After I died, my personal maid rebelled.

Summer rains are unpredictable. In the early morning in Harbin, a night of heavy rain turned into a downpour, with the rain curtain falling and the sudden drop in temperature leaving many people unable to adapt.

An umbrella ran through the streets and alleys, Luna stepped through puddles, and hurriedly returned home to take shelter from the rain.

Luna handed the umbrella to a servant, and while the maids were carefully drying Luna's hair, she couldn't wait any longer and went upstairs covered in water.

She had already gone to the warehouse to confirm that it did indeed have a large stockpile of herbs, which made Luna's desire to make money even stronger.

The alchemist ultimately didn't dare deceive her, and those in the know had already begun preparing for the future. The traveling merchant also mentioned that recently, people in the royal city had been secretly buying up herbs on a large scale.

Pushing open the slightly ajar office door, Luna peeked out, only to be met with a questioning gaze from Elinie.

"Come here. You ran out before dawn. Are you planning to do something naughty again?"

Compared to her own brother, Luna actually dislikes facing Elene's discipline even more.

The two had too many secrets between them, and the older brother trusted Elene more, which left Luna with no room to struggle.

Luna shrank back, not taking a step forward. "Um, since my brother isn't here, I'll be going now."

"come over."

"oh."

Luna sat quietly on her own little stool, letting Elena dry her hair with a towel.

The gentle movements made Luna squint her eyes comfortably.

"It's Lady Elene's turn to work today, so where's my brother?"

"Do you think everyone is like you, playing around all day? With such heavy rain, the Duke was naturally worried about the river embankment and went to inspect it in the early hours of the morning."

After drying Luna's hair, Elena patted the towel on her forehead and turned to pick up an urgent report.

Luna put away the towel. "I don't like sitting in an office, but I can run errands for you. I'm really fast on horseback."

"You're the young lady, not a messenger."

She gave a casual reply, but the more she read the urgent report, the stranger her expression became, and she kept turning her head to look at Luna.

"What's wrong? Is someone snitching on me again? They're going too far! This is clearly an invasion of my privacy!" Luna was furious, but she quietly took a step back, already preparing to run away.

Your petty thefts and thievery aren't even worthy of being discussed on this table...

Alini put down the urgent report, but her mind was already searching for a solution, her slender fingers tapping incessantly on the table.

Seeing that Eileen ignored her, Luna sneaked over, rested her chin on Eileen's shoulder, and silently began to read the report.

She was delighted at first glance. It turned out that Jacob had persuaded the private soldiers in the Marquis's territory to serve the Duke from now on. Under Jacob's leadership, they were putting pressure on other nobles in the east.

Luna was naturally happy that Jacob was capable, after all, he was a great talent she had picked up and invited, and she deserved half the credit for him.

However, things didn't go smoothly for Jacob. While the nobles were indeed afraid of Oswald, that didn't mean they would tolerate the provocations of the private soldiers.

Are you kidding me? If we can't beat the regular army, surely we can beat you?

Messenger! Message: Jim, you're a jerk. Come and try your luck on East Avenue, and I'll tear your hoods off the ground.

Several earls have now joined forces to form an army that is said to number 30,000 but is actually only 7,000 to 8,000, preparing to fight the former marquises' private soldiers.

In Luna's eyes, this was practically a free favor, and Eline thought the same way. However, she was worried that sending regular troops would escalate the situation, and she didn't know what to do.

The earls were quite adept at exploiting loopholes; they were convinced they were fighting a marquis's private army. No matter what, this was a noble war between lords, and the duke's mansion couldn't possibly intervene and take sides.

Elena currently has two solutions. One is to issue a public announcement declaring to the entire Northern Territory that these private soldiers are now under the Duke's command. However, if she does this, the earls will surely slink away, preventing any war from taking place, and the Duke's Mansion will have missed such a good opportunity.

Secondly, send Count Rondo or Count Camillo to participate in the war under the guise of supporting the Marquis, and wipe out this group of nobles in one fell swoop.

However, both of them hold important positions and are renowned. Even if they can find time to participate in the battle, once they raise their flags, the opposing side will likely flee at the mere sight of them.

"Let me go." Luna slapped her forehead. If others can exploit bugs, so can she. As a young lady without a title but with her own personal guard, she can freely participate in any war. Even after defeating a noble, she can directly and illegally but legitimately acquire their title and territory.

"You only have three hundred men, that's not enough." Elin refused directly. Although the other side's seven or eight thousand men might not be able to defeat Luna's three hundred elites, the risk was too high, and it would be difficult to guarantee Luna's safety.

Luna stood up, puffed out her chest, and gave a smug smile.

"Who says I only have three hundred men? The enemy has only seven thousand, while I now have over eight hundred cavalrymen under my command!"

……

Holding an umbrella and smoking a pipe, Oswald rolled up his trousers and stood barefoot on the muddy riverbank, silently watching the rushing, turbid river before him.

Even as he exhaled smoke, Oswald remained vigilant, having already dispatched troops downstream to inspect the area and report back to him every two hours.

"In the future, all these waterways near the city must be widened and new riverbanks must be built with cement."

"Yes, Your Grace."

After outlining a new engineering plan, Oswald waved for the officials, both high and low, to leave, then, smoking a cigarette, walked step by step along the embankment.

Fortunately, the rivers in this other world are not as turbulent as the Mother River back home, and his territory is located upstream. Otherwise, with such heavy rain, Oswald would probably have to sleep with one eye open.

Before long, soldiers came to report that floods had occurred in the southern commercial territory, destroying several villages.

"Pass down the message, mark the flooded areas, and have Reid immediately send out militia for disaster relief."

"Yes, Your Grace."

The soldiers immediately sprang into action, heading in different directions, while the cavalrymen swiftly charged into the rain, their hoofbeats quickly drowned out by the downpour.

Going forward, the focus of flood prevention efforts will remain on the southern territories, where riverbeds have been silted up for years and are due for large-scale dredging. Oswald kept these matters in mind and planned to write them down in his memos upon returning.

He left someone to continue patrolling the river, and Oswald mounted his horse and returned to the Ice City. He had only been riding for less than an hour when he saw Eleanor squatting beside the carriage, sheltering from the rain, in a clean open space not far away, while she was constantly flipping through documents.

She was dressed very lightly, clearly in a hurry to leave without being properly prepared. The hair around her cheeks was wet with rain, and her skin was slightly pale.

"What are you doing here?"

Oswald frowned, dismounted, walked up to her, knelt down, and pressed the document in her hand.

"Anyway, it's not far." While Elena was still in a daze, Oswald pulled her up and draped his still-warm coat over her shoulders.

The two boarded the carriage one after the other. The carriage was dimly lit, with only the red light from the pipe in Oswald's hand flickering intermittently.

Wrapped herself in her coat, Elena felt much warmer. She brushed her damp hair aside and said calmly, "Distinguished guests have arrived in Ice City, and they specifically requested to see you."

"Who?"

"Princess, Diana."

"Heh, they like to do everything in secret." Oswald exhaled a puff of smoke, his expression inscrutable.

He had no grudge against this person, nor did he want any. Even though Diana had used her resources to take Annie away from him last time, Oswald simply assumed that she had been bought off with a large sum of money.

After all, you can't generalize between people. In games, as long as the art style is good, Oswald can even accept minotaurs.

But in reality, for a princess who constantly degrades herself, makes herself share a husband with other women, and isn't even the main female lead, who endlessly gives herself away in the story, almost giving away her brother's crown, firmly believes she has found true love, and later degenerates to the point where her pupils turn into hearts, succumbing to lust but remaining innocent, and whose status is extremely noble.

Who can guarantee that her mental state is stable?

No matter what you say, she's already like this...

Oswald tilted his head and spoke abruptly. "It seems like it's been a long time since we've had any time alone together."

In this life, Luna first returned to the Northern Territory, and then Jenny arrived in Ice City ahead of schedule. The days became more and more lively, but the two of them were rarely like before...

"Does the Duke want to continue the conversation we had last time?" Eleanor glanced at him. Although she looked petite huddled in her coat, Oswald still felt a chill.

He took a drag of his cigarette, feigning composure. "The nun said that for my health, it would be best to always keep a cheerful mood."

"For your health, you should first extinguish any burning material in your hands and stop inhaling the smoke."

"In that case, should I buy my personal maid a pretty dress as hush money?"

Elena raised an eyebrow slightly. She had to admit, she was tempted, but she quickly suppressed her desire and sighed, "We still have a lot of work to do."

"Work is never-ending, and troubles happen all the time, but that doesn't stop us from being happy." Oswald stubbed out his pipe, sat down next to Eleanor, and stretched.

Elena glared at him sideways. "The original quote you gave last time was: 'Although we have a lot of work and it's tiring, and we can't change anything immediately, that doesn't stop us from doing it better.'"

"Very good. If I ever publish a book of Oswald's writings, please remember to remind me to delete the previous sentence and keep only the original text."

The two exchanged a glance. Elena looked up, gently brushed the mud off his face with her fingers, and gave a fake smile.

"Heh, who would have thought that the Duke's sayings are all about intimidation and shamelessness? If this book really existed, it would definitely be used as a negative example."

"I really liked your review, but please don't leave reviews next time."