Lake Castle, a medium-sized stone castle located near the west of Cremour City and surrounded by rivers and lakes.

It has four large estates under its jurisdiction. It not only has vast and fertile land and a complete irrigation system close to water sources, but also has ownership of large areas of mountainous land and forestland. It can be said that it is naturally very suitable for the development of agriculture, animal husbandry and breeding.
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This place was originally used by Sir Elroth to house his mistress and illegitimate child, but was later donated to Zuo Si by Bernard.

Since then, Steward Ibby Palen has been serving the latter wholeheartedly.

Since he doesn't need to sell any agricultural products at all, and he doesn't have to deal with profiteers who deliberately lower the purchase price of grain, his job is much easier than before.

Often it is enough to organize the tenant farmers to sow seeds at the right time, harvest them during the harvest and store them in the warehouse, and then wait for the lord to send someone to pick them up.

In addition, the next step is to raise more poultry and livestock such as pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese, while ensuring that there are enough horses in the castle, and occasionally taking advantage of the drop in grain prices to purchase some of the grain stocks of other manors and homesteaders.

These tasks are not easy for an experienced castle manager.

And according to the report of the guard captain, even the frequency of bandits and monsters near the territory is much less than before, as if they are afraid of something.

Even if goblins, gnolls, orcs and trolls appear occasionally, they will soon disappear inexplicably, as if they never appeared.

This strange situation led to the fact that merchants heard that the road near Lake Castle was safer, so they would rather go a little further away and choose this way, which brought considerable additional income to the castle, including tolls and accommodation and food provided.

Services.

The only thing that makes Ibby Palen feel a little regretful is that Zuo Si, the owner, has only come once, and has never stayed overnight in the castle, or held any banquets, dances, or hunting activities.

This made him learn a lot of social etiquette, banquet layout, food and drink placement and other professional knowledge that was completely useless.

The people I usually interact with the most are basically my own people within the castle and the manor.

Those senior male and female servants who have received special training are also troubled because they have no master to serve, and they don't know what the meaning of their existence is.

But today, Ibi Palen rarely changed into his most exquisite clothes, and the leather boots under his feet were polished to a shine.

The servants lined up neatly and stood at the gate, seeming to be waiting for the arrival of a certain important guest.

In about ten minutes, a carriage, escorted by hundreds of knights, arrived at the gate of the castle.

As the car door clicked open, a woman who looked to be in her twenties and wearing a long black mourning dress slowly walked out.

She first looked at the castle with great interest, and then walked to the entrance with the help of a personal maid.

"Welcome, Miss Vera Salem. Your arrival makes the entire Lake Castle shine. I am the steward here, and I am here to welcome you on the order of Lord Soth."

Ibi Palen took the initiative to greet him, put one hand on his chest and bowed deeply.

It can be seen from the slightly trembling arms that he is very nervous and excited at the moment.

After all, everyone in Amn knows the name of the Salem Quant family and the wealth and power it represents.

Although the tragic massacre that occurred not long ago made this family look very weak and cast a tragic color.

However, the status and influence in people's minds will not change in a short period of time.

Vera smiled calmly and nodded: "Thank you. If you don't mind, can you tell me that Mr. Soth is currently in the castle? Compared to those boring red tapes, I prefer to be straightforward.

”

Ibi Palen was slightly taken aback and quickly replied: "Lord Soth is not currently in the castle. However, he has made it clear that he will arrive before lunch."

"Lunch? That means it will take about an hour and a half..."

Vera lowered her head and glanced at the valuable and exquisite pocket watch in her hand, with a hint of playfulness flashing in her eyes.

As a smart person, she understood almost instantly that the other party was using this method to clarify the affiliation between superiors and subordinates, and at the same time, she was also warning herself.

In social etiquette, the person who arrives first and waits often means the weak and inferior, while the person who arrives late means the strong and superior.

It's as if people with less important status have to arrive in advance, while people with high status often show up at the finale at a stuck time.

Fortunately, Vera was mentally prepared for this, so she quickly entered the reception room on the second floor of the castle under the arrangement of Ibi Palen, enjoying the scenery outside the window while tasting the drinks and snacks served by the other party.

Just as she expected, Zuo Si teleported over from the mage tower in Askatra almost without a meal.

And the atmosphere during meal time is very depressing and dull.

Several times Vera tried to stir up the topic, but was quickly interrupted.

In desperation, she could only wait patiently for a more suitable time until the meal was over. According to the practice of the Amn nobles, the host would invite the guests to visit his study and discuss some more private matters.

After the steward and the servants left, Zuo Si asked with a smile: "You must be wondering why I always interrupted you before, right?"

"It's a bit strange. But I think you must have your own reasons, right?"

Vera picked up the cup and took a sip of red wine to hide her dissatisfaction.

"Because I'm watching you."

Zuo Si did not hide anything and gave the answer very simply and directly.

Vera was stunned for a moment, then asked in a slightly curious tone: "Observe me? Why?"

Zuo Si replied casually: "Confirm whether you have enough patience and ability to be my starting point for controlling the six-person council and even the entire Amn."

"What's the result?"

Vera became obviously nervous, put down the wine glass in her hand and continued to ask.

"Not too bad.

Although your character is naturally a little restless, you can still control yourself at critical moments.

This is very important.

Because as a politician, the most important thing is to learn to be patient.

In addition, I am very curious, what is your motivation for choosing to raise the butcher knife against your own family?

Is it simply to seize power, or for some other unknown reason?"

When saying these words, Zuo Si did not avoid looking into the eyes of the woman in front of him.

From his pupils, you can clearly see blue mana flowing, which is obviously the use of some magic to read thoughts and memories.

But unfortunately, most of these spells are blocked by the immunity mind magic necklace worn.

This thing is almost a must-have for members of the six-person Council and even for the upper-level rulers of many places throughout Faerûn.

Only in this way can we ensure that it will not be controlled by evil spellcasters or monsters such as beholders and mind flayers, and become a puppet controlled by the other party.

However, since Zuo Si did not use spells under the same system, there were still one or two that had a certain effect.

But Vera didn't know this, and there was an expression of struggle on her face. It took a while before she uttered five words with a wry smile.

"Because I am unwilling!"

"Not willing?"

Zuo Si obviously didn't expect the truth to be so surprising, and raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Yes, I just don't want to give in.

Why can men inherit the family business, while women can only sacrifice themselves to get married?

From the moment I learned that my grandfather was trying to marry me to Tumis, strong unwillingness and anger engulfed my heart like a flame.

You must know that among my peers in the family, my abilities and talents have always been the best.

When I was fourteen years old, I successfully judged in advance that due to unknown reasons, the flow of goods to Ascatra was decreasing, while the flow of goods out was increasing, by observing the number and frequency of merchant ships arriving at the port.

This crucial information allowed the family to stock up on goods in advance and make a huge profit when the subsequent price increase came.

Later I learned that it was because of the storm that several important shipping routes were delayed, so the inflow of goods decreased in a short period of time.

From then on, all chambers of commerce and big families will send special personnel to the ports and markets to keep an eye on the market so that they will not be caught off guard like before when similar situations occur.

When I got my own money at the age of 20, it took me less than a year and a half to six-fold it, and I owned four boats, two shops in the Woking shopping district, and one at the pier.

District warehouse.

Of course, this is also thanks to you opening up a new route to the Maztec continent.

You know, I was one of the first merchants to transport cocoa beans back from across the sea.

In addition, I am also an excellent warrior, with a warrior level of LV9, and I have personally killed terrifying monsters like trolls and ogres.

No matter how I compare, I am the most perfect and outstanding heir among all my brothers and sisters.

But what’s the result?

Whether it’s my grandfather, my father, or my incompetent brothers, they all turn a blind eye to my achievements.

It seems that women are not born worthy of inheriting the family business, and their only role is to sacrifice their bodies for marriage.

Do you think this is fair?

I hate this feeling of being ignored, and I hate even more that I don’t get the recognition I deserve for my hard work.

So when His Majesty Shane VII came to visit me, I agreed to join his operation without any hesitation.

Since this game about family inheritance is not fair at all, why should I follow the bullshit rules that are overwhelmingly disadvantageous to me?

Why not just flip the table over?
To be continued...