There was a heavy snowfall in October.

To prevent people from freezing to death, Richard crammed a dozen indentured slaves into a room.

In August, there was an influx of people in the territory, and housing became very scarce.

In order to accommodate these newcomers, Richard could only huddle them together for the winter, saving various resources such as houses and fuel.

After the onset of winter, the territory is relatively peaceful.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it's just before Christmas.

According to the Haaland family's tradition, Christmas Eve is a day for family members to gather.

On this day, William and Bernie took leave early and returned home to reunite with their relatives.

Richard and Sophia also returned to Fort Black River to meet with their relatives.

Sophia is more than seven months pregnant, giving birth in late March next year. With the birth of this child, the Haaland family will also welcome a new member with a very important status.

After the banquet began, Richard took the initiative to talk to Bernie and Powell's uncles and ask for their opinions on Adrian and Donne's marriage.

Adrian was a year younger than Richard, and was married to the nobles. His marriage should not be delayed.

Neither uncle wants his son to marry a territorial officer, but both want to marry a nobleman to improve the bloodline of the next generation of the Haaland family.

William had three wives, and only Richard's mother was of aristocratic blood, and the children born were more talented.

Richard and Wendy are both very talented, and Hayden also surpasses Ron.

Bernie and Powell both saw this.

Even Richard's several attempts to persuade them failed to change their minds.

And the situation of the territory is not suitable for the outside nobles to know, so the marriage can only be resolved within the relatives themselves.

Through Richard's introduction, Adrian is engaged to the daughter of his eldest uncle, Gorog, and their wedding date is also set for January.

Marriages between relatives, the kingdom of Grant does not pay attention to seniority.

In order to keep the blood pure, some nobles will even let their nephews marry their aunts, uncles and nieces and have children, and even brothers and sisters marry is very common.

Adrian's engagement went very well, and Donn's marriage suffered a setback.

Don has a crush on his uncle Soros's daughter, Audrey.

After exchanging the bloodline enlightenment potion from Richard, Audrey successfully awakened the knight's bloodline and is now a trainee knight.

Her blood concentration is better than that of her brother Morgan.

Audrey is talented and naturally has a higher vision, of course, she doesn't look down on Done.

The relatives of the Haaland family have no noble blood except for Sophia and Soros.

Don was twenty years old by Christmas, and his marriage was not meant to be delayed for too long.

Richard's uncle Soros was willing to come forward and introduce Don to Baron Dark's daughter, and if this marriage was successful, Don would obviously climb high.

At this family dinner, William introduced Richard and others to the new favorite court lady Kelly.

William and Kelly have been on good terms for almost a year and a half.

Last year's Christmas feast, Mrs. Kelly did not attend.

This spring, Mrs. Kelly became pregnant with a child, two months before Sophia.

Because of having children, Mrs. Kelly's status has improved a lot.

This year's Christmas, William officially introduced this new member to everyone.

Richard observed that Ron should have been a little unhappy with William marrying the court lady.

Although it was not overtly manifested, Richard felt a faint hint of hostility.

This year, Ron's position in the Wild Lion Legion has been promoted a bit, to the rank of captain, to the main squadron, and to the second rank himself.

Ron's hostility towards the mistress of the house actually lasted for many years.

As soon as he crossed over, Richard sensed that he was dissatisfied with his mother.

It was later discovered that he was dissatisfied with Lady Ola.

Now that William had a younger court lady, he was still dissatisfied with Lady Kelly.

Richard didn't even know why he wasn't dissatisfied with his father William?

Isn't it clear to him that, apart from Richard's mother, William has overwhelming power over all other partners.

The relationship between the two parties is not equal.

This young lady Kelly is favored by William, does she still have the right to refuse?

"This may be the root of human inferiority, not daring to resist power."

Richard took a sip of red wine alone and laughed at himself.

This year's feast was more extravagant than usual, and Lady Ola made formal dresses for the family members.

Men's dresses were based on black and were made of expensive bear skin, worth more than five gold coins each.

The women's dress was made of silk, tulle, pearls, and gold threads, and the dress was cut very simply, without any extra decoration to hide the beautiful curves, not only deliberately set off the well-developed breasts, but also the high slit skirt exposed a thigh completely, which looked particularly sexy.

The cost of making such a women's dress is higher, reaching sixteen gold coins each.

A lot of precious food was used at the banquet, such as bear's paws, abalone, sea cucumbers, venison, and Lady Aura also bought expensive monster meat. Coupled with a variety of precious red wines, this table of meals will cost at least a few dozen gold coins.

The huge living room is lit with magic lamps, which consume magic crystals and magic cores for energy. Not only is it expensive, but the cost of use is also very high, which only the big nobles can afford.

Even the cutlery used by the crowd was made of gold and silver, and I don't know how much it costed.

A few dozen gold coins are enough for an ordinary family to live for more than ten years.

Looking at the luxurious food at the banquet, Richard suddenly had a feeling that Zhumen's wine and meat stinked, and the road had frozen bones.

Before attending the feast, he also inspected the winter work of the indentured slaves in the territory.

Because the intensity of winter labor was very small, Richard only gave the indentured slaves a daily ration.

A pound of rations is not enough for adults at all, and they can only eat one meal a day, and live in a state of hunger.

Although they don't freeze and starve to death, there is no quality of life to speak of.

Looking at this luxurious banquet, Richard inevitably had some opinions in his heart, thinking that it was too extravagant.

"I'm not in charge now, and it's not spending my money, so let's bear with it. By the time I'm in charge, I'll be able to completely reverse this trend. ”

Richard knew in his heart that hedonism and comparison were rife among the aristocracy.

Lady Ola often attended aristocratic banquets and was inevitably affected.

Moreover, women's vanity is generally stronger than that of men.

"Mrs. Ola is from a very low background, and in order to be recognized by others, the more she has to show her wealth and aristocratic taste. Father William and third uncle Bernie have this tendency, and seeing that they enjoy it very much, they don't feel wasteful at all, but feel that they deserve it. ”

Richard shook his head, dispelling the distractions in his mind. After talking to the rest of the family, settling some things, and taking Sophia back to her room.

(End of chapter)