“What is this, Your Majesty?” Hyeonu wondered, cocking his head.
“Can’t you tell by looking? It is my reward to you. It is an imperial decree giving Earl Gang Hyeonu a territory,” the emperor answered.
“!!!” Hyeonu was truly amazed.
A territory...
He didn’t know how many imperial contributions were needed to obtain one, but a territory was just given to him.
“You can give me a territory at will?” Hyeonu queried.
“On the contrary, people will like this. No one will have any complaints.” The emperor seemed to understand Hyeonu’s words.
Complaints? Who would be dissatisfied when a lord appeared to take charge of such a territory?
“Can I ask one more thing?” Hyeonu said.
The emperor nodded.
“I know that contributions to the imperial family are necessary to obtain a title or territory. I got a pretty big amount of contributions this time. Can you tell me why?” Hyeonu continued to ask questions.
57,439—it was a ridiculous amount of imperial contributions. He was wondering about the reason for it.
The emperor responded, “What is your contribution to the empire? This body is the empire. It is entirely up to me.”
‘In the end, it depends on satisfaction.’ Hyeonu thought it was very absurd.
The words were tremendous, but the underlying meaning was that the emperor gave a large amount of imperial contributions if he was well satisfied. The emperor continued to speak, “This time, I will ask you something. When can non-adventurer scouts go to the East Continent? I tried to send some, but they failed to cross the Balder Mountains...”
Hyeonu shook his head and replied, “I don’t know the exact amount of time it will take. However, it is estimated that when the average level of adventurers rises higher and the number of adventurers who can cross the Balder Mountains increases, the barrier will completely disappear.”
Nevertheless, this was just speculation as Hyeonu actually didn’t know. When would the barrier disappear? He had never thought much about it before. It was a waste of time and energy to pay attention to such things when he could freely cross to the East Continent.
“I understand. Before moving to the East Continent, go to your territory. No, meet with Lebron first. He’ll take care of things and explain it.” The emperor waved his hand as if to send Hyeonu away.
Hyeonu quickly exited the imperial palace. Following the emperor’s words, he headed straight to Lebron’s mansion in Yusma. The guard gave Hyeonu a strong welcome today. He made a 90-degree bow and greeted Hyeonu, “Lord Viscount, you’ve come? The duke is in the training field as usual.”
After telling that guard that his rank had changed, Hyeonu entered the mansion. Lebron wasn’t meditating as usual. Instead, he was moving vigorously and wielding his sword, creating a sharp sword wind that swept through the area. Hyeonu was unconcerned with Lebron’s training and called out, “Master! Your disciple has come!”
“Rude guy!” Lebron spoke roughly, but his actions welcomed his disciple. He put away his sword and turned to Hyeonu before asking, “Why have you come here today? What do you need this time?"
“Master, do I only come when I need something? This time, I came for something else.” Hyeonu took out a book and handed it to Lebron.
As Lebron received the book, Hyeonu didn’t forget to take out a few bottles of alcohol from his inventory and placed them on the ground of the gym.
“What is this?” Lebron asked while looking through the book he received.
“It is a martial arts book from the East Continent. I brought it here because I thought it would help Master. In addition, this is alcohol from the East Continent.”
Lebron smiled cheerfully when he saw the bottles Hyeonu was pointing at.
“Now you’re sensible. Yes, you should give this to your master.” Lebron quickly hid the bottles behind him. “Did you come just to give me these?”
Lebron instinctively felt that a greater gift remained.
He didn’t know why, but an inexplicable pleasure covered his entire body.
“In fact, His Majesty told me to go to Master. He said to give me a territory...” Hyeonu explained.
‘Territory?’ Lebron cocked his head as he listened. Why send his disciple to him to get a territory?
‘Has Alexander finally gone crazy after being tortured by government affairs?’
“What did he ask me to tell you?” Lebron said.
Hyeonu handed the white paper to Lebron. It was written by the emperor himself. Lebron received the emperor’s instructions with a serious expression. Then he burst out laughing, “Puhahaha!”
Lebron was unable to resist letting out the laughter that erupted. No, he refused to hold it in. Alexander had given him a great gift.
‘Why is he reacting like that?’ Hyeonu wondered.
“What is it? Huh?” He grabbed Lebron’s arm and shook it, forgetting to speak with honorifics due to his sudden anxiety.
“The territory that has been given to you—it is under the direct command of the imperial family. It’s a very good place. It has a high population and a developed economy. It’s one of the top 10 territories in the empire. But...”
“But...?”
“There is a small problem. It was the place where the surviving forces of Alkyl tried to revolt. They were heavily beaten, but the damage was almost unrecoverable. There is a pile of accumulated work. As you know, it isn’t just one or two places that are like this. We took the minimal measures, but…” Lebron said and paused before continuing. “Regardless, this is the territory you’ve obtained. You’ll probably be stuck there for a few months. If you don’t manage it properly, it will immediately be recovered by the imperial family.”
Hyeonu’s expression became distorted after hearing Lebron’s explanation. He looked like he was chewing on shit.
‘I spent gold coins to give him a gift, and he gave me this shit?’ Hyeonu grumbled inwardly. Then he asked, “How serious is it?”
“It’s probably a few months of work? That is when there are competent administrators. If you are alone... I think it’s doomed. The empire already lacks too much talent. Adventurers are filling the void, but there still aren’t that many.”
In fact, after the fifth main scenario, many players changed classes to imperial workers. They ranged from workers restoring broken walls and buildings to those who reviewed and executed budgets. There was a new wind in Arena. Of course, it was a secret that many of them were the miners of large guilds.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login