Rose Empire

It seems that in order to judge whether the contracting parties have fulfilled their obligations, the spiritual contract sorcerer seems to have a set of standards that go beyond simple word games in addition to the contract terms written in black and white.

Charlotte took out a piece of cake made by Renee and pushed it in front of Lilith: "Don't cry, it's just a contract. I'm not going to force you to do anything."

"You don't understand at all!" Lilith took a big bite of the cake and stretched out a short finger. "I am only a one-winged spiritual contract sorcerer. I can only maintain one contract at a time. As long as the contract with you is not fulfilled, I will never be able to sign the next contract!"

"Damn it, you pervert!" Lilith became angry again, "You even didn't let a little girl like me go!"

"I don't believe you are a little girl," Charlotte said, then put away her smile, "I came to you because I need your help with something."

"What's the matter?" Lilith asked.

"This is it..." Charlotte took out a piece of parchment from her suitcase.

Lilith took the parchment and unfolded it. On the parchment were blurred and illegible ancient characters. However, this was not a problem for Lilith, because the things on the parchment were what she, Charlotte and Renee brought out from the Lujan ruins four years ago.

Many years ago, Lilith searched for clues in countless ancient books and folk legends and guessed that there should be a relic in the middle of the Campe Mountains, in a place called the Dagis Basin. The relic might be a city at least 100,000 years old. In folk legends, its name was "Luyang".

At that time, the young Charlotte was very interested in the existence of Lujan ruins, because the church's canon said that Ige was born 100,000 years ago. Charlotte wanted to see what this city, which might have been born earlier than God, looked like.

So she instigated Lilith to go look for Luyang City together.

It was an extremely dangerous journey, but also a very rewarding one.

"Have you really decided?" Lilith's fingers gently brushed the ink on the parchment, and her expression gradually became serious. Lilith and Charlotte's continuous research over the years has confirmed that these texts record the rituals and practice methods of a very ancient supernatural faction.

"Miss, won't you reconsider this? It is still uncertain whether this ancient faction is perfect and safe?" Renee also said.

Charlotte shook her head. "The things on this parchment were copied from the obelisk. The obelisk is obviously a commemorative building. The factions that can be carved on it are likely to be relatively complete. As for safety... I think if the ancients could practice the factions, I should be able to practice them. Of course, more importantly..."

Charlotte paused.

The carriage kept shaking along the bumpy road, and the wheels made a creaking sound. At this moment, the interior of the carriage seemed even quieter.

Finally, Charlotte smiled and said, "Lilith, Renee, you know, more importantly, I have always wanted to see what warlocks were like before the birth of God."

For a moment, the carriage fell silent again. Charlotte's words were like a huge rock pressing on Lilith and Renee's hearts.

God, Yig, the creator of this world, the omnipotent, the omniscient, the supreme and only God.

He is not an idol invented by some religion, nor is he an illusory concept of primitive worship.

His real presence is there.

Every extraordinary person in this world can feel Him. The more powerful the extraordinary person is, the closer he is to Him, and the more he can appreciate His supremacy and greatness.

However, Charlotte was looking forward to a glimpse of the world that had never been illuminated by God's power.

The mere existence of such an idea is enough to make the natives of this world tremble.

On the rest of the journey, Renee and Lilith spoke much less.

It was not until noon the next day that the convoy suddenly stopped.

The gray-haired old knight Jack Moore rode up to Charlotte's carriage and said, "Miss, Viscount Lanwan has received it."

PS：因为不太满意第13章的质量，咱对第13章做了较大修改，刷新后就可以看了。qun壹⑥8贰一7七壹6

Volume 16: Chapter 15 Chapter The Beginning of the Journey

"Tsk, it's so desolate..."

Charlotte sighed as she looked at the castle in front of her.

The small castle covers an area comparable to the one Charlotte bought in Platinum City, or perhaps even slightly smaller.

Due to lack of maintenance, moss, vines, mildew and weathered patches can be seen everywhere on the castle's exterior, making it look older than the riverside castle. The doors and windows covered with spider webs and bird droppings were nailed with wooden boards, which should be considered good news, at least telling Charlotte that the interior of the castle has not experienced much wind and rain over the years.

The external facilities of the small castle are not as complete as those of the riverside castle. There is only a circle of wooden fences around the small castle, and it can be seen that there used to be a garden inside the fence. Because no one has taken care of it for many years, the garden has long been abandoned and returned to nature. Weeds grow wantonly, occupying the living space of those delicate flowers. There are also some wild animals poking their heads out of the weeds.

Only the few yellowed roses that survived in the corner told Charlotte that this place shouldn't be so desolate.

This castle was once the residence of Viscount Lanwan.

Basilic Melfield had sold it, but Charlotte later sent someone to secretly buy it back. The castle was located in a remote area and was not very large, so it was a miracle that Basilic was able to sell it. The price must not be too high, and Charlotte spent even less money to buy it back.

Presumably, the customer who bought the castle in Basilik was attracted by the surname "Melefield". However, after purchasing the castle, he found that the "Melefield" in Basilik and the "Melefield" in the Principality of Greenfield had long been separated and had little relationship. So he regretted it and was eager to sell it.

So the castle was sold at a low price to someone arranged by Charlotte.

Charlotte brushed the tip of the rose branch gently with her fingertips, and in the blink of an eye, she put away the inexplicable sadness in her heart. She turned to Knight Jack Moore and said, "Knight Jack, send people to notify all the knights in the Knight Territory to come here to see me."

"Are we going now?" Jack Moore asked in surprise.

The convoy had just stopped, and the horses' bridles had not even been removed. Everyone had not had time to catch their breath. Jack Moore thought that Miss Charlotte would at least rest for a night and then summon the knights in the territory tomorrow.

Charlotte said without hesitation: "Of course, I will invite them to the dinner tonight."

"Yes, sir." Jack Moore no longer had any questions and immediately went to assign tasks to his men.

Charlotte waved to the two knights in purple armor standing beside her and called them over.

Purple is the color of the Melefield family's coat of arms. The eighteen knights that Jose Melefield sent to support Charlotte all wore armor with purple as the main color. The two purple knights that Charlotte called over were the two three-winged knights in the eighteen-man team, one named Ryan Nasaz and the other named Jarrod Garcia.

"Take your men to clean up the castle and remove the wooden boards on the doors and windows." Charlotte ordered.

"Yes." Ryan Nasazzi didn't hesitate.

Jarrod Garcia glanced noticeably in the direction of Harvey Shervin.

Before setting off, Jarrod Garcia and several other knights were summoned by Rosie, who told them to take good care of Miss Charlotte and to find Harvey Sherwin if they needed help or had any questions.

Although Rosie did not say it explicitly, her meaning was very clear. She hoped that these knights would be led by Harvey Sherwin and obey Harvey Sherwin's arrangements.

Jarrod Garcia has no problem with this because he comes from the Shawn camp.

Sean's camp was established seven years ago in a place called "Hengqiu" on the border between the Principality of Green Plains and the Kingdom of Cato. The name and location are enough to show the basic purpose of setting up this camp.

After Sean Melefield was born, the relationship between the Principality of Green Plains and the Kingdom of Cato officially reached a freezing point. The Kingdom of Cato first assembled its army on the border between the two countries. From a geographical point of view, if the Kingdom of Cato wanted to attack the Principality of Green Plains, it would be a matter of attacking from a high position. Moreover, the territory of the Principality of Green Plains was flat and almost defenseless. Therefore, in order to guard against the Kingdom of Cato and fight back against the military threat of the Kingdom of Cato, Jose Melefield decided to build the Sean Camp on the border between the two countries.

In the end, no war broke out between the Kingdom of Cato and the Principality of Greenfield, but Sean's camp was retained.

Because of their mission and the name "Sean", knights from the Sean Camp are generally considered to be members of the Duchess's faction. Rosie and her people do have a profound influence on the Sean Camp. Knights like Jarrod Garcia, who came from the Sean Camp but have no background, generally do not refuse to serve the Duchess.

However, when Jarrod Garcia looked over, he found that Harvey Shelvin was chatting with the golden-haired Robin Mancini and had no intention of even looking at Charlotte and the others.

Harvey Shelvin and Robin Mancini had been at each other's throats since the Earldom of Quaker Forest. Anyone could see that neither of them were serious knights, and that they could get along so well, so they must have had similar interests.

Harvey Sherwin didn't care about the situation here, so Jarrod Garcia could only assume that he acquiesced. Anyway, Rosie had told them to take good care of Miss Charlotte. So if Harvey Sherwin didn't object, it should be natural for them to obey Charlotte's orders, right?

"Yes."

So Jarrod Garcia also took his men to clean up the castle.

Charlotte then asked the chef who came with her to prepare the meat they had bought from the Earldom of Quick Forest in preparation for the evening dinner.

The nobles of the Oran Empire love to eat meat.

The royal family and the nobles are all rich and are willing to use the best parts of the best ingredients and add spices, so the taste of the cooked meat is generally not too bad.

The problem, however, is that they eat too much.

Take the empire's greatest noble, Emperor Leopold, for example. Last year on Grace Day, Charlotte also attended the New Year's banquet held by the emperor. At that time, the banquet was divided into three stages.

In the first stage, the waiters served the nobles attending the banquet venison pie, pork soup, roasted wild boar head, roasted loin meat, roasted swan, and roasted goat. After eating these, the banquet paused and dancers and musicians performed.

Then, the second stage began, and the waiters brought roasted pigs, roasted storks, roasted pheasants, roasted herons, roasted chickens, roasted breams, rabbit pies, and roasted two-year-old rabbits. Then, there was another song and dance performance.

Then, the third stage began. This time it was finally not a barbecue. The waiter served stewed venison, stewed chicken, stewed rabbit, stewed quail, stewed partridge, stewed lark, and so on.

This is not food that humans can finish.

Rather than saying that the purpose of such banquets is to "eat", it is better to say that it is to "watch the food show". The nobles showed off their family's wealth and the generosity of the host by comparing the number of banquet dishes, the quality of the chefs, and the rarity of the ingredients.

Sometimes such banquets would last for several days, with meat being served continuously and singing and dancing performances interspersed to give the nobles a break from the eating.

After attending several banquets, Charlotte no longer liked to eat meat, and even felt sick of it. However, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. If she didn't have enough meat to hold a banquet, she would be slandered as "poor and stingy".

After arranging for her followers to go to work, Charlotte called Renee and took two guards to patrol the surrounding territories.

Soon after riding, Charlotte saw a large area of ​​abandoned farmland.

Charlotte jumped off the horse and almost fell because of her poor riding skills. Fortunately, Renee supported her in time.

"Miss, be careful." Renee warned.

"fine."

Charlotte didn't care. She squatted down and pushed aside the yellow weeds, but she didn't see the stubble left in the field after the grain was harvested.

"It looks like this piece of farmland has been abandoned for a long time." Leni also realized the seriousness of the problem. Now is the season for harvesting wheat and corn, but there are no signs of harvesting in the fields, which means that this piece of farmland has been abandoned for at least a year.

"Well," Charlotte stood up, clapped her hands, looked around, and finally saw a figure working on the ridge of a field in the distance.

Charlotte took the initiative to walk over. It was a dark and thin old man. When he saw Charlotte, he was so scared that he fell to his knees with his face almost buried in the dirt. Next to him was a tattered winnowing basket. In the basket were some grasses that Charlotte didn't recognize. They were probably some kind of wild vegetables.

"Get up, I want to ask you something." Charlotte said.

The old man lay on the ground, shaking constantly, not daring to make any movement.

Charlotte didn't bother to say anything more and asked directly, "Whose fields are these? Why are no one cultivating them?"

The old man muttered a long bunch of things to the land.

Charlotte was completely confused and didn't understand a single word. In the end, a guard who barely understood the local dialect translated for her.

"The field belonged to a certain knight. The knight didn't want to farm it anymore, so he left it uncultivated."

That was the general meaning. As for what the knight's name was, Charlotte didn't get an answer. She didn't know whether the old man didn't know or the guard didn't understand.

"Take me to your house." Charlotte said to the old man again.

The old man was still just lying on the ground, shaking.

Charlotte waved her hand, and two guards came forward, one on the left and one on the right, and lifted up the old man.

Under the old man's guidance, Charlotte and her group came to the old man's house.

The old man's house is a thatched hut made of wood and straw. It is cool in winter and warm in summer, and has drafts on all sides. There are several similar huts near the old man's house, which can be regarded as a small village.

The roads in the village were muddy and exuded a lingering stench. When they saw Charlotte and the others, the adult villagers knelt down in the stinking mud. The children of the villagers curiously poked their heads out. Both boys and girls were naked, running around, skinny as sticks, but with big bellies.

Charlotte frowned slightly and walked into the old man's hut. There was no partition in the hut, just one room. On the east side of the room was a bed, covered with straw and a thin black blanket. There was a small area at the foot of the bed surrounded by vines, where two chickens were raised. On the west side, there was an unburned bonfire, and next to the bonfire was a pottery pot, which was probably the kitchen. In the corner of the "kitchen" were piles of horse manure, cow manure, and chicken manure, which could be fertilizer or fuel.

Charlotte opened the jar and looked inside. There was a shallow half jar of bran.

Seeing Charlotte's actions, the old man tensed up. He was obviously concerned about the clay pot, or the bran in the pot, but he dared not do anything.

Wheat bran is actually the husk of wheat, and its main use is probably as roughage for livestock.

However, Charlotte was not the kind of noble who thought "why not eat meat?" She also knew that wheat bran was actually the staple food for more than half of the world's population. These people were generally poor civilians, serfs, slaves...

From a diet perspective, there is really no difference between them and livestock.

After putting down the old man who was so nervous that he almost fainted, Charlotte visited several nearby fields and villages, and the situations were basically the same.

Desolation, hunger, poverty...

On the way back, Charlotte saw a little girl beside a ditch. There was a large area of ​​rot on her lower body, but she didn't care at all. She was picking out small insects in the mud in the ditch to fill her stomach.

Charlotte rode on her horse and watched the little girl happily stuff a wriggling worm into her mouth. After an unknown amount of time, she let out a long breath, chuckled and said, "Look, Renee, this is my fiefdom."

PS: Dear readers, please give me some recommendation votes, okay?~~~~q group ①溜8②伊7七①六

Volume 17: Chapter 16 Chapter The accumulated problems

"Miss, do we need to buy some food to give to these hungry people?"

Although Renee was just a maid in the Melfield family, she had followed Charlotte since she was a child and had never experienced famine. It was difficult for her to imagine what it would be like to be extremely hungry. The extreme poverty she saw today really shocked the girl.

"We must purchase food, but, Renee, what name do we use to provide food to these people?" Charlotte asked while riding on her horse.

Renee was slightly stunned, not realizing the problem yet.

Charlotte explained: "Those who don't have enough food may be tenants of a knight or serfs of a manor owner. They are not my subjects at all. No matter how poor they are, it is not my turn to take care of them."

I have no subjects in my territory.

This is the first problem Charlotte needs to face.

Under the knight feudal system, every knight in the Viscount Lanwan's territory is a vassal of Charlotte, but the civilians and serfs in the knight's territory are not Charlotte's subjects, they are the knight's private property. Legally, only the humans on Viscount Lanwan's private land can be considered Charlotte's subjects. Even if the knight's private property starves to death, dies of poverty, or is beaten to death by the lord, it is none of Charlotte's business.

So does Viscount Lanwan still have private land in his territory? Except for the castle that Charlotte secretly bought back, there should be none. Basilik must have sold all his ancestral property long before he had enough food in his later years.

There may be some unsold barren land in some corners, but probably no one lives on it.