Become their wicked yet gentle lord.

"We poor people don't even have enough food and furs for ourselves, but Miss Adela's business is completely different. She's willing to divide her land into small plots and sell them to the villagers at low prices. Goddess above, I've never heard of such a good deal in my life. I really don't understand why the village chief refused her."

Mark's words made Ryūka frown, and he immediately asked:

"You mean, she sold her land to you for a pittance?"

Mark nodded: "That's right. She said these lands should rightfully belong to us. We live here, but everything belongs to the lord! The mountains and forests, the fields, even the water from the river has to be taxed every year! She said that once you take over, you won't acknowledge her deal with the previous lord, so she might as well sell it to us, that way you'll have no reason to seize it. And she'll help cover everything up; the records kept by the lord will show that all of this originally belonged to the Marta villagers."

Liu Xia was speechless for a moment, but he still felt something was wrong, so he quickly asked Mark, "According to you, you can't even afford to eat, so even if it's a fire sale, where did you get the money to buy her land?"

"Well..." Mark started to stammer, but under Ryūka's control, he still honestly confessed:

"It's your money."

"My money?!" Ryuka's eyes widened.

“That’s right.” Mark nodded. “Miss Adela said that you’re expanding too fast, and the wealth and grain reserves of the various lords will flow to Sochi like a river. But you have very few people to begin with, and these transportation tasks will be handed over to the laborers and militias conscripted from each village.”

She had arranged everything for us, instructing us to wait regularly for passing transport convoys, all of whom were people she had bribed. If we just turned a blind eye, we could easily move a portion of the goods under the cover of night…

Afterwards, she sent people to transport the money and grain from the village to be used as payment for our purchase of her land. Of course, she would leave us a portion. At first, everyone resisted, but Miss Adela said that it should have been ours anyway, and if she truly treated her people as kindly as rumored, then we should take this portion. Initially, only a few families were willing to participate, but later, others, seeing the opportunity, gradually joined in. In the end, even our team leader, the one brought by Lin Hu, accepted the benefits and turned a blind eye…”

Ryuka's facial muscles were twitching; she was taking advantage of his lack of manpower and was desperately trying to undermine him from behind!

This is betrayal! This is corruption!

He finally understood why Village Chief Jack had rejected Adela. He wouldn't have dared to do such a thing even if he had ten lives, but he couldn't stop his fellow villagers from taking the risk. After all, these were his fellow villagers. If he didn't do it, fine, but if he reported them, he'd be ruined.

Most importantly, there's Adela herself... According to Mark's description, she's an extremely deceptive woman. She probably targets inexperienced and naive young men, using her striking looks and charm to ensnare them, gradually drawing them onto her trap.

The Chamber of Commerce has joined forces! Ryuga gritted his teeth in anger. He immediately thought of Hayden. He thought he had successfully slowed down their pace by discussing the magic workshop with him, but these people had turned around and given him a huge problem.

No, even if I confront Hayden, he can simply deny it. For example, he could claim that they sold those land deeds and contracts to someone else long ago, and that they don't even know Adela.

All of this is taking advantage of my unstable foothold in Sochi, frantically sucking my blood from behind! Perhaps they are betting that I will be focused on dealing with Clovis and will have no time to care about the affairs of my territory.

"What about this one? Have you seen this before?"

Ryūka took out the used magic crystal and asked Mark.

Mark nodded: "Miss Adela gave us a crystal ball to communicate with us about the time and place of each shipment. Of course, sometimes she also uses it to chat with me, just like we did before..."

Speaking of this, Mark's face lit up with a happy smile. He took out a crystal ball, looking completely captivated. It was almost identical to the one Ryusha had seen at Joe Harvey's place. Ryusha took the crystal ball and handed it to Melanie.

Let's analyze it.

Melanie immediately used her magic to sense it. The magical technology here was not complicated; most of it was still traditional magic arrays. So Melanie only needed a short while to figure out the magic formulas inside.

"With our capabilities, we can replicate and improve upon it, right?" Ryuga asked, looking at the crystal ball.

Melanie nodded: "This isn't difficult, I should be able to try. Anyaberg is already working herself to death, so let's not add to her workload."

"Besides that, there are some unexpected surprises, look." Melanie raised the corners of her mouth. She sensed that the magical structure inside the crystal ball was not complicated, and even seemed to have been made by a second-rate magician and magical engineer. She injected a wisp of magic power, and a figure quickly appeared on it.

"Mr. Mark, how was your day? Did you eat well? Please give my regards to Uncle... By the way, regarding the next shipment... we'll be passing through your village this evening. The code word for the rendezvous is 'Grey Rabbit'... I'm really sorry about what happened back then..."

Ryuka stared in surprise at the fragmented images appearing on the crystal ball. The beautiful blonde girl was Adela, but it wasn't him contacting her; it was a video of the past.

Melanie explained with a smile: "Current magical technology is still a clumsy imitation and application of magic. I can decipher the previous projection content by slightly deciphering the residual magic patterns on it, but it's not comprehensive."

Ryuka suddenly had a brilliant idea: "Could you use it to contact Adela? Or perhaps figure out Adela's location or something?"

“That won’t work.” Melanie tried channeling her magic for a while, then gave a helpless look.

"Adela is probably using a high-level magic circle, which allows her to contact Mark, but Mark and the others cannot contact her in return. Furthermore, she can access information about her surroundings at any time through this crystal ball; she might be watching us right now..."

"Is that so?"

Ryuka nodded, looked at Adela on the screen, imprinted her face in his mind, and then gave her the middle finger.

She was indeed beautiful and extremely gentle. Although she looked to be around twenty years old, she possessed the vivacity of a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl. If we exclude the possibility that the crystal ball had a beauty filter, she could easily have captivated Mark and the others.

If it were just a one-time meeting, Mark might not be willing to risk his life for Adela, but frequent video calls change everything. Damn it! This is a pig butchering scam! It's an online romance fraud! Ryuka exclaimed, amazed that she'd witnessed something like this in this day and age!

“Ah…Miss Adela…” Mark, captivated by the image that appeared in the crystal ball, laughed with mesmerization.

Ryusha wanted nothing more than to draw her sword and kill Mark, but when the blade stopped on the defenseless young man, she trembled and stopped.

He looked at the village of Marta behind Mark, this dilapidated and desolate little mountain village. It seemed as if countless eyes were watching him from behind those wooden fences. He thought of Mark's background, of his family consisting only of his mother and sister, and his sword involuntarily and angrily sheathed itself.

Melanie, standing to the side, couldn't help but sigh: "You really know how to hold back."

"If it were you, would you kill him?" Ryuga glanced at Melanie, who lowered her eyes, thought for a moment, and then gave her answer:

"will not."

“I think so too. When you captured Anyaberg and the others, you didn’t deal with the junior students from different factions.”

Melanie snorted coldly, seemingly unwilling to admit that she had feelings for these junior students, and calmly said, "Killing him is useless. According to him, there are quite a few people who have been corrupted and deceived. If this happens in every territory, it will be impossible to govern. After all, our main focus should be on dealing with Clovis."

Liu Xia nodded. He had just occupied Sochi, and his foothold was still unstable, and the people's hearts were not yet won over. The other side was deliberately using these ordinary civilians as pawns, perhaps hoping to see him go on a killing spree and lose popular support.

Whether it's holding these villagers accountable or forcibly reclaiming their land deeds, it would severely damage his reputation. Furthermore, the capital is still fiercely debating whether to hand over Sochi territory to him; he can't afford to make such a mistake at this critical juncture, as it would give his opponents leverage.

Does this mean I have to just keep putting up with this?

"This is a game of power and intrigue; you can only endure it. Ryuxia, you're only sixteen, and you've only been rising to prominence for a year. What you need to do now is survive and establish a firm foothold in Sochi."

Melanie's words calmed Ryusha down, but he was still unwilling to swallow his anger. It wasn't that he was heartbroken about the lost money, grain, and land; these were things he had seized from various nobles in the first place. He simply didn't want to be humiliated behind his back, someone who would bleed him dry while also gaining prestige from the people.

What can be done to stop the chambers of commerce from encroaching on our territory?

A method that would neither incite public outrage nor give the nobility of the capital a reason to criticize it, and would not require diverting existing manpower, thus affecting the fight against Clovis's army...

In a flash of inspiration, Liu Xia immediately released his control over Mark and grabbed the young man who was trying to run away.

"Your Excellency...I...I..."

After the charm wore off, Mark saw that Ryuga was trembling all over, but Ryuga simply gave him a cold shove and commanded him:

"Go, gather everyone in the village together. Everyone must be present, including your team leader and the village chief."

Mark shuddered; he could almost see his own doom. The entire village was now surrounded by Melanie's blizzard, with nowhere to escape. But it didn't matter if he died; the thought of his mother and sister at home made Mark feel like his intestines were being torn apart.

He gritted his teeth and knelt down with a thud, pleading with Ryūka:

"My lord! Kill me if you must! Please spare the others!"

Seeing him crying and trembling, yet staring at her with wide eyes, Ryuka couldn't help but laugh in exasperation:

"What? You want to play the hero? Do you even know what mistake you've made?"

"I...I did nothing wrong! Miss Adela, are you wrong? We work hard all year round, and we have nothing to our own! If you really love your people as much as the rumors say, then punish me alone!"

Still in Adela! Still in Adela! Ryuuya was almost laughing in exasperation at Mark. He laughed and scolded, "You're reciting 'Yongmei,' but I'm not in Lin's place...?"

"Your mistake was trusting that woman named Adela. You thought she was incredibly kind to you, but did you ever consider that this whole thing would eventually come to light? When that happens, will it be you who dies? Your family and villagers, or that mysterious woman who has disappeared from the public eye?"

“This…” Mark was speechless for a moment.

“If I wanted to hurt you, she couldn’t stop me, could she? And yet she still tricked you into doing this, clearly just pushing you to take the risk. On the other hand, I wouldn’t hurt you.”

Ryuka smiled and said to Mark in a gentle tone, "Go ahead and call everyone here. I won't make things difficult for you."

Seeing Ryūka's state, Mark had no choice but to get up from the ground and anxiously go to gather the villagers. He didn't know what the young governor was going to do, but Ryūka's words and attitude made him reflect on whether he had really done something wrong.

What are you planning to do?

After Mark left, Melanie looked at Ryusha, the boy who had just been angry now sporting a sly smile, as if he were really plotting something bad.

He wouldn't actually want to get rid of the entire village, would he?

To Melanie's question, he simply smiled and kept her in suspense: "You'll find out soon enough. By the way, could you break the magic circle inside and synchronize it with the other crystal balls of the same level?"

"I'll give it a try."

What exactly does he want to do?

At the other end of the crystal ball, inside a magnificent tent, a blonde beauty reclines in a bathtub—it is Adela. This tent is as large as a house, not only adorned with a splendid magic crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling and soft carpets beneath, but also divided into different rooms by multiple curtains, and countless braziers radiating warmth.

She frowned, holding the crystal ball. The image inside was of Ryūka and Melanie. With a burst of magical manipulation, Melanie directly interfered with the magic circle inside, severing the connection with Adela's main crystal ball and instead connecting it to other secondary crystal balls.

Adela watched the image on the crystal ball disappear, and angrily slapped the surface of the bathtub, splashing the floating petals. Completely unlike the gentle woman in the image, she immediately cried out:

"Yulina! Yulina! Go and get me a minor crystal ball!"

A sound of rummaging through drawers came from outside the curtain, and a young girl dressed as a maid entered, carrying a crystal ball. After handing the crystal ball to Adela, she cautiously asked:

"Miss Adela, what's wrong?"

"Why are you asking about these things? Are you trying to talk to your brother? Do you also want to go to Hayden's side so you can reunite with him?"

After being glared at by Adela, the girl named Yurina immediately shrank back and said tremblingly:

“How could that be? My brother and I were both taken in by your father from Schwarzman, and we are both utterly loyal to you. It was also your father who arranged for my brother to work under Mr. Hayden… Miss, calm down, you have dinner with His Highness Clovis later…”

"Don't mention my father! He'd rather give resources to that guy Hayden than to his daughter! It forces me to handle everything personally!"

"Yes, it's the master's fault, but didn't he entrust the Third Prince's business to you with peace of mind?"

"Ha, this is something I fought for myself in the meeting, what does it have to do with him?"

Yurina respectfully approached Adela and began washing her long, golden hair, but Adela rolled her eyes. She then adjusted the crystal ball in her hand, venting her resentment.

“That kid named Ryūsha! Why didn’t he strike with that sword just now! I was all prepared to record it. If he had just struck, I would have had a new bargaining chip when I came to find Klovie… If I could spread that video to Sochi and the capital, I could beat Hayden again!”

Chapter 19

But now, Adela could only sigh sullenly. Her plan was not just about poaching and exploiting others; she wanted to force Ryūsha to take action against the civilians of Sochi so that she could use it to her advantage.

Even within the Chamber of Commerce, there are different factions, each responsible for different people and businesses, and conflicts often arise between them. Adela, on the other hand, provides Clovis with various commercial and intelligence support, and as long as the price is right, she is happy to do some sabotage work behind enemy lines. This is not just a simple business transaction; Adela personally enjoys manipulating others.

The different agents of the Chamber of Commerce have their own styles of doing things. The only thing they all agree on is that they prioritize their own interests. Agents with different personalities and resources have to prove their value and ability in the competition with each other in order to gain more personal resources and prestige.

“Go tell Clovis I’ll be there later. I want to see what this kid named Ryūsha is up to.”

Adele, seeing the crystal ball receive the signal, gave instructions to her maid, Yulina. It seemed the archmage Melanie had already cracked the mystery. This was nothing unusual; communication crystal balls were simple magical artifacts, easy to crack or replicate. Therefore, the Merchant Guild Alliance didn't treat it as a high-profit commodity, but rather as a financing tool to showcase their research and development capabilities.

Adele wasn't worried about any of this, because she had already sold off these crystal balls, which were about to become obsolete, during her previous negotiations with Clovis, to fund Clovis's army command.

As the scene gradually unfolds, Ruka's figure appears standing in the village's central square, with the entire village of Marta below. Adele is deeply frustrated that Ruka failed to kill Mark earlier, and now she desperately hopes that Ruka will do something to these villagers so that she can gather evidence to use against him.

"Come on, you handsome young man, let me see what you're capable of. Besides that face that can fetch a high price among the high society ladies in the capital, just how much skill do you actually have?"

Unconsciously, Adele bit her left thumb nail, gently nibbling at it, her beautiful brows furrowing as she looked at the boy Hayden described as 'difficult to deal with'.

In the center of Mata Village, the villagers gathered together in fear and unease. They exchanged glances but kept their lips tightly pressed together, not daring to look at Ryuka on the stage.

Almost everyone was involved in smuggling supplies, and the outcome would be similar for any lord. A more merciful lord would simply hang the mastermind, while the participants would either have their hands or feet cut off, or be reduced to slavery, forced labor, or criminals. A less merciful lord would leave the village only in the memories of the surrounding people, serving as a lesson in how to obey the lord.

Only now did they finally regret their actions, realizing that there's no such thing as a free lunch. But they didn't even dare to cry. The air was thick with a deathly oppression. They prayed in their hearts that Ryūka would be as merciful as rumored, and that he would only hang Mark and the captain, sparing the rest of them.

Don't think it's cold-blooded. If the goddess opens her eyes and Liu Xia really did that, they would still take good care of Mark's family, as long as he can handle everything on his own. Otherwise, there's no sense of camaraderie...

"Have mercy, have mercy..." Everyone murmured this in their hearts, except for Adela outside the crystal ball, who bit her finger and muttered:

"Kill, kill, kill me!"

Even Melanie wondered how Ryūsha would handle the situation. He certainly wouldn't go on a killing spree, but he also lacked the manpower and resources to deal with it. However, if no one was punished, more people would likely take the risk and create a huge logistical hole behind Sochi City.

In the center of the village, surrounded by a blizzard, the boy stood calmly, just as he was in his current predicament. Whether in military, economic, or political arenas of the capital, Ryukyu was surrounded by icy blades and snowy swords, truly the eye of the storm.

Everyone looked at the boy, waiting for him to pronounce his sentence.

"I……"

The sound of spitting could be clearly heard as the villagers lowered their heads, numbly listening to the boy's clear and melodious voice, preparing to accept their fate.

"I have some good news for everyone."

The voice was so kind and gentle that they were momentarily taken aback.

W-what...? Good news?

They looked up at Ryusha, who was smiling, and announced an unexpected result to the village of Mata in a suitable pace and voice.

"I know exactly what you've done and what you're afraid of now. But you seem to have misunderstood. Regarding Sochi, I, Viscount Hetia Tartu of Linhu Territory, acted out of loyalty to the Empire to punish the rebellious Duke family. This does not mean I am your new master..."

The question of the ownership of Sochi remains to be decided by His Majesty the Great Emperor of the Otus Empire. I am merely maintaining order and functioning in Sochi for the time being. As for the property of the rebellious old nobles, it will be distributed according to the spoils of war of the Otus Empire: part will go to the army at the front, and part will be turned over to the national treasury. And the portion you secretly took…”

At this point, Ryuka paused deliberately, then flashed a bright smile and said, "You can count it as part of my spoils~"

Ryūka's words stunned the villagers of Mata Village, then they erupted in cheers. Incredulously, they rushed to Ryūka's platform and asked:

"Your Excellency, are you serious? You won't hold us accountable?"