[Chapter 103 Strength that matches status]
The chattering that could still be heard seemed to be paused in an instant. Everyone present looked at His Majesty the King and Earl Sutton-Stewart, and only the melodious music continued.
Two seconds later, the surroundings returned to normal, and the collective silence just now seemed to be an illusion.
But David could feel that more eyes were focused on him than before, and there was a bit of hostility in addition to curiosity.
“Make Winter Village Sofia’s fiefdom?” Abelson seemed to want to say something, but suddenly changed his mind and turned to ask his daughter: “What do you think?”
“I don’t know.” Her Royal Highness has milky white skin, long hair that shines golden in the sun, big round eyes and a small face with baby fat, and her beauty is a bit cute and playful.
Women in the Kingdom of Tilan become adults at the age of sixteen, and men at the age of eighteen. In other words, Princess Sophia, who has not celebrated her birthday yet, is still a 15-year-old girl: “But according to the introduction of this village chief David, it is a very good place.”
Her Royal Highness looked at David with round eyes. Her tone of voice and expression at this time did not hide her admiration for David.
Seeing his daughter’s reaction, Abelson’s first reaction was helpless. He turned back and glanced at Earl Stuart. He felt that this unreliable brother-in-law had caused him a big trouble.
“Send someone to Winter Village to assess whether it meets the conditions for upgrading to Winter Town.” Abelson gave the order casually. He was not going to decide anything immediately: “As for Sophia’s fiefdom…”
“Your Majesty.” Before Abelson spoke, someone below could no longer stay and immediately walked out of the crowd: “If Winter Village is upgraded to Winter Town, then as an important town on the border of the kingdom, it needs a truly capable knight to sit in charge…”
David turned his head to look at the young man. From his gorgeous clothes, he could judge that this person should be the child of a powerful noble. He should be brought here by his family to socialize today.
However, this person did not ask whether Winter Village was qualified to be upgraded to Winter Town, but began to question the ability of David, the village chief, which made him realize something.
He turned his head and looked at Earl Sutton-Stewart, who was not far away. The earl was also looking at him, and nodded at him with a smile, and reminded him with a more obvious mouth shape: “It depends on your performance next!”
“…”
The young man in the field was still talking, and quickly explained his point of view: Let’s not talk about what the situation of Winter Village is. Since it is the de facto border of the Kingdom of Tilan and is to be upgraded to a town, it is actually a “border town”.
It is reasonable and logical that a border town needs to be guarded and managed by more powerful people!
In short, David, the village chief of civilian origin, is no longer suitable to continue to manage such an important town.
“This is Baron Baker’s youngest son, Jeremy Baker.” Someone beside His Majesty reminded him who was talking loudly at the moment, so as to avoid the embarrassing situation that His Majesty did not know who this person was.
Because he was standing close, David also heard these words and knew the identity of the young man who jumped out first.
He glanced at the crowd of onlookers around him. There were more young people eager to try, and they might still regret that they were too slow.
“Jeremy, do you think Village Chief David is not qualified to be the mayor of Winter Town?” Abelson did not seem surprised by this situation. He looked at Jeremy Baker, the third son of Baron Baker, calmly: “Don’t forget that Village Chief David established the village with the help of the Development Order, and came to the capital in a very short time to submit an application for upgrading to a town.”
His Majesty the King’s meaning was very clear. With the support of the Development Order, and David’s development of the village in such a short time, it has proved David’s ability in a certain way. In this case, David’s position as village chief or town mayor cannot be dismissed casually.
“Your Majesty, to guard the border of the kingdom, you must have sufficient strength.” Jeremy Baker finally said the key point he had been thinking about for a long time: “Village Chief David is very capable in building and governing the village, but these abilities are probably useless when facing foreign invasion.”
“So, are you questioning the bravery of Village Chief David?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Is that so…”
Abelson pondered for a few seconds, and suddenly looked at David who was still not far in front of him: “So, Village Chief David, do you think you can guard the border of the Kingdom of Tilan?”
“Of course.” David stood by and observed for a while, listening to the conversation between the king and the young man from Baron Baker’s family, and he had figured out the intention of Earl Stewart to let him wear leather armor.
Not only did he figure it out, but His Majesty looked at David’s outfit and knew that the young man was well prepared.
He glanced at Earl Sutton-Stewart next to him, who looked like he was going to have a lot of fun, and made the final decision: “Very good, as a Tilan person, you must have the courage to not fear challenges. I look forward to your next performance.”
His Majesty the King even walked down the steps, stood next to David and patted him on the shoulder: “Go and prove your strength, prove that you are worthy of the identity of the mayor of Winter Town.”
Then he turned to the crowd and ordered loudly: “Clear the place, give the two young people some time to prepare.”
After that, His Majesty the King walked aside and talked to his wife and daughter. The dignitaries around him consciously gave up the shallow pit-like dance floor in the center and stood on the periphery one after another.
Several knights also brought weapon racks. There were various weapons on the two weapon racks, which were placed at both ends of the circular shallow pit.
David looked at this posture and suddenly found why he felt that this place had an inexplicable sense of déjà vu. Isn’t this a miniature Roman arena?
Looking back, he saw that only Sharon, Beram and Earl Sutton-Stewart were standing beside him.
“Did you expect this to happen?”
“Yes.” Earl Sutton-Stewart held the wine glass and gently raised it to David: “This is your best chance. If you want to thank me, remember to give me more gifts, like the one you gave me a few days ago.”
“…” David was speechless. Today’s incident seemed like Earl Sutton-Stewart kicked David into a pit with just a few words, but he still said shamelessly to remember to give more gifts as a thank you. If it were someone with a more irritable temper, he would have to give the earl two electric cannons on the spot.
Maybe David’s eyes were too oppressive, or maybe Earl Stewart was really worried that this country boy didn’t understand his kindness and gave him two electric cannons on the spot. Even if there was no danger to his life, he couldn’t afford to lose that person, after all, there were so many nobles watching around.
So, he explained a little bit why he did it.
The development decree of the Kingdom of Tilan did give ordinary people a channel to rise, but having this channel is one thing, and whether you can go through it is another.
The powerful people in the kingdom have enough means to deal with various situations.
Of course, considering the remote geographical location of Winter Village, before it is truly developed, it will not catch the eyes of the nobles in the royal city. If they really want to do something, they will wait until Winter Village, or Winter Town, becomes more valuable.
This also leads to another problem. Because it is too worthless, no one is too lazy to pay attention to it. David’s idea of making trouble to attract attention and arouse the king’s interest is difficult to achieve.
Earl Stewart, who is very familiar with the various situations in the royal city, is different. He just made a slight suggestion and successfully aroused the interest of countless descendants of dignitaries in the city.
“Let Winter Town become the fiefdom of Her Royal Highness?”
“That’s right!” Sutton Stewart took a sip of the fruit wine in the glass: “There are many nobles in the royal city, and there are also many noble children. For various reasons, there are naturally many young nobles who are eyeing Her Royal Highness Princess Sofia.”
So once the matter involves Princess Sofia, these young people who are most easily provoked can’t sit still.
Her Royal Highness’s fiefdom? Directly loyal to Her Royal Highness? Whether it is becoming Her Royal Highness’s knight or something else, the relationship with Her Royal Highness will definitely be much closer than it is now. With the opportunity of frequent contact, it is not impossible to go further!
In addition, the stumbling block that these noble children have to solve is just a young country bumpkin from a remote place. How difficult is this?
Jeremy, the third son of the Baker family, was the first to jump out, but if David can’t solve the other party neatly, he will definitely not be the last.
“Are you so confident in my strength?” David understood Earl Stuart’s intention, which was to attract the young nobles to challenge him actively and let David prove that he has enough strength to manage the border towns of the Kingdom of Tilan: “What if I really can’t beat these people?”
“What does that have to do with me? If you want to sit in that position, you must show the corresponding strength.” If you have strength, you will naturally get everything you want. If you don’t have enough strength, don’t think about good things all day.
Even if there are no young people challenging you today, there will be others who will come to trouble you tomorrow: “At that time, it may be countless times more dangerous than today. At least in today’s competition, you don’t have to worry about your life.”
“Isn’t this a life-and-death fight today?”
“Of course, His Majesty the King, Her Royal Highness the Queen, Her Royal Highness the Princess are all here, and there are so many powerful people in the capital, how can such a cruel and bloody thing happen.”
“I understand.”
(End of this chapter)