“？”
Roland instantly dropped a question mark. So she actually had a golden finger?
But now wasn’t the right time to study it. She decided to finish listening to the butler’s report before checking it out.
Sebas respectfully gave a detailed account of the territory’s current situation: “At present, aside from myself, there’s the head maid and five servants left in the manor. As for knights, only Graham remains, and the Self-Defense Force is composed of a dozen or so soldiers and Free Citizens.”
“Hmm…”
Since no one had run away just yet, Roland didn’t need to worry about manpower for the time being.
She had to act fast and do something that would show everyone her abilities. Otherwise, if things kept dragging on, even the silverware in the Castle would probably get stolen clean.
“You go get busy. I need to think about what to do next.”
Roland returned to her bedroom, planning to study what this so-called Motherly Love as a Mountain System was all about.
Sitting on the soft mattress, the System panel automatically unfolded at her will.
【Our product is dedicated to creating a beautiful mother-daughter life for every client! Main functions are as follows——】
【1. The Host may choose to adopt or give birth to a daughter, forming an unbreakable emotional bond.】
【2. The Host may nurture her relationship with her daughter, increasing the degree of their bond.】
【3. After forming a relationship, any act of motherly love by the Host will gain her varying amounts of Motherly Love Value, including but not limited to head pats, words of care, acts of protection, etc.】
【Note: When the bond reaches different thresholds, corresponding rewards may be gained. The thresholds are 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%, and the quality of rewards increases with each level.】
【Note 2: Motherly Love Value can be used to enhance physical fitness, restore mana and increase its maximum, improve attribute affinity, impart knowledge, awaken the daughter’s potential, etc. More information and features will be unlocked in the future.】
Looking at the System panel’s content, Roland couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.
What does it mean to get stronger just by raising daughters?
So, does this mean she has to be forced to have kids, generation after generation, without end?
Damn!
No way!
She’d rather pick up a few unwanted children by the roadside than have her own. That’s the pride of being a man!
After calming her mood a bit, Roland returned to her thoughts.
Now that she understood the System’s specific uses, and combined it with her current situation, she already had a rough idea.
Although it was immature, and might even draw the idle gossip of outsiders—
As long as she survived this tough period, the world would be wide open for her to soar.
“Before that, I must first figure out just what kind of world this is.”
In the original owner’s memories, Roland hadn’t found much knowledge about this world.
At most, she only knew her father was Rod Mont Ackman, a Baron; that her country was called the Brand Empire; that beyond the Empire, there were all kinds of gods and races, along with so-called Heroes and Demon Kings, Magic Users and Blessed Ones; and that there had been countless grand, fantastical epics.
These were mostly told to her by her father or picked up from fairy tale picture books. The actual truth was doubtful. In a world without the Internet, the History Book was without question the best choice for learning about the past quickly.
Although the manor was too small to have a Library, there were still books, located in her father’s Study.
“Let’s go take a look.”
She opened the door and walked along the second-floor corridor. Bright sunlight streamed through the windows, shining on the spotlessly clean red carpet and casting the lifelike wall reliefs into sharp clarity.
The manor originally had over thirty servants, but since Baron Rod’s death, many had resigned or run off. The ones who remained had either been beneficiaries of the Baron or were still hesitating. As a result, the vast manor was now nearly empty, sparsely populated, and an air of deathly stillness seeped from within.
If nothing was done, decline was inevitable.
Roland was lost in thought when a maid in a black-and-white uniform saw her coming, instantly grew flustered, and yanked her hand from her pocket, as if afraid of being caught doing something bad.
The maid bowed low in greeting, stealing anxious glances at Roland. After Roland passed, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, just as she was about to fiddle with whatever was in her pocket again, a voice from behind startled her.
“What do you have in your pocket?”
The maid turned and saw Roland standing there, arms folded across her chest, calmly watching her.
That gaze wasn’t like she was looking at a living person—more like… a corpse.
The maid was instantly scared stupid and fell to the floor, desperately trying to explain: “N-nothing, it’s just some seeds I gathered outside…”
“Seeds? Take them out and let me see,” Roland insisted.
The maid broke out in a cold sweat. How could she actually take it out?
“N-no, if I take them out… the dirt inside will dirty the floor…”
“Is that really what you think?” Roland’s voice was heavy with disappointment, making it obvious she didn’t believe the excuse.
Why did all these people think she was so easy to bully?
Was it just because she had a baby-faced mother’s look and was too mild in dealing with people?
The maid knew she couldn’t escape, so with trembling hands she reached into her apron pocket and pulled out the Sapphire hidden inside.
“Well, you’ve got some guts. The others only stole the silverware, but you went and stole my father’s favorite gemstone?”
Hearing this, the maid’s head hit the floor as she begged Roland for another chance: “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have stolen Lord Rod’s things! It’s all my fault, I’ll never dare again!”
Roland crouched down, holding her skirt, grabbed the maid’s chin, and coldly said, “Do you really think there’ll be a next time for you?”
When she saw Roland’s expressionless face say this, the maid’s heart plummeted to the depths.
“When my father was alive, none of you dared even the tiniest mischief. But now that he’s dead, you’re like rats, desperate to gnaw the Castle clean.”
“Do you think if I let one rat off the hook, the others will just let it go? If doing something wrong just needs a bowed head and a quick apology to pass, then what?”
“Burned at the stake or hanged. You choose one.”
With the ultimatum given, the maid’s face was instantly streaked with terrified tears.
But in her heart, she still held a final hope, praying Roland would have a sudden burst of kindness and let her go.
Her cries for mercy brought another maid, this one looking quite a bit younger. Seeing her friend kneeling and begging, it wasn’t hard to guess what had happened.
“Miss Roland, please wait!”
Hearing her name called, Roland looked up.
“Nasha?”
Nasha had been Roland’s personal maid since childhood, just a year younger than her mistress.
In Roland’s memories, she’d always had a good relationship with this maid, though not enough to cross the boundary of master and servant.
Nasha also dropped to her knees, pleading for her friend: “Miss Roland, Kelly’s served as a maid most of her life. Please, for Lord Rod’s sake, give her one more chance.”
“Nasha, it’s not like I want to hand out punishments over some trivial matter. But this is a critical time. If I show mercy and forgive the guilty, how will the other nobles and servants see me? Will they just think I’m easy to push around?”
“But there’s no need to take Kelly’s life, is there? There are other ways to punish her.”
Nasha’s words made sense.
But Roland was more inclined to use an iron fist to shatter her goody-two-shoes image in everyone’s eyes.
Extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures. In a feudal society, a woman’s status was always below a man’s. If you didn’t establish authority, how could the servants possibly obey?
Even if she’d lived in a law-based era in her past life, that didn’t mean she had to use those ways of thinking here. Killing was something she’d have to get used to sooner or later.
But that didn’t mean there was no room to maneuver—at least, she didn’t want to lose Nasha as her maid just yet.
“Fine, I can give Kelly one more chance. Take her to the Self-Defense Force. Let the soldiers give her thirty lashes in public. After she pays a fine, this matter will be settled.”
Thirty lashes—if they went even a little hard, she could faint on the spot. Compared to losing a hand or a foot, this was light.
When Kelly realized she would live, she was so grateful she wept.
“You take her,” Roland said, pointing to Nasha.
“Yes… Miss.”
For some reason, Nasha felt her mistress had changed.
The old Miss was so gentle and kind—so why was she now so cold-blooded?
Could it be… because of Lord Rod’s death?