Days passed by quickly and now it's time for us to travel to our duchy. Prince Stefan had finally graduated and now is a mature member of the society. I sighed thinking of that, I feel sad that now he will have a legit form of power but this could also be some form of opportunity for me.The more Prince Stefan shows his incompetence in politics, the more loopholes, I could use to cancel our engagement.
"Wow, the carriage of the ducal house is really something else." Tille commented.
"This is not from our house. It's mine." I replied.
I customised the carriage for my comfort. I heard from Carmella that even if you use the gate to travel it'll still take us 1 whole day to reach the duchy so I asked Vincent if he could lend me a hand and customise a carriage for me.
We were wondering why the carriage suddenly stopped when Carmella knocked on the window. "Lady Audrey, the knights are here." Carmella informed me. "Knights?" Lis asked, shocked. "Don't worry. I think they're mine." I replied as I opened the door and stepped out of the carriage. I saw a group of knights standing in the middle of the road, there's about 50 of them. "We greet the young lady." They said in unison. It was a bit intimidating when I heard that but I try my best not to flinch and to appear strong. The man in front suddenly came up and knelt in front of me and offered his sword. I panicked a little as I thought he was gonna hit me with it but Lis, who had come down
"My lady, the servants have been gathered by the knights in the main hall. Here are the reports I found on the study and inside the butler's room." Carmella said as she passed me a couple of books. I scanned the books knowing already what was written there. "Head Maid Caliana, didn't you say the budget was cut? How come it says here that you're receiving the same amount of budget as 5 years ago? There's even a 10% increase from 6 years ago." I asked her. "I don't know anything. Butler Rumlar was the one who told me that the budget was cut. My lady, believe me. I know nothing of this." She begged. "Why should I do that? The castle maintenance being embezzled by you people. The proof is already right here in my hands." I asked.
I told the carriage to stop and jump off the carriage the moment it did. I ran to the nearest tree with the knights following behind me anxiously."This… this is…" I said excitedly."It's a mulberry tree, my lady. Is this the first time you saw one? There are plenty of these trees in the duchy." Knight Walt said and I looked at him happily."There's a lot of this tree? That's good. That's good." I said excitedly."Why did you suddenly jump off?" Lis asked when she reached us."I found the solution to my problems." I answered and started looking at the leaves of the tree."What are we looking for, my lady?" Knight Walt asked.
It's finally the day for the guys to arrive, we are all waiting outside the castle door for them to arrive. There have been a lot of changes that happen in the castle since we arrived here. For one, we hired more employees for the castle and the castle management drastically improved under Head Maid Giselle and Butler Rydel. I have also informed my father about replacing the head maid and the butler. I told him in my message that Butler Rumlar and Head Maid Caliana were embezzling the funds and were selling the items inside the castle so I fired them and replaced them. I didn't tell him that Butler Rumlar also stole a part of the revenue the duchy was receiving. He didn't need to know that. He'll continue to receive the same amount anyway. I have informed Butler Rydel regarding the arrival of Xavier and the other guys last week. He immediately set off in clea
The following morning, I woke up early to check the silkworm. The day before, some eggs had already hatched. I was so excited to see them squirming yesterday. The greenhouse was also built according to my specification and Butler Rydel asked the gardener about what vegetable or fruits would be better to plant, something that can easily grow. They decided to go with lettuce, carrots, and radishes. I placed the boxes where the silkworms are in the greenhouse as I figured the temperature inside is the same temperature needed for the silkworm to grow. It will also save me some magic stones. When I entered the greenhouse I saw Healer Jan looking around. "Good morning." I greeted him. "Did you think of this?" He asked and I nodded.
It's been three days since the guys arrived in the duchy and we all have started to get bored. There was nothing to see in our duchy as everything was a mess and I'm trying to get it back where it used to be. I have asked Xavier's advice regarding the management of the duchy and he said the same thing as Professor Xander more or less so I decided to follow their instructions and check our food and left it to Sir Danyll to take care of the security of the duchy. "Is there anything better to do?" Adekin asked. We were having our tea time after breakfast and I have to agree with him this time. I'm bored. I don't want to deal with the duchy problem right now. Anyway, the immediate problem is more or less resolved already. "I want to move around my body." I said. "I
By afternoon, we heard another two villages were attacked but the damage was much lesser than the first three villages. We girls continued making the bricks while the guys together with Professor Xander and Healer Jan went to investigate the latest villages that were attacked. We were planning on entering the forest early tomorrow morning. That's why I'm trying to mass produce the bricks now. They had built all the houses by the time we got back that afternoon but the other two villages would need houses to live in also. I've also asked Knight Joss to gather anyone who can perform magic and taught them how to make the bricks and roof tiles. Those who can use and perform magic in this world are few but everyone has magic, it's just dormant to most pe
I built a wall of fire to buy us some time. The remaining knights were helping to evacuate those who were injured. "Sussie, attack those monsters that were able to get past the fire." I told her. I honestly don't think these monsters would stop unless we kill all of them. Should I burn the whole forest? No, that's a terrible idea. "Any idea how we can stop these attacks?" I asked Professor Xander. "Do you even know why we're getting attacked?" He asked back. I sighed and contemplated if I should use up my magic and kill all these monsters or should I save up my magic and just push back the monsters. "Don't do anything crazy." Professor Xander said when he saw my expression.