Chapter 415: Territory Adjustments

[A/N: Going in detail over the new plans and meetings is gonna take a bunch of Chapters and I don’t wish to bore you so, here’s a shorter version since nothing of importance really happens during this time and there’s no new important character to introduce.]

For the next whole week, Adrian was busy settling multiple things. While Lorcan dealt with the Ironhold royalty, Adrian saw a massive issue with his newly expanded territory.

First was the fact that even though Draven’s territory was technically under Adrian now, it was located far away and was completely disconnected from the rest of his land. Yes, the path between them was pretty decent. Adrian’s territory consisted of his own Oresfall, Oreswell, the territory that used to be under Vaneira which was pretty huge, and Count Frankenstein’s territory which was also huge. Then came the areas which were still under the Crestwall Empire.

There wasn’t a proper direct connection between Draven and Adrian.

Due to this, Adrian had to set up a meeting with Roderick and Maximillian. It took him almost half a day just to settle things between the two empires.

The deal was simple: he gave away the northern area that was under Draven. That northern land was far away from Adrian’s own territory, so he gave it away so he could have a more unified area instead of a fragmented one.

In return for giving up that land, Adrian negotiated for Duke Silas to move his ownership over to Adrian’s territory. That meant the original land Duke Silas owned would stay under the Crestwall Empire, but Silas himself would come under Adrian.

Even though the deal was technically a net loss of total landmass, Adrian didn’t really want that specific land anyway. This deal gave him a really good option, which Roderick eagerly agreed to.

Even though the combined territory Adrian gained was not exactly the same size as the amount of territory that Draven and Silas originally owned together, it was still almost seventy percent of it. And the actual resources of these places were insanely good. There were lush farmlands, massive merchant organizations, multiple mines, and most importantly, a few dungeons.

The dungeons were the one thing Adrian wanted the most.

Draven only had one dungeon in his territory, and it was located slightly outside the main borders. It was technically a danger until Adrian took it over, and it wasn’t exactly easily accessible. People would have to walk a long distance just to reach it.

As for Silas, he did have a dungeon, but it was located right next to the capital, and Adrian couldn’t really claim that land.

But now, thanks to the new deal, Adrian had multiple smaller territories directly under him. He had effectively traded a large amount of empty land along with two decent dungeons for a slightly smaller amount of land that contained four dungeons.

To Adrian, this was much more valuable.

Apart from that, Duke Silas was appointed as the main manager of the new empire. Adrian hadn’t officially set up the government yet, but he had already talked about this with the others. The long-term plan was basically a voting system similar to what he was used to back on Earth.

But setting that up would take time, and he didn’t really have that right now. Plus, he trusted Silas implicitly. He decided to just make Silas the acting minister who would take care of the day-to-day operations. There wasn’t exactly a set title for it yet, so he just gave full management rights to Silas.

As for Draven, he would be the one in charge of the Ironhold Kingdom. The entirety of it was completely given to him to manage, and he was officially appointed as the first Duke of Adrian’s territory.

Silas was also given the Duke title. The land he was taking over was none other than Adrian’s own Oresfall, including every bit of territory that was originally taken from the Crestwall Empire. This amount of land was much bigger than Ironhold, but it also required a lot more development. Ironhold was comparatively much better organized, and Adrian didn’t feel like he would need to work on it too much.

Adrian decided to make the old Avarice Kingdom the core of his entire empire. The reason was pretty simple: it had the massive coastal ports.

All of this planning would take a lot of time. Even though Silas was supposed to take over Oresfall, he had been sent over to the Avarice Kingdom for the time being so he could bring everything under order and make a few developments.

As for Adrian, he decided to be lazy for the rest of his time before the expedition. He did not want to deal with politics anymore since most of the stuff was settled and the others would take care of it for him.

Adrian finally returned to Oresfall after finishing his meetings. He went straight into his mansion and headed for his bedroom.

To his surprise, the moment he closed the door behind him, he heard a soft knock.

He opened it to see Claire and Serena both standing right outside in the hallway.

Serena had a slight flush on her face as she looked up at him. "Did you tell my father?"

Adrian shook his head. "No, I didn’t. You did tell me not to tell him yet, so I kept it from him."

Serena nodded in relief.

Claire looked at Adrian. "Can we come in?"

"Okay, sure," Adrian said, stepping aside to make way for them.

Once they entered, he closed the door until it clicked shut.

Claire turned around to face him. "Don’t you think this is unfair?"

Adrian looked at her, completely confused. "What do you mean unfair?"

Claire pointed straight at Serena. "Well, Serena here told me that you have a method of... of growing stronger through, you know..."

Her face turned a reddish hue, and her voice went slightly high-pitched.

"You know. The thing. Intercourse," she blurted out after a few seconds. "Like you and her doing it. Making babies."

Adrian chuckled softly. "Oh, you mean that? I mean, yeah. She has mana veins, and it is much easier to circulate mana that way. Sexual energy is basically just mana but in a different form. While it does require a specific technique to use this method, it is ultimately much more efficient for you to use compared to regular breathing methods, since the energy you get while doing the activity is a lot more concentrated."