[Chapter 26 Whose Child is This]

After a simple breakfast, David took the necessary items: the development order, and potatoes used as evidence – because too many people who gave up returned to Iron Tree Castle, David was worried that their propaganda would definitely give the people of Iron Tree Castle a preconceived idea: it is absolutely impossible to build a village in that area.

But when he actually showed the development order to the special reception staff, David found that he might have thought wrong.

“Please wait a moment, and a special official will come to deal with this matter later.”

The reception staff was very polite and did not verbally offend David and Laura because they were wearing very “civilian” clothes. After leading the two to the special reception room, they even brought some fruits and snacks.

“This thing tastes good. It looks like an apple, but it tastes a bit like an orange.” Laura was very curious about all kinds of things in this world, so she naturally would not let go of these foods she had never eaten: “The snacks are very ordinary.”

Compared with Laura’s hometown, this world is much worse in material life. Perhaps the upper nobles do not lack sufficient material resources and can eat more delicious snacks, but that level of good things cannot be served to David at this time.

While Laura was evaluating these snacks, the door of the reception room was pushed open again, and a tall and handsome middle-aged man walked in from outside.

“Hello, I am Maloney Mansfield, the inspector of Iron Tree Castle.” Maloney has a very good appearance and excellent temperament. His tall and straight figure is matched with high-end clothes that can show his official status. If this image appears in the outer city, there will definitely not be half a civilian within a few meters around him.

“Hello, Inspector.” David bowed to the Inspector in an inappropriate manner, and confirmed that the other party did not show any dissatisfaction with his etiquette. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

One of the main reasons why he joined the pioneering team was that it was too easy to meet nobles and various officials in Iron Tree Castle. Even if he didn’t have to kneel down to see nobles or officials, he couldn’t stand it even if he kept bowing his head.

As for why he came to see him when he was obviously here to report on the pioneering order? He was not very surprised about this.

In general, the king of the Kingdom of Tilan is the supreme ruler of the kingdom, and then the kingdom’s land is divided among the great lords, so the responsibility of managing these lands lies with the lords.

In order to facilitate the governance of their own territories, the great lords either continue to divide the territories among relatives and trusted subordinates, letting them govern those places, or appoint various officials to assist them in handling various affairs – generally speaking, the two things go hand in hand, because no lord will divide all the land in his hands.

Since these officials are completely appointed by the lords, even the king cannot interfere, so the names and powers of the officials are very arbitrary, depending entirely on the lord’s thoughts at the time.

In other words, there is no fixed saying about what job a position is responsible for, so even though this person’s official position is an inspector, it is difficult for outsiders to figure out the scope of this person’s authority unless he is an upper-class person in Iron Tree Castle – that is, the nobles and officials (a very small number of officials are not nobles).

“This is David, who successfully established a new village! I didn’t expect him to be so young.” Since entering the reception room, Maloney Mansfield has been looking at the two people in the room. In his eyes, these two people in the room are both very outstanding young people.

What puzzled him was that these two did not seem to be from commoner families. Because of this doubt in his heart, plus the self-cultivation he had cultivated over the years, he behaved very cordially and friendly: “Very outstanding young people. I have heard from many people how bad the environment of that land is.”

“Yes, Inspector, the environment there is indeed very bad: winter will come earlier and last longer. It is also very cold in winter, and blizzards fall from time to time. It is impossible to catch any prey in this environment. And the land is not very fertile. The various crop seeds we brought at first could not grow on that land at all.”

Maloney Mansfield always kept a cordial smile on his face, nodded from time to time to respond to David’s words, and asked at the most appropriate time: “David, how did you overcome these difficulties?”

“Originally, I was ready to give up after surviving the second winter. I only wanted to survive until spring, collect enough food as dry food, and then set off to return to Iron Tree Castle. But I unexpectedly found a kind of food.” David took out the potatoes he brought with him: “It’s this kind of crop. I call it potatoes because they are dug out of the soil and look like beans that are much bigger.”

“It’s really vivid.” Maloney took a potato and looked at it carefully: “Can this thing be planted?”

“Yes, and it grows very fast. I harvested it once before I came back.”

Maloney Mansfield, who didn’t care much at first, showed a look of surprise. According to David, he survived the second winter, that is, he discovered this thing after the last winter. In

other words, this kind of food was found at most two or three months ago, and the time for trying to plant it would not exceed three months, but it has already been harvested once?

“This thing grows so fast? How is the yield?”

“The yield is very good.” David originally just wanted to take potatoes to prove that he really built the village. But seeing the reaction of Inspector Maloney, he felt that he might have some unexpected gains, and maybe he could really get some material support from Iron Tree Fort: “Before I set off to return to Iron Tree Fort, the villagers had already started the second round of planting and expanded the scope of planting.”

“Well…” Maloney nodded. He would not ask or even question whether this crop was really as magical as David said. According to the various regulations of the Kingdom of Tilan for pioneers to build villages, he would go to conduct a field investigation next.

So, what exactly is the situation, he will have a clear answer after seeing it with his own eyes.

“Winter Village, is this the name of the village you gave it?” After chatting about the general situation for a few sentences, Maloney asked for the pioneering order to check it.

As an official specifically responsible for this matter, he has a special identification method to judge the authenticity of the pioneering order. After confirming that it is a real pioneering order, Maloney deliberately looked at the name of the village.

“This is the name that I and a few other people decided on. The cold winter there left a deep impression on each of us.” David was not lying. He would never forget the fear of being dominated by the cold winter in those two years.

“It’s a good name.” After returning the pioneering order in his hand to David, Maloney also reminded David formally: “Keep this pioneering order. Before you get the official appointment letter, it is the most important item to prove your identity.”

By the way, he also explained the next process to David: In fact, the next thing has little to do with David. Maloney will summarize and report various situations in detail. After obtaining the permission of the Lord of Iron Tree Castle, he will lead a team to the village for a field investigation.

Then Maloney will report the results of the field investigation and various geographical information together. After obtaining the approval of the Lord of Iron Tree Castle, Marquis Dudley Morgan, he will sign a series of documents. These documents are in triplicate, one for filing, one for sending to the Royal City of Tilan, and one for handing over to the new village chief David together with the freshly baked appointment letter.

To get these things, David needs to provide a pioneering order, otherwise he will not get the appointment letter and the document that symbolizes that he is different from other village chiefs in the kingdom and is equivalent to a small lord of the kingdom.

David only realized at this time that the pioneering order was more important than he had originally imagined.

“Next, you need to wait in the Iron Tree Castle for a few days.” Maloney Mansfield just clapped his hands, and the servant who had been guarding outside the door immediately opened the door and walked in: “My servant will arrange a place for you to live.”

Arranging accommodation for David and Laura directly is convenient for Maloney to find them at any time in the next few days. As for whether the two have accommodation in other places in the Iron Tree Castle, this is not what he cares about – anyway, it is impossible to be better and more convenient than the accommodation he arranged.

From this point, it can be seen that although Maloney Mansfield behaves kindly and cordially, the high-handedness in his bones cannot be really hidden. From the beginning to the end, he never asked whether the two had a place to live? Where to live?

Although his opinion was ignored, David did not refuse the arrangement of the inspector, but only asked if he could go to the outer city to deal with some things?

“Of course, it’s better to bring Huey with you, that will save a lot of trouble.” Huey was the attendant that Maloney called in. Maloney asked David to take Huey with him when he went out, not to monitor David, but mainly to avoid the trouble that David might encounter when entering and leaving the inner city.

“Thank you very much for your care, Inspector. I won’t disturb you to handle your official business.” David understood Maloney’s intention, bowed a little seriously, and left the reception room with Laura.

David didn’t know that Maloney-Mansfield was always looking at himself and Laura, thinking about his identity in his head.

“David… Interesting young man, I wonder whose illegitimate child he is?” He didn’t believe that this young man named David was from a civilian family: “And that young woman, why did she let her go outside? It’s a waste of her outstanding appearance.”

Maloney-Mansfield secretly complained in his heart that he didn’t know whose family was so unreliable, and soon put his thoughts on the work he was about to deal with.

“If you go to the north, you need to prepare a lot of things.”

I wish everyone a prosperous new year with handsome men and beautiful women!

(End of this chapter)