Lord: Stripped of My Inheritance from the Start

As the day of the annual celebration drew near, more and more nobles arrived at Wushan Castle.

Last year at this time, Her Highness Princess Blanche had personally attended, and the two Counts, Jesus and Ossen, had been stirring up trouble. That banquet, amidst all the liveliness, had been filled with speculation and complications.

This year, however, there were no such troublesome people or events. The banquet’s overall atmosphere was both peaceful and lively.

Although Lurans had fully recovered, only a limited number of people knew this. Not wanting to reveal the truth, the old man simply made a brief appearance, leaving the rest of the time to the younger generation.

As the most talked-about figure in Wushan Territory recently, Ronin deservedly became the focus of the entire banquet.

Besides the three Viscounts—Vitorino, Sandro, and Marvin—who pulled Ronin aside to discuss territory management and how to best exploit their labor force, many other nobles also wanted to cooperate with him.

Baron German, for example, had an idea to provide some of his workforce to contribute to the construction in Wubei Territory.

Once the port was successfully built, German hoped to use the waterway to transport Lake Town’s various specialty products to the Royal Capital at a relatively favorable price.

This would open up a new economic path for Lake Town.

Besides him, quite a few other nobles wanted to bundle their labor, renting out Peasant Slaves or commoners to work in Wubei Territory, who would then return to their own lords’ lands after the job was done.

’Isn’t this just temporary contract work?’ Ronin found the idea quite acceptable.

During the lively banquet, Dianey opportunely presented the porcelain stemware from Wubei Territory.

This new creation immediately piqued everyone’s curiosity. Upon hearing that it was a product of Wubei Territory, many people immediately came to show their support.

Regardless of whether they were showing support because they genuinely wanted to buy the porcelain or were just giving Ronin face, an order for over two thousand stemmed cups was secured.

Ronin planned to talk with Dianey about how they could improve the aesthetic appeal of the stemware, which would give Jim and the others a clear direction for improvement.

It would be even better if they could use this order to garner good reviews and subsequently open up the market.

Good times are always fleeting. The next day, the nobles began to leave Wushan Castle one after another.

With the threat of the Polante Thief Gang and the Black Gold Brotherhood gone, there would likely be no conflict for a long time to come. They could now focus more of their energy on making money and managing their territories.

Ronin had planned to sleep in, but Bretton dragged him out of bed early in the morning.

His younger brother, who had always admired the strong, now idolized Ronin. In his own words, it would be his honor to receive guidance from his idol.

With no other choice, Ronin had to give him some “loving care” from his older brother and idol.

Although he held back his strength and used no Combat Skills or Magic, his Swordsmanship and combat experience had improved considerably after his recent high-intensity training with Ridder.

Bretton had clearly put a lot of effort into his Swordsmanship and combat skills, and he had slain quite a few Second-level Magical Beasts during his wilderness trial. Yet, facing Ronin’s assault, he was still swiftly defeated.

“I give up!”

Bretton, panting, tossed his sword to a servant and took a towel to wipe the sweat from his face.

“Last year, I could at least exchange a few moves with you. Now, I can’t even fight back. Bro, how do you do your Cultivation?”

Ronin didn’t want to crush his brother’s confidence. “I’m just a little stronger than you. You’re already doing great.”

Bretton leaned in closer. “I heard the sons of the three Viscounts are all in Wubei Territory. Why don’t I go over too? What kind of job can you arrange for me?”

In the past, he had devoted himself to Cultivation to change the family’s difficult situation.

Now that Ronin had accomplished this, not only was the pressure on him lessened, but he also had more ideas of his own.

Like going to Wubei Territory to lend Ronin a hand.

“You?”

Ronin hadn’t expected Bretton to want to come to Wubei Territory. He thought for a moment but couldn’t think of a suitable task for him.

Rogner liked to be on the move, so he was made a Transport Officer.

Yusuf is a Senior Mage and is currently studying under Elron to learn how to make Magic Potions.

Reis, who was about to arrive in Wubei Territory, was a skilled swimmer, so Ronin planned to have him train the Wubei Navy.

If Bretton were to join, Ronin really didn’t have a good role for him.

For one, he was young and not very powerful. Ronin couldn’t just have him join the territory’s security patrol, could he?

On the other hand, his status was quite special. It seemed there was no precedent in history of a Lord’s heir serving a Vassal.

“As the heir to the family, what you need to do now is focus on your Cultivation and strive to become a Knight who can stand on his own two feet as soon as possible.”

Ronin said, “When you become… hmm, a Bronze Knight, then you can come to my territory for training.”

Hearing this, Bretton’s head immediately drooped.

“Alright…”

Ronin stepped forward and put an arm around his brother’s shoulder. “Although you can’t come to my territory, I do have a task for you.”

Bretton’s face lit up with surprise. “Tell me!”

“The Wushan Extraordinary Academy has many excellent students. Use your status and connections to bring some more of them over to Wubei Territory for me.”

“You want me to help you recruit Professional Knights?”

Bretton understood. “But many of my classmates at the academy haven’t awakened their Fighting Qi Spirit Seeds yet. Even among those who become Professional Knights, the vast majority are at the Basic Level. Only a handful are strong enough to reach the Advanced Level.”

Students at the Extraordinary Academy generally graduate around the age of twenty.

To become an Advanced Level Knight at that age requires excellent aptitude, but the number of such people is far too small.

Still, Basic and Intermediate Level Knights aren’t bad. Even the Wushan Castle Knight Order has Intermediate Knights.

“As long as you can bring them, I’m willing to take them. But we don’t need too many at once. For now, I’ll give you a quota of one hundred.”

Ronin said, “Besides Professional Knights, you also need to recruit students who are literate or have special skills in a certain area, like artisans or water management. I don’t care if they come from nobility or are Free People, as long as they’re willing to serve me.”

He added, “For people like that, I’ll take as many as I can get!”

As his territory expanded, the shortage of Transcendents wasn’t the worst of it. What gave Ronin the biggest headache was the lack of administrative officials like Wilson.

The population structure of Wubei Territory was complex, consisting of slaves, Peasant Slaves, Wildmen, and criminals. Picking administrative officials from this group—forget about competence, even finding someone with normal communication skills would be a challenge.

The students from the academy, on the other hand, lacked experience but had the advantages of a good foundation, youth, and a strong ability to learn. Most importantly, their wages would be low.

Those ordinary students of commoner birth were probably dreaming of pledging allegiance to a Lord and serving him.

If Ronin extended this olive branch, no matter how low the pay, as long as he could guarantee their survival in Wubei Territory, plenty of people would surely be scrambling for the chance.

“I get it, bro! Leave this to me!”

Bretton puffed out his chest, looking completely determined. “One month. At most one month, and I’ll have an answer for you!”

“Then I’m counting on you for this!”

Ronin clapped him on the shoulder. “Once you have the numbers, send someone to Swamp Castle to inform Rogner. I’ll have him lead a party to the Wushan Extraordinary Academy to welcome them.”

But Bretton said, “No need to go to all that trouble. I’ll just have them go over by themselves.”

Ronin shook his head.

The distance from Wushan Town to Swamp Castle was not short. If an accident were to happen on the way, it would become a stain on the Wubei Territory’s reputation.

So, it was more appropriate to have Rogner lead a team to escort them.