Baron Willy, as usual, walked around his manor house after dinner, accompanied by his wife.

This year's harvest in the territory fell by about 10 percent, which led to him having to get rid of another batch of serfs, and his own standard of living obviously fell with it, the most obvious sign being that another mistress had run away with someone else last month.

Baron Willie no longer has any hope for his own territory, if he doesn't care about the face of the family, and with Count Frank and Duke Varrant in front, he may have responded to His Majesty's executive order early and handed over his fief to Thunder City to retire, and to be a lord in a ghost place like Xiaya, it is really better to go to Thunder City to be a rich businessman.

Thinking of this, he lost his interest in walking even more, and returned to the castle earlier than the other day.

It's nominally called a castle, but it's actually a larger house, but it's already the most imposing building in the entire territory.

Late at night.

In a daze, he heard a noise outside, and Baron Willy, who was unable to sleep deeply because of his age, quickly woke up.

"When, what's going on out there?"

Before he could wake up his wife, the bedroom door was forced open.

In the darkness of the fire, Baron Willy could not tell how many people had broken in, but he heard the leader say calmly:

"Hello, Baron Willy, by the order of the lord, you will recover all your fiefs today, and in addition, please cooperate with me to explain the fact that you have sent someone to assassinate the lord and burn the grain and grass of the fortress under the command of Count Frank......"

"Huh?!"

Only at this moment did the intruder light the candles in the room.

In the flickering lights, Baron Willy finally saw that there were six or seven knights in different styles of armor entering the room.

I was stunned for a while.

……

The noisy mansion soon regained its midnight calm.

Jennifer sat in the baron's study, looking through the accounts of the property in the territory.

Roderick walked in with his helmet under his arm and a longsword on his shoulder.

"Miss Jennifer, the baron and all the family members have been imprisoned, and the rest of the guards and knights have all surrendered, killing only six people and wounding more than a dozen."

"Good work, Lord Roderick." Jennifer lifted her gaze from the ledger to look at the tall and heroic knight.

"It's not hard, the baron's guards...... It's really vulnerable. ”

To be able to get Roderick, who has always been silent and cautious, to say such things shows that the guards are indeed vulnerable.

The long-distance attack of the fortress guards had been prepared for a fierce battle, but after entering the territory of Baron Willy, they found that the enemy did not have any decent defense and resistance at all, and the 500-strong fortress army was like no one, and was not discovered by the guards until they entered the area around the baron's mansion.

But when the guards on the periphery saw this situation, they surrendered directly without any resistance at all, but the guards inside the castle, thinking in the darkness that it was just a few small thieves, killed and injured a few people in the brave resistance.

Despite the previous investigation, Roderick still didn't expect it to go so smoothly.

"Are there any casualties on our side?"

"Not a single one was hurt." Roderick said: "When I came, my lord told me that I didn't need to keep my hands, so the enemy had almost no chance to get close." ”

Roderick knew very well that the lord needed the labor in the territory the most, so he asked if he needed to stay alive as much as possible before he came, but Colin replied that it was the first time that the Fortress Army had gone out to fight, so he had to go all out.

In Colin's opinion, the population of the barony's territory was certainly not as important as these battle-hardened fortress armies, and in case Roderick cared about the other party's life and caused his own losses, even a 1:10 battle loss ratio would be extremely uneconomical.

Roderick understood what the lord meant and strictly carried out the order.

The fortress army equipped with magic arrows did not give the opponent any chance to get close at all, and if it wasn't for the extremely skillful surrender of the opponent, there might not be a single living mouth in the castle.

"Before dawn, I will count all the horses, ordnance, supplies, grain and grass in the territory, and be sure to take over the entire territory before everyone reacts."

Jennifer continued as she wrote, "I have brought enough men to do these things, but in terms of combat and security, I still need your support from Lord Roderick. ”

"Yes."

"We'll stay here for three days at most, and then the fortress will send men to take over, and we'll need to rush to the next territory." Jennifer smiled: "Lord Roderick, I'm afraid it will be even harder in the next month or so." ”

"It's an honor to serve your lord."

"That's right." Jennifer thinks of the increasingly prosperous Twilight City, the vibrant government hall, the thriving school, and the energetic head, and becomes more and more convinced that Colin Vane will be a lord who can govern Charya perfectly.

"The lord said that it will not be difficult to conquer the territory, but it will be difficult to govern it later." Jennifer said: "After all, the fortress is understaffed, and it is impossible to send too many people to manage these places, so what the lord means is that once it is occupied, the population in the territory will be concentrated, some of them will be sent to the fortress, and some of them will be placed on the spot for cultivation, and when the first local grain harvest will be harvested in a few months, things will be much simpler." ”

"The defenders of the fortress will continue to send men to support the localities."

With the help of the elves and the expansion of the fortress defenders, as well as the return of seconded people by Wald Sophia, Roderick had more available people.

……

Early morning.

The sun is rising.

The commoners and serfs in the barony's realm continued to do their business as usual, completely unaware that the realm had changed owners.

Roderick returned to the makeshift camp, but for the first time, the defenders of the fortress, who were supposed to be on shift, did not sleep and rest according to the regulations, and it was obvious that they were in a very high mood when they walked out of the fortress for the first time.

"Boss, it turns out that it is so easy to fight with 'people'."

"yes, those guys don't even feel like they have to do anything, they just crash into it and fall down."

“……”

A group of men came over with a grin.

Roderick knew that the guy in the lead, when he was on the city wall in the past, he was most excited about the opportunity to melee with the orcs.

The fortress guards, who are accustomed to fighting with orcs, encounter the general human army, especially the group of remnants under Baron Willy, of course, there will be a feeling of bullying children, coupled with the advantage of equipment, there is a sense of luxury in anti-aircraft guns to fight mosquitoes.

Roderick, while agreeing with them, does not want to fuel this feeling of pride.

"Don't be careless, these are just the weakest opponents, and we still have a lot of tough battles to fight in the future."

……

……

While Jennifer and Roderick were sweeping across the entire Charya, Colin was in the study of the fortress, eating while leisurely flipping through the pile of materials in front of him.

These are all academic journals shipped from the Western Continent, and most of them are obtained through the channels of the Youjin Chamber of Commerce.

His eyes were set on a paper titled "Further Exploring the Diversity of Energy Conversion Methods" in Anhill Mechanical Engineering, a journal within a Gilman Chamber of Commerce that is not a well-known academic journal.

The author of this paper, Omar Hodge, is also only a little-known beginner magician.

However, it was such a paper that made Colin stay up all night and spend days reading.

"Tuk-tuk."

After a knock on the door, Harvey Sr. commanded several men to move in several large boxes.

"Lord Vane, these are the journal books you have specified for your needs, and all the materials about 'Omar Hodge', including his resume, and all the papers and articles he has published, should be relatively complete."

The Youjin Chamber of Commerce has been collecting all kinds of open academic works and periodicals in the Western Continent for Roman Sagan, and a large part of the books in the Mage Tower are in this area, since the trade routes of the Western Continent have been broadened through goods such as sound machines and paper, it is also much easier to obtain information from the Blue Alliance.

"Good work, Mr. Harvey." Colin stood up and expressed his gratitude to the veteran of the Youjin Chamber of Commerce.

"It's not hard, these things were originally going to be transported to Thunder City, but now they are directly sent to the fortress, which saves a lot of distance."

Harvey responded humbly, but also with deep admiration.

The Chamber of Commerce sends a large number of magical academic materials from the Western Continent every month, and every time he meets Colin Vane, this young Lord Charya is always reading and studying carefully.

After Harvey left, Colin picked up a copy of the document, returned to the table, and flipped through a few pages.

Omar Hodge...... It's kind of interesting. ”

He bit down on a piece of bread and nodded thoughtfully.

(End of chapter)