Drake Lovecraft, born in 2798 into a family of minor nobles in Hucapet—at least for now.

Belonging to the western province of Gilila of Siber, Shucape was formerly the territory of Filipino until it was annexed by Siber in 2673 during the Second Rina War, more than 120 years after Lovecraft's birth.

The Drake family is an ancient aristocrat that has been inherited for more than 900 years, and it once had glorious years, but after the establishment of the Valerosino Dynasty in the Philippines, because of the initial rebellion, it fell in the "Salvation Crusade" of the Valerosino Dynasty, so it has been suppressed for a long time, and the external branches have become independent, and the descendants are also limited to the corner of Xiucape.

However, the blessing in disguise was that because of the discord with the Valerosino dynasty, it did not take much time for the Drake family to decide to surrender during the invasion of Siber, so they became one of the councillors of the local maintenance council of Shucape, becoming one of the few nobles who not only did not deprive themselves of their fiefs after the war, but also expanded their fiefs.

At this time, the Drake family laughed merrily, and felt that they had won the speculative gamble, but they soon stopped laughing, because what Siber had given them was about to be taken back in a way that they could not stop.

After the Second Lyna War, Siber rebuilt his newly conquered territory, and the province of Gilila was no exception, and Siber defined the region as a province of raw materials.

However, the Drake family was not willing to accept such an arrangement, and they were vaguely aware of the existence of the difference between workers and peasants, and decided to build a local factory to make money.

The new factory was soon set up, and Siber did not stop him in the process, and even the Drake family sold their fiefdom to buy new machines, and Siber gave it to the Drake family at the price, which made the Drake family breathe a sigh of relief.

But the bad consequences soon appeared, the factory established by the Drake family produced products due to substandard technology and workers, the cost is relatively high, coupled with the preferential local goods of Siber, so the local price of the Drake family factory is actually more expensive than the goods shipped from Siber home, and the quality is worse.

There is nothing to say, the Drake family's factory did not operate for a few years, and it had to declare bankruptcy, and the machine that was sold in exchange for the fief had to be sold cheaply to the local factory of Xiber, and the Drake family lost a lot of money.

After the failure of this investment, the Drake family's heart also cooled, feeling that the factory was something that Sydney talents could play, and their own group of Sifeli nobles still honestly held the rice bowl of their ancestors and relied on the land to make a living. But soon the Drake family will find that even if they want to make a living from their ancestors' jobs, they can't do it.

Prices are rising, but the fiefdom rent is unchanged, coupled with many expensive luxuries from Siber himself, in order to maintain a local nobleman, the Drake family must also buy to decorate the façade of their own family, so as not to be looked down upon by other nobles, coupled with frequent banquets, meetings, travel, study abroad, etc., the Drake family soon could not make ends meet.

In the past hundreds of years, the Drake family has not been without financial means, and the Drake family's disposal at that time was like this, on the one hand, borrowing money from money lenders, on the other hand, increasing the exploitation and exploitation of serfs in the territory, and at least filling the loans through monetary rent, selling serf labor to money lenders, etc.

At that time, although the Drake family often had no money, but they had soldiers, and the money lenders did not dare to squeeze the nobles too hard, and in the end, the Drake family usually repaid seven or eight percent, and then pressed the table, and the remaining three percent, the money lenders also had a tacit understanding not to accept it, anyway, seven or eight percent was enough to return to the capital, and they would use weapons to repay the money if the nobles were forced to hurry.

However, today, the methods of the ancestors are no longer available, first of all, the money lenders, since the arrival of Siber, the ancient industry of money lenders has been rectified and modified, and replaced by "banks" from Sibber's own country.

What is the difference between a "bank" and a money lender? From the Drake family's point of view, there is no way to repay debts, every bank has a strong amount of money behind it, and there have been many tragedies in the next province where the nobles have been armed with debts, and as a result, the bank has hired troops to suppress them.

Therefore, unlike the money lender, the bank must write on paper how much interest you have borrowed and when you will pay it back, otherwise the bank will be happy to hire troops to raid your mansion and you will not be able to resist yet.

As for the decency of the nobles? Don't be funny, how many nobles did Siber defeat in the "Second Lena War", and still care about you?

If you don't borrow from the bank, then you can only go to the black market to borrow, and it can only be a usury with seven in and thirteen out, and as we all know, every black market money lender has a local nobleman behind him as a guarantee, if you dare to repay the debt, even the end of the aristocracy will not be much better.

Therefore, the black market money lenders are known as devils, and they are known as devils who are worried when they see them, and they have always been the devil's reserve of hell - oh, there are no devils now.

So now that the road to borrowing is blocked, what about the exploitation of serfs?

After the "Second Lena War", Siber issued a decree on the emancipation of serfs in the newly conquered territories, but this decree was not mandatory, for example, the Drake family only symbolically liberated some old, weak, sick and disabled serfs, and then did not continue to implement this decree.

However, although the emancipation decree was not mandatory, but the decree protecting the rights and interests of serfs was mandatory, Sibo promulgated the "Law on the Determination of Serf Rights", and then set up a "Serf Rights Protection Committee" in the newly conquered territories, specifically to keep an eye on whether the local nobles violated the "Law on the Determination of Serf Rights" to abuse serfs, and once discovered, they would come to the door and forcibly liberate the serfs.

Of course, everyone is a nobleman, and there is something to say, but Sibo is an era when the world is not ancient, and the so-called "good talk" in Sibo is to give money, and the price is clearly marked.

And the bribery varies from place to place, in short, the committee ignores the exploitation and abuse of serfs for a day, but if you still exploit the serfs without paying, then the committee will come to the door cordially, and then forcibly emancipate your serfs without compensation.

But if the nobles want to squeeze the serfs, aren't they all in vain here and there? The squeezing of the serfs also requires bribes from the committee, and the exploitation of the serfs is very inefficient, and then giving the money to the committee is tantamount to squeezing the work for the committee in vain, and also causing their own serfs to be alienated.

Since the traditional method has no effect, it can only take the path that the nobles are least willing to take, selling fiefs - or pawning fiefs.

Therefore, in the more than 120 years that Siber occupied the province of Gililla, the Drake family sold more and more land, owned fewer and fewer fiefs, and the family's dignity became more and more meager, and by the time Lovecarft was born, the Drake family was no more than a small nobleman.

Lovecraft's face was a gloomy man, and some of his classmates who later met him recalled that Lovecraft's smile was seldom smiling, his eyes were deep-set, and he preferred to stay in dark corners where the sun could not shine and the shadows of the corners enveloped his face.

Lovecraft's mother died when he was born, and his father didn't live long before he lost his life in alcoholism, so Lovecraft was raised by the family and spent his teenage years in embarrassment, which intermittently affected Lovecraft's studies.

The family was reluctant to provide for Lovecraft's education, so Lovecraft made a gambling agreement with the family, and from middle school onwards, the family would not sponsor Lovecraft's education unless he could receive an annual scholarship.

Lovecraft gambled to win the entire high school but failed in college, reaching the college admission pass line but not the tuition-free line, which forced Lovecraft to interrupt his studies.

After finishing his studies, Lovecraft, like so many young people of his time, went to Battyros, the capital of Siber, to try his luck in the crown of ten thousand cities, so he traveled with one of his few friends in his hometown, Lubofu, to Batiros.

And like all out-of-town wanderers who dream of coming to Battyros to mix their luck, when they enter Battyros on the iron car, the two of them also grow their mouths.

The chimneys stood like spears in all parts of Batyros, roaring with puffs of black smoke that shrouded the whole city in dust, and the streets were noisier and bustling than any other place they had ever seen.

After arriving at Battyros, Lovecraft first took a letter from home and went to find his cousin, whom he had married, although Lovecraft had never met her, but he had someone to rely on.

When the doorbell rang for a while, Lovecraft's cousin appeared in the doorway, her frowning brow making Lovecraft realize that she was not happy.

The tired cousin invited Lovecraft and the two into her small room for a brief reception, and when he entered the house, Lovecraft saw that the cousin's side house had been rented out, and there were many tenants in it, who were drunk and snoring, and the house was quite noisy.

After a simple greeting, my cousin went straight to the point: "You are my younger brother, and your friend is also half my younger brother, so I can give you a seven-fold discount on the normal rent - if it is lower, my family will roar." ”

After the two bowed and thanked their cousin, they carried their luggage into the vacant room, which was quite small compared to their mansion in their hometown, but Lu Bofu was still quite happy and said, "This is Battyros!"

Battyros is different from the outside world, on the first day they arrived here, when they went outside to familiarize themselves with the road, they found a group of people gathered around to see the fresh inventions inside, and the two of them also squeezed in, and when they got closer, they found that there was a banner hanging on it, which read "Novel Technology from the Colony - Made by Anonymous".

"Anonymous, this is quite like the style of the people born in the Pioneer Land," Lu Bofu quipped, "but will there be scientific craftsmen in the Pioneer Land?"

The person in the demonstration above waved a magic crystal-like object at the onlookers a few times, and then stuffed it into the lamp-shaped machine, only to see a moment later, the light of a kerosene lamp appeared.

"Anonymous battery, new invention!" the demonstrator shook the lamp-mounted machine in his hand to show the onlookers carefully, causing a burst of amazement around him.

"New invention, new invention, this is the crown of ten thousand cities, the queen of ten thousand cities, the energetic Battiros," Lubofort saw this scene on the first day of settling down, and he was even more full of anticipation for Battiros.

But Lovecraft still had a gloomy look on his face, and said rather ruinly: "But I have noticed that the environment here is very bad. ”

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