In the Season of Water, in the middle of Centaur Hills, the newly expanded territory of the Gambis Kingdom, stood a huge castle built from limestone and obsidian.
The fortress used sturdy limestone for its framework and extremely hard obsidian for its walls, making the entire structure look like a giant black beast, hence it was called the Black Castle.
It was a fortress belonging to Embiser York.
As the Western Expansion Viceroy of the kingdom, Count York held a high and powerful position.
The Black Castle naturally became the core stronghold of the kingdom's new territory.
Inside the castle, in a room as warm as spring, two well-dressed men were conversing in low voices.
"Victor, after hearing about your encounter, the Marquis was extremely worried and specially dispatched me to the Black Castle to assist you in handling related matters."
A middle-aged man looked intently at the somewhat absent-minded young man and let out a secret sigh.
After all, the young Baron before him had just turned 18, and having just reached adulthood, he had been kicked all the way from the Gambis Capital to this barren new territory by the Marquis under the pretext of inheriting the fief, and now he had been plotted against, almost losing his life, and even at this moment, he was still somewhat out of it.
Thinking of this, pity inevitably arose in the middle-aged man's heart, and his gaze also softened a bit.
The young man had jet-black hair and eyes like black pearls, with slightly pointed ears, clearly possessing the Moon Elf Bloodline.
He had a handsome face and a slender figure, making him a rare and striking youth.
Yet at this moment, his face was pale and his eyes were dull, giving off the appearance of just recovering from a serious illness.
He was precisely Baron Wimbledon, a fief noble of the Gambis Kingdom.
And now, inside this young Baron's body was a new soul—Zhang Shuang!
During the process of soul fusion, Zhang Shuang sorted through the young Baron's fragmented memories.
This was a new world composed of four major elements: earth, fire, wind, and water, and its laws were vastly different from those of Earth's world.
The four major elements circulated and flowed, forming seasonal changes.
Spring formed when the earth element was rich, summer was formed by the fire element, autumn by the Wind Element, and frigid winter by the water element.
According to the changes in element strength, each season was divided into four months, with 36 days per month.
The four major elements blended with each other in this world, constituting various matters and lives.
Humans were not the only intelligent race in this world; besides humans, there were intelligent life forms such as elves, goblins, Orcs, and barbarians, and their sheer variety was astonishing.
Due to the elemental characteristics of life, some individuals possessed extraordinary powers, and the powerful individual strength also kept human society here in the stage of aristocratic enfeoffment.
Victor Wimbledon himself was a fief baron of the Gambis Kingdom in the human world.
In his memories, Victor was the illegitimate son of a country noble.
At the age of 7, his father sent him to be raised and educated by Sophia Wimbledon, a female marquis in the Wimbledon Family.
When he turned 15, he became the new husband of that beautiful female marquis.
Sophia was originally the third wife of Old Marquis Wimbledon, the kingdom's Minister of Finance, and she was only 22 years old when she married Old Marquis Wimbledon.
Four years later, Old Marquis Wimbledon passed away from illness.
Since Old Marquis Wimbledon had no direct descendants, other members of the Wimbledon Family began to scheme for Old Marquis Wimbledon's inheritance and title.
Just as things were getting out of hand, Sophia produced Old Marquis Wimbledon's will.
The will stated that the kingdom's late Minister of Finance handed over all his property and title to his widow Sophia to inherit.
This will was also notarized by a big figure in the royal family.
Wealth and title falling into the hands of outsiders—how could the members of the Wimbledon Family be willing to let this rest? They thus filed an appeal to the Council of Elders.
After several rounds of maneuvering, the Council of Elders acknowledged the will as valid, but required the female marquis Sophia to select a legal companion from within the Wimbledon Family bloodline within three years in accordance with aristocratic decrees.
Sophia was renowned for her beauty, boasting the praise of the Capital's First Beauty.
The noble descendants of the Wimbledon Family began to crazily pursue her, wanting to win the beauty's favor and ultimately gain both the person and the wealth.
However, to everyone's utter shock, three years later, the female marquis Sophia chose the second son of a fallen baron in the Wimbledon Family as her little husband.
This lucky person was Victor Wimbledon. At only 7 years old back then, he was brought back to the Gambis Capital by Sophia, handed over to the royal family for careful cultivation, and eight years later, married Sophia.
Sophia also successfully inherited the marquis title as she wished, becoming a hot and prominent grand noble of the kingdom.
Victor Wimbledon was young and handsome, and had also awakened the Moon Elf Bloodline, deeply favored by Sophia. Three years after their wedding, the female marquis spent a huge sum of money to purchase a baron title and hereditary fief for him.
The Little Baron was utterly obedient and extremely attached to Sophia. Following the female marquis's orders, he rushed from the Gambis Capital to assume office in the new territory, but on the way, he encountered an attack by bandits, suffering severe head trauma and remaining in a coma until his soul was replaced by the transmigrated Zhang Shuang.
During the process of fusing with the Little Baron's soul, Zhang Shuang read his memories from a third-person perspective; the Little Baron's obsession and attachment to the female marquis Sophia filled him with extreme disdain.
However, he was also determined to survive well in this strange world using this new identity.
From now on, I am Baron Wimbledon… Zhang Shuang thought to himself secretly.
"Teacher Abel, it is truly wonderful that you could come! The guards I brought were all killed by the bandits, 70,000 gold sols were looted clean, and the commoners of the fief that I managed to gather over the past two months have also fled… If the bandits hadn't still wanted to use me in exchange for ransom, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been spared either." The Little Baron said with red eyes and great excitement.
Lord Abel, Marquis Sophia's capable assistant, managed the Stag Trading Company among the four major trading companies of the Marquiss Mansion.
He was shrewd and steady in character, deeply trusted by Marquis Sophia, and responsible for trade between the Gambis Kingdom and other kingdoms, earning a massive amount of wealth for the Marquiss Mansion.
When the Little Baron moved into the Marquiss Mansion, it was Abel who taught him knowledge regarding commerce and geography, which was why Victor addressed Abel as teacher according to his past memories.
Abel pondered for a moment and spoke, "Victor, I rushed over upon receiving Marquis Sophia's message at Red Leaf Town. I don't know much about your encounter, so I hope you can describe the course of events in more detail."
According to the memories organized in his mind, Victor began to narrate the course of events to Abel.
As it turned out, five years ago, the Gambis Kingdom began to develop new territory toward the Centaur Hills in the eastern part of the kingdom.
Due to losing the war against the Lant Empire Territory, a large swath of territory was lost, and even His Majesty King Ryan unfortunately died in battle during a knightly duel with His Majesty Emperor Neowest of the Lant Empire.
The Gambis Kingdom was instantly in a precarious situation.
Although the war had already ended, in order to deter other restless neighboring countries, the kingdom increased its military investment, which increased the kingdom's financial burden.
Driven by the new Minister of Finance, the Gambis Royal Family began to sell territories and titles in the Centaur Hills to the kingdom's noble families and magnates.
Marquis Sophia invested 500,000 gold sols to purchase a barony and a hereditary baron title in the Centaur Hills under Victor's name.
Young Baron Victor, excitedly holding the documents signed by the Council of Elders, came to the Centaur Hills, submitted the documents to the Governor's Mansion, and prepared to take over the new territory.
However, just as Victor arrived at the new territory with his guards and recruited commoners, they were attacked by a band of thieves.
These bandits displayed astonishing strength, and one of the leaders among them even possessed combat power comparable to a knight.
Victor's guards fought to the death but were no match, ultimately being completely slaughtered, the commoners were scattered by the bandits, and Victor himself was captured by the bandits.
One month later, the band of thieves was transferring with the captured baron when they encountered the cavalry unit led by Lord Bruce, a knight of the Black Castle.
After a fierce battle, the bandit group was routed, with only a few powerful bandits scattering and escaping, while the remaining members were either killed or captured.
In the melee, Baron Victor unfortunately injured his head and remained unconscious until Abel's arrival, only just waking up.
"Victor, this matter is not as simple as you just encountering a bandit group."
Abel gently stroked the white crystal ring on the middle finger of his right hand; those familiar with him knew this was Abel's little habit when thinking.
"Victor, I once taught you that looking at problems should not just be looking at the surface, but finding the essence of the problem."
Abel deliberated for a moment and spoke, "To find the essence of the problem, we can start from several aspects. First, let us look at the consequences of the matter."
"Consequences? Do you mean I lost all my supporters?" Victor lowered his head with trepidation, while Abel didn't notice a sharp glint flash across his eyes.
"Correct! You lost your commoners and guards, right on your own territory. But there is one more point you didn't notice, which is that you are currently inside the Black Castle."
Abel looked squarely at Victor, a luster of wisdom flashing within his eyes.
The x-3 chip began to operate, extracting relevant memories in his mind.
Soon Victor found the key point.
"Lord's Code!!" Victor suddenly stood up, looking at Abel in shock.
The Lord's Code, one of the ancient laws of human kingdoms, although lacking practical binding force, was universally recognized by human nobles and regarded as the basis for evaluating a lord's benevolence or malice.
The code specified the rights and obligations of a lord, two of which were related to Victor's current situation: first, a lord accepting the support of commoners must protect the commoners from harm by bandits, monsters, demons, and all other evildoers; second, a lord must not leave the territory lightly, and either the lord or the lord's successor must guard the people within the territory.
"You have violated these two precepts, and our Viceroy has grasped the initiative. He can completely impeach you before the Council of Elders; if operated properly, he can even deprive you of your territory and title. Heh, what a clever scheme." Abel couldn't help sneering.
"He… why would he do this?" Victor put on a look of panic and perplexity.
"Think about Count York's past identity, and his current stance, and his purpose becomes very obvious." Abel slowly said.
"And the bandit group that attacked you is probably the Blood Fox Bandit Group that used to be active in the Duke of York's territory."
This was someone stabbing him in the back… Victor's gaze flickered as he slowly sat down.