Princess Qianqian was up early to practice sword forms.
Yue Yang watched from the side for half an hour, and the fierce girl never stopped — apparently still annoyed about something from the conversation the previous evening. Once Yue Yu came out, she quietly signaled Yue Yang not to push things, indicating he should let this competitive princess save some face and have a way to step down gracefully.
After breakfast, Yue Yang left the Grimoire World and returned to Star Diamond Castle.
“You wish to inspect your domain?” Steward Duli was somewhat taken aback by Yue Yang’s outing plans.
“Star Diamond Castle has a new master now. I don’t know what things are like out there — but as the lord, I feel it’s necessary to understand my domain and my people.” Yue Yang adopted the manner of someone genuinely intending to be a responsible lord.
“Things may not be quite what you’re imagining,” Steward Duli hinted delicately.
“Which is precisely why I need to look.” Yue Yang smiled.
“Well said — that’s exactly the kind of lord you are!” Cook Sushan let out a hearty laugh. “The people out there have made a mess of things, and a look won’t hurt. Otherwise how would the young master ever know the truth? I’m in favor of the young master going to see his domain. The only thing to be careful about is safety — don’t let anyone with bad intentions try anything underhanded.”
“I don’t think that’s likely right now…” Yue Yang quickly dismissed this concern. With the Silver Maple City Lord and Zhonghua both working to win him over, neither was in any position to move against him for now.
“Should we give advance notice downward?” Steward Duli was asking whether local officials should be told to accompany him.
“If we do that, we’ll end up with the same results as when officials in a certain great nation go on inspection tours — every street swept spotless, not a beggar in sight. Every visit site arranged in advance. Even the farmers whose homes are inspected will have their rooms stuffed two or three days beforehand with daily goods and expensive furniture they’d never afford in their lifetimes. Every line of conversation rehearsed ahead of time — a set of standard question-and-answer exchanges for any query that might come up, complete with the right approved responses. All of it including a ‘contrast of past suffering with present good fortune,’ and if it gets to a particularly moving part, a few tears are mandatory. At the end, the customary round of gratitude for the lord’s kind concern, delivered with absolute sincerity. The trembling handshake, the quietly wiped tear, and the face breaking into a wide smile — those three are the essential sequence. Do you think I need any of that?” Yue Yang’s summary left both Steward Duli and Cook Sushan staring at him in complete astonishment.
In the end, Steward Duli recovered first.
She nodded.
Then gave a quiet sigh. “Young Master, you understand Human Valley very thoroughly. If advance notice were given downward, things might well unfold exactly as you describe.”
Yue Yang waved a hand. “It’s not specific to Human Valley — it’s like this almost everywhere. Wherever there are people, and someone of authority comes to inspect, this kind of thing tends to happen. Status is sometimes a talisman, but sometimes it’s a screen that blocks your vision. If we don’t want that screen of status blocking our view, the best approach is to go around it.”
Steward Duli heard this, exchanged a glance with Cook Sushan, and said nothing more — only gave a small nod.
At last they felt reassured. Because they had been quietly worried all along — not knowing if the young master, who had not yet fully grown into himself, might prove to have sharper eyes and clearer foresight than even they did, having long since seen through the weaknesses of human nature and the comedy of society in all its forms.
With such a mature young master as the new lord of Star Diamond Castle, the castle was sure to recapture the glory of the previous generation’s master.
While removing Yue Yang’s noble emblem and changing him into mercenary attire, Steward Duli hesitated before speaking: “Should the young master bring along a few attendants? In case something comes up, there’d be someone to send on errands.”
Cook Sushan was considerably more direct than Steward Duli.
Steward Duli was reluctant to give the impression of overstepping her role as a steward by making too many suggestions. Cook Sushan held no such reservations.
Her view was that anything beneficial for the young master had to be proposed and had to be done. Cook Sushan fastened a plain mercenary sword at Yue Yang’s hip — this sword served no actual purpose, functioning purely as a prop to establish a mercenary identity. No ordinary noble would hang a crude iron sword at their side. Once the sword was on, Cook Sushan looked him over from left to right, making tutting sounds, and finally shook her head with conviction: “Though you look perfectly presentable this way, a young master always looks better in noble finery. As for someone to go along — my looks would give things away too easily, and I’m too likely to be recognized, so I’ll stay behind. Steward Duli should go — she can pass as a mercenary well enough. It’s not as if she’s never gone undercover on an investigation for the master before…”
Since going completely alone would probably make Steward Duli uneasy regardless, Yue Yang agreed.
Seeing the young master’s approval, Steward Duli disappeared inside to change. She emerged in a mercenary outfit as well, with a handlebar mustache pasted under her nose, her hair dyed purple, and a wolf-or-fox-looking battle construct following at her heels. On the whole, unless you knew her, you’d never recognize Steward Duli — she came across as a middle-aged mercenary with a decent standard of living and an air of modest contentment.
With an animal battle construct tailing along, her credibility was doubled.
Human Valley wasn’t like the world outside.
Here, people couldn’t engage in direct combat — battle constructs were the only way to bring fighting power to bear. This meant that a mercenary of the kind Yue Yang was pretending to be — one who carried a sword but had no battle construct — was essentially useless. Only large merchant houses or aristocratic families with an excess of battle constructs and a shortage of manpower would bother hiring someone like that. Smaller businesses would refuse outright.
The reason was obvious: who wanted to hire a mercenary who ate their food and contributed nothing?
With a war beast, everything changed.
You could fight at any moment. Never mind the strength level — the key thing was having something to put up when you needed it.
By analogy, a sword-carrying mercenary here was something like a security guard in a gated community back on Earth — dressed in uniform, holding an electric baton, looking the part, with people who didn’t know better assuming it meant something, while in reality having essentially no fighting capacity worth mentioning. Of course, nobody expected these people to actually go into battle; the best you hoped for was that with enough of them around, they could keep an eye on the door and let everyone sleep soundly at night. Were there security guards who’d tear off their uniforms to reveal red underwear and become justice-defending superheroes? Probably — but that kind of security guard was as rare as someone who’d spent twenty years mastering an iron-foot water-walking technique in prison.
A mercenary with an animal battle construct following behind them?
Entirely different.
That was a step up in category — roughly equivalent to city management enforcement officers back home in a certain great nation, the kind where three thousand of them could theoretically reclaim an island. And if that animal battle construct was a bit stronger, or the mercenary had a full set of giant-sized battle constructs, that was another level up again — equivalent to the demolition bureau, unstoppable in all directions.
“Let’s head out separately.” Yue Yang knew that two people walking together made a larger target that was easier to notice.
“Agreed.” Steward Duli naturally understood this.
Unlike Steward Duli, who went directly, Yue Yang took a roundabout route through the surrounding area, deliberately going the long way, spending time wandering through a few villages near the mine to quietly gather some intelligence before slowly making his way to the outer perimeter of the mining district.
By then a full day had passed.
Yue Yang didn’t rush into the mining area. Instead he found a small inn on its outskirts, paid his tab using the fake mercenary identity card Cook Sushan had provided, ordered a table of food and drink, and even spent some time bantering with the inn’s pleasantly plump and rather attractive proprietress. The thin, slightly balding proprietor watched from nearby, occasionally letting out amused little laughs as though he didn’t notice his wife playfully flirting with a stranger.
Strenuous laborers made up most of the mine district’s population, and people did come to rest at the inn, but rarely anyone as generous as Yue Yang — paying three full days of lodging upfront and ordering the best food and drink available.
After all, a glance at a chest cost nobody anything, and the proprietor had long grown accustomed to the hungry looks men gave his wife.
He’d made his peace with it long ago.
He polished a cup while chiming in casually with the conversation between Yue Yang and his wife. “That’s right — the mine really is hiring. The news is genuine, I can guarantee it. Apparently Star Diamond Castle has a new master, and from what I hear, he’s well-connected — related to the Silver Maple City Lord. A while back, the City Lord’s tenth son sent someone out to announce it.”
“Oh? So the mine’s starting to look for new veins? Does that mean they’ll be recruiting heavily?” Yue Yang showed polite interest.
“New veins — that’s just something they say to fool people!” The proprietress drank from the fine wine Yue Yang had ordered, with a note of barely concealed contempt.
“Keep it down!” The balding proprietor immediately hushed her, glancing around to check for other listeners.
“At this hour, even the flies aren’t coming in.” The proprietress was already a few sips in, and one look at her husband’s visible fear put her in a thoroughly dissatisfied mood. “If they hadn’t made such a mess of things, would our business be this bad? What did things used to be like? Look at them now. Ten years I’ve put up with this, and I’ve had more than enough.”
“Is there some hidden story here?” Yue Yang called for another bottle and poured for himself and the proprietress, sliding a cup to the proprietor as well.
“Listen only, and don’t let any of this leave this room.” The proprietor scanned the surroundings — besides Yue Yang, not another customer in sight. He gulped down the drink in front of him, steeled himself, leaned toward Yue Yang, and lowered his voice: “The mine used to be thriving — the ore it produced was high quality, and it was a naturally rich vein. You’ve heard of Star Diamond Castle’s master? I mean the previous master — she was extraordinary. Mysterious, too — apart from a very small number of people, nobody actually knew her name. But the records she set were beyond anyone else’s reach. Stories about her could fill three days and nights without running dry. This mine we’re next to — she personally located it. The surrounding land, she personally marked out and claimed. You don’t know this, but everything — the whole stretch of land, and Star Diamond Castle itself — all of it belonged to that remarkable master.”
“Now that a new master has come, are the local areas not under her thumb anymore? Are they trying to break away?” Yue Yang feigned innocent curiosity.
“What ‘now’ — this started ten years ago…” The proprietress waved a hand with evident frustration. “From the moment the Star Diamond Castle’s mistress left, those people turned greedy. If not for the two loyal retainers who stayed behind to hold the castle, people might have already stormed it.”
“That I doubt — Star Diamond Castle was granted by His Imperial Majesty. The Emperor may hold no real power, but he still has face. What’s granted by the Emperor, ordinary people don’t dare compete over. No matter how fierce Human Valley’s internal struggles get, people still have to follow certain unspoken rules.” The proprietor shook his head, contradicting his wife. Yue Yang refilled his cup, and the proprietor sipped it, feeling the wine beginning to rise. He fixed his eyes on Yue Yang and lowered his voice: “Let me tell you a big secret. In truth, the mine is nowhere near depleted. It’s a rich vein — several more centuries of mining wouldn’t touch its reserves. Resources are the last thing it lacks.”
“Is that right?” Yue Yang arranged a suitably surprised expression. The proprietor, seeing it, looked deeply satisfied with the response.
“Over these ten years, the mine’s staff has been quietly infiltrated by three major powers. Your first guess might be the Silver Maple City Lord — and yes, he’s involved. But the one with the largest stake isn’t him. It’s the biggest slave trader in Human Valley and master of one of the ten great castles — Thunder Castle — Prince Reno. The stationed garrison captain at the mine today is nothing but a puppet. The one actually calling the shots from behind the scenes is General Leihou. He was sent by the Prince ten years ago, occupied the mining district, and dismantled every policy the previous Star Diamond Castle master had put in place. Since then, the mine workers have been leaving year after year under unbearable oppression — now, apart from slaves belonging to the three factions, almost no commoners or free mercenaries come here to work anymore. And those who do don’t stay long.”
The proprietor’s account cleared up a great deal for Yue Yang. No wonder his modest spending here had produced such genuine delight — business had apparently dried up to the point where they were swatting flies all day.
“Why haven’t you left?” Yue Yang asked, puzzled.
“Leave — easy to say. If we leave, we owe General Leihou a three-hundred-crystal departure settlement.” The proprietor swallowed his cup of bitter wine in one go.
“Heavy taxes are no small problem.” Yue Yang paused, then asked, “But if that’s the case, why are they posting notices to recruit people? I came because I saw a notice — said they were hiring heavily. You probably don’t know, but I have a special talent for locating ore. I thought I’d come and put it to use.”
“Notices?” The half-tipsy proprietress gave a cold laugh. “Same trick every year — specifically designed to fool wanderers like you who’ve just arrived and don’t know anything about what’s really going on.”
“What?” Yue Yang put on an appropriately shocked expression.
“Quite a few people get taken in every year — almost everyone falls for it. They end up doing a month or more of hard labor for free, then leave in bitter resentment under General Leihou’s brutal rule. With your particular ability, you might fare slightly better — but don’t expect to make a fortune here. This is not a good place, not at all. You’re the best customer we’ve had, and honestly I feel a connection with you, brother — which is why I’m giving you this warning.” The proprietor clapped Yue Yang on the shoulder, indicating he couldn’t bear to watch him walk into a trap.
“I’m genuinely grateful.” Yue Yang promptly refilled the proprietor’s cup. “I’ll go take a look tomorrow and then be on my way. I’m worried some brothers who set out before me might already be stuck in there.”
“Watch out for General Leihou. That man is a dog in front of his master, but a tyrant out here.” The half-drunk proprietress added her own warning.
“Someone’s coming outside — probably the garrison guards here to eat and drink without paying. You’d best head upstairs and rest. Those lot turn into complete headaches when they’ve had too much to drink.” The proprietor suggested Yue Yang make himself scarce. The proprietress, by contrast, showed no fear whatsoever and kept drinking. Yue Yang noticed she wore something on her fingers resembling a wedding ring that appeared to be a storage ring — likely housing a battle construct she could deploy at need. That would explain how they’d managed to keep the inn running in a place like this for over a decade without coming to serious harm.
Before he went up to rest, Yue Yang heard the commotion starting below.
A faint smile settled at the corner of his mouth.
The power struggles of Human Valley were genuinely interesting. He just couldn’t help wondering what connection, if any, existed between Thunder Castle’s Prince Reno and General Leihou here, and the Thunderstorm who had served as the most loyal companion of the Tianhua Domain’s Rage Domain Emperor. If there was a connection, the world really was an extraordinarily small place.
(End of Chapter)