As the heir to a duke, he was still a viscount himself, and he would at least be an earl or even a marquis in the future. His woman, even if she is a mistress, cannot be too low.

The daughter of this small merchant is obviously not qualified, unless she later becomes a professional at least the fourth ring or above, or a clergyman of a certain social status.

Of course, if their family becomes a big merchant in the western part of the kingdom, then the conditions are fully satisfied. However, as it stands, it will not be possible until the next generation, or even the next generation, of the daughters of wealthy businessmen to achieve this goal.

Shaking his head, Rick turned and walked towards the study, he had more important things to do, even if a woman was beautiful, it was a life spice that he could taste at any time, although delicious, it was not the main dish of his life.

The viscount carried a glowing alchemy handlamp in his hand and walked slowly down the corridor towards the study in the central area of the second floor of the castle.

The alchemy portable lamp is an alchemy artifact, which is a kind of magician who transforms the inside of a lamp to a certain extent, and then attaches a ring of healing magic 'illumination', and then forms a product that can continuously form a bright light.

The only inconvenience is probably that you need to input a certain amount of magic every day. Fortunately, the magic power required is relatively small, and even if a low-level melee professional charges a lamp, it will not affect the battle.

The production of this magic lamp requires the magician to at least have a certain foundation in alchemy faction magic, and then naturally he has to learn the 'lighting technique', which can be made through some simple materials.

It is easy to learn, low cost, and can also form a scale in terms of output, which is a relatively practical alchemy prop for daily life.

However, because of the need for mana charging, civilians can't afford to use it, because they have to go to the shop they bought every day to recharge (there are special magician apprentices responsible for charging customers), which is not cheap and troublesome. Generally, only nobles above the middle class would use this alchemical lamp.

Rick was the only one in the corridor on the second floor, and when he was in the manor house, there was a rule that no one was to approach the study without his consent, and even the doors and windows of the study were protected by some protective magic tricks, such as 'magic alarms' and 'arcane locks'.

If the spell is not dismantled according to the specific procedure, it will attract subsequent attacks from magic emblems, such as the 'Sleep Emblem', 'Rainbow Pattern', 'Pain Emblem', and other enchanted faction magic emblems, which are enough to damage any intruder.

Even if Rick enters the study by himself, it will take a long time to crack it before he can properly open all the traps and enter the study. So it's not that Rick is suspicious, it's that they're worried that they'll be funny if they accidentally set off on a magic trick.

It took more than ten minutes for Rick to finally enter the study. Then he carefully closed the door and looked around the study to make sure that no outsiders had broken in, and then he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he went to a row of bookshelves that were relatively close to the inside, and gently pulled out three books that looked inconspicuous.

Then, there was a dull sound of heavy objects moving, and another bookshelf not far away slowly moved open, revealing a large door behind it. There was no mana fluctuation around him, and it was obvious that it wasn't a magic mechanism, but it was a matter of course.

As long as they can reach the study, most of them are magicians who have a certain degree of research on protection and enchantment techniques and have a certain ability to crack them. After all, magicians' perception of magic is extremely strong, and setting up magic traps is like telling them "Come and see, there's a problem here".

The design of this mechanism is really amazing, although it is only a simple layer of mechanism on the surface, and there is no verification system on the blue star, it seems a little simple, but most people have no good way to face this mechanism for a while.

We know that there are always people or objects in the world who can detect the caves behind the bookshelves, and when encountering such people, ordinary physical mechanisms will not be of much use, but this mechanism is different.

When people who are confident in their ability to detect know that behind this bookshelf is a secret room, people will subconsciously think that the mechanism that opens the door will be on this bookshelf or nearby.

This is the inertia of human thinking, and no matter how smart and powerful a person is, he cannot escape this inertia of thinking.

And this purely physical mechanism is to take advantage of this inertia of human thinking, if there is not enough time for a carpet search, basically no one will think that the switch of the mechanism is on another bookshelf that is completely out of bounds.

And most importantly, it's not enough to know that the mechanism is on another shelf. Because the opening key of the mechanism is not commonly used, it is enough to turn a special item or a raised switch. This mechanism is to pull out a specific number of books on the shelf, and then the mechanism in the original position of these books will pull and open.

And its important feature is that although these three books themselves have nothing in common, the order in which they are taken down is also prescribed. If this order is not followed, the doors of the traps will lock and the villa will sound a unique noise alarm through the linkage of the machinery, and the thieves will really have to run.

This is very effective in avoiding those rough and non-technical cracking techniques, such as guessing that there may be a problem with the book, so pushing the summer vacation or taking down all the books one by one. The order in which the books are taken is also very effective in preventing thieves from using this method to crack the mechanism.

So except for violent destruction, it is really difficult for outsiders who don't know to open this mechanism.

Rick pushed the door open and entered a dimly lit tunnel, and there was a noise behind him, apparently the bookshelves and doors had closed automatically. Through this passage that appears to be downward, and through its length it leads to a secret chamber.

It is a small room of about twenty square meters, with a ceiling only two meters above the ground, and there is almost nothing in the room, except for a round table that can seat six or seven people, and the matching chairs are actively put in.

There are several large chests in the corner, and looking at their materials and the locks on them, you know that they must be very precious things inside.

But Rick wasn't here for the boxes, and it wasn't time to use them yet. He directly took out a crystal item placed on the table, which looked like a screen on the blue star, except that it was made of crystal.