Mount and Blade System: Start from Pioneer Lords.

Chapter 368 Unexpected Visitor
In the past, when the weather was not so abnormal, merchants from Debe would flock to the wilderness, this unowned land, to pan for gold.

This place is filled with ignorance, disorder, and bandits as numerous as weeds.

However, fine beast skins, monster crystal cores, strong slaves, sturdy war horses, and occasionally a bronze artifact from ancient times are all priceless rarities in the interior of Debe.

However, these country bumpkins in the wilderness have no idea of ​​the value of these things, and they can often be exchanged for cheap things such as tea, ironware, or cloth strips.

A bankrupt businessman who came to the wilderness with a hundred gold grams of goods to take a gamble could instantly increase his net worth to more than a thousand gold grams if he could return successfully. Such examples were everywhere, so they attracted countless gold diggers.

The wilderness trade alone can bring hundreds of thousands of gold grams of financial flow to Debe every year.

However, when the lord came to the wilderness alone, he first occupied the iron mine, which attracted the wilderness coalition to rob it. Then the dragon's vassal army invaded, and then the Minotaur coalition moved south.

The wilderness was in chaos, causing the number of merchants to drop sharply. Later, Levi officially resolved the chaos in the wilderness, but before the merchants could step into the wilderness again, continuous heavy snow suddenly fell.

Until now, the wilderness, which is more vast than the southern and eastern territories combined, has officially become Levi's territory.

Levi, who had the right to do so, also issued a policy prohibiting those black-hearted merchants from sneaking into the wilderness, and only allowing them to trade in Highcliff Castle. Centaur warriors and werewolf cavalry also often patrolled the throats to prevent any desperate merchants from taking risks.

Therefore, the entire wilderness became the lord's back garden. This time, Mirel and his companions sailed to White Harbor in the south to sell furs and some livestock sold by the wild people to Highcliff Castle, as well as spices, strong malt liquor and weapons prepared by Highcliff Castle itself.

"Levi, our cargo was basically sold out during this voyage. In addition to the 50,000 to 60,000 gold grams we earned, we also bought tea, grain, and silk according to your needs..."

In the warehouse of High Cliff Castle, Miriel, who had changed into a red long dress with a chest-wrapped skirt, was holding the account book and confirming everything with Levi. Next to her were two model scholars with tortoise shells on their backs, calculating with quill pens.

"Especially the spices you mixed. No merchants were willing to accept them at the beginning, so we could only sell some of them slowly to those small nobles. When Duke Leah knew we were going to White Harbor, she directly bought nearly 70% of the spices and wine brewed by the elves. Afterwards, those nobles also bought up all our goods one by one." Miriel said with a smile.

"Servant effect, but it's all thanks to Leah." You can tell how happy the lord is from the fact that he couldn't close his mouth.

In the past, the bulk of Highcliff Castle’s income came from the arms trade, but after Highcliff Castle became the overlord of the wilderness, Levi was frustrated to find that he could no longer sell his weapons.

The reason turned out to be that in order to ensure the stability of the territory, Gaoya Castle would trample on those unstable tribes, causing the natives to be as obedient as groundhogs. Since they can no longer fight, those excellent weapons are naturally no longer needed.

Fortunately, although the natives are no longer buying the weapons, they can be sold to the southern border.

The quality of Gaoyabao's weapons is not inferior to those on the market in Debei, so there is no worry about sales.

All in all, the trade was a great success.

Because the wilderness is his territory, and there has been continuous heavy snow, very few merchants have come to the wilderness, resulting in a lot of goods being piled up. The Bailiu City in the north alone cannot handle so much food.

So heading to the more distant south would not only make the goods more expensive, but would also help sell out the goods.

Levi intended to build High Cliff Castle into a commercial city and a trading center in the wilderness, where people from indigenous tribes could come to buy what they needed, and merchants could sell their goods to the indigenous people.

But there are not enough merchants now, so Gaoyabao has to take on this responsibility himself and sell the natives' products.

As for those wilderness tribes, although Gaoya Castle is now at the peak of its military power, it does not yet have the ability to manage the entire wilderness. Therefore, as long as they behave themselves, Levi will not deal with them.

The wilderness is a large unowned land, and the only way to consolidate your rule is to nibble away at it bit by bit.

The model scholars quickly counted everything and then said goodbye and left in a hurry. Gaoya Castle really had too many internal affairs issues piled up. They had just joined Gaoya Castle, and even though they had been dealing with them day and night, they had not yet completed them.

Watching their disappearing backs, Levi couldn't help but think, no wonder the tortoise won the race between the tortoise and the hare, if it was a race between the model elders and the rabbit people, the models would definitely win, it was really unreasonable.

"By the way, this is the letter that Duke Leah asked me to bring to you." Just as the two of them walked out of the hall, Miriel remembered something and took out a gold-edged envelope with a tulip wax seal from her arms.

"Come to think of it, I haven't had any contact with her for nearly half a year since I last received the letter from the envoy from the southern border in Gunda." Levi sighed inexplicably.

Not only is the North between Cologne and Highcliff Castle, but also the valley of the royal court. The journey alone takes more than two months.

The journey was so long and neither side had any messenger crows that knew the way, so writing letters every time was very difficult.

Especially since both of them are dukes now and are so busy with their affairs, they can hardly spare time to see each other.

"By the way, how is Leah now?" Levi asked as he opened the letter.

It seems like it was just yesterday that I last met Leah, but when I think about it it has been almost a year.

"Duke Leah is taller and more beautiful than before. She was once known as the 'Tulip of the Plateau', and now she has the title of 'Emerald of the Southern Territory'. It is said that the nobles who have proposed to her are enough to line up in the Holy Sith Kingdom, and even a prince has expressed his love for her." Miriel blinked her beautiful eyes. She had seen Miss Leah before and knew that there was a scandal between her and Levi, so she couldn't help but teasing, "Does Levi regret not marrying Duke Leah? Her beauty is not inferior to Tiffany, enough to make men crazy, and what's more rare is that she is a powerful duke."

In the past, because of the unclear relationship between the Lion Hunter Knight and Duke Leah, they were afraid of a dragon knight with such a great reputation and did not dare to get involved. But as the news of his marriage spread, countless nobles cried with joy, thinking that the opportunity had come.

When Levi was reading this, Leah also told him about these things in the letter. She expressed her distress about this and hinted that her future husband could only be the handsome Duke of Derby. And apart from the elderly Grey in the West and the Duke who was the father of the queen in the East, wasn't he the only handsome Duke in Derby?
He suddenly sighed even more, remembering the time when Leah canonized him, and the days when he fought his way out of Cologne alone with Leah in his arms, and the days when the two of them went through hardships together to reach Bailiu City.

"Yes..." He was about to reply to Miriel, but he heard barely audible footsteps behind him, accompanied by a chill. He finally realized something was wrong before he could finish his words, and changed his words abruptly: "What is there to regret? My little Tina is still the white pearl in the wilderness, and her beauty makes the moon cover her face in shame."

The Lord said this without blushing, as if he really thought so in his heart. "Darling~ It's not as good as you say."

When they turned around, they found that it was Tina who had walked behind them at some point, holding Levi's arm and speaking in a sweet and naive voice.

It was the first time that Mil, who came along, heard his sister speak in such a tone. He tried hard to hold back his laughter, but it became so uncomfortable that he quickly said goodbye and left.

Miriel was a little embarrassed. She didn't expect to be caught picking on Levi. Besides, her relationship with Tina was not good. Tina had told Levi in ​​front of her that she was very coquettish and often showed off her looks to seduce the remnants of Fed so that they could sell their goods at a lower price.

She had indeed done all these things before, so she had no way to refute it. Feeling guilty, she said goodbye and ran away like a beautiful fiery red sunset.

"Hmph, you run fast." Tina snorted twice.

She actually had a good impression of Miriel, but she was still resentful about how he had seduced her Uncle Jose in the past.

Unexpectedly, she encountered the other party blatantly picking up Li Wei today. No matter how good her temper was, she could not tolerate such a thing.

"This is the demeanor of a mistress." Levi rubbed her head and calmly put the letter into the inventory.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked afterwards.

At this time, Tina should be teaching Tiffany how to knit clothes and has no time to come to the warehouse to find him.

As for why a princess like Tiffany wanted to do this kind of work, it was because she wanted to give her husband a gift made by herself. Levi couldn't persuade her, so he just let her do it.

"General Mandela has come to High Cliff Castle and said he wants to see you soon." Tina stretched out her slender fingers to straighten the slightly raised corners of Levi's clothes, and said, "There is another person, who seems to be from the royal family. I haven't seen him before."

"This guy, why didn't he inform us in advance?" Levi shook his head.

When nobles visited each other, they needed to present a visiting card first. This was the most basic respect and etiquette, and was also to allow the host family to be prepared to avoid any misunderstandings.

In the past, Gaoyabao was just a makeshift team and had no conditions to take care of these unimportant things at the time. But now that he has become the Duke and Gaoyabao has prospered, they naturally picked up these indispensable rules. Otherwise, if no one abides by the rules in the future, it will only cause more trouble.

"Maybe it's something important." Tina said a good word for Mandela. She had a good impression of this bald man who brought five hundred griffins to Highcliff Castle, except that he drank too much. Last time he drank four or five barrels of wine.

The room for receiving foreign guests is near the big cafeteria. It is a few three-story Dodo-style buildings with green tiles and red walls. When Levi walked over, Mandela was standing on the small building with a shiny bald head, watching the changes in High Cliff Castle over the past few months. He could not hide the amazement on his face.

It’s not about marveling at the wealth of Gaoya Fort, after all, there are many places richer than Gaoya Fort, but about marveling at the speed of development, which changes every day.

"Today I am just a foil, the protagonist is inside." Mandela jumped down nimbly and pointed inside.

Levi's eyes passed Mandela and he saw a short figure inside the open door, standing in front of a wall hung with broken giant swords, admiring it.

As a serious aristocrat, perhaps the decoration of his bedroom is very sloppy, but the room for entertaining guests must be full of unique atmosphere to show his own style.

The discarded old swords covering the walls were all the scrapped weapons used by the lord, and these huge swords covered with scars were the best proof of his achievements.

"Who is it?" Levi asked in a low voice.

"Your Majesty's Governor." Mandela also said in a low voice.

Even though he was called a general, he only managed the eight hundred blood swordsmen, while the governor managed all the armies for the king, and he was among them. In name, even when the armies of the other four dukes were recruited, they were under his management. He was truly second to none.

"Lord Levi's power is truly unprecedented and amazing." A deep voice came from the room, loud enough for everyone to hear clearly.

As he and Mandela went in, the bunny guard at the door slowly closed it.

"It's not that exaggerated. At most, there will be no one to surpass me. After all, Titan's power is definitely higher than mine." The lord was humble for once, but to outsiders, it was hard to tell whether he was being humble or just showing off.

A figure walked out from the corner, and the Governor-General revealed his true face—a body as strong as Mandela's, a head of meticulously groomed silver hair, a slightly weathered but extremely resolute face, and the sharp eyes that only a master of swordsmanship could possess.

Levi dared to bet that putting the opponent in the fighting cage would be enough to knock down a strong tiger, but when his eyes moved downwards, he couldn't help feeling regretful - the opponent's right hand was empty. For a swordsman proficient in swordsmanship to lose his right hand was no less than Debe losing the capital of Gunda.

Strong people all respect each other, and Levi can naturally empathize with them.

"Hello, my name is Bernard, and I'm the governor of His Majesty Harland." The middle-aged strong man who had been in the military for half his life extended his broad left hand to Levi. "I hope you don't mind that I don't have a right hand. Although it's useless for you to mind, after all, I'm the governor."

The other party smiled slightly.

Levi had some judgment about the other party in his heart. He was not a conservative person. He stretched out his hand and shook hands with the other party. "Hello, I am Levi, Duke of Derby, Lord of Highcliff Castle."

To be honest, Li Wei really didn't expect that such a big shot would come to the remote place of Gaoyabao. It also meant that the other party definitely did not come here for sightseeing.

(End of this chapter)