The huge flow of the Broken Gold River is like a huge blood vessel, connecting the northern inland of Weilan with the ocean.

It also made Xialin the largest city in the north of Weilan.

Therefore, to develop the White Sturgeon Island, the Earl is one of the most indispensable forces.

On the third day after arriving in Xialin, Rosen and Selena took a traveling carriage and drove briskly along the spacious Maple Avenue towards Count Robert's Maple Leaf Castle.

At this time, Shitou had already found out a lot of relevant information about the White Sturgeon Island. The two knew that there had been civil unrest on the island and that Crescent City had been occupied by the rebels.

Therefore, this time they not only had to visit the Earl, but also had to find a way to get as much support as possible from the Earl, preferably by borrowing an army.

On the way, Rosen looked at the maple trees with fiery red leaves on both sides of the road and suddenly chuckled.

"Come to think of it, Earl Robert is my distant uncle."

Serena was combing her hair in front of a silver mirror. She smiled and said, "What's the big deal? If you really want to talk about it, I'm still your cousin."

This is true.

According to the records of "Genealogy of World Nobility", all the lords of Vilan have the blood of Saint Vilan in their bodies.

Saint Weilan is said to be the daughter of Mother Nature, so it is also called the blood of God or the natural blood of God.

The Natural Alliance places great emphasis on bloodlines, and possessing natural divine blood is a hard standard for becoming a noble lord, called 'divine right of kings'.

Otherwise, even if one is extremely talented and becomes a sage, he can only obtain an honorary title which cannot be inherited and does not have any land.

Back to Rosen.

Rosen's ancestor six generations ago was a brother of Earl Robert's ancestor, and his maternal ancestor about two generations ago was a sibling of one of Selena's paternal ancestors.

Back to the topic.

Rosen turned around to look at Serena's increasingly dazzling face and said with a smile, "Cousin, I suddenly feel a little worried about letting my uncle see you."

Selena said with a spit, "I am still a princess, and I am protected by the sage. Even if Earl Robert is ridiculous, he dare not have any idea about me."

Rosen said seriously: "I'm not worried about that. I'm worried that he will be jealous of me, which will affect our cooperation."

"The jealousy between men is very subtle. If it exists, it exists. If it doesn't exist, it doesn't exist. Reason can only suppress it, but it can't eliminate it."

"Hmm~You're right."

Selena had met Earl Robert several times at the tournament in Dawn City, and had once felt him secretly observing her with a strange look.

She didn't understand before and just thought Robert was weird, but now that she has a husband, she thinks back on it carefully and suddenly understands the meaning of his gaze.

She immediately said to Rosen, "Use a transfiguration spell on me to turn me into someone who is full of sorrow, tired, haggard, and even prematurely aged."

Her beautiful face had brought her enough troubles, and she didn't want any more.

Rosen was waiting for this sentence, and had asked Lai Fu to prepare the corresponding expression. He immediately raised his hand and gently touched Selena's face.

Selena immediately took out the water mirror to check and couldn't help but shrugged.

"Hmm~ It's getting better. Now even I hate myself."

At this time, the travel carriage arrived at the entrance of the Maple Leaf Castle suspension bridge.

The carriage was very high-end, so the captain of the guard came over personally to question him.

"Please state your identity, visitor."

Rosen opened the car window and handed out a letter of introduction, with a gold coin secretly hidden under the letter.

"I am Baron Saxon, Lady Agnet's magic apprentice, and I have come to pay a visit to the Earl."

"This is the letter of introduction my mentor gave me. The magic seal on it can prove my words."

The captain of the guard was a knight. After touching the gold coin, his expression eased a lot. But when he heard the identity, he was surprised again: "Wait a moment, I'll ask someone to confirm it."

He entered the castle with the letter of introduction. About ten minutes later, he came back and handed the letter back to Rosen, but there was a strange look of jealousy on his face than before.

"Good luck, Baron Saxe. Please come in. Mr. Abru, the chief steward, will lead you to see the count."

Rosen nodded: "Thank you very much."

Alia, who was driving, continued to move forward.

In the car, Rosen whispered to Selena: "Madam, look, a little knight is jealous of me."

Another fact is that after more than a week of explosive dissemination, the news that Princess Chenxi was marrying the Baron of White Sturgeon Island had spread throughout the entire Weilan Island.

"Jealous of what?" Selena was always slow to pay attention to details.

"A lowly baron who is jealous of the favor of Princess Dawn."

Selena was startled, and a look of worry appeared on her face: "Dear, will this cause us any extra trouble?"

Rosen shook his head: "There will be some, but they are all minor troubles. I will handle them properly."

There are still some side effects from marrying a princess, but they are under control.

After crossing the drawbridge, the carriage entered the dedicated parking area outside the castle.

As soon as the car stopped, a middle-aged man with gray hair and decent clothes came up with two young attendants.

A young servant took Arya to the servants' lounge, while another untied the horses pulling the carriage and took them to the stable to feed and water them.

The middle-aged man came over, opened the carriage door for Selena attentively, and considerately placed a small wooden step at the door, addressing her as "Your Highness the Princess".

Rosen didn't get this treatment and had to open the door and get out of the car by himself.

After standing still, the middle-aged man saluted again: "Your Highness, Baron, I greet you."

Then, he introduced himself: "I am Abru, the Earl's housekeeper. The Earl is currently busy in the conference room. Will you two please wait in the lounge?"

The guest should follow the host's wishes, so Rosen naturally had no objection.

The two followed the housekeeper through the spacious and bright arched corridor, entered the visitor area in the castle's atrium, and were finally arranged in a luxurious large guest room.

"Your Highness, Baron, if you need anything else, please feel free to summon the servants at the door. They are there 24 hours a day."

The middle-aged man was very respectful, and of course this respect was mostly due to Princess Selena.

If Rosen came alone, he would probably only get an inferior room.

Therefore, after marrying the princess, his status was improved in all aspects.

"You will see them in the evening. The Count will invite you to dinner."

We even had dinner together, which was a treatment I could never have imagined in my previous job at Lawson.

After saying this, the middle-aged man bowed again, turned around and left in a hurry.

Rosen flicked his fingers noiselessly at his clothes, then closed the door and stretched himself.

"The Count is in trouble."

Serena was looking at the room layout and asked curiously, "How did you know?"

"From what I saw on Mr. Abreu's face, he was worried and anxious. As the Earl's attendant, most of his emotions came from his master, so the Earl must not be in a good mood."

Selena thought about it carefully and found that it was indeed the case.

She would have been surprised before, but after about half a month of getting along, she had gotten used to her husband's keen observation and jumped directly to the next topic.

"What do you think the trouble will be?"

Seeing several bottles of excellent maple wine in the wine cabinet nearby, Rosen opened one bottle, poured out a small half cup, shook it gently, and used a special heating technique to sober him up.

After the aroma of the wine overflowed, he sniffed it gently, took a sip, and praised: "The smell is fresh and soft, the taste is soft and mellow, good wine."

After using the same method to wake up Selena with a cup of wine, he stood in front of the gorgeous floor-to-ceiling window, admiring the beautiful atrium garden, and said two concise words.

"Lack of money."

Selena took a sip of the wine and found it tasted wonderful. The wine itself was only good, but it was very well sober. The wine was rich in aroma and layered in taste, leaving a lasting aftertaste.

So he quickly took a second sip: "Rosen, I haven't heard that you like to drink."

There are not many fine wines in this world that she can't help but take a second sip of within a short period of time.

Rosen smiled: "To be precise, I don't like to drink, but I often have a few sips. When I'm bored, I study it by the way."

"Luckily, it's just research, otherwise Anna and I would be in danger of becoming alcoholics."

Selena walked over to Rosen and looked out the window at the courtyard garden with him.

"The Earl is not short of money. The trade tax collected by Xialin City is as high as 500,000 Oggs every year, second only to Dawn Port."

The flowers in the garden are in good condition, but some of the flowers in some corners are withering and dying, and they have not been replaced with new ones in time.

There is a crack on the garden wall. Although it is not big, it can be seen from the moss on the damaged surface that it has been broken for at least one month.

The detail was small, but it certainly didn't escape Selena's eyes.

Half a minute later, she changed her words: "Although I don't know the reason, Earl Robert did encounter a financial crisis."

"What do you think of this, my husband?"

Rosen gently shook the crystal wine glass in his hand, letting the amber wine flow along the wall of the glass like silk.

"Madam, the living conditions on the White Sturgeon Island are very poor. Most of the islanders are descendants of exiled criminals, and they are constantly threatened by forest elves and fishmen."

"So, the islanders are tough and extremely fond of the use of force, but they are also short-sighted and closed-minded."

"If I'm guessing correctly, the islanders have an almost instinctive worship for the power they can intuitively feel, but they lack sufficient respect for the Duke who is far away in the sky."

These words do not answer the question.

But Selena could certainly hear the underlying meaning.

"You mean to say that we must have an army?"

Rosen nodded: "Yes, we must have an army. Otherwise, let alone inheriting as the new lord, it will be a problem whether we can survive."

"Moreover, our target is not only the human rebels on the island, but also the two alien races of forest elves and fishmen."

"Ever since my ancestors landed on the White Sturgeon Island 200 years ago, the war with foreign races has never stopped. Both sides have a huge hatred, and they will definitely take advantage of the civil strife to recover the lost territory."

Selena understood: "How many soldiers do you think we need to borrow?"

Rosen nodded. "If we want to razed the entire island, we would need about 3,000 regular troops. But if we only want to capture the Crescent Valley, a 500-man army, or a 100-man elite regiment, would be enough."

After listening to Rosen's introduction to the situation on the White Sturgeon Island, Selena agreed with his estimate, but had new concerns.

"Sending troops to aid is a big deal. Military supplies are extremely expensive. We only have so much money on hand, and it's far from enough."

It was common for a lord to borrow troops from another lord to quell a rebellion. The default rule was that all expenses were borne by the borrower, who also had to pay a hefty commission.

Let alone three thousand regular troops, even if only 100 elite soldiers went with them, the total cost would be estimated to be more than 50,000 Oggs.

If the financial situation of the Shire was good, he could have bought it on credit as long as he was thick-skinned enough. But now the Earl was so short of money that he certainly couldn't buy it on credit.

Rosen snapped his fingers: "We can also exchange it with territory resources, such as ore, wood, bird droppings, etc."

Selena said with a teasing look on her face: "Honey, I know there is a lot of bird droppings in the mountains and forests of the White Sturgeon Island, but there don't seem to be many minerals and wood?"

"If we use it to pay off our debts, we won't have any for ourselves."

In response, Rosen smiled and said, "Madam, your concerns are reasonable, but please rest assured, Madam, I have already thought of a solution."

As he spoke, he switched to mental whispering and roughly explained his plan.

Selena listened carefully, and her beautiful eyes moved around Rosen's face, half angry and half smiling.

"Rosen, my husband, why are you so mean?"

"Besides, the Count is Anna's biological brother. We can't plot against him like this."

Rosen spread his hands, looking helpless: "Madam, who made us short of money now?"

"Besides, this is not a calculation. It is just a decent loan. We will pay him back when we have money."

Selena was immediately convinced: "Okay, let's do as you say."

Rosen raised his glass and said, "Madam, let's drink this glass. I wish your plan will be successful."

"Cheers~"

(End of this chapter)