The Lord Legend Of The Raicarnated Lord
Problems in the Family

Chapter 43: Problems in the Family

The carriage stopped in front of Lorist's entrance. Reidy turned to Patt, who was sitting next to him in the coachman's seat, and said, "We're here. This is the master's house. ”

After that, he got off the carriage and opened the door. Lorist went down with Alisa hugging him with Howard, Els and Shadekampf following behind him.

Charade, Terman, Yuriy and Steve hired another coach who came over a little later, after which they all went down one by one and entered Lorist's house. Patt did not follow the group into the waiting room and instead helped Reidy bring the Zeno Horse back to the stables.

Reidy asked curiously, “What's wrong? Why don't you follow them inside? "

Patt thought for a while and said, “I came here to look for a young master because it was my grandfather's wish. He instructed me that even if the young master refuses to return to power, I should stay here by his side and watch over him as he is the sole heir of the Norton Family of the main bloodline. No matter what, there is no harm in coming to the young master. ”

Reidy laughed loudly before saying. "Sister Patt, it's not that I look down on you, but given the situation, it should be you who is protected by his master and not the other way around. Given your ability as an Iron rank, it is already quite commendable if you can take care of yourself and not be a burden to the master. ”

Patt rolled his eyes and spoke in a sharp tone, "In the Northlands, we have a saying like this, 'even the most alert magical beasts have moments of weakness; even the strongest horses have a time when they slip '. I already know the young master's reputation as Iron Locke, Silver Defeated. However, no matter how strong he was, he was still only one person. As long as I am with him, it will be enough if I can serve as a silent shield for him. Even if I am only Iron rank now, I believe that I will be able to help the young master more when I reach Silver rank. ”

"Good words, Patt. "Suddenly, Lorist appeared beside them and said," Did Butler Gleis really ask you to stay by my side and serve me? "

Patt nodded honestly and said, “If you are going to return to power and inherit the place, then I will serve as your personal servant. Even if you don't, I'll stay by your side and offer whatever protection I can to you. ”

Patt laughed at what he said himself with a hint of scorn before continuing, “Then again, after seeing you again for myself, you have changed far more than I could have imagined. Not only your skills ..Even your personality has become very different. You no longer need someone like me to protect you anymore. When the family lost communication with you, my grandfather Gleis and the other elders thought that you might be in a rather narrow place. They seem wrong. ”

Feeling a little touched, Lorist nodded and said, “It has been ten years. The moment when I left the household had passed for so long and I had been unable to contact the family for the past seven years as well. I had to adapt to survive. For me to be like this today is not without difficulties. All right, Patt, let's go in and talk about the family situation. ”

It seems that Shadekampf knows more about the situation in Northland than Patt. After a series of tragedies, the military of the Norton Family might be reduced a lot. Although Lorist's father was unable to rise from the One Star Gold rank due to the injuries he had sustained from hunting ferocious beasts in his youth, he is still a major pillar of support for the family and his death has severely destabilized the family rule. The death of Lorist's elder brother was an even heavier blow to the family. Being a Gold-ranked knight, he was struck with a poison arrow when he led an attack on the battlefield and died soon after. As for the third young master, having contracted a rather serious illness as a result of being pushed into a well at a young age, he was unable to resurrect the War Force and had lost his life from falling off his horse which was struck by a magical beast.

Lorist really felt a bit uneasy hearing all that. He understood that half the cause of the death of the third young master was due to the fact that he had fallen ill and was unable to train in the Battle Force from an early age, which was mainly the fault of the original owner of Lorist's body who had pushed his younger brother down the well out of jealousy. Now that Lorist was currently inheriting a body, he also took the blame and guilt of being half-responsible for the death of his younger brother.

According to Shadekampf.when the third young master met a magical beast, the only Three Star Silver Knight who was part of the young master's personal guard was present. While he had managed to kill the magical beast, he had sustained heavy injuries and had to rest and recuperate for a period of time. Currently, the family only had one other Silver Star female knight. Her name was Andrea Pesha and she was the daughter of Knight Andrea, who had served the family before her death, and was also the childhood friend of the first young master. While she was engaged to the first young master due to the old master's decision, she had never officially married him because the first young master had perished in battle before that could happen. Shadekampf asked Lorist if he still remembered the face of the red-haired girl who always followed behind the first young master.

Lorist nodded. In the memories he inherited, there was indeed a rowdy red-haired girl like most boys his age. Lorist recalled the painful episode of the woman hitting him so hard because he pulled the key once because of the damage.

Shadekampf continued and said that apart from the Pesha, the rest of the family's main forces were some Iron Swordsman in the garrison's army as well as some other Iron-ranked old men who lived in the castle. Currently, Pesha is responsible for managing affairs in his territory as Butler Gleis has been out of the limelight due to his age. That was why the family wanted Lorist to return to replace the position of power ruler as soon as possible.

Patt, who had been part of the personal bodyguard of the late Baron Norton, described the events that led to Lorist's father's death. According to him, when the Baron Lord had heard about the attack from the barbarians, he quickly summoned the armored cavalry stationed inside the castle which only numbered 18 people. This was all that remained of the family's main military force. Including Lord Baron and Patt, they were an army of 20 soldiers. As the barbarian looters came with a force of around 50 men, the Baron Lord asked for help from the garrison and prepared to take out the invading barbarians.

When Patt and Lord Baron arrive at the enemy headquarters early, they discover that the barbarians are not yet ready for battle. As the agreed time for a joint attack with the garrison draws near, the, The Baron Lord decided to launch the attack first and believed that the garrison would later arrive from the other side of the battlefield and join them in launching a pincer attack to eliminate the attacking barbarians.

Patt said that he had tried to warn the barons to wait for the arrival of the garrison troops before launching the attack, but his warning was ignored and the barons immediately began the attack. At first, the surprise attack seemed to have worked and the barbarians were unable to react in time. However, when they saw the baron army was much less than their troops, their morale increased and they gathered to counterattack. If the garrison troops arrived at that time, the barbarians would be completely defeated without a doubt. But no matter how long they waited, no single garrison army could be seen on the battlefield. Seeing his army begin to falter, Lord Baron himself joined the fray even though he had yet to fully recover from his illness. It was at that moment that the barbarians began to cheer as their reinforcements of 50 men joined the battle. The baron's army is quickly destroyed and Patt and the baron are the only ones to emerge alive from the massacre.

When Patt returned from the battle, he got wind that the garrison troops had never been dispatched in the first place. Angrily, he went to the garrison's main camp and wounded Malte, the commander of the garrison force, who was, that prompted the other garrison force members to carry out an attack on the Norton Family castle and asked Patt to be sent for them to punish. The issue was only resolved when Butler Gleis and Pesha tried very hard to calm them down because of the family's relationship with the garrison over the past hundreds of years. That was also another reason why Butler Gleis had Patt go with Shadekampf to look for Lorist so he didn't get into trouble with the garrison troops anymore.

Based on Shadekampf and Patt's explanation, it could be said that the Norton Family was in a rather strict place at the moment. The first is that every winter, waves of migrating beasts will move to power from the wilderness in search of food sources. If the magical beasts that came to power were just herbivores like bulls and magic goats, then that would not be a big deal. At best, farmland and gardens will suffer a certain amount of damage. However, what usually followed behind the savage beast was a carnivorous magical beast like a pack of snow wolves or leopards that attacked even cities and bastides. [1]

The second problem is the barbarians. The power of the Norton Family was located in the far remote north. Further north is the limitless Blackmud Marsh and to the west is the Bladedge Mountains which separate dominance from the sea. To get salt, the people of Northland had to cross the Bladedge Mountains to boil seawater, needless to say, a difficult task. That's also why salt prices in Northland have always been relatively high. To the south of the dominion are the Black Forest and the remote hills, where the only passageway out of Northland from power was located. To the east was the Magical Dragon Mountains which were nothing but dense and prime forests and high peaks where barbarians generally lived.

It is said that the barbarians are descendants of humans who went to the mountains to hide to survive after the fall of magical civilizations during the dark ages. After losing all contact with the outside world, their culture and customs deteriorate into more basic forms, among which include the worship of ancient totems, eat their food raw and have no rules except the law of the jungle where the strong oppress the weak. Although they have recently begun to connect with people outside the mountain, they maintain their old savage ways and make no effort to communicate.

The barbarians had already begun to cause trouble when the founder of the first generation family of Norton experienced the envy of domination by plundering and plundering. They were even more difficult to deal with than the waves of magical beasts in the area. The founder of the family once tried to set up a 10-outpost strange village to develop the dominion but had to abandon the plan because the barbaric attack caused many lives and property. The main reason for Lorist's father, the late Baron Norton in launching an attack on the barbarians was also because they had looted Norton's only animal farm and taken almost all of their cows and sheep.

Back in the day, due to the low population in the Norton Family dominance, the, the founding family leader invited the vagrants as well as bought slaves and gave them freedom in his dominance so that he would have the manpower to develop the land. Those who joined the power garrison were also granted preferential treatment and privileges despite their meager salaries, such as exemption from all other taxes apart from 10% from the harvest they obtained and the unconditional ownership of their farmland.

In addition, as the rightful ruler of the kingdom by the Krissen Royal Family, the Norton Family had the responsibility of sending military support if the royal family requested it and also had to pay an annual tribute of 10% from the harvest of their farmland to the imperial government. At the time, most other noble families levied a taxation rate of about 50% of the citizens' crop yield under their jurisdiction along with other taxes such as per capita taxes, trade taxes, fisheries taxes, etc, firewood tax, etc. It was already rather compassionate for the nobles to let the citizens of their power have enough food for themselves.

The treatment the garrison squad members received was as if the Norton Family did not collect any taxes at all other than the 10% that had to be handed over to the empire. Originally, not many wanted to register as a garrison member, as it represented risking their lives to repel the magical beast wave every winter. However, as the safe zones in the region expanded and stabilized, more and more people could see the overwhelming treatment they would receive as members of the troops and troop forces rapidly increased, it's been a pleasure for the Norton family, until later when they discover a flaw in the system.

Normally, in the Grindia Continent, when family descendants became adults, they would leave their parents and start their own independent families. However, the members of this garrison refused to leave their homes and live together even though many of them were married and started their own families. The main reason for that is so that other family members can enjoy the preferential treatment given to their parents, who are members of the garrison. Some members of the garrison even asked their unregistered relatives to the garrison to be granted farmland.

It was not until then that the Norton Family began to regret making such a policy. However, at the time, due to the tremendous contribution the garrison had, instead of canceling the policy altogether, the family only enforced a limit of about 6,000 square meters of land per person, he said, yang could only retain a family of three from the previous year's harvest and believed that it would restrict garrison family members from exploiting the policy. The Norton family had no idea that members of the garrison family preferred tax exemption over farmland and fishing and smuggling salt to the point where their lives were even more luxurious than the Norton family life.

Over the odd hundred years, the number of garrison members grew and many other families sprouted in Wildnorth Town with the smaller ones having at least 20 people and the larger ones having around 40, he said, make them a force to be reckoned with in power.

While Norton wanted to wipe out the garrison troops at one point, they had to give up because the attachment of Norton and the Wildnorth Town family was too deep: the: many servants and soldiers from the main army of the family had relatives living in Wildnorth Town. If there was a military movement, the garrison would soon get news about it. If the Nortons really wanted to use brute force to eliminate the garrison, the result would only be disastrous for both sides and Norton would become a laughing stock among the nobles.

On the other hand, as long as the Norton Family did not touch the preferential treatment that the garrison family members had, the garrison would still heed their orders. When the first young master was alive, the garrison still remained loyal to him and was willing to participate in the battle here and there. But after the death of the first young master and the old master became bedridden due to illness, the third young master took over and the garrison began to show signs of disobedience. For example, when a magical beast attacked the group of third young masters, the members of the army immediately fled and let the beast shock the young master's horse, causing him to fall to his death.

It was also the case one year ago when the old master launched an attack on the barbarians. Since the garrison did not show up for battle, the old master sustained a serious injury. They even dared to surround the family castle and demanded that Patt be handed over. In one way or another, the behavior could already be considered treason for the ruling family nobility. However, as the Norton Family's military strength deteriorated, they had to try to negotiate for peace with the garrison. Thus, the garrison problem was an undertaking that the next head of the family had to solve.

Another issue was territorial disputes with neighboring noble families, especially with Viscount Kenmays whose dominance lay to the south of the Norton Family's dominance. Given that Northland is largely barren, territorial disputes are rare. However, the Morgan Hill where the Norton Family mine is located has attracted the attention of the Kenmays family. Since mines were the main source of income for the Nortons, they engaged in several military conflicts with the Kenmays, causing them to suffer heavy losses.

In reality, Viscount Kenmays did not have any jurisdiction over the territory as it was originally part of the Norton Family territory according to the submission of the founding emperor Krissen himself. On the other hand, the Kenmays territory was recently given to them by the Second Prince nearly five years ago, which also included Morgan Hill. Whether the error was intentional or not is debatable. Even so, the Kenmays should have conceded the territory and asked the Second Prince to redraw the border because the land originally belonged to the Nortons. However, the Second Prince could not bother settling the dispute and asked the two families to handle it themselves, which eventually resulted in armed conflict with the newly emerged Americans as the victors.

However, now that the Norton Family's influence was declining, the Kenmays family tried to claim Morgan Hills for themselves once again. And this time, due to the cousin of Viscount Kenmays being the mistress of Grand Duke Loggins of Northland, the, Kenmays became bolder and started another mine somewhere else on Morgan Hill and began to take resources that should have belonged to Norton, who could only swallow his anger and endure for long.

If Viscount Kenmays knew the true circumstances the Nortons were facing, it would not be hard to imagine him launching another attack on Morgan Hills immediately and taking a mine from the Norton Family for himself. If that happened, the Nortons would lose their main source of income and immediately go bankrupt. This was the fifth problem the Norton Family had, the economic crisis.

Only ten years earlier, while the Norton Family did not levy a large tax on their people unlike most other nobles at that time, they relied on their own armed forces to hunt wild beasts because their fur traded them along with some other local products from the Northlands in Morante City through a convoy of family merchants themselves. Back then, the annual income was rather large and the family easily had over 200 fully equipped and equipped soldiers in their famous armored cavalry.

But the good times ended when an entire merchant convoy led by Lorist's third uncle fell under the attack of bandits, causing the family to lose its main source of income. After the first young master led the armored cavalry to fight under the Second Prince's banner as well as the battle the old master had fought with the barbarians, only dozens of the original 200 cavalry warriors were left with nearly half of them crippled. The pension that the family had to pay to the relatives of the deceased soldier made this family very lucky.

The Second Prince's order for the Norton Family to become Grand Duke Loggins' subordinate instead of the Krissen Royal Family further aggravated the situation. If only the first young master were still alive, he would definitely refuse to accept the order even if it meant making enemies of all the other nobles in Northland because the Norton Family had pledged allegiance to the Krissen Royal Family and not a random prince. .

The Second Prince was still somewhat courteous when the first young master was still alive. However, shortly after his death, the Second Prince quickly threw Norton at the Grand Duke and did not return Norton for their losses when they fought for him. Not only was this a huge blow to the Norton Family, it could also be considered a breach of etiquette and an insult to them. But most of the nobles in Northland were serving the Second Prince at that time so the Northmen had no choice but to accept the situation.

Although Grand Duke Loggins was not from the Krissen Royal Family, the ridiculous tax he levied on the land under his rule easily rivaled half of the noble family's dominance income. While the other noble families were somehow still able to cope, the Nortons did not collect as much tax from the family members of the garrison troops and had to pay it out of their own pockets. Had it not been for the mines, the family account would have been red long ago.

Although the war in the empire had ended, the Grand Duke did not seek to lower the taxes and instead introduced the tax on the rebuilding of other countries by restoring the glory of the Krissen Empire as the main reason. However, no one knew how long the tax collection would last. Given that the main transportation route for Norton was in the Grand Duke's territory, they could do nothing but hold on anymore.

When Shadekampf finally finished describing the entire situation of the Norton Family power, everyone fell silent. Even Terman, who suggested that Lorist return to inherit power, was completely speechless. It was practically a fire pit! No one wants to jump into it and try to put out the fire.

Charade asked Patt and Shadekampf, "Did the family set a deadline for Locke to return to power?"

Patt replied, “Old master has died around the 3rd month of this year and we took about 3 months to come here from the Northlands because we were stuck with bandits, slave traders, and we were stuck with the bandits, and conflicts in the power of nobles along the way. . After arriving here, it took us another month before we finally found the young master. My grandfather said that if the young master intends to inherit the position of master, he must arrive in the Northlands before the 3rd month of next year or another successor will be taken from the illegitimate children of the old lord. ”

Charade nodded and said, "That's good. At least there is still time to decide. For the two of you, you should stay by Locke's side and decide for yourself which option is better for him and give him time to think about it as well. Let's finish it today. ”