Life in a Simulation - Chapter 26

After returning to the castle, young Donny informed his mother, Lady Madeline, about his wish for Layne to become his personal servant.

“Very well, it’s been quite some time since Layne last visited me at the castle. Let him come and serve you this time, Donny. Layne saved your life; you mustn’t treat him as just any servant to be ordered around at will.”

Lady Madeline had no objections. Her youngest son, Donny, had already turned sixteen. Once he grew up, he would eventually have to leave the small Granling territory and spread his wings… Even though she didn’t want her most beloved youngest son to leave, once Connor passed away and Edward became the lord, he would not tolerate Donny continuing to live in the castle—because everything in the territory belonged to the eldest son.

If Layne were to stay by Donny’s side, she would feel much more at ease. Unlike the mischievous and energetic Donny, Layne had shown astonishing intelligence, understanding, and composure from a young age. Having him by Donny’s side would surely help avoid many setbacks and dangers when they ventured out into the world in the future.

Lady Madeline nodded in agreement, and Baron Connor had no objections either. It was just a personal servant, not a squire, and Layne was smart, resourceful, and loyal in critical moments. He would be a perfect companion for their troublesome son.

“Four years later, I, Layne, am back!”

Standing at the castle gate with a bundle of clothes on his back, Zhou Ming couldn’t help but sigh as he stepped into the castle he had left four years ago.

Perhaps, starting today, he would either stand on the high spire of the castle’s white tower, overlooking all living beings, or fall straight down from that spire and be forever lost to the mortal world. Or perhaps, be shattered into pieces.

…

After entering the castle, in the servant living area on the third floor of the main building, the house steward assigned Zhou Ming a single room of about ten square meters. The environment and layout were quite pleasant, with a comfortable single bed, a small fireplace for winter warmth, a set of oak table and chairs, and a window facing Rose Town, offering a panoramic view of the town below the mountain.

After several days of servant etiquette and skills training, Zhou Ming quickly changed into the specially made short clothes and formal attire for servants (short clothes for daily work, formal attire for visits from distinguished guests). Surprisingly, these servant clothes seemed to transform his appearance and demeanor, making him look quite different from before, as if they were tailor-made for him.

Once officially on duty, Zhou Ming’s daily work was quite relaxed. One part was taking care of young Donny’s daily life and routines, and the other was accompanying him as a reading companion, attending classes and outings together, and ensuring his personal safety.

When it came to taking care of someone’s daily life, almost no one was more skilled than Zhou Ming.

Young Donny had a rather picky taste?

Simple. Whether it was frying, stir-frying, boiling, roasting, eating raw, barbecuing, pickling, or fermenting, no one in this world could match his expertise. He could even provide over eighty different dishes from the same ingredient, ensuring that no meal would be the same for more than three hundred days of the year. There was no need to worry about satisfying even the most discerning palate.

Of course, if Zhou Ming had the spare time, he could certainly delve deeper into the culinary arts. For young Donny, his signature cream cakes, fruit pies, egg tarts, and various flavored biscuits would easily satisfy his taste buds. If that wasn’t enough, he could always resort to the “beggar’s chicken” trick, guaranteed to whet his appetite and open his appetite wide.

There were also the shower facilities for young Donny’s daily baths, the flush toilets for convenience, and the heated kang for winter warmth… These conveniences not only made life easier for young Donny but also for Baron Connor and Lady Madeline. They asked Zhou Ming to install similar setups for them, which quickly became popular throughout the castle.

However, these were just minor episodes during his service to young Donny in the castle. The real gain for Zhou Ming came from the valuable knowledge he acquired while accompanying young Donny in his studies, especially from Scholar Ellen.

Scholar Ellen, a man in his early fifties with graying sideburns, slightly plump, and dressed in a wide-sleeved gray robe, had served as a scholar in the royal court of the capital for several years in his early years, holding a high position and having seen much of the world. Had it not been for being slandered by political rivals and expelled from the capital by the king, he wouldn’t have ended up as a tutor for a baron’s second son.

When reminiscing about his days in the royal court, Scholar Ellen couldn’t help but feel nostalgic and dreamy. In front of young Donny and Zhou Ming, he boasted about the conversations he had with the king, the private drinking sessions with the prince, and the literary discussions he had with the beautiful queen… Of course, what he talked about the most was his romantic encounters with many high-society ladies in his youthful and handsome days…

Zhou Ming didn’t bother to expose how this unattractive Scholar Ellen, who showed no signs of being handsome, managed to attract those beautiful, charming, and graceful high-society ladies. What interested him the most was the structure of the kingdom’s upper echelons of power and how internal disputes were formed and handled.

“Our Wallis Kingdom is merely a marginal small country on this vast land. Besides the king’s domain directly under the royal capital, there are fourteen enfeoffed earldoms around it. Under each earldom, there are about ten viscountcies or baronies, and below the baronies are the fiefs directly enfeoffed to knights. The fief is the smallest unit of enfeoffment, usually consisting of just one village and several thousand acres of land.”

“The Church decides the granting and inheritance rights of all thrones and even imperial thrones in the kingdom. The king decides the granting and inheritance rights of all earldoms within the country. The earl decides the inheritance rights of all viscounts and barons within his fief. The baron only decides the inheritance rights of knights within his fief. As for the granting of knighthood, only a baron, with the consent of the superior earl or a reward of knightly quotas, can increase the number of knightly fiefs within his territory. The same applies to earls and barons; the increase in the number of lower nobility must be permitted or rewarded by the upper nobility.”

“What if there are conflicts and disputes between barons and barons, or earls and earls within the kingdom, how should they be handled?” Zhou Ming asked.

“It is handled by the noble court. Just as the barony court can adjudicate all disputes among the people within the fief, disputes between barons can be adjudicated in the higher earldom court, conflicts between earls can be adjudicated in the kingdom’s noble court, and disputes between kingdoms are adjudicated by the church court. As for internal disputes within the church, let God be the judge.”

“Since there is the existence of the noble court, what about the law? Are there laws in each court?”

“Of course, doesn’t the Granling court have a territorial law? This law has 155 articles, including the taxes and levies that farmers should pay, the commercial taxes that itinerant merchants should pay, and the punishment measures for criminals such as thieves, robbers, fraudsters, murderers, and rapists who damage the property of the people within the territory are all very detailed. Various situations within the territory can be judged according to this law… As for the earl’s court and the kingdom’s noble court, the laws made by scholars and senior judges are even more complicated. There are even arbitration votes on some issues, divided into different factions…”

However.

When there are huge differences in practical interests and the noble court cannot arbitrate and mediate, the use of force may become the last resort to resolve disputes.

Just like the “Elk War” between Baron Connor and Baron Garcia, the reason why they didn’t apply for arbitration in the earl’s court was precisely because they knew they couldn’t reach an agreement, so they used a war to resolve it, right?

“It seems that compared to the meticulous and rigorous legal texts, the most powerful in this world should still be the strongest fist…”

Life in a Simulation - Chapter 26

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Hate that cliffhanger, don’t you?

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