Chapter 17 Daily Life at the Manor

In the evening of the same day, the craftsmen in the manor covered the place where they would start construction tomorrow with linen, and went home together, chatting and laughing.

The wedding preparations at Stewart Manor were almost complete, and Caesar went out for inspection during the day again.

Before reaching the manor, he met the blacksmith of the fiefdom along the way. The blacksmith could not wait to come forward and ask Caesar about the news of the tax exemption granted by the baron.

"How did you know that?"

Caesar, holding the reins, glanced at him.

The blacksmith looked at the knight's expressionless face, not knowing whether he was happy or unhappy, and said truthfully:

"This morning, the sheriff sent someone to deliver a tax exemption document. The person told us that it was the knight who saved the poor exiled nobles from the neighboring country. This is a reward for your kindness."

After hearing this, Caesar thought about it and narrowed his eyes: "Well, that's what happened."

After saying this, he turned his head and exchanged a silent glance with his entourage before continuing to walk into the manor.

Squire George stepped forward and thought for a while before saying:

"You told us not to make it public the day before yesterday, but today you're spreading the news yourself."

"Looking at the sheriff's attitude, my Lord Baron, my Lord Earl, I'm afraid he wants to use those women and children as a banner to legitimately help others recover lost territory?"

Caesar made no reply.

George lowered his head again and said:

"However, the Earl won't start raising the flag so soon. He wants to wait for two years, until the rebels have swallowed up half of Lenya and Lenya no longer has the strength to fight back, and then he will take a share of the spoils from both sides."

As vassal states, what they have been looking forward to is this day, when they can go out to expand their territory, even if it is a barren land. If they make military achievements and are granted titles, they can get a large piece of land.

Land, what a precious treasure.

George talked for a long time, then looked up and saw that the adults were almost at the manor.

After entering the manor, I first left the horses in the yard. The door was open and I could hear the noise of servants clearing the table.

Caesar stood at the door and shook off the snow, then tilted his head to look inside and smelled the scent wafting from the restaurant. It seemed that there was dessert again today.

After entering the house, he had to go to the prayer room to take off his armor. At the same time, Adam brought a ceramic water jar half filled with clear water, in which some pine resin and sage were sprinkled.

Caesar stretched out his palm, wiped it, then lifted his robe and knelt devoutly in front of the portrait of the God of Creation. As a knight of the Holy Spirit, prayer was a ritual he had to perform every day when he went out early and returned late.

Behind him, Olivia folded her arms and walked casually behind him. She touched her chin, her eyes fell on Caesar, and then looked at the statue again.

The God of Creation drawn above is a standing man with a pair of huge wings behind him, exactly the same as the game icon.

Every time Olivia saw Caesar kneeling before the statue, she felt as if he was kneeling before a string of coded data. It seemed that the more pious he was, the more he was affected by the data.

Although this is just a game, it still makes people feel an inexplicable feeling behind their backs.

After the prayer, Caesar stood up and turned around. Olivia pursed her lips and told him about the sheriff's visit today. She then said:

"I plan to take advantage of this opportunity to take over the tenant farmers' land and manage it together."

Caesar had only learned how to lead an army, how to deal with the enemy, and how to ride a horse and shoot arrows. He didn't know much about things like raising livestock. His wife was said to have been trained in this area since she was a child, so she must be better than him.

It is his usual practice to do his job and obey orders.

Caesar sat down with her in the restaurant, and without asking any more questions, he nodded and said, "It's up to you to decide."

Olivia looked at her husband who was like a human machine and said nothing. She just handed him a towel to wipe his hands.

Then he continued, "Let's eat."

Seeing that the cook was too busy today, I didn't make any extra requests and just ate whatever she cooked.

So there are four dishes in total, including staple food, soup, meat products and dessert.

The staple food is delicate wheat flour bread, and the soup is cellared vegetable purple radish soup.

The pork belly, also known as bacon, is hung in the smokehouse and smoked with pine branches for two or three days after being marinated. It is cut into long slices half a finger thick, roasted with garlic, and sprinkled with salt when it is out of the pot, giving it a simple aroma.

Dessert is goat cheese with cooked apple sauce and honey, which can be used to dip bread.

You know what, the wheat bread that has been fermented with old dough is baked in a bread oven. It has a crispy crust on the outside, and when dipped in cheese and jam, it has a rich and sweet taste. If you eat it dry, it will be a bit hard on the throat.

In fact, Olivia didn't understand how this diet structure evolved before.

But now that I have lived here for a long time, I realize that these foods are indeed the most classic, luxurious and decent foods that this place can produce.

Fine wheat flour, limited dairy products, meat that can only be obtained by hunting, and the few vegetables that can be stored in this area during the winter.

Their simple meal required the entire estate's resources to provide.

After dinner, as usual, it was time to warm the embers in the restaurant to digest the food.

Olivia put the women's belt she had made into a wooden box and asked Lucy to send it to Stewart Manor as a gift early tomorrow morning.

This gift is nothing special, it can only be considered average. In fact, it is also deliberately controlled to be within the normal range of neither too close nor too distant.

In Olivia's suitcase, there were also handmade items made by ladies from other manors that she received before the wedding, such as belts, stockings, gloves and the like.

She sewed a pattern on the belt, originally intending it to be in the style of floral silhouettes seen in later times.

But after thinking about it, she took out a few gifts given to her by others from the box and made them according to the patterns above, in order to follow the local trend.

In her own fiefdom, she was like a king, she could do whatever she said, her subordinates had to obey her, and no one else could interfere.

But when she was outside, she had to abide by social rules and do what a knight's lady should do, such as observing the relationship between superiors and subordinates.

What ladies of the same rank give to each other, and what superiors give to subordinates, must not be presumptuous in any way, and must best demonstrate the Baroness's gift.

Before her wedding, many ladies only gave her belts and gloves, but the Baroness gave her the pair of leather boots that she had kept in her box and had never worn.

Another two days passed. Due to the heavy snow, many nearby estates only sent gifts to congratulate the Stewart family's daughter and did not go to Lavosen Church to watch the ceremony.

When the livestock farmhouse was almost completed and only the roof remained to be built, the task progress reached 80% and the weather cleared up for two days.

In the morning, Olivia chose to awaken her taste buds with a bowl of mushy oatmeal porridge with milk and honey.

After several days of hard work, she finally wore the sweater she knitted.

It’s just that it’s made as an autumn sweater, so it’s tight-fitting, which is very different from the outer sweaters I wore in my previous life.

The sweater she wore was the second one she had knitted.

She was not very skilled when she made the first one, so it was loose and thick with crooked stitches. She gave it to Caesar, who wore it next to his body without a complaint and said, "It's fine as long as it keeps you warm, you have to cover yourself up anyway."

There was still a lot of wool left in the basket, enough to make a lot of woolen socks, woolen hats, woolen gloves and other things.

She thought that she could weave it and give it to her parents, at least she would have accepted their help.

However, the idea had just come to her mind during breakfast. Near noon, when Olivia was sewing her own pants in the bedroom, Lucy knocked on the door and said her sister was here.

No need to ask, it must be the youngest sister Sansa. Lanie is a homebody.

Olivia put down her work and went downstairs to see Sansa riding a mule with a maid who was not much older than her.

The master and servant came from Renault Manor, walking and playing on the way, which took them half an hour.

She stepped forward to brush the snow off Sansa's body. "Why are you here? Is there something wrong with my father?"

Sansa got hungry after playing on the road, so she ran over and hugged Olivia's arm and acted coquettishly.

"It's not Dad who's in trouble, it's me... I want to eat the same thing I had at your place last time, the boiled little pies. The cook at home has made them several times, but they don't taste the same."

Olivia was surprised and thought for a long time before she realized that Sansa was talking about dumplings. She curled the corners of her mouth.

Looking at Sansa in front of her, with her brown hair and blue eyes, who looked like she had jumped out of an oil painting, Olivia was so cute that she pinched her cheeks.

"Come on, I'll go to the kitchen and teach you how to make it."

As she spoke, Sansa took out a small cloth bag from her pocket, looked up at Olivia and said:

"I brought this for you."

…

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