermann, how much money did you bring?"

Now, apart from some change for daily expenses, Charlotte only had the 100,000 francs gifted by her father José Melefield and the private money she stole from her brother Andre.

I have to admit that my brother is indeed a bit poor. Andre kept saying that Charlotte had taken all his private money, but when Charlotte counted it afterwards, it was only about 50,000 francs, not enough for Charlotte to give a gift to Archbishop Contao's nephew.

"In addition to the 170,000 francs you left behind, I sold your Lakeview Manor and the castle for 850,000 francs. Are they all here now?"

Hermann Green said, pointing to the convoy behind.

"You sold them for so much money? You're very capable, Knight Hermann." Charlotte said in surprise. She thought that since she was in a hurry to sell the two properties, the price would be severely suppressed, but in the end, she sold them for a lot more money than the worst expected result.

Knight Hermann had no intention of taking credit for the work: "I am not good at business matters. This time, it is thanks to the help of your friends that I did not disappoint you."

"My friend?" Charlotte was a little surprised.

"Yes," Hermann nodded, "your friend is here with us."

A figure in a gray cloak walked out of the convoy. From the gait, Charlotte thought it was a girl. Sure enough, the person took off her hood, revealing long golden hair and a tired face. It was indeed a girl.

However, Charlotte was still quite surprised: "Cecilia!"

PS: This chapter has been revised to an all-age version. The original version can be read in the book club.

Volume 27: Chapter 24 Chapter News from Platinum City (revised)

Charlotte asked Hermann Green to lead the convoy into the overgrown garden first, and asked the guards to move the boxes of money into the basement of the castle. Thousands of jewelry, gorgeous dresses, and daily necessities were handed over to Renee. In addition to these, there were some special goods in the cars that needed to be handled by professionals, so Charlotte called out Lilith, who had been idle in the castle for several days.

After being busy for half a day, Charlotte finally had time to entertain Cecilia.

"Why are you in my territory, Cecilia?" Charlotte asked curiously, looking at her old friend.

Cecilia took a deep breath and said, "My brother's spiritual awakening failed, and my family wants me to... I don't want to be a prostitute, so I can only come to Miss Melfield for help."

"Oh, the awakening of the spirit failed." Charlotte suddenly realized.

There is a probability of failure in every awakening ceremony. Even if the most qualified noble children use the best materials and ask the most outstanding sorcerers to preside over the ceremony, it can only be said that the success rate of awakening the spirit is increased, but it cannot guarantee that every ceremony will be successful.

Cecilia's brother might be a child with average or even poor talent, so it is not surprising that his spiritual awakening failed.

Fortunately, in this world, if you fail to awaken your spirit, your foundation will be damaged and you will never be able to practice again. If you fail to awaken your spirit once, you can try again. As long as you have enough wealth, no one will stop you from doing it three or four times. This is also the reason why some noble children who look quite unbelievable may be secretly giving their lives to extraordinary people, such as Monica Melfeld.

Monica Melfeld may be just a lady who likes to read books and write poems, but she is actually a transcendent. Monica's transcendental aptitude is average, she hates practicing, and her luck is not good. She has three debuffs, which has caused her to fail in several spiritual awakenings since she was six years old. However, her father is a nobleman and her mother is a wealthy woman, so Monica has undergone eleven spiritual awakening ceremonies since she was a child, and finally successfully embarked on the path of transcendence and changed her fate...

Is this considered changing one's fate?

The money spent by Earl of Quick Forest during the eleven awakening ceremonies was probably enough to bankrupt a middle-class noble family. Cecilia's family would never dare to dream of such a thing.

However, Cecilia's family still has this idea of ​​letting their youngest son undergo the awakening ceremony again, just in case it succeeds...

Last time, Cecilia used herself to exchange for funding from Charlotte. Now, although Charlotte left, the most abundant thing in Platinum City was nobles. So Cecilia's parents advised her to find a rich noble.

Cecilia's parents were probably the most common commoners in the world. They did not think it was shameful for a commoner girl to be a mistress of a nobleman. They might even show it off in front of their neighbors - my daughter slept with a certain nobleman, and the equally poor neighbors would only show envy.

On the contrary, those noble sons might be embarrassed to show off their mistresses because they are just commoners.

But Cecilia couldn't accept this, so she ran away. Charlotte had promised her that whenever Cecilia needed a place to stay, she could come to her, even if she was being hunted by the emperor. Cecilia felt that her situation was not so bad that she would be hunted by the emperor, but looking around the world, there seemed to be no better place to go than Charlotte's.

Charlotte laughed and said, "I am probably the only one in this world who can appreciate your talent. Everyone else is just a pervert who only covets your beauty."

Cecilia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She wanted to ask back, "Are you really not scolding yourself, Your Excellency?" But now she was living under someone else's roof, so she couldn't say it.

"As long as you can give me a place to stay, I am willing to do what I can for you." Cecilia said with her head down.

Charlotte waved her hand and hugged Cecilia's slender waist. "Let's talk about this later. Let Renee arrange a place for you to rest. I'm not kidding you. Since you are willing to serve me, I will definitely entrust you with important tasks."

As the most proud student of the sage Simon Capriati, Cecilia has a wide range of knowledge. She has basically mastered philosophy, mathematics, rhetoric, political science, education, architecture, herbal medicine, water conservancy, agriculture and other disciplines in the current classical knowledge system. She is also proficient in more than a dozen languages ​​and is familiar with the history, laws and political systems of many countries.

Although it is inevitable that they are broad-minded but not specialized, such talents are valuable enough for Charlotte.

What is this? This is the embryo of the best classical civil servant!

Are there civil servants in this world? Charlotte didn't know. After all, the world is so big, how many places has she been to? But she knew that at least there were no civil servants in the Oran Empire.

The tool used by the emperor of the Oran Empire to govern the country was the Imperial Council, which consisted of seven people, including the Privy Councilor, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Military Affairs, the Minister of Seals, the Royal Treasurer, the Cupbearer, and the Court Chaplain.

The Privy Councilor is responsible for handling clerical affairs for the Emperor, and is currently held by Marco Lehmann, Count of Red Pine Hill.

The Chancellor of Finance is in charge of taxation and the treasury, and is currently held by Count of Ifa, Rad Pastor.

The Minister of War is David Boyan, Grand Master of the Royal Order of the Griffin.

As the name suggests, the Chancellor of the Imperial Seals is in charge of the imperial seal for the emperor. Although he seems to be a decoration, he is actually in a high position of power. When the emperor is in danger and unable to perform his duties, the Chancellor of the Imperial Seals is often needed to step forward. Currently, it is Count Urosh Lindal of Gätting.

The Royal Treasurer is in charge of the emperor's personal and royal property. The current Royal Treasurer is Pierre Holloway, Marquis of Oriol.

The cupbearer was Earl Wolfheart, Guillermo Butler, who had met Charlotte once before.

The court chaplain was Charlotte's old friend, Archbishop of Ryon, Maitland Contao.