149: Chapter 149 Territory for Sale

The magistrate's office building, located on the west side of Ironthorn Town near the castle, has now been fully rebuilt as part of the Ironthorn Town reconstruction mission.

Compared to before, the current magistrate's office building has shed its sense of luxury. Its overall appearance is grand yet restrained, giving off a professional and trustworthy impression.

Sitting on the sofa in the magistrate's office, Lister nodded slightly from time to time as he listened to Brutus and Odinton's suggestions regarding population replenishment.

Halfway through the conversation, Brutus took out a piece of yellowed Shuttle Paper covered in dense writing.

Recorded on the Shuttle Paper were the approximate distribution ratios of the population in the Viscount Territory, which he had secretly calculated during his last visit to Viscount Connor Kimmlers Territory.

As a magistrate, and an exceptionally capable one at that, his intuition regarding all aspects of the territory's affairs was extremely sharp.

Lister greatly appreciated Brutus's foresight in planning ahead.

Holding the Shuttle Paper in one hand and a pen in the other, Brutus sat upright and said, "Lord Lister, the current population of Viscount Connor Kimmlers Territory is approximately eight thousand people."

"The ratio of freemen to Slaves and serfs is about seven to three, with the latter two combined totaling around 2,500 people."

"If you wish to purchase Slaves and serfs from the Viscount Territory to fill the population of Ironthorn Territory, I believe it is feasible."

"However, Viscount Connor Kimmler likely won't sell too many; selling half would already be the absolute upper limit. After all, the Viscount Territory also needs people for its own development."

"Unless you can offer a price that truly tempts Viscount Kimler, but that would increase costs too much and wouldn't be cost-effective."

"In comparison, I would suggest purchasing Slaves from Black Bear Territory. Due to your wise decision, the Baron of Black Bear Territory will soon face sanctions under Kingdom law."

"At that time, Black Bear Territory will temporarily be without a master. Since Black Bear Territory was originally Kingdom land, the territory will subsequently revert to the Royal Family's ownership."

"In this situation, even without using your relationship with Earl Elsie de Frander, it would be very easy to purchase the Slaves within Black Bear Territory from the Royal Family."

"Of course, that is only one way. Another way is for you to directly buy the entire Black Bear Territory from the Royal Family."

Hearing this, Lister straightened his back and asked with some confusion, "Brutus, where did you hear of this method? I recall that under Kingdom law, territories are not allowed to be sold, right?"

"Yes, Lord Lister, you remember correctly."

Brutus nodded and explained, "Originally, the Kingdom did not have such a law, but after the 'new western frontier pioneer order' was promulgated, some of the Kingdom's laws underwent subtle changes."

"Specifically, regarding the laws on granting titles in masterless territories, an additional relevant law was added:"

"Any titled Lord of a masterless territory may, after receiving their title but before taking office in the territory, entrust the Royal Family to list the territory for sale, though a ten percent commission fee is required."

"The Kingdom actually added such a law?" Lister showed a look of surprise.

This law was indeed beyond his expectations. One must know that since the founding of the Pedan Kingdom, there had never been a territory that could be sold.

Before a territory had a Lord, it belonged to the Kingdom, or rather, the Royal Family.

Prohibiting the sale of territories was firstly to ensure the authority of Kingdom law, and secondly to prevent powerful Lords from using it to buy up land on a large scale and disrupt the Kingdom's order.

Now that the Kingdom had established such a law, it felt like they were slapping their own face.

Logically, this kind of situation should only occur when the Royal Family's power was in decline.

But currently, the Royal Family's power was definitely much stronger than before, with a very firm grip on the entire Kingdom. There was absolutely no need to do such a thing.

Could the Royal Family be too extravagant and short on money?

The thought flashed through his mind, but Lister still felt perplexed.

Seeing Lister's expression, Brutus continued, "Yes, Lord Lister. Although it is currently unclear why the Royal Family added such a decree, for now, it is a good thing for our Ironthorn Territory."

"Although Black Bear Territory is better than our Ironthorn Territory in terms of size and resources, the advantage is limited."

"Unless it's a Lord who particularly needs a territory, there's a high probability they wouldn't want to become the Lord of Black Bear Territory."

"According to my estimate, if Black Bear Territory is listed for sale, the price should be between two thousand to three thousand gold coins, excluding the service fees."

"This price isn't considered very high among Baron Territories in the entire Kingdom. If we can buy it, we can directly merge it with our Ironthorn Territory to become a new, large territory."

"Furthermore, the newly merged territory would not exceed the upper limit for a Baron Territory in size, fully complying with Kingdom law."

"This way, in our future development, whether we expand toward the northern part of the Kingdom or toward the west, we can operate very effectively."

"Not bad." Lister nodded, expressing his agreement.

Seeing that Lister was moved, Brutus continued, "Although the listing decree does not specify what currency to use for the transaction, most Lords would likely prefer to settle in cash to save themselves a lot of trouble."

"I just don't know, Lord Lister, if you currently have sufficient funds for the purchase?"

"Haha, Brutus, you don't need to worry about that." Seeing Brutus's uncertain look, Lister replied with a smile, "After capturing Daniel, I harvested quite a bit of cash and resources. Forget one Black Bear Territory, I could buy two of them outright."

Lister wasn't surprised that Brutus was unaware of these gains.

Although many knights had carried out the arrest with him, without Lister's authorization, everyone very tacitly kept the matter to themselves.

As subordinate knights, especially those trained by Red, they were very clear on what should and shouldn't be said.

This was something a subordinate should and must keep firmly in mind; it was no different from a military order.

Hearing Lister say this, although Brutus looked a bit surprised, he wasn't entirely shocked.

He knew Daniel's crimes. Since it was colluding with foreign races, it was nothing more than for the sake of wealth. Given the Orc Race' 'generosity' (actually, they just didn't know how to save money), Daniel must have harvested a lot of wealth.

Now that Daniel was caught, that massive wealth naturally went into Lister's pockets, so Brutus wasn't surprised.

He was merely a bit surprised that Lister could obtain *that* much wealth.

Taking a sip of hot milk, Lister continued, "Although we've decided to buy Black Bear Territory, whether it's feasible still depends on whether the newly appointed Baron will list it for sale."

"This is something we cannot predict, so while we push forward with this matter, the Slave purchase plan still cannot stop."

"If we don't end up buying Black Bear Territory, being prepared in advance will prevent us from being put on the defensive."

"However, I'm heading to the Western Frontier Territory in a few days. I won't be able to handle this personally, so you, Brutus, will be in full charge."

"Report the progress of the matter to me in a timely manner via the Magic Cloud Eagle."

"Yes, Lord Lister." Brutus respectfully accepted.

With this major decision concerning the development of Ironthorn Territory settled, the three of them felt at ease.

Especially Brutus, the main person in charge who had been entrusted with this heavy responsibility; his anticipation for buying Black Bear Territory was arguably the highest.

After all, he had proposed this, and as long as Black Bear Territory was purchased, as the Chief magistrate, he would have more areas to manage and a larger stage to display his abilities.

One should know that after learning the news of Lister capturing Daniel, he had stayed up all night writing a development plan for after the purchase of Black Bear Territory.

When it came to wanting to advance, he always maintained a burning heart.

In the area west of the border of Baron Jonathan's Territory.

The sun gradually sank in the west, and the afterglow of the twilight sunset spilled over the earth.

On the gravel road between the river and the hills, a thick scent of blood permeated the air.

Over twenty men with fierce expressions and weapons in hand were busy moving back and forth.

The objects of their busywork were the dozen or so male corpses lying haphazardly on the surrounding ground.

These corpses were the results of their recent ambush—a small merchant caravan. They, on the other hand, were a famous bandit group that roamed the surrounding six territories: the Blood Fiend Bandit Group.

“Hehe, Big Brother, after we finish with these corpses, can I enjoy the spoils of war?”

A man with a sinister expression in the crowd asked the Bandit Leader, his eyes constantly darting toward seven or eight young women locked in a cage not far away.

The beast-like lust in his eyes made the 'spoils of war' in the cage tremble uncontrollably, their faces filled with extreme fear and despair.

The leader of the Blood Fiend Bandit Group, wearing armor seized from an Apprentice Knight, scolded with a laugh, "Urgent, urgent, all you know is how to be urgent. I think your brain is controlled by that thing between your legs."

“Hehe, Boss, it's not that I want to be controlled by it, but those 'spoils' over there force me to be.” the sinister man said shamelessly.

“Yeah, Boss, Ali is right. It wasn't easy catching these little beauties; who could hold back?”

The other bandits around them chimed in wantonly upon hearing the sinister man's words.

The Blood Fiend Bandit Leader knew very well what kind of temperament these wicked fellows had; it was already quite an achievement that they were still fully clothed.

After scolding them for a bit, he looked at the sky and said, "It's getting dark. Judging by the situation on this road, there should be another caravan passing through."

"We'll wait for one more wave. If no more caravans come before the sun completely sets, we'll go back and enjoy the 'spoils'."

"Now stop the nonsense and hurry up and clean up the battlefield. Clear out the smell; don't scare the caravan's horses."

"Yes, Boss."

Upon hearing this, the bandits' bodies were filled with strength once more, and they began to quickly clean up the messy ground.

Soon, all the corpses of the caravan men were hidden in the hills, and the flowing blood was washed clean with water.

Gradually, the bloody scent in the air quickly faded with the whistling cold wind.

Accompanied by the sunset's afterglow, the twenty-odd bandits of the Blood Fiend Bandit Group followed their leader's orders and lay in ambush in squads within the woods and behind large rocks by the river.

Clop, clop, clop—

Over an hour later, the heavy and powerful sound of horse hooves treading on the ground slowly reached the ears of the Blood Fiend Bandit Group.

As the sound of hooves grew more frequent, the sinister man beside the Bandit Leader's eyes lit up, and he said excitedly, "Boss, this caravan seems to have quite a few people. Looks like we're going to make a big profit."

Hearing this, although the Bandit Leader was also a bit excited, he shook his head and said, "Generally, for a large caravan like this, the guards they hire aren't weak either. There might even be a quasi-Transcendent; don't be careless."

“Boss, you've killed an Apprentice Knight, and us brothers are all experienced hands from fighting. What's there to worry about with a caravan?” the sinister man said dismissively.

But despite his words, he didn't act rashly and stayed honestly in ambush.

Just as they thought the caravan was about to pass through the ambush circle, the numerous heavy hoofbeats suddenly vanished.

With their rich experience, they immediately knew the caravan had stopped. Although they were somewhat puzzled, they suppressed their curiosity and continued to wait patiently.

On the other side, the burly young man at the head of the caravan, dressed in silver-white armor, slowly lowered his hand which he had raised to signal the caravan to stop.

A knight in armor came to his side and said in a low voice, "Captain Spartacus, there is the scent of blood coming from ahead."

"Yes, I know." Spartacus nodded, then released his Spiritual Power to sense ahead.

Immediately, the movements ahead quickly reached his ears: the whistling of the biting cold wind, the rustling of leaves, the sound of the flowing river, and heavy breathing of varying strengths—

Withdrawing his Spiritual Power, before Spartacus could speak, Isabelle poked her body out of the carriage door behind him and asked, "Sir Spartacus, is there a problem?"

"Don't worry, Miss Isabelle."

Spartacus pulled the reins and turned his horse around to face Isabelle, saying, "There should be bandits lying in ambush ahead, about twenty of them. I'll go and deal with them now. Please wait a moment with the caravan."

"Alright, sorry to trouble you, Sir Spartacus." Isabelle nodded, her face showing no surprise or fear.

The Cole Family used to encounter bandit attacks frequently; they were completely used to it.

As for fear, she might have had some before, but now with Spartacus, a Silver Knight, leading the protection, fear was out of the question.

Without another word, Spartacus turned his horse around and led the other Full Knights, galloping toward the front.

The patiently waiting Blood Fiend bandits heard the sudden, rapid, and heavy hoofbeats and thought it was guards sent by the caravan to investigate.

Before the Bandit Leader could even think of how to respond, he and the other bandits saw Spartacus and the other knights charging toward them on horseback.

Seeing the armor on them, all the bandits' expressions changed drastically. The Bandit Leader, coming to his senses, hurriedly shouted, "Not good, they're Full Knights! Everyone, retreat!"

The moment he finished speaking, a Flame Slash permeated with combat qi energy streaked past him.

With a 'squelch', the Bandit Leader instantly felt a spray of warm blood hit his face from beside him.

Before he could react, he felt the world spin around him, and his own sturdy, powerful body quietly appeared before his eyes. In an instant, this area was filled with terrified wails, as if it had turned into a hell of death.