Seeing that a conflict was about to break out between the five military officers and the new temporary lord, the three internal officials calmly stepped back and hid to the side to show their neutrality.
To put it bluntly, they were fence-sitters.
And the five military officers, including Judson, slowly approached Roland.
Generally speaking, territorial officials didn't dare to bully their superiors like this.
But for one thing, the First Princess Stephanie was away from the territory all year round, and everything was handled by the eight of them. Over time, they secretly grasped most of the power and resources in the territory, and even secretly divided power. Now that a temporary lord had appeared out of nowhere, their power was bound to be thinned, which made them extremely uncomfortable.
Secondly, Roland was a man.
The First Princess was beautiful, powerful, and most likely to be a queen in the future. Her ex-husband was dead, and she was now single, making her an excellent "investment stock." If they could get the advantage, they wouldn't dare to say that they would be the most powerful people in all of Fareins in the future, but they would at least be in the top ten.
Marrying the First Princess gave them three things: people, money, and power.
And if this young pretty boy who came out of nowhere was the First Princess's new lover, then the affairs of the territory would definitely be under his control in the future. Not to mention people, money, and power, he might not even be able to keep his current position.
How could this be tolerated?
In fact, when the steward came to inform them that a temporary lord had arrived, they laughed at first.
How was that possible!
They had managed the territory so well without any mistakes. How could the First Princess, who didn't like to deal with the troubles of the territory and had her eyes set on the throne, suddenly send someone down from nowhere?
But the steward's expression was serious.
That was why they came over to see who it was.
Then they saw a Mage and a pretty boy.
In fact, saying that Roland was a pretty boy was just slander in their hearts. Mages were equal to nobles, which was a common understanding in the human world.
Even if this pretty boy had no status, as long as he was a Mage with some strength, then he was a delicious honey egg custard, and as long as it was a noble woman, she would want to taste it.
That was why their reaction was so big.
When they heard Roland say that if they didn't obey, they would be dismissed, they even wanted to kill him.
This was directly cutting off their money and power. It was equivalent to taking their lives.
It would be weird if he didn't retaliate.
In fact, Roland didn't want to put on a show of strength as soon as he arrived, but the floating city was too important. He didn't want it to be leaked, so a Motasos County that completely obeyed his orders was necessary.
Delpon was actually easier to control. After all, it was already Roland's territory.
But Delpon had a big problem, which was that the country it belonged to was too small.
Hollevin was too small.
In order to build a floating city, apart from the constant creation of magical bricks to pave the "chassis," a large number of magical materials were also needed for the construction of many functional components.
This' large quantity 'wasn't something a small country could casually provide.
Hollevin wasn't too weak, and if they gritted their teeth and fought hard, they could indeed supply it, but from then on, it might be difficult for Hollevin to have enough magic materials for the Mages to use for decades.
Moreover, doing a clearance purchase in a small country would attract too much attention, and it would be easy for people to find out what they were doing.
And in Fareins, a country with a huge kingdom and extremely abundant resources, it was hard for the purchase of a large number of magic materials to cause significant fluctuations in the market of the entire Fareins Kingdom.
It was good for hiding one's true intentions and not letting people notice anything unusual.
This was one of the reasons why Roland wanted to build a floating city in Fareins.
Looking at the five military officials surrounding him, Roland snapped his fingers, and fourteen huge blue Hands of Magic suddenly appeared in front of him.
Each hand was more than two meters long, and lined up together, they almost completely blocked the space in front of Roland.
These five military officials were also knowledgeable, and apart from the city guards, the other four were all Master Warriors.
They could sense that these dozen or so Hands of Magic would be difficult to break through.
Then their footsteps stopped, and each of them looked at Roland fiercely.
Roland looked at them too.
Then, in a calm tone, he said with a smile, "Either do it, or listen to me."
These words were said with great confidence.
Several of the military officials frowned even more. Warriors were a profession that paid a lot of attention to the so-called "aura," and they could also feel the aura. Like big cats, most of the time, they had strong battle instincts.
They could feel whether the other party was afraid or not.
And now, they could feel that Roland's aura had been rising, even a little restless.
In fact, their instincts were quite correct.
Roland just wanted them to do it, so that he would have an excuse to suppress them.
Of course, Roland didn't want to kill them, he just wanted to put them under house arrest and seize power.
However, the five of them weren't fools, and after they felt Roland's aura and desire to attack, they chickened out instead.
All five of them retreated to their chairs and sat down, quite decisively, without the slightest bit of hesitation.
Roland was a little stunned at the time.
In fact, this was also because he didn't have enough "experience."
He spent most of his time studying magic, and real "combat" was relatively rare compared to other players.
The average level of professionals in Fareins was much higher than that of Hollevin.
At the same time, most Master Warriors in Hollevin were reckless, but in Fareins, Master Warriors were almost all foxes, and only a few of them were reckless, and they didn't live long.
So Roland using Hollevin's combat experience to provoke the Warriors of Fareins had no effect.
Instead, it made them retreat.
One by one, they shrank back.
All right!
Roland knew that there seemed to be a small flaw in his plan, but it wasn't an irreparable mistake, and it would be a little more troublesome at most.
"Since you're willing to follow orders, then things will be easy." Roland clapped his hands. "Everything can go on as usual."
All eight of them looked at Roland thoughtfully.
Looking at the sky, Roland said, "It's getting late, you guys should go back and continue. We'll have a lot of time to spend together in the future, and now we're just saying hello."
The eight of them slowly left.
The door to the main hall was closed, and the light was much dimmer.
The butler was greatly relieved on the side. He had been really worried that a fight would break out.
Roland waved his hand, dispelling a dozen Hands of Magic, and then said, "Butler, you should know where the entrance to the basement of the castle is, right? Take me there."
"Yes."
The butler lowered his head slightly and walked ahead.
In fact, the entrance to the basement wasn't hard to find; it was right next to the stable at the back of the castle.
A small barracks stood here with a hundred elite veterans, the direct troops of the royal family to protect their prince and princess. Under normal circumstances, they only obeyed the orders of the person under protection, which was Stephanie.
Of course … once the letter of appointment was issued, they naturally obeyed Roland's orders.
More than a hundred soldiers in silver-white armor formed a circle outside the stable, and next to the stable, there was a small black entrance that had to be bent to enter.
It was narrow inside, just a flight of steps raised above the ground to keep the rain from seeping in.
Then there was a flight of stone steps leading down.
Was the entrance to the basement so obvious?
Roland looked at the butler with a strange look.
The butler was old and shrewd and immediately understood the meaning of Roland's look.
"This is the First Princess's request." The butler's expression was rather helpless. "She said that the castle itself is already a defensive measure, and if there really is an enemy and even the castle is breached, the basement is useless, but it's better to make it more obvious, and it'll be much easier to put things in later."
The veterans around all smiled.
They all admired and respected the First Princess Stephanie quite a bit, and her mischievous idea was quite cute to them.
The First Princess was very nice and took good care of them. They led the most pay and the best equipment of all the troops in the territory, and they were provided first, then the other troops.
Many people knew how to be grateful.
So for Stephanie, they had no malice, only gratitude, and only the two thoughts of protecting her and obeying all her orders were in their hearts.
Roland was able to hold the letter of appointment signed by the First Princess herself and even put her fingerprint on it, and they knew very well what it meant.
The First Princess truly trusted this man.
Then they should also trust this man.
Roland didn't go into the basement but looked at the group of soldiers surrounding him.
Then he looked at the butler. "Did you shout this out too?"
The butler nodded. "Let them meet with your excellency and get to know each other. In addition, your excellency has already offended several military officers in the main hall, and although they didn't act out on the spot, they may use some more dishonorable means when they go back. So your excellency, you need guards, and they are completely trustworthy and capable of protecting your safety. "
As soon as the butler's words fell, the group knelt on one knee, and amidst the clatter of armor, the middle-aged soldier in the lead said, "The First Princess's orders are our everything. You are the new lord she has chosen, so our group is your shield and your spear, your excellency. "
Roland's gaze swept over the group of people.
All of them were level 10 or above, and three were even level 13.
An elite small unit of a hundred Master Warriors.
Put them in a small country like Hollevin, and they could directly break through the capital of a small country without much effort.
In other words, these people were actually Stephanie's real "hidden pawns."
Those strange people in the capital weren't hidden pawns at all.
Although they knelt to him, they were loyal to Stephanie, not him.
But it was enough. Roland didn't need them to be loyal to him.
As long as they could listen to him.
"Get up," Roland said with a smile.
The group of people stood up at the same time, their movements quite neat.
Roland thought for a moment and said, "Butler, I'll have to trouble you to run again. This time, invite the tax officer over and don't alarm the other officials. Then invite the owners of several large chambers of commerce in the city over. "
The butler nodded. "No trouble at all. It's what we servants should do to share the master's worries."
After the butler left, Roland looked at the middle-aged soldier who had just spoken. "How many people are there in the capital besides you in the other troops?"
"About three thousand and three hundred." The middle-aged soldier thought for a moment and replied, "But two thousand of them are militia, not much combat power."
"I want to put all three thousand and three hundred people under your charge. Do you think you're up to it?"
The middle-aged soldier's eyes widened.
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