The break of dawn. Lord Black sat up on his bed, peeling his wife off of him as she clung to him like a bolster. Unlike her, he had a territory to run.

Even though King Carmine’s rule was slightly unstable, Lord Edward Black had managed to avoid most of the court intricacies and consolidated most of his strength.

The current King Carmine was an ineffective ruler and in certain backroom discussions that others will call treason, the term ‘moron’ was thrown around liberally. When the Carmine Kingdom was undergoing a famine, the current King Carmine had built a new palace, which caused the death of about 19,000 workers, and even more, civilians were conscripted to the palace construction.

Entire forests were levelled for the palace, rivers dammed and the tax was raised to an obscene 80% for everyone, even the poor.

This resulted in an exacerbation of the famine. Then, there were King Carmine’s illogical campaigns against the Gerheist Kingdom, which the late King Carmine had an extremely positive relationship with. However, there was an unspoken agreement between King Gerheist and the nobles of King Carmine that if their troops stayed out of the way, King Gerheist will simply aim to attack only the royal forces and force the king to retreat.

However, the territories of the Black have begun to grow poorer nowadays, due to the increasing amount of levy and unlawfulness. Yet, the talks of overthrowing the King was usually quickly dispelled even among the nobles due to the generosity and kindness the late King Carmine had shown them.

Lord Black’s taxes brought in about 32,000 gold coins yearly, with 30,000 going to the king. The remaining 2000 coins were barely enough to feed his retainers. However, any form of economic development was next to impossible.

“Milord, Knight Kaisenberg has returned.” An attendant announced and Lord Black nodded.

“Let him wait for me in the study. I will be there shortly.” Edward Black replied, quickly having the attendants bring him the basin of water so he can wash up.

Kaisenberg was standing in the same study in which Lord Black had ordered him to check on the man by the name of Lawrence Carstein. He wondered what to tell his liege, should he mention the man by the name of Sir Arthur? The Guardians? The undead? Or that Siren?

“Ah, you are back. Thank you for making the trip. I’m hoping that you are bearing good news for me?” Lord Black said, reappearing in his signature black coat and dark coloured leather clothes of nobility.

“I do, milord. I testify that Lawrence Carstein is an adventuring merchant who had been shipwrecked and drifted for days in the sea and made landfall in Black Bay Village. He is extremely skilled in the use of a sword and tower shield.”

Lord Black considered Kaisenberg’s words for a moment before asking, “How skilled is skilled?”

“Milord, I think even if we threw the entire knight household at him in the morning, he will have your head before lunch,” Kaisenberg replied seriously and Lord Black nodded slowly.

“Does he want to—“ Lord Black was about to ask Kaisenberg but the knight shook his head.

“It seems that for now, he only wishes to settle down peacefully. However, we can now consider Black Bay Village an extremely secure place with his presence. He had sworn an oath of some form to defend the weak.”

“That’s good, at least one thing off our plates.” Lord Black said and that was when a knight behind Lord Black brought up a plate full of doughnuts and croissants as well as several bottles of wine.

“Oh? The cooks have had their budget expanded?” Lord Black asked happily, biting into one of the doughnuts.

“T-This is amazing!” Lord Black exclaimed, taking another bite and that was when he noticed that the knights were more or less carrying a small bag filled with pastries as well.

“These are made by Lawrence Carstein. He has set up shop in Black Bay Village.” Kaisenberg said and Lord Black’s face was that of complete shock.