Creak— The study door slowly opened.
“Is that you, Enlaike? You’re the only one who enters my study without knocking.”
Lai En put down the documents, pinched his nose bridge against the sunlight from the window, and closed his eyes for a brief rest.
“What, did you go inspect the surrounding villages again this early in the morning?”
“Your Highness found out so quickly? It seems those Cheka fellows aren’t just sitting around doing nothing.”
Enlaike respectfully bowed, then walked to the high-backed chair he usually sat in on the side of the study.
He tiredly raised a hand to rub his shoulder before slowly sitting down.
“I really am getting old, Your servant’s whole body aches after just one ride around on horseback.”
“Oh? The Elder Lord actually says things like that?”
Lai En opened his eyes and laughed.
“As far as I remember, you’ve never admitted to getting old.”
“Heh, I can’t deny it anymore now.”
Enlaike laughed wearily.
“The future belongs to you young people after all.”
After a brief exchange between lord and retainer, the study fell into a short silence, broken only by the faint crackling of firewood in the fireplace.
Enlaike hesitated but still spoke in a low voice.
“Your Highness, though this old servant shouldn’t be nosy, I still dare to ask—what do you think of Lady Alicia?”
The Elder Lord asked this question with another intention, even one long premeditated.
Before Lai En’s father died, he entrusted Lai En to two old retainers: one was Lai En’s teacher, who had already passed away, and the other was Enlaike, who was both a retainer and a father figure, having served three generations of the family.
Watching the young lord grow up day by day, now reaching the age of twenty, with an impressive appearance and gradually showing talent in both civil and military affairs, yet he shows no interest in marriage at all.
Or rather, he has no such inclinations.
In this world, especially among the nobility, as long as the family hasn’t fallen to the point of not being able to make ends meet, young men around the age of fifteen or sixteen would be initiated into the ways of intimacy through arrangements by elders or personal attendants.
This is both a rite of passage and considered necessary preparation for the family to spread its branches and continue its bloodline—one of the responsibilities of a noble.
Lai En was not without well-chosen, beautiful maidservants by his side, nor were there a lack of vassal lords or allied families sending their eligible young ladies to the city as “guests.”
However, our lord paid no attention to any of them, completely immersed in territory construction and military and political affairs.
Although Elder Lord Enlaike no longer had to worry about state affairs, he was deeply concerned about Lai En’s marriage.
It is important to know that in this world, nobles have the custom of male homosexuality.
If Lord Lai En were to stray down that path, the Maximilian family’s future would be dire.
A few months ago, the lord led his personal guard on an expedition to eliminate bandits.
When he returned, he had brought an extra person on his horse—a woman.
Although the girl was dirty and ragged at the time, she was indeed a young female.
The old man was moved at that time: gods bless, heaven has opened its eyes, the lord has finally come to his senses.
He almost mobilized all available intelligence personnel within the family to investigate Alicia’s background.
Although she was seventeen years old, which was a bit old, as long as her background was clean and she wasn’t an assassin or spy sent by some faction, then if the lord was willing to give her the status of a concubine, it would not be unacceptable.
But somehow, Alicia suddenly became Lai En’s attendant, serving as a retainer.
What shocked the old man even more was that this female retainer was actually quite capable.
First, she sacrificed herself to save the lord on the battlefield, and then she demonstrated powerful abilities in both civil and military governance.
So the old man’s mindset gradually changed.
If the lord had that intention, he would give Alicia some opportunities to build merit.
That way, their future union would not bring shame to the Maximilian family’s reputation.
Having made up his mind, the old man came today to test Lai En’s stance.
When the old man asked his question, Lai En immediately frowned.
“What do I think? Hmph, just hearing her name makes my hands itch!”
As he said this, he unconsciously made a grasping motion in the air.
Hmm?
This gesture…
The old man’s mind stirred—that Alicia child, on the surface she looks slender and graceful, but if you look closely, she has curves in the right places.
The young lord is at a tender age, maybe he wants to squeeze her…
“I wish I could twist her head open and see what’s inside!”
The old man’s heart skipped a beat.
Could it be that the lord hates her?
With a long sigh, Lai En seemed to feel that his reaction was a bit excessive.
He randomly pulled out a few documents from the pile of files on the desk.
“Look for yourself, these, and these…”
Lai En’s voice rose as he waved the documents in frustration.
“They’re all her masterpieces! Internal affairs, military rations, training… Oh, and this one, just delivered a couple of days ago!”
He handed the document to Enlaike.
“The suggestions, the analytical angles, the proposed solutions—many times they are indeed eye-opening, even unconventional!”
Lai En spoke quickly, clearly having held in these words for quite some time.
“But the problem lies in—”
He sharply changed his tone, slamming the document onto the desk with a slap.
“Half of this stuff is nonsense! Everything she writes is overly cautious. You can tell she deliberated over every word. First, a bunch of disgusting flattery, then every third sentence is a disclaimer like ‘for reference only,’ ‘please decide,’ ‘there may be omissions’! Is she that afraid of taking responsibility?”
“Oh?”
Enlaike raised an eyebrow and looked down at the document.
The title read: “Preliminary Proposal on Implementing the ‘Household Responsibility System’ to Motivate Farmers’ Initiative and Improve the Territory’s Agriculture.”
Flipping through, the document detailed the girl’s plan: establishing a seed bank, consolidating land, farm tools, and livestock, and leasing these items to farming households on a long-term basis according to their needs.
The farming households would be responsible for all field management during the contract period, and each year, they would pay a fixed amount of grain as “rent” to the lord’s manor based on the standard expected yield per acre of the land they rented.
Any harvest exceeding this fixed amount, no matter how much, would belong entirely to the farming household.
Additionally, the plan proposed building relief stations, increasing granaries, and promising some degree of tax reduction or loan support in the event of verified natural disasters.
Indeed, this was a very significant measure.
Its core was to replace the vague “sharecropping” with fixed rent, directly linking the final results of agricultural production to the farmers’ own efforts.
In theory, this would maximize the farmers’ labor motivation, potentially improving the territory’s overall grain output and agricultural vitality.
If implemented properly, the long-term benefits might truly solidify the agricultural foundation of the Maximilian family.
Heaven knows how many hairs the girl had lost trying to come up with such a “good policy.”
As she said, she knew very little about the specifics of agricultural production, so she could only think of solutions from a policy perspective.
But to implement this measure, one major problem had to be faced—the land was in the hands of the noble lords.
Although Lai En, as the head of the family and hereditary Grand Duke, indeed held the largest share of direct territories and ultimate ownership, he could hardly expect the other lords of varying sizes, who also held hereditary fiefs and relied on serfs and tenant farmers for income, to willingly adopt the same reform.
After all, this reform directly touched the core of taxation.
It wasn’t just taking a slice of their cake; it was smashing their rice bowl.
No wonder Alicia was so cautious.
She was afraid of dying.
But that was not the point.
His purpose this time was to push for marriage… no, to care about the lord’s lifelong affairs.
“Lady Alicia’s intelligence is indeed extraordinary. It would be a great pity if such a virtuous talent could not be firmly bound to the Maximilian family’s chariot!”
Enlaike said indirectly.
“Speaking of which, Your Highness has been busy with government and military affairs lately, working hard. This old servant is both gratified and inevitably concerned.”
“Hmm?”
Lai En looked down at himself.
“I feel pretty good. I’ve been staying up late recently, but thank you for your concern.”
Enlaike tried to ask as discreetly as possible.
“Your Highness has now come of age and bears the heavy responsibility of the family. You need someone close to take care of you… Does Your Highness have any plans in this regard?”
Lai En was taken aback.
He slowly raised his head, blinked in confusion, and his gaze involuntarily drifted out the window.
Outside, falling snow was silently covering the courtyard.
So it was the season of marriage pressure again.
Wait, was the Elder Lord trying to set him up with someone?
Lai En turned his head sharply, his expression a strange mix of amusement, awkwardness, and a little shyness.
“You mean… Alicia? It seems you have misunderstood. That night, I just went to her house to drink.”
“Just… drinking?”
The old man’s smile began to turn… lecherous.
“Just drinking and chatting, that’s all.”
Lai En scratched his head.
“You mean to say, you went to the residence of a lone female retainer late at night, sat across from her, drank together, talked, comforted her homesickness, and then… really just drank and chatted? Nothing happened afterward?”
“No!”
Lai En answered emphatically.
“We both drank too much and were dizzy. What could have happened?”
“And after you got drunk?” Rice cooked? Fait accompli?
“We just went to sleep. She slept on the sofa, Andrew went back to his room, Mosuosi slept on the carpet, and I think I just fell asleep leaning against some chair?”
The old man was speechless.
He decided to come clean.
“But rumors are flying everywhere, saying you spent the night at Alicia’s house, and that groaning sounds came out at night.”
“Huh?!”
Lai En was initially confused, then, as if recalling something, he slapped his forehead with a look of amused exasperation.
“Oh! You mean that!”
He suddenly realized and waved his hand dismissively.
“That wasn’t me and Alicia! It was those two rascals, Andrew and Mosuosi! They got drunk and started fooling around, sparring in Alicia’s yard! Andrew’s face was all swollen from the beating, and Mosuosi seemed to have taken a few hits too. Must have been them!”
The old man had no words left.
—
Two sitting poses of Alicia—which one do you all like?
