Chapter 3: Border Count

When he opened his eyes, Hughes found himself lying on the bed.

The quilt cover is delicate and silky, filled with a thin layer of velvet, which is warm but not too heavy.

Not far away is a balcony. The windows on one side are not inlaid with expensive glass, but are still fixed with exquisite wooden grilles.

Hughes got out of bed, walked over and opened the window. Bright sunlight poured in from the window, and the warm and humid sea breeze blew up the curtains.

A few seagulls flew past the window, circled a few times over the top of the mountain on the south side of the island, and then suddenly rushed into the shallow blue sea, picked up a small fish, and brought up a patch of snow-white waves.

Inside the manor, an old man was directing servants to scrub the floor. He heard the sound of a window opening and turned to look at the balcony of the second-floor building.

When he saw Xius, he was stunned for a moment, then he put his left hand on his chest and bowed gently.

"Good morning, Master Xius."

Hughes smiled and nodded, his eyes paused on the servants and the carriage, then looked at the fishing boats on the sea in the distance, then turned around and walked into the bedroom.

He needs to sort out the current situation.

According to the memory of this body, his background this time seemed to be good: he was the border earl of the empire - the lord of Castel Island.

Castel means fire and light in the storm, which is worthy of its name. It is located in the Ocean of Storms, and there is a small volcano on the island. Hughes shook his head. None of this is important. What is important is -

Earl! A powerful noble with a title and land! Although the border earl is somewhat special, he can still do whatever he wants on his own land. No, the border earl even goes a step further. In his territory, the laws of the empire may not be able to restrain him.

All of this stems from the system of "border earls".

With eyes shining, Zeus sorted out the memories in his mind.

He was originally the illegitimate son of a duke, who could not get the right of inheritance even if he killed more than a dozen brothers and sisters. It happened that the queen promulgated the system of "border earl", so he gave up his surname, swore allegiance to the queen, and obtained this title and land.

That is the small island in front of us.

What? You said this island doesn't fit the size of an earldom? How could that be? Her Majesty's enthronement book had marked out a large area of ​​sea. Not to mention an earldom, it was much larger than most marquises' territories. The Queen even promised that all the territories opened up by the border earls would belong to them.

Xius recalled the sea chart in his mind and couldn't help twitching the corners of his mouth.

His territory was indeed not small, but almost all of it was outside the borders of the empire.

For example, the Martha Islands in his territory are the pirates' nest, and the Storm Ocean further west is full of endless storms, and the occasional wisp of storms can cause a lot of trouble to the small island under his feet.

As for what lies deeper in the ocean, even the nautical charts do not mark it. Legend has it that there are palaces buried deep in the sea filled with treasures, and there is a vast new continent where honey and milk flow into rivers. These are all too illusory.

At present, Xiusi only has a small island, an old butler brought from his family, and several servants. This is all his power.

What he has to face is the threat of pirates at hand, unpredictable weather on the sea, and enemies across the sea.

Yes, there are enemies across the sea. The empire has never lacked enemies. The Queen has been on the throne for eleven years, and every step has been taken with blood and thorns.

And he, Hughes, a newly appointed border earl, was caught right in the middle of this group of powerful enemies.

It feels like being thrown into water and having to turn into a fish before drowning.

Hughes sighed.

As for the support from the empire, it was probably only verbal support. The documents of enthronement were piled up in the warehouses. Every day, countless border earls took office and countless titles became vacant.

There is no shortage of ambitious people in the empire, and the empress is never stingy. Titles, lands, wealth, whatever you want, you can just reach out and take it.

The corpses paved the road and formed laurel wreaths, and now Hughes was also on this road.

"Why do I feel more dangerous even though I've become a noble?" Zeus said to himself.

The servant outside knocked on the door. Hughes searched his memory, then put on his clothes with the help of the servant and walked out of the room.

The butler who had been downstairs not long ago was already waiting not far away, leading Xius forward while introducing breakfast.

"This morning I prepared fish pudding, pea and bacon soup, omelet pie, and the red wine is from Bonnie's wine cellar."

Xius looked at the food that covered half of the long table in front of him, then glanced at the six or seven kinds of tableware placed next to it, and fell silent.

According to the original body's memory, this breakfast would last from one hour to one and a half hours, with ten minutes spent listening to the butler's report in the middle, and then a morning tea break would be seamlessly connected.

He would enjoy tea and read on the terrace in the morning sunshine, and would not ride on horseback to patrol the territory until almost noon.

This kind of behavior can be regarded as a model of nobility and morality. After all, he neither whipped and abused civilians for fun, nor did he just find a piece of land as a hunting ground and let civilians drive wild beasts to be shot by him.

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It was simply collecting 80% of the people's harvest as taxes.

Hughes sighed.

"You don't have to prepare so many dishes in the future. Prepare a horse for me. I want to go for a walk in the territory."

After a pause, Hughes said to the butler next to him, "Also, build a house on the open ground of the manor. The surrounding area should be open and free of flammable materials. I want to use it as a laboratory."

Butler Connor looked a little surprised. Building a house was fine, his lord often had strange ideas, but why did the rules of dishes change? You know, as a bastard, Hughes used to pay the most attention to these noble etiquettes, fearing that others would accuse him of not having noble manners. What happened today? And he actually went out to stroll around so early in the morning? Did he see something on the balcony this morning? This place is not far from the dock, maybe he can see the commotion over there. The old butler showed a look of surprise. He also heard the rumor in the morning. It is said that the fishermen caught something extraordinary. It is normal for his lord to be curious.

He nodded calmly, walked out of the room and asked the servants to prepare the horses.

Xiusi searched his memory again, then his eyes lit up, and he walked to a side room, took off the necklace around his neck, and inserted it into the keyhole on the door.

With a click, the door opened. With the sunlight coming in through the door, Xius looked inside.

This is his treasure house and also his greatest reliance for coming to this island.

Documents, jewelry, and all kinds of strange instruments filled the shelves in the house.

But Hughes's gaze passed over all of this and fell on a box in a corner.

He reached out and opened the cherry wood box lid. A white flintlock inlaid with ivory and jade was placed on the velvet. It was only the size of a palm and as exquisite as a work of art.

Hughes grinned, took out his rifle and put it in his pocket.

The daily update time is tentatively set at 10 am and 2 pm

(End of this chapter)