Volume 4 Chapter 129 Freya’s relaxing time
With the strong support of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, Count Wein continued his strong offense on the various southern Stantine Duchy lords.
In a few months, Count Wein not only defeated the four lords that had united against him, he also defeated another three lords and had gotten a large piece of territory of over ten thousand square kilometers.
Count Wein right now had already become the strongest Stantine Duchy lord that no one could compare to.
The northern Stantine Duchy fell to the flames of war and the south also wasn’t calm.
Anklo had been saving his strength in the first few years. Although he had been developing his territory and increasing his strength, causing many people to pay attention to him in the Stantine Duchy’s south, compared to Lord Wein, he was considered to be biding his time and waiting for the right opportunity.
However, in the year 3785, Anklo went against the norm and started developing in the south of the Stantine Duchy.
In just half a year, Anklo had already doubled the size of his territory and he now had over ten thousand square kilometers of land.
Although he was not the lord with the largest territory in the southern Stantine Duchy, in terms of combat strength, especially strength on the battlefield, no one dared to doubt that he was the strongest.
The reason was very simple, it was because he had the full support of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
After signing the contract with Lord Wein, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had stopped supplying military magic machines to all lords other than Lord Wein and Anklo.
Without the ammunition or being able to maintain them, it was naturally impossible for the military magic machines to last long.
In the beginning, the other lords could still contend with Lord Wein and Anklo with their stock, but after a while, they couldn’t use the military magic machines that they owned. The other lords were completely routed by Lord Wein and Anklo, they weren’t able to resist at all.
Everyone was clear that in the fight between lords, the decisive factor was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
To be more direct, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could completely control the development of the Stantine Duchy.
After realizing this, there were many people who naturally couldn’t sit still.
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“Zhi, le, zhi, le!”
There were many things different on the Sines Continent from earth, but there were some things that were the same.
Cicadas in summer were one of them.
Every summer, hearing the familiar sounds of the cicadas, Xu Yi would feel a warm feeling in his heart.
He had already been in this world for eight years. Although he had adopted to living in this world and had gotten married, already having a child, Xu Yi still missed living on earth.
Hearing the sounds of the cicadas, he could remember his youth on earth. He would run out with his friends during the summer with bug nets and go into the mountain to chase butterflies and cicadas.
This summer was still burning hot and Xu Yi was taking a break from his schedule enjoying the cool breeze under a tree in his backyard. Listening to the sounds of the cicadas above him and thinking of his time on earth, he suddenly felt like a child again. He had Linda find some iron wire and some wire mesh, then he broke a branch from the tree and fashioned himself a net.
“Hey Freya, dad will bring you to catch butterflies and cicadas, alright?” Xu Yi looked at Freya beside him who had watched him make this net and asked this with a smile.
Freya was already two years old and although she was still young, she could already run and jump, as well as speak. Hearing Xu Yi’s question, she looked at the net in Xu Yi’s hand and asked in her babyish voice, “Dad, why do you want to catch butterflies and cicadas?”
Xu Yi squatted down with a smile and pinched Freya little cheek as he asked, “Freya, don’t you think that butterflies are beautiful?”
“Un, butterflies are the most beautiful.”
“Alright, don’t you want to take a closer look to see why butterflies are so beautiful?” Xu Yi asked.
“I do. Dad, can you call a butterfly over to let me take a look?”
“Of course. Come, follow dad and I’ll bring you to talk to butterflies!”
If it was normal, now that it was already August, there shouldn’t have been any butterflies already.
But because the Stantine Duchy was in the southern part of the continent, it was always warm here and Xu Yi’s territory was near the sea, so the air was moist, there were many butterflies still flying around.
Xu Yi took the excited Freya to the small forest beside the manor where there were many butterflies of different colours flying around.
Freya happily cheered, scaring the butterflies away. Xu Yi reached out his net and easily caught several butterflies.
Xu Yi carefully took a butterfly out and placed it in Freya’s hand. Using his magic, he created a small forcefield in Freya’s hand that pressed the butterfly down in her hand, not letting it fly away.
Freya had a happy expression as she cautiously held the butterfly. Looking over it, she suddenly turned to Xu Yi to ask, “Dad, why isn’t it flying?”
Xu Yi was surprised, “Didn’t you want to talk to the butterfly? It is in your hand now, isn’t it good to play with it for a while?”
Freya shook her head, “But I liked it when it was flying. It doesn’t look good staying here.” She looked at the net in Xu Yi’s hand while saying this and pointed at the butterflies inside, “Dad, you should let them go, they look so pitiful.”
Xu Yi looked at Freya in surprise before he couldn’t help laughing.
Although Freya was only two, she was a good little girl and this was the most important thing to him.
Xu Yi pulled the butterflies out one by one under Freya’s instructions and let them all fly off.
Looking at the butterflies flying in the forest, Freya happily cheered out again. She ran back and forth around the forest, being filled with energy.
Seeing Freya’s happy appearance, Xu Yi also felt very happy.
He had been dealing with the Black Rice Wasteland and the Stantine Duchy during this time, so he had been very busy. Now that he was playing with Freya, he felt quite relaxed.
When he wanted to bring Freya deeper into the forest, Liz who had been waiting at the edge of the forest to give Xu Yi and Freya space had suddenly run in.
“Master, there’s a guest.”
Seeing the nervous look on Liz’s face, Xu Yi was a bit surprised.
“Who is it?”
“It’s a guest that sir CEO brought who claims to be an envoy sent by Duke Stantine.”
“It was sent by Duke Stantine?” Xu Yi was surprised before revealing a smile, “That’s right, the duke shouldn’t be able to take this anymore.”
After handing Freya to Liz, Xu Yi went back to the yard and saw Kennard and the envoy sent by Duke Stantine in the living room.
The three envoys were acquaintances of Xu Yi.
When he came to the Stantine Duchy the first time, these three were ministers under Duke Stantine that Xu Yi had met.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce had invested at least two million gold coins into them and had stuffed them full, so they were naturally polite when seeing Xu Yi.
The two sides greeted each other with smiles before Xu Yi asked them why they were here.
The three looked at each other and one fat minister said with a smile, “Chairman Xu. no, Viscount Xu, we’ve come to report a good piece of news to you this time.”
“Good news?” Xu Yi gave an oh sound, “What good news?”
The fat minister laughed, “Viscount Xu, in light of the contributions that can’t be ignored that you and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce have made to the Stantine Duchy, the duke has decided to promote you from viscount to count. This means that from this day forth, we should call you Count Xu.”
Kennard on the side had a look of pleasant surprise.
He came from a noble family, so a noble status was very important to him. He was always worried that Xu Yi’s status wasn’t high even because he himself also had the title of a baron in the Lampuri Kingdom.
If Xu Yi didn’t have a title, he as a Lampuri Kingdom baron would be working under a citizen.
Even if no one treated Xu Yi as a citizen, when it came to status, it created some hesitation in his heart.
Now that Xu Yi was a count, even if it was a count title from Duke Stantine, which meant it was far from comparing to the count title of the Lampuri Kingdom, it was enough that Xu Yi had an appropriate noble status.
Xu Yi had a calm look. He just smiled and nodded to show he understood.
The three looked at each other before the fat minister took out a map, spreading it in front of Xu Yi.
“Chairman…..No, Viscount Xu…..Oh, no, Count Xu, since your noble title has increased, according to the customs, you should receive a larger territory. After some research, the duke has finally decided to confer this piece of land as your territory. Are you satisfied with this?”
Xu Yi looked at the low accuracy Stantine Duchy map the fat minister was pointing at and seeing his new territory, he gave a cold laugh in his heart.
Duke Stantine had given Xu Yi a piece of land that was less than twenty four kilometers, but it did increase his territory by several times.
But if one looked carefully, they would find that this land belonged to the land that Count Wein had just taken.
If Xu Yi took this land, it would mean he would be stealing it from Count Wein.
Duke Stantine clearly did this intentionally, trying to destroy the cooperation between the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and Count Wein.
It was clear that Duke Stantine was afraid of Count Wein’s strong stance.
He wanted to destroy the cooperation between the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and Count Wein to attack Count Wein.
This was a very low level trap. Not mentioning Xu Yi, even Kennard on the side could see it with one look and he now had a cold smile.
With his understanding of Xu Yi, Xu Yi definitely wouldn’t fall for this low level trap.
However, after Xu Yi was silent for a bit, he said with a smile, “Many thanks for the gracious gift of the duke. I will accept this piece of land.”
Kennard had a surprised look while the three envoys had full smiles.
Xu Yi also looked at the three with a faint smile, like he didn’t know the risk of this at all.