“My father told you to Inform him if the Sorofya House sends someone over?”
Sitting by the campfire, Roel looked at Dirk with eyes filled with confusion.
What’s going on? When in the world did our Ascarts get involved with the Sorofyas?
Furthermore, to actually instruct Dirk to inform him right away if the Sorofyas were to come knocking, it must be something pretty serious. It can’t be that… Carter borrowed money from them in his younger years?
Roel felt a chill running down his spine. It was not that his imagination was running wild… Well, it sort of was running wild, but he couldn’t be blamed for that! There were simply far too many nobles in debt to the Sorofyas!
Developing a fiefdom requires a massive influx of money and resources, and there are very few noble houses financially stable enough to fork it all out at once.
In a sense, it was similar to how people bought houses in Roel’s previous world. There were tycoons who simply paid the full sum right away, but most people had no choice but to take out a loan first before slugging it out to pay the debt off in installments.
It was mainly the banks that provided financing services in his previous world, but in this world, this job was taken up by the merchant associations. Most fief lords would make sure to build up a good relationship with major merchant associations to ensure that they could get funding whenever they needed to work on a major project.
To put it simply, the merchant associations lent out money to the fief lords, and the fief lords repaid the debt, with a bit of interest, over years or even decades using the taxes they collected.
This was an oversimplification of how things worked though. More often than not, there was much more to talk about at the negotiation table.
For example, the fiefdom could benefit from the connections and technological expertise that merchant associations had, such as procurement of manpower and tools for the construction of advanced facilities.
Similarly, the merchant associations could request favorable terms for its operations in the fief, such as lower taxes or the implementation of certain business laws that benefited them. Even a simple endorsement from the fief lord could bring about great benefits.
All in all, the successful development of a fiefdom could bring about great benefits to the fief lord and the merchant associations that were involved in it. But, of course, there were great risks involved as well. There was a chance that the investments put into the fief would fail to generate proportionate returns, and that would be a huge blow to both the fief lord and the merchant associations.
The fief lords that had failed to develop their fiefdom ended up becoming poor, resulting in their standing and influence diminishing significantly. However, the merchant associations had it much worse. Those who invested small would lose all of their capital, whereas those who went all out could end up bankrupt as problems cropped up in their cash flow.
The Sorofyas was the largest merchant association on the Sia Continent, and it had worked together with many fief lords to develop their territories. The Sorofyas tended to have a keen sense for profit, so most projects they were involved in succeeded. However, those who failed ended up falling into a huge debt with the Sorofyas.
Could it be that his father had tried developing the Ascart Fiefdom while he was younger, only to end up losing a lot of money and falling into debt?
Just the thought of this was more than enough to turn Roel’s face livid.
Goddamnit, I’m already half a million gold coins in debt! If I need to repay my father’s debt too, I might as well just sell myself to Nora for money!
“Has our fiefdom had any major development projects recently?” asked Roel nervously.
Dirk blinked his eyes for a moment before letting out a rare peal of laughter.
“Hahaha! Young master, how could our Ascart Fiefdom possibly be involved with major development projects?”
What the hell? Why do you look so proud of that?
Roel found himself incredibly speechless with Dirk’s oddly proud response. All of a sudden, he felt that his ancestors were actually fairly talented too. They actually managed to instill pride in their own people for being the only ones to not develop their territory!
How in the world does one do that?
Roel rubbed his temples as he sincerely believed that it was a huge mistake for the Xeclydes to give such a huge plot of land to the Ascarts a thousand years ago. They likely could have never imagined that every generation of the Ascarts’ patriarchs were rebels who would rather make it on their own than inherit their family company (fiefdom).
With not a single generation bothering to get involved in the fiefdom’s development, it was no wonder why it was near the bottom of the Five Eminent Noble Houses, despite being close allies with the royal family!
It almost feels like my ancestors are filled with hoodlums who joined the military just so they can flaunt their strength!
But, of course, he was also somewhat relieved to hear Dirk’s answer. It would appear that they didn’t owe the Sorofyas any money… which meant that everything was fine!
Honestly speaking though, while the Sorofyas were incredibly influential on the Sia Continent, the Ascarts were no pushover either. The title of being one of the Five Eminent Noble Houses was not for show. If the Ascarts chose to hole themselves up in the Theocracy, there would be very little that the Sorofyas could do.
Such thoughts in mind, Roel’s mind was finally set at ease. He didn’t like being on the wrong side of reason. As long as Carter hadn’t signed any kind of contract or agreement with the Sorofyas, Roel would just ignore them.
Not to mention, Roel had sold them a high-quality Soulcalming Lamp previously too. Given the favor that he had done to them, they should be grateful to him instead.
“But speaking of the Sorofyas, I remember that in the game…”
Roel muttered under his breath as a young woman with auburn hair and emerald eyes surfaced in his mind.
Charlotte Sorofya.
She was the eldest daughter of the Sorofyas, as well as one of the four main capture targets of the game, Eye of the Chronicler.
By now, Roel’s memories regarding the game had already become quite blurred, such that he remembered very little about this young woman. The only thing he recalled was that she was yet another ice beautyqueen, though her ‘coldness’ was different from Alicia’s.
Alicia’s coldness was intrinsic, reminiscent of an untouchable flower on the peak of a glacier mountain, naturally putting some distance between her and others. On the other hand, Charlotte’s coldness came mainly from her attitude.
There was a peculiar personality trait that was passed down from generation to generation within the Sorofyas—black-and-white thinking. This could be clearly seen from the history of their house.
Once they decided that they hated someone, even if the other party was the Austine Empire, they would unhesitatingly pit their all against it, even if it spelled their doom. On the other hand, when it came to people they fancied, they were inclined to trust them and protect them.
Charlotte had inherited this personality from her ancestors too. When it came to people she hated, she would unhesitatingly use all available means to crush them from the shadows. However, when it came to people she liked, she was willing to go to any lengths for them.
To be honest, Roel would like to avoid coming into contact with this woman if possible, since he was unable to guarantee that he would be able to pierce through her hard shell and walk into her heart. If he were to accidentally get on her bad side, it would be extremely difficult for him to turn things around.
Also, of the four female targets who Roel was lynched to death by in the game, Charlotte had contributed the least to his downfall and eventual death. In fact, she had hardly made a move at all.
Roel wasn’t too certain what the reason behind this was, but he took this as a hint that there wasn’t as big of a grudge between him and Charlotte. Thus, he felt that it would be fine for him not to get involved with her.
“Forget it, I shouldn’t get involved with her. It’s not like we have anything between us right now anyway. I’m a busy man too, you know…”
“Lord Brother, what are you mumbling about?”
“Ah? It’s nothing, don’t worry about it. Hahaha.”
Faced with Alicia’s curious gaze, Roel quickly covered it with a laugh before continuing the conversation with Dirk.
During their talk, he realized that Dirk had once been deployed at the eastern border in his younger years. He was young and rash then, and it was a moment of hot-bloodedness that prompted him to travel all the way to the Holy Capital and join the military. Due to his lack of connections and bad luck, however, after he was done with his training, he ended up being sent to the eastern Tark Stronghold to serve as a sentry.
Despite serving at one of the strongholds of mankind to fend against the deviants and other external threats, Tark Stronghold was incredibly lacklustre in times of peace. There were hardly any activities occurring there, and there were barely any opportunities available too. It was located in a barren wasteland with no potential for development at all, and the fact it was geographically inconvenient to access only made things worse.
No one in their right mind would want to head there and suffer for no reason.
The Theocracy understood this as well, so in order to avoid this crucial stronghold from falling into depravity, it chose to constantly deploy fresh blood there. Soldiers would usually stay there for 5 years before being swapped out, and their salary would also be higher than usual.
Dirk had learned quite a bit from the 5 years he spent in Tark Stronghold, and he did possess quite a bit of talent as a transcendent too. As soon as he returned, he was immediately promoted and placed directly under Carter’s command, thus striking up a connection with his own fief lord.
In this era when travel was incredibly inconvenient, people tended to carry more feelings toward the place where they were born and raised. It was understandable why Dirk would be excited at the notion of being able to serve directly under his own fief lord, which resulted in him working harder than anyone else. His hard work paid off in swift growth, which led to him quickly catching Carter’s notice.
Unfortunately, there were very few opportunities to accrue military merit during peacetime, which made credentials even more important. Despite Dirk’s capabilities, he had never been educated in a military academy, which made it hard for him to be promoted.
It just happened that Carter was building up a private army for the Ascart Fiefdom then. Under the tempting promises that Carter had made to him, as well as the opportunity to work at his hometown, where his family and friends were, Dirk eventually chose to leap over.
“Young master, I know what you’re worried about, but I must say that your worries are unfounded. I have seen Tark Stronghold in person, and I can assure you that it’s almost impregnable.”
As Dirk was able to strike it off with Roel, he ended up talking more than what he usually would. According to him, even though the area which the Theocracy was responsible for spanned quite a distance, it was mostly in the mountainous region. The difficulty in maneuvering around such terrain would make it nigh impossible for any invaders to take down the stronghold.
“Now, the area that is hard to protect is the span of the border that’s guarded by Knight Kingdom, Pendor. It’s located on a plain, and there’s no advantageous terrain to exploit. That’s where the largest stronghold of mankind, Saint Karon Stronghold, is located. If anything happens to the stronghold, all countries are obliged to send their troops over to reinforce it. Three out of the four known invasions of West Sia occurred through there.”
Those words made Roel feel much more assured. He tried to recall if there were any details in the game regarding this event, but nothing presented itself. The game started with the main character enrolling into Saint Freya Academy, so there were very few details about the events that occurred before that.
However, considering that the main character was still able to attend the academy in peace, it looked like there was no need to worry about this invasion of the deviants. At the very least, it didn’t appear to have resulted in any lasting consequences.
Given that it wasn’t a large-scale war, the lower risks associated with Tark Stronghold, and that his father had been assigned to the Logistics Department, Roel felt that he didn’t have to worry too much about this matter. With all of his worries cast aside, he would finally be able to focus his attention on the development of his transcendent abilities and the fiefdom.
Looking at the 200,000 Affection Points he had accumulated thus far in the System, Roel decided to go on a shopping spree.
My first goal as the fief lord shall be to finish spending all of my Affection Points!
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