Chapter 31
Olivia slowly rolled up the wool in her hands, her eyes looking out the door. After a moment, Caesar stood up, walked out, responded to Lucy, and called George.
George still had his full chain mail and heavy bow on his back, looking alert.
After receiving instructions from Caesar, George went downstairs and, as arranged, sent Tani with four other soldiers to the manor to call for help.
A group of able-bodied subjects were assigned to patrol the residential area of the manor and the ridges of the fields day and night. George himself led soldiers to surround the main house of the manor and guard the watchtower.
Back in the room, Caesar took off his two inner robes to keep warm, put on soft leather boots suitable for walking rather than riding, and then took out a set of light chain mail from the box and put it on.
He looked very calm as he unhurriedly fastened his buckled belt and told Olivia not to worry before heading up the watchtower.
After watching him leave, Olivia opened the system map and observed closely, while pretending to be knitting a sweater.
On the map, most of the knights are searching for traces along the river bank, perhaps looking for the missing Knight Toxon, or perhaps looking for a thief, whose head can be taken to the Baron in exchange for a reward, which is a legitimate merit.
During this period, the good old Knight Baskin from next door brought all his soldiers and subjects out to look for someone, but his own granary and pasture were left unattended.
He has a good relationship with Toksun, as they have been neighbors for many years.
But if she was a thief, she would have smelled the scent and come here sooner or later.
She zoomed in on the map to Watson City. The city defenses were as usual, with several knights and dozens of soldiers patrolling the city walls. Although the moat was frozen, it still looked safe, as the walls were difficult to climb over.
The several farms and granaries directly under the Baron's jurisdiction were all located in the valleys far away from the river bank, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack. Bandits without large-scale organizations would not attack such places.
The knight's duties are, first, to provide protection for his own fiefdom, and second, to guard the safety of the baron's fortress and granary. As long as these two things are not a problem, no matter what happens, it will not hurt the foundation.
Things like the lips and teeth being cold when they are gone are rare in this place. Whether it's a thief or an enemy, they usually rob valuable things and run away, and will not occupy the land. If they occupy the land, the situation will escalate. Apart from revenge, they will not easily slaughter the villagers. If they kill all the villagers, who will they rob next year?
Once the thieves leave, order will be restored to the robbed manor and everything will be back to normal.
A capable knight can protect his property and kill a few thieves to collect the reward.
Olivia thought about her current abilities and was only concerned about the safety of her home and Renault Manor, but now it seemed there was no need to worry at all.
Both Caesar and her father were relatively cautious.
After closing the map, Olivia continued knitting with peace of mind.
She had spent half a day making a small vest for the kitten, and now she spent another half a day to put it on it.
Although the kitten walked a little clumsily after putting on the sweater, it simply curled up on Olivia's legs and didn't move.
Afterwards, she calmly went to the box and took out a small piece of thick leather and the bone buckle she had bought earlier.
I plan to make myself a pair of boots with buttons so that they are easy to put on and take off.
Nowadays, long boots all have laces, and most women's boots are also very short. In order to walk better in this heavy snow, she plans to make a pair of boots that cover the knees.
Making shoes is a bit difficult, but Olivia used her brain and took apart her oldest pair of shoes, then imitated them one by one.
She took a pair of scissors and cut by the fireplace for a long time, but the shoes were not even in shape.
Caesar walked around the estate for a while, then returned to the house and saw Olivia making shoes.
He walked over, picked up a piece of leather with the sole attached, and stood looking at it for a long time.
A row of crooked stitches, but they are very fine, solid and sturdy.
Well, Madam’s craftsmanship is still so unique.
Seeing him, Olivia asked Caesar to help her poke a few holes in the thickest part with an awl. He was quite dexterous and could help sew a few stitches, and he did a better job than her.
"Where did you learn this skill? You have such a dexterous hand." She looked up and teased, pulling his sleeves with her fingers, spreading out his bony and slender hands that looked like models, and touched them seriously.
The system creates NPCs with great details. There is a layer of calluses on the fingertips of his palms, which are warm and feel like a piece of fine sandpaper.
"It's fine that he can hold a sword, but he can also hold a needle..."
Caesar pursed his lips and lowered his head, feeling a little embarrassed by being teased. He explained that when he was a servant, he sewed and mended his own clothes.
Before receiving the title of knight, there are no servants.
As Olivia listened, she imagined the funny scene of a group of burly men who fought to the death in the arena during the day sitting under the lamp and mending their clothes torn in the fight whenever they had time.
She just found it a little funny.
Suddenly, the housekeeper knocked on the door again.
"Madam, Mr. Letilan and his men went to Caron for business. On their way back, they saw thieves being caught on the riverbank, so they changed their route and came to us, saying they wanted to borrow our house for shelter."
Oh? Olivia had been so busy making shoes and flirting that she hadn't noticed the white footprints of Letilan, who had arrived at the manor in a dusty state, on the map.
"Let's go and take a look."
This unlucky guy really encountered all kinds of things, including wind and snow and thieves. He was smart enough to know to hide here.
She put down what she was holding and pulled Caesar downstairs.
Letilen's convoy was stationed in the backyard, and his men were warming themselves by the fire in the kitchen.
Lucy and the housekeeper were busy running around, carrying kettles to fill the water bags of the men who were frozen from the detour, and invited Letilan to sit in the hall.
As soon as Olivia and Caesar came out, they saw Letilen's frightened face. He was wearing a thick fur coat, which was now covered with snowballs. His face was red from the cold, and he was fidgeting in his chair, looking out.
"Where did you come from? Why are you in such a mess?"
Caesar asked him curiously.
Letilen endured it, stood up from the chair, turned around twice, sighed, and said:
"I collected two carts of sheepskins from Kalon. My men and I were still in the mountains around noon. Seeing that the snow was getting heavier, we sped up the transportation."
"As a result, just as we reached the edge of Lavosen's territory, before we even left the forest, we saw a group of seventeen or eighteen masked men in the valley. Some were on horseback, and some were on foot. I saw them kidnap Knight Toksun and head towards Kalon."
Letilen originally thought that with such heavy snow and so many people with him, he should not encounter any thieves.
Unexpectedly, the thief was even more diligent than him and came out to cause trouble in this awful weather.
"But..." Having said that, Letilen looked at the butler next to him hesitantly.
Olivia immediately asked the butler to go out and guard the room, telling him not to let anyone into the hall and to close all the front and back doors.
The housekeeper immediately did as he was told and drove away Fanon, who had just come from the kitchen to find out what was going on.
Inside the house, ever since that enjoyable dinner for both host and guest, Letilen had inexplicably felt a closeness towards Olivia and the others. Seeing this heavily guarded manor today, he felt even more that they were reliable, so he said:
"But I saw that Knight Toxon and those thieves seemed to know each other, and they didn't hurt him."
Hearing this, Olivia and Caesar looked at each other silently.
Letilen tried to be as subtle as possible, it was obvious that Knight Tokson was in cahoots with these people.
Fearing that he had stumbled upon something terrible, Letilen immediately took his men on a detour, taking a detour through the deepest snow, driving the mule cart with great effort.
When we were almost at the road by the river, we heard that the knights of Lavosen were catching thieves and looking for the missing Knight Toksun.
Seeing this, he realized that he had really encountered something serious. Guessing that something might happen, he simply stopped moving forward.
He turned around and went to the nearby Helions Manor to take shelter temporarily, wondering if he could rest for a night and leave the next day.
It would take another hour to walk from the river bank to the outside of the city. With such a strong wind and snow, the process was even slower than usual. The people he brought with him were all laborers, completely different from the thieves and soldiers who were living on the edge of a knife.
"Don't worry, my men are all my cousins. They are clean. Just give them a piece of land to guard the goods. They can stay there for one night and we will go back early in the morning.
If it weren't for the Baroness's goods in the backyard, I wouldn't have come out in the snow."
This time, Letilen went to Kalon to collect sheepskins worth thirty gold coins. He did not want to collect this batch of goods himself, but he was buying them for the Baron's Mansion.
It was not Caesar's business to have guests stay overnight, so he looked at Olivia.
Olivia nodded. "It's okay. Since I'm working for the Baroness, I have an obligation to help. As for the Toxon matter, it's too complicated... Just pretend you didn't see anything, understand?"
Letilen nodded, feeling relieved for the moment.
Olivia called out to the door and asked the housekeeper to come in.
She arranged for Letilen's men to rest in the restaurant at night to keep warm and guard the goods. As for Letilen, she cleaned up a guest room to live in.
He also asked the housekeeper to prepare better meals for them, and by the way, he asked the cook to prepare a few good dishes for dinner.
Letilen was extremely grateful, but he only regretted that he had nothing to offer as a token of gratitude.
"When I return to the city safely, I will definitely come to thank you with a big gift."
Seeing that his wife was willing to accept these people, Caesar didn't hesitate to be polite with Letilen: "It's okay. If you like, you can let your men take turns guarding the night with the people in the manor."
"That's perfect."
Letilen purchased these two trucks of goods with advance payment. If they were robbed, all his work for the past six months would have been in vain.
Olivia asked Letilen and Caesar to arrange the patrol work, while she used the excuse of going to the toilet to go to the upstairs bathroom alone to check the map.
But just when Letilen was feeling extremely grateful to her, his favorability towards her on his character card reached the maximum level.
"Favorability: 100"
Olivia was surprised to find that after the character's favorability reached the maximum level, Letilen's character card had an extra line.
Skill: Proxy
There are notes next to it.
"Read thousands of books, travel thousands of miles, let the agent walk on your behalf, illuminating the mysterious and unknown areas."
It turns out that Ledillon is a human map surveyor!
etc.
She went back and flipped through the character cards of other people, and found that Letilen was not the only character with 100 favorability.
Like Lucy and Caesar, both have a full level of affection for her, but neither of them has any skills.
Not every NPC will have skill points, there needs to be a certain probability.
However, whether this probability can be triggered or not can only be known after the favorability level is raised to 100.
She sorted things out in her mind and was about to shut down the system to plan how to increase the favorability of other characters, when she suddenly found a series of red footprints on the map.
The red footprints on the map indicated people she needed to be wary of.
These people seemed to have noticed that the Baskin Manor was unguarded and were rushing here from Caron. They avoided the crowded areas near the river bank and were moving very fast, as if they were familiar with the terrain.
In about half an hour they would be able to take the shortcut to Baskin Manor.
Olivia clicked on one of the character cards with red footprints and then clicked into the character's prequel.
"David, a mercenary and orphan, entrusted by Baron Forrest."
...System, you are really amazing.
She finally knew what this was.
It seems that Baron Fores and Toxon have colluded to fake a case to attract the attention of the good guy Baskin, and then send people to do evil in his village and throw the dirty water on the thieves in the neighboring country.
In this way, Baron Bergru will believe that it is the people from the other side who are doing evil in his territory.
Most likely, he would agree to petition Count Everk together with Baron Fores to immediately send troops to suppress these rampant people.
Some time ago, Count Constant's family fled here. Count Constant's heir is his eldest daughter, the girl who was originally going to wait until she came of age to get engaged to the crown prince of a neighboring country.
Everyone in Roslingay County knew it.
If someone from Count Everk's family could marry the heiress, the foreign territory across the river could be legitimately conquered by Count Everk, in accordance with the convention of inviolable land rights and the country's doctrine.
Even if the capital does not want the earl to become too powerful, the procedure is correct and cannot be criticized, so the capital has no reason to stop it.
However, the engagement was still in the works, and it was said that Count Constant's widow was still hesitant, so Count Everk did not make things difficult for her and her family.
Considering today's situation, Baron Fores can no longer wait.
He wanted to stir up some trouble, so Baron Labergru joined in and let the count, with the joint attitude of several vassal barons, force them to agree.
Olivia really couldn't comment on the actions of Baron Forres.
No, she could understand his motive. He just wanted to recruit people to build momentum with the Earl, so that he could get more territory and rewards after the war started, and have the opportunity to climb up. He was ambitious, and she also wanted this.
I think Toksun agreed to perform this play only for his son.
But what did the good guy Baskin Knight do wrong in this scheme? Wasn't he wronged?
The "thieves" would most likely go to Baskin's estate and kill and burn people until the situation became irreconcilable, and then symbolically steal some things and leave.
The things in the manor can be restored if they are destroyed, but it is hard to say about human lives.
She was about to do something when there was new movement on the map.
A set of footprints appeared in Renault Manor.
A group of people rushed to Baskin Manor. At the same time, someone from Reno Manor rode towards her manor, apparently to inform her of the news.
The movements of Renault Manor are always synchronized with her, who has opened her third eye.
Olivia soon realized that there was someone she had overlooked.
From Caron's aunt.
…
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