On the official road leading to Holy Light City, two carriages moved one behind the other, pushing Tibrag further and further behind them.
Wu Ming rode a black horse and looked at the map in his hand.
Holy Light City is far away from Tibulag, a conservative estimate of about three thousand miles, and it will take almost a month to get there.
But the distance couldn't change my mind about leaving.
Now, as the time for the big event to begin is approaching, Tibulague is destined to be at the forefront.
He is not here to be the savior. He has not saved the people of Dawn from fire and water, nor has he supported the Holy Mother's heart that will collapse the building. He does not want to be involved. As for saving the world, such a glorious and noble thing is left to the middle school boy or the male protagonist.
Go ahead and do it.
a month later
Going all the way north, spanning three thousand miles, Holy Light City is already within easy reach.
Along the way, I encountered no thieves blocking my way, nor did I meet any beautiful women to chat with me. The three thousand miles journey was uneventful.
This is also what should be done. Wu Ming took the official route, and this is the core hinterland of the Holy Light Empire. The possibility of encountering bandits and road tyrants is very low.
Similar to novels, where you encounter robbers when you go out, or when beautiful women are chased and killed, that is the kind of treatment only the protagonist gets.
Wu Ming is not the protagonist of this world, and the goddess of fate doesn't love him very much.
Apart from the carriage breaking its axle halfway along the way, the biggest danger was encountering a thunderstorm and being stuck in a small town for three days without being able to hit the road.
"When a carriage enters the city, you have to pay one silver coin, and nobles are no exception."
When passing through the city gate, they paid the entrance fee of two silver coins, and Wu Ming and others finally arrived at the Holy Light City, which symbolizes wealth and power in the Holy Light Empire.
Holy Light City looks very neat. The main road is large enough for eight carriages to travel side by side. The cow dung and horse dung that fills the streets like Tibula does not exist here.
Wu Ming rode a tall horse and walked in front, looking at both sides of the road.
I saw numerous shops on both sides, including salesmen carrying burdens, shop apprentices wearing linen gowns, and adventurers wearing weapons.
The bards were playing and singing on the roadside with their harps, and the noble ladies were calling friends and laughing constantly.
As soon as he entered the city gate, the atmosphere of peace and prosperity hit his face. Wu Ming looked at it all quietly, feeling like he was seeing the picture of Riverside Scene during the Qingming Festival. This is the most beautiful stage of an era.
"Come here." Wu Ming sat on the horse and pointed his whip at a salesman.
The salesman was carrying a box on his back, selling rat poison, cockroach poison and other gadgets.
Hearing Wu Ming's words, the salesman ran over and said respectfully: "Master, what are your orders?"
The badge carried on the carriage is a symbol of noble status.
Wu Ming liked the hierarchical system here very much. He nodded arrogantly and said in a noble and arrogant tone: "Take us to the city hall. This is your reward."
A silver coin fell out of his hand and landed firmly on the peddler's box.
With a look of surprise on his face, the salesman nodded and said, "Sir, it's my honor to serve you. Please come with me."
People are all servile. It is said that during the liberation of slaves, some slaves were driven away by their masters, which was considered a great shame and humiliation.
In this world, the gap between the five classes of slaves, commoners, nobles, kings, and gods is huge, far beyond what the European Middle Ages could compare with.
The arrogance of nobles when facing common people is normal. If you are not arrogant, it is an exception. This is the rule of the game formed over thousands of years.
This is a world with gods and professionals, and human rights are a joke here.
Wu Ming doesn't want to change anything. All he needs is to go with the flow and integrate into this huge world.
Let the salesman lead the way to the city hall to register and discuss purchasing the castle.
Only when we arrived at the city hall did we realize that every inch of land in Holy Light City was very valuable. A castle worth tens of thousands of gold coins in Tibula would be at least five times more expensive here.
The starting price of a castle with mountains, lakes, and gardens is over 100,000 gold coins, and the attitude is still to buy it or not.
"Lucy, I only have 70,000 gold coins left, and a good castle costs more than 100,000 gold coins. Would you like to sponsor me a little?"
When asked about the price, the cash-strapped Wu Ming approached the future queen.
Her Lady Queen was silent for a moment, looking at Wu Ming as if he were looking at a fool, and whispered: "This is such a sad story!"
As a black dragon, Lucy also has a hobby of collecting treasures.
Although the treasures she collected cannot be compared with those of adult dragons, they are still at the level of a little rich woman.
At this moment, Lucy felt extremely heartbroken when she heard that Wu Ming, this annoying servant, was actually paying attention to her property.
"Don't be so miserable, be happy!" Wu Ming knew that Lucy was a little money-crazy, and looking at the tangled look on her face, he said: "Well, I borrowed this money from you, and I'll give you an IOU from the head office.
Alright."
"Okay, but you have to calculate the interest." Lucy looked reluctant, but after thinking for a long time, she gritted her teeth and agreed.
She wants to live in a castle, be a queen, and have many people waiting on her.
Although I don’t want to borrow money, it’s not unacceptable to pay interest in an IOU.
"How much do you want to borrow?" Lucy rubbed her ring. This was a space ring. When it was sold in a store, the minimum price was 50,000 gold coins. Even Wu Ming didn't have such a good thing.
Wu Ming glanced at the space ring with envy. He took a fancy to a castle priced at 220,000 yuan, so he said, "Lend me 200,000 yuan. I plan to buy this place called Swan Castle by the lake."
Swan Castle is five stories high, with a lake in front, a mountain in the back, and a garden between the castle and the small lake.
There are 135 rooms in the castle. If you buy it, it will also come with a 50-acre orchard and 300 acres of fertile land.
According to the owner of the castle, living here can be completely self-sufficient. When you have nothing to do, you can also go fishing or go hunting in the mountains behind.
"Okay, but if I lend you 200,000 yuan, you have to pay me back 230,000 yuan, and I have to pay it back within one year." Lucy also likes this place, but when borrowing money, the interest is still necessary.
Wu Ming agreed wholeheartedly, but what Lucy gave him was not 200,000 gold coins, but exactly 180,000.
Seeing that there was a shortage of 20,000 yuan, Wu Ming asked in confusion: "Why is there only 180,000 yuan? Didn't you mean to borrow 200,000 yuan?"
"This is 200,000 yuan. I'll be here 18 years ago and I'll be home 23 times. Do you want to borrow it or not?" Lucy said with a look of disgust, which made Wu Ming feel like he was a loser.
Eighteen out, twenty-three back, this is usury, right?
He didn't realize that Lucy had the potential to be a loan shark, and that his own Black Dragon Queen was a bit of a cheat.
"Do you want to borrow it?" Lucy had a cold look on her face, as if she was looking at Zhan Wu's scum.
Wu Ming nodded heavily and gritted his teeth and said, "Borrow, why not borrow? The worst is, if you don't pay back the money, I'll pay off the debt myself."
I rolled my eyes at him in disgust, but I still got 180,000 gold coins.
Sign the agreement, seal it, and make two copies of the contract.
Wu Ming walked out of the city hall, took a deep breath, and gave Lucy a thumbs up.
Lucy snorted and urged: "Now that we have a castle, we still need a lot of servants, cooks, tailors, gardeners, housekeepers, grooms, and gardeners. Don't forget it. By the way, buy some more cows."
Come, I'm going to take a bath with milk at night, it's good for my skin."
After struggling for three days, I bought more than 60 servants and finally moved into a castle facing the lake with spring flowers blooming.
At first, Wu Ming thought that a dozen servants would be enough, but when he moved to the castle, he realized that if he wanted to make the castle operate, it would be impossible to have fewer servants.
Fifty acres of orchards usually require six people to take care of them, and three hundred acres of fertile land requires more than a dozen laborers.
Wu Ming, Lucy, Annie, and Aunt Angelina are each assigned six maids to take care of daily life.
In addition to five chefs for cooking, three gardeners for gardening, four grooms, a housekeeper, and four tailors, the sixty people digested it internally in an understatement.
No wonder when watching A Dream of Red Mansions, one would be amazed at how there were nearly a thousand servants in a Rongguo Mansion.
The nobility is indeed a class of people who enjoy themselves. The castle is full of money, but there are only four masters. If it were a great aristocracy with more than a hundred family members and a history of thousands of years, the number of servants it would serve would be an astonishing number, not to mention the money and food consumed.
"Sir, Viscount Kane, who sold us the castle, is going to hold his daughter's birthday party next month and has sent us an invitation letter. Moreover, sir, you are a new nobleman from out of town. During this time, you should take the initiative and privately
Visiting some noble families is the only way to integrate into the aristocratic circle." The person who served as Wu Ming's butler was an old man in his sixties, who had served an earl and two viscounts.
.
After actually having a butler, Wu Ming understood the meaning of a butler, which is not only to help manage the family business, but also to be a family diplomat.
In the past few days, Wu Ming himself didn't go anywhere, while the old butler Ford was busy sending greeting cards to various noble families.
In the entire Holy Light City, there are approximately more than 400 people with the title of viscount, and there are almost 60 counts.
Further up, there are the Eight Dukes and the Twenty-four Marquises, the thirty-two top noble families.
Wu Ming is only a viscount, and he has no access to the top families. According to the rules of the game, he can only have access to nobles one level higher than himself, that is, families with the title of earl.
Within a few days, hundreds of invitations were sent out, but very few responses were received.
However, the nobles and nobles in Holy Light City still knew about Wu Ming, and they had initially made their name known.
"Viscount Kane's family has fallen into such decline that they even sold the castle. Is it necessary to befriend him?" Wu Ming held a glass of red wine, lying on the sofa and enjoying the massage from the maid, experiencing the depraved life of the nobles.
The old butler Ford, holding an invitation letter in his hand, whispered after hearing the message: "Sir, we are new here and lack our own connections. You are going to the party this time not for Viscount Kane, but for the nobles.
Make your appearance in the circle and let more nobles see you. Only in this way can you integrate into the nobles one by one and gradually find your own way."
The so-called appearance is to go out and become familiar with each other, just like when you were in college, you would go out for dinner with classmates in your dormitory.
Although Wu Ming hates trouble, he knows that this is an essential step.
Most of the legendary nobles are descendants of gods, or powerful families left behind by top professionals. With Wu Ming's status, he is still unable to contact these people. He can only expand his influence from bottom to top and slowly approach the great nobles.
The vision of the nobles, waiting for the opportunity to enter the core.