This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

Almost as soon as Dick finished speaking, there was a knock on the door...

Belfast, who pushed open the door and entered, seemed to have known all along that Black and White Guns were also there. There was no surprise on her face. She even took out a change of clothes for the two of them from the trolley, clearly having come prepared.

Unlike the white-haired dazed and embarrassed Belfast, the black-haired dazed jumped off the bed quickly, took the clothes Belfast handed him, and greeted Belfast naturally.

Good morning, Miss Belfast.

"Good morning, Knight Black, Knight White?"

Because the two Knight Kings share the same name, and calling them "Black and White Gunner" is disrespectful as a nickname, most of the time, including Dick himself, they are referred to by pseudonyms: White and Black.

The three of them got dressed and followed Belfast downstairs to the restaurant.

Dick usually eats three meals a day with his core team. He sends special invitations to his subordinates and chooses specific days to have dinner with them. This difference is like the difference between how he treats his family and his company employees.

Seeing that Black and White Gunner had come downstairs with Dick this time, the expressions of the people at the dining table were all different.

Tia greeted the group with a smile, her eyes darting nervously between the three. Lily, sitting next to her, pretended not to notice, but her face, flushed to the roots of her ears, betrayed her. In stark contrast was Joel, sitting to her left, who genuinely seemed oblivious to everything.

The expressions of the three ninjas were also different, especially Ayane, who had been trying to outdo her sister Kasumi in every way since they arrived. She had a thoughtful expression on her face, as if she was plotting something.

Dick looked around and noticed that only the two doctors were missing, so he asked Rita.

"Where are Natasha and Shizuka?"

"Dr. Natasha worked through the night at the clinic yesterday to oversee the medication and didn't get back until after 4 a.m., so we didn't wake her up. Ms. Shizuka Marikawa just finished breakfast and rushed off to work."

Upon hearing that Natasha had been working overtime while he was having a good time last night, and that the medical team couldn't even get a proper rest on the weekend because of the patients with cold-related illnesses queuing up for IV drips at the clinic, Dick suddenly felt a tiny bit guilty about his own laxity.

Sitting down at the head of the table, Dick glanced at the basket beside him, which contained several newspapers he had subscribed to.

Not long after the Empire had its transmigrators from Earth, a small number of nobles who could barely be considered "progressive" followed suit and started their own newspapers. Over the years, they've managed to make them quite respectable.

However, like many technologies on Earth, newspapers were only available in the developed central regions of the Empire. The remote Lagug was not within the service area, so Dick had to specially commission someone to buy newspapers from the interior and then transfer them over by other means.

So by the time the newspaper reached him, its contents could no longer be considered "news".

But it's better to know late than never. The old emperor of the Hessian royal family was already on the verge of death, and he was also extremely power-hungry and unwilling to relinquish his power.

Rumors circulated that King Hesse VII secretly commissioned the study of black magic to prolong his life, and that members of the Royal Guard's red-clad ceremonial guard were mysteriously dying every few days, victims whose life force had been drained.

Such rumors would be nonsense on Earth, but this is a magical world, and given Hesse VII's reputation over the years, this is indeed something he is capable of doing.

Speaking of which, the first in line to the throne is almost fifty-nine this year. If the old emperor continues to suppress him like this, it's not impossible that he might utter that classic line one day.

Dick rummaged through the basket and found three newspapers, all dated thirteen days ago.

As the snowstorms in Laguge intensified after the onset of winter, the official roads through several passes in the Central Mountain Range had long been impassable. These newspapers might be the last batch he would see before the spring this year.

"Once the financial issues are resolved tomorrow, I'll hire Griffin to deliver newspapers."

Muttering to himself, Dick took out three newspapers: the Imperial Daily, the Hessian News, and the Hydrangea Spring News.

The third newspaper's name sounds very frivolous, and its content is indeed quite frivolous, mainly consisting of gossip about noble families, such as which family has formed a marriage alliance with which family, which lord's secret love affair has been exposed, and who has been caught cheating on whom. These are the kinds of stories that the parties involved would strongly request to be censored.

Logically speaking, a newspaper that exposes the private lives of noblemen shouldn't last long, but unfortunately, this newspaper has too powerful a background! It was founded at the behest of King Hesse VII, and although the nobles grumbled and complained that it damaged their image, they were the ones who loved reading this gossip the most.

As long as you don't become part of the news in this newspaper, you can enjoy reading it!

Dick subscribed to the newspaper not because he was interested in the trivial gossip of the nobility, but because he used the information in the paper to judge the changes in factionalism among the nobility. Sometimes, very important information was hidden in some seemingly unreliable news items.

Dick planned to read the other two newspapers after breakfast, but this gossip paper was perfect for watching while he ate.

Then Dick saw the headline on the front page and almost lost his composure.

"Breaking news! Imperial War Marshal Duke Rune Best has recently tied the knot, marrying the daughter of Marquis Horn of the South, who is his fourth wife."

"Ahem... I have another mom!"

Wiping the coffee that had spilled from the corner of his mouth with a napkin, Dick never expected that the headline would be about his shameless, cheap father.

Dick thought carefully and remembered this Marquis Horn. At the beginning of the year, before he graduated from magic school and before he took the blame for his older brother, he had seen the Marquis talking with the old duke at the spring banquet held at the duke's mansion.

The Marquis was in his early forties, and compared to the fifty-three-year-old Duke, a difference of two or three years would put them in a different generation. Moreover, Dick felt that if he remembered correctly, both of them had their children with them at the time; the Duke's was accompanied by his eldest son, Reinhardt, and the Marquis's by his daughter.

To be fair, she was a pretty young girl in the prime of her life. Her older brother, Reinhardt, seemed to like her a lot, standing there strutting around like a peacock displaying its feathers.

Given the scene at the time, it looked like the two families were trying to introduce their children to potential partners and arrange a political marriage or something, but the Duke himself took part in it (literally).

Dick couldn't even imagine the expression on his older brother Reinhard's face when he saw their father marry the woman he thought was an arranged marriage for him.

Dick was relieved about this; he had always summoned the women secretly, and the first batch of spies all knew how to disguise themselves. His father probably suspected he was keeping mistresses, but he certainly didn't know how many beautiful women they were; otherwise, that lecherous old man would definitely have had wicked thoughts!

In fact, the Best family did not have a good reputation among the noble circles of the capital. Although they were a noble family of founding fathers, they were also a "lecherous family" that many male nobles deeply resented.

The Best family claims to have ancient Titan blood, and its members are tall, strong, and handsome, but their sexual desires and abilities are also beyond the reach of ordinary people.

The social circles of the nobility were so decadent that, in many cases, members of the Best family became "minoes" either willingly or unwillingly.

Ordinary noble families, unable to afford to offend the Best family in terms of power or win in a duel, can only grit their teeth and choose to forgive.

Putting aside the controversy surrounding the marriage between the Best and Horn families, this union actually sends a signal: the military elite group led by the Best family is showing signs of forming an alliance with the large landowning group that operates plantations in the southern part of the empire.

It's quite strange that the prime minister's faction, which was part of the royalist party, didn't stop this marriage.

However, given the incompleteness of the newspaper reports, Dick dared not make a definitive judgment as to whether he hadn't tried to stop it or had tried but to no avail. He imagined that a fascinating power struggle must have taken place behind the scenes, unseen by Dick.

"My father, who harbors rebellious intentions, is becoming increasingly reluctant to hide them."

Dick put down the newspaper and focused on eating his breakfast, chatting with the other girls every now and then, creating a very harmonious atmosphere at the table.

At this moment, Dr. Natasha, looking exhausted, came out of her room upstairs. Judging from her expression, she probably hadn't slept enough but had woken up because of hunger.

Dick himself got up, pulled out a chair for Natasha, and helped her sit down.

Natasha, still looking half-asleep, said "thank you," only then belatedly realizing it was Dick.

"Your Excellency?"

"Thank you for your hard work, Natasha. Please get some rest today."

"No! Now is not the time to rest, the clinic is..."

“With Ms. Shizuka Marikawa at the clinic, starting today, the two of you will work in shifts. I will also provide additional staff to the clinic so that you don’t have to carry the entire burden alone.”

With his hands on Natasha's shoulders, Dick's attitude was clearly one of absolute firmness. He even used the slave contract to "threaten" Natasha, warning her that if she didn't get some rest, he would use the evil power of the contract to make her go to bed for beauty sleep!

"This decision was made based on my own practical interests. There aren't many high-end talents in our territory to begin with. If you overwork yourself, it will be my interests that suffer!"

Hearing Dick's serious words, Natasha smiled helplessly.

What a tough and unreasonable "slave owner"!

After breakfast, Natasha was personally "escorted" back to her room by Dick to rest. Afterward, he went to the living room to read the newspapers he hadn't finished reading that morning.

Although these are all "news" from more than ten days ago, some of the information is still quite useful. For example, it says that next spring, Crown Prince Wales Hammorati will make a northern tour of the imperial princes.

Every time Dick saw the unfortunate name of the Crown Prince, he would secretly complain to himself, "No wonder you have to be the Crown Prince for sixty years, competing with your own father to see who lives longer."

It is worth mentioning that the Best family is not part of the Crown Prince's faction; the Duke supports the much younger Third Prince, Bailey Hammoraty.

The third prince is only twenty-eight years old this year. He is one of the two sons that King Hesse had when he was old, so he is very much loved.

The old emperor had many children in his lifetime, but the ratio of princes to princesses was seriously imbalanced.

He had five sons in total, two of whom died young, leaving three.

The princess created seventeen offspring, all of whom lived to adulthood, but most of them were married off through arranged marriages.

It is said that Hesse VII once considered marrying one of his daughters to the Duke of Best, but the Duke refused on the grounds that "your late second wife was my own sister."

Returning to the Crown Prince, he was a leader of his own faction and, to a certain extent, received support from the royalist civil service group headed by the prime minister.

His northern tour this time may be intended to win over the northern nobles, and he will definitely come to Laguge, after all, it is the most important cold iron producing area of ​​the empire.

Just as Dick was figuring out how to respond, Belfast brought over a stack of documents. The documents had already been preliminarily reviewed by the secretariat and assigned priority levels.

The primary task of the territory at present remains treating patients with cold-related illnesses.

Although the winter god was appeased and the apocalyptic winter was not coming this year, Lagug itself is not a warm place. The liaisons who regularly travel between the villages by sled still bring back one or two people suffering from cold-related illnesses from time to time.

However, this infection rate is lower than in previous years, to the point that locals should be grateful to God.

In addition, they now have effective drugs, so while there is medical pressure, it is not too great!

The weakened winter will be milder and end earlier than usual, allowing valuable human resources to be preserved to the greatest extent possible.

At this point, Dick saw the second document, the latest batch of simulation reports submitted by the military team.

After intense simulation exercises, those brutes in the private army's staff have finally started to see the light. After all, in the previous simulations, they were repeatedly outmaneuvered by the bandits commanded by Dick, who used the terrain to launch infiltrations and pincer attacks behind enemy lines. Even the dumbest of them should have learned to use their brains.

Dick didn't expect these people to make any brilliant commands, after all, the bandits he played on the sand table were actually "unconventional bandits".

However, judging from the report, there are several bandit strongholds that seem really difficult to attack, with estimated casualties exceeding 20%, which is unacceptable for a feudal noble private army.

So Dick took out a military map, marked these bandit hideouts, and retrieved information about these strongholds from the intelligence gathered by the ninja group.

It must be said that Hongye's reconnaissance work was very meticulous. The intelligence she submitted not only included general information about the bandits that she had observed, but also sketched the hideout from multiple angles.

Looking at the numerous sketches in the intelligence collection, Dick took out his notebook and added another important item.

I must buy a magic camera next year. This money is part of the military budget, so I can't skimp on it!

On the map, there are four tough hideouts, all located in strategically important areas, and the gangs entrenched there are relatively stronger than other groups.

The largest of these groups, estimated to number nearly three hundred, controlled several surrounding villages and were showing signs of becoming "fiefdoms," essentially acting as bandit lords.

Dick wouldn't tolerate such an arrogant presence on his turf!

It is worth mentioning that Laguge is a mountainous and densely forested area, and it is also a frontier region where the empire's control is relatively weak. As a result, it is very popular with bandits and mountain thieves, who often build their nests here.

But the locals are actually very poor, and there's not much profit to be made from robbing them.

Therefore, most of these bandits used Laguge as their base, and then went to the wealthy areas on the other side of the Central Mountain Range to rob and plunder, and then take back what they had stolen.

Some cunning bandits understood the principle of not attacking their own territory, controlling the surrounding villages without killing or plundering them, and even paying these villages to buy winter provisions.

In contrast, there were aristocratic lords who levied exorbitant taxes and disregarded the lives of the people.

It's not hard to understand why some villages would choose to collude with bandits.

However, bandits are bandits; they do not engage in production but make a living by killing and robbing.

The real world isn't a fairy tale, and there aren't any chivalrous gangs that right the weak and punish the strong. The information Dick possessed was enough for him to legitimately and thoroughly kill him.

As for these tough dens, Dick gradually developed a plan.

Chapter 031: You killed me, I'll take yours!

In the blink of an eye, more than a month has passed.

With only seven days left in the year 1677 of the Yao calendar, the continent’s largest and most powerful Black Forest Empire was about to come to an end. The cold air from the north was blocked by the barrier-like high mountains, and the north was completely covered by ice and snow, appearing as a pale expanse when viewed from the sky.

But for northerners who have lived here for a long time, this year has been an unexpectedly warm winter.

Winter arrived so early, and everyone was mentally prepared for an extremely cold winter. But it's already the end of December, and the nighttime low temperature is only a mere minus twenty-something degrees Celsius. Although it still feels very cold, this is a temperature that was unimaginable in the past!

People only consider this year a special blessing from the gods, unaware that it marks the beginning of the return of the Laguge climate to normal. In the future, as long as the winter god Ajax no longer has nightmares and the seal no longer cracks, the terrible super-winter will become history, turning into a legend in the mouths of the old people like the story of the mountain trolls.

Of course! The warmth is relative to previous years. The thick snow still blocks most of the roads leading into the mountains, and villages are almost completely isolated from each other.

Only the liaison officers sent by the Governor's Office continued to travel along the river in dog sleds, traversing the villages unimpeded by the wind and snow. This was because most villages were built near the river, and even when the riverbed was covered in snow, it was flat and firm enough as long as it wasn't freshly fallen snow.

The governor assigned these liaisons not to collect taxes, but to act as messengers to deliver messages and to take those unfortunate enough to be infected with cold-induced illness to town clinics that were said to have a cure.

The villagers were initially skeptical, but as the first group of recovered patients returned and recounted their experiences and the young governor's kindness, their doubts and worries disappeared.

Gradually, these liaisons became seen as "people who deliver hope" by the villagers, and people began to look forward to their arrival. They also sincerely remarked that this wretched place, Laguge, had finally received a capable governor!

Meanwhile, Governor Dick, instead of staying in the warm castle to prepare for the New Year's Eve party, quietly led his capable subordinates into the mountains, wading through deep snow along a small path, to the vicinity of a mountain peak called Ghost Cry Peak.

This area is home to the "Vulture Gang," currently the largest bandit group in Laguge.

According to Dick's original plan to eliminate the gang, the Vultures would not be the last to be dealt with, but they were by no means the first target, and it was certainly not the right time to take action.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned, and it was these bastards who struck first!

The incident began four days earlier when a liaison officer failed to return on time. Sir John, who was in charge of the area, assumed that his brother had encountered some trouble or was delayed on the way, so he sent another person to search along the route. As a result, they discovered signs of a battle along the way.