Chapter 20: The Count's Mission

Count Cassikud smiled and said to Cecil, "The income of our Earl's Court comes mainly from our lands in the province of Capeda in the south of the kingdom. The Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info all the realms of my Cassikud family, including your lord's knightly domain, are in this area.

Now all you need to go is Kent in the province of Capeda, which is one of my domains, with 120 of my estates, including your knight's domain, where Henry, the acting officer, used to be my father's confidant. But in recent years, he doesn't know if he is old or how, and the tax burden he has collected in recent years has been getting less and less. Either there was a disaster here or there was a plague there, and there was nothing wrong with the surrounding counties, only the various plagues in his territory, and he really treated me like a three-year-old child. The Earl laughed at this

"Cecil, you should go to Kent now to visit the acting officer, to see if the situation in the territory is really as bad as he said, and by the way, help me check his accounts to see if there is any problem. Kill him if you can, and if you can do that, you'll be the acting officer of Kent. “

After listening to the earl's story, Cecil knew that he was in a big trouble all of a sudden, the system of acting officials and nobles of the Solorand Kingdom, Cecil had heard more or less about the background of the game before, but because he was mixed with the Eluk Empire did not have this system, Cecil did not care seriously. Now, when he heard that the Count had given him such a tricky matter, Cecil's head was big.

In fact, this has to start with the establishment of the Soloran Kingdom, the current Sorolan Kingdom is already the eighth king, in the first king, the royal power is extremely powerful, in order to control the lords of the country, the king at that time forcibly required all the nobles who had fiefs to live in the royal city, on the one hand, to prevent the dukes and marquis who have a large amount of land from supporting themselves on the one hand, on the other hand, let these nobles all live in the royal city, this power of consumption makes the royal city's commerce unprecedentedly prosperous, Soon it became a giant city, and the commercial tax collected by the king from the royal city every year has accounted for 1/4 of the national tax revenue, so those fiefs of the nobles in other places are collected by the nobles appointed by the officials, and over time, the rights of these officials will be great. He can even become the local emperor of the soil, and when the king governs the kingdom, sometimes he can even bypass the nobles and go directly to contact these deputies, but fortunately, the appointment power of these deputies is with the nobles. The aristocracy could change the nobles' detached officials who had lost control over those days for a long time. But when it came to the second king, in order to further strengthen the royal power, he once wanted to withdraw the appointment power of the deputy officials, which was tantamount to making enemies of all the nobles, so that the king's death was not clear. But when the third king was in power, the king still did not give up on this idea, and then there was a long quarrel between the king and the nobles, just in time for the invasion of the orc kingdom in the north, and with the mediation of the temple, the third king and the nobles reached a mediation. The system of acting officials for life was implemented, that is, the appointment of acting officials remained in the hands of the nobles of the territory, but the term of office of the acting officials was lifelong, and the lord of the territory could not appoint new acting officers until the death of this acting officer.

In this way, the acting official has become a complex power game, the big nobles often choose their most loyal subordinates when appointing the acting officials, but since then they have lost the right to control this subordinate, even if the center once the acting official has become a party of the emperor will have bad intentions, deduct the annual tax rent, fill their own pockets, and secretly cultivate their own power, many acting officials have become local snakes. Even if he dies, he will leave behind a huge political power, making it more difficult for the new deputy to control the place.

In short, after the emergence of this system of deputy officials, an intricate relationship was formed between the king and the nobility and the acting officials. Generally speaking, the king usually prefers to help the deputy officials to suppress the nobility, but when the power of the contemporary officials is really big enough to replace the nobles, the king will help the nobles to eradicate the deputy officials, after all, the king's original intention is only to suppress the nobles and not to help the deputy officials turn the place into a private domain. Otherwise, wouldn't it be a wolf at the front door and a tiger at the back? And once this kind of subterfuge happens, it is himself, the king at the top, who suffers the most damage. Therefore, the deputy official is only a means for the king to weaken the nobles, and will never really help the deputy officials to replace the nobles.

Although Cecil has crossed over, it is still the mentality of the player, although he has experienced a very cruel battle, but it is also a real fight, and it is really not his own strength to let himself carry out this kind of vertical and horizontal political struggle. Moreover, there was such an activity as assassination, although the Count promised to pay himself very handsomely. But it's not what I want. His original goal was to improve his strength first, and then to be a real nobleman in a dignified manner, because of the rules of the kingdom, a real nobleman (at least a baron) cannot be a deputy officer, and the acting official can never become a real nobleman, so although being a acting official has great benefits, and the actual power will increase greatly, but in the eyes of Cecil, he will never lose the opportunity to achieve positive results, and he will never be able to become a real nobleman.

Thinking of this, Cecil said respectfully to the Earl: "This acting officer is really too unreasonable, Lord Earl, you and your father have valued him so much for two generations, and he has treated you so perfunctorily, it is really an unforgivable sin, I will go to investigate this matter thoroughly, if this matter is true, I will definitely repay the trust of Lord Earl." But there is no need to become a new acting officer, and managing the place is not my forte, and I am still willing to follow the earl before and after the saddle and make contributions on the battlefield. ”

The Count laughed, pleased with Cecil's answer. said: "In that case, then I won't force it." It's not too early, so you should go home early and rest. “

So saying, the two of them walked out of the study and returned to the hall, where the Count's daughter, Ophelina, was still bored reading a book at the large table in the hall. When the Count picked it up, he said, "Ophelina, Cecil is going back, go and send him." ”

Cecil was surprised by the Count's arrangement, so Fiorina and Cecil walked out of the Count's mansion and into the manor. Cecil had never been so close to a woman, and as he walked side by side with Fiorina, a girlish breath came to his face, and Cecil suddenly felt a little intoxicated.

Ophelina suddenly spoke: "Cecil, remember Talis?" ”

Talis? Isn't that his former fiancée? Cecil's face changed a little when he heard her ask this question: "Of course I remember, I saw him at Viscount Darcy's funeral a few days ago. ”

"Yes, Talis and I are best friends, she became a knight taught by the Champion Knight of Roinert a year ago because she was very good, and then she fell in love with Darcy, who was still a trainee knight at the time." Ophelina continued.

Cecil didn't say anything, but listened quietly.

"At that time, Talis was very distressed, first, whether Darcy's family could accept him, and second, there was a marriage contract with you." Ophelina continued.

"My dad and I helped out at the time, and my dad went to Duke Elt to be a matchmaker to get Duke Elt to accept Talis, while I tried to persuade her dad to break off his engagement to your family."

When Cecil heard this, he suddenly felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.

But Ophelina continued: "At that time you did not behave in a way that was contrary to the manners of a knight, and my father gave you a letter of reprimand on this basis, and then we gave it to Talis's father to make up his mind to repent of the marriage. ”

Cecil was extremely angry when he heard this: "Thank you for your bluntness, miss, I now understand exactly what is going on, I always thought that it was because of my dissolute behavior that I incurred the Earl's denunciating letter, I was still deeply repentant, but I only learned today that you did it on purpose, to undermine my self-confidence, and then let Baron Curesta come to repent of the marriage, so that I was immersed in self-reproach and unable to resist?" You're really scheming. Is it just to get Talis to climb to the Duke's house? That's great. ”

"Don't say that about Cecil, it's a tragedy in the end, and Darcy is dead trying to save you."

"Yes, Darcy is dead, dead like a hero, this young master robbed me of my hillbilly fiancée, and I should have hated him, but now I am not even qualified to hate him, because he died to save me. Do you know how I feel right now? I felt like a clown, with a lot of pockets. ”

"And why are you telling me this, are you telling me this just to humiliate me? Or do you want to show your sincerity to me? I don't need any, if I can, I'd rather not know well, you don't have to send me anymore, I can go myself. ”

With that, Cecil turned and ran, and Ophelina behind her smiled and returned to the building.

When Ophelina returned to the mansion, the Count was waiting for her to return.

"How's it going, tell him about it?" The Earl asked

"Yes, Daddy, I told him, and he was so angry that he started a fire like a raging bull, not at all like a gentleman."

"Haha, young people are strong-blooded, always like this. My daughter has been wronged. The Count comforted.

"But Dad, why tell him, like he said, it's better not to tell him, isn't it?"

"There is no impermeable wall in the world, this thing cannot be hidden, we told him that it is better than he knows from somewhere else, I did not expect that his progress this month is so fast, just now I promised him to become an acting official he actually refused, I can see that his ambition is to become a real nobleman, I really want to see how far this amazing young man can go.