The Earldom of Castel is located in the northern part of the Crescent Kingdom.
It takes about a month to travel from Boulder in the south to Castel in the north by land.
Perhaps a powerful extraordinary person would be faster when traveling alone, but for Castel's huge convoy of thousands of people, one month is already fast.
Of course, in addition to land routes, there are also sea routes.
The western part of the Principality of Bolder is close to the sea. If you go west first, to the western coast of Bolder, then take a boat north, and then pass through the Star-Moon Strait in the northeast, you can also reach Castel in the north.
It might be faster to go by sea.
However, Charlotte did not choose land and sea.
One reason is that the war between the Falling Star Kingdom and the Crescent Moon Kingdom ended not long ago, and the Falling Star Kingdom has always had the upper hand in terms of sea control over the Star-Moon Strait.
Not only that, the Duchy of Buitre, located on the west coast of the Crescent Kingdom, is the sworn enemy of the Duchy of Bold. Even if Charlotte no longer likes the Duke of Bold, she is still a part of the Duchy of Bold when she is out in the world, and is easily targeted by others.
Not to mention that when passing through the Star-Moon Strait, one has to pass through the Roman Principality, an enclave of the Falling Star Kingdom located on the side of the Star-Moon Strait.
To sum up, Charlotte thinks it is better to be cautious.
During the decades-long Star-Moon War, the Territory of Castel has always been one of the important territories coveted by the Falling Star Kingdom!
Secondly, Charlotte also wanted to take this opportunity to get to know the world she lives in better.
Although she has learned a lot of knowledge about the world from books, what she learned from books is still superficial.
Compared to the sea and land tour where you have to spend most of your time at sea, traveling by land can help you appreciate the customs and culture of the Crescent Kingdom.
Going north from Boulder to the Territory of Castel, avoiding the arch-enemy Buvat in the northwest, and taking a detour by land will require passing through two other duchies and two counties.
These four lords are direct vassals of the Crescent Royal Family and have sworn allegiance directly to the King.
Among them, the two most powerful duchies are the Moon Guardian Duchy and the Violet Duchy, one in the south and one in the north, which are respectively the homeland of the Duchy of Bold and the neighbors of the Earldom of Castel.
The full name of the Yuehu Principality is the Moon Guardian Principality. The ruling family is a branch of the Crescent Royal Family. They are loyal supporters of the royal family and one of the few great nobles who support the king in strengthening centralization of power.
The Violet Duchy is located in the north of the kingdom. It is a neighbor of the Roman Duchy, an enclave of the Falling Star Kingdom, and the Earldom of Castel. It is also the main battlefield of the Star-Moon War. Due to years of war, the people there are quite tough.
As for the other two earldoms... they are all vassals of the Crescent Duchy, a direct territory of the Crescent Royal Family.
They are sandwiched between two duchies and have close ties with the royal family. Their lords are all from the royal branch families. A little further to the northeast is Crescent City, the capital of the Crescent Kingdom.
Not to mention the two counties that are far less powerful than Castell, although the relationship between the two duchies in the south and the north that must be passed through and Bolder can not be said to be good, it is far from the level of hostility.
For Charlotte, traveling by land is indeed much safer than traveling by sea.
Charlotte had prepared all this information in advance.
Unlike the highly urbanized city of Boulder, it was only after leaving Boulder and coming to the vast countryside that Charlotte truly saw the true appearance of the feudal kingdom of that era.
The city of Boulder is the capital of the Principality.
Such large cities are rare even in the kingdom. In the vast area of the Crescent Kingdom, there are more castles, manors, churches and villages scattered all over the place.
Every castle represents at least one baron; every manor almost means an extraordinary knight; and every church almost means a priest.
Regardless of whether they have reached a certain level or not, they are at least extraordinary people, their strength far exceeds that of ordinary people, and they also have their own retainers or servants.
Almost all villages were built around manors, churches and castles, and were protected by nobles and priests.
Even those cities tended to develop gradually with aristocratic castles as the center. The places where cities could develop were either located on major transportation routes or had influential local aristocrats, and they usually started out as at least viscounts.
These cities are much smaller than Boulder. Most of them are probably just towns with a population of no more than 20,000 or 30,000. Those with a population of more than 50,000 are considered big cities.
However, their numbers are numerous, scattered across the vast land like stars.
These cities, castles, manors and villages formed the blood network of the entire kingdom's rule.
There are often large tracts of farmland around cities, castles, manors and villages, but if you go a little further out, there is endless wilderness.
The wilderness was not safe, harbouring bandits and robbers who attacked passing caravans.
However, there are very few extraordinary people among these bandits and robber mercenaries, and they threaten more ordinary people.
Apart from them, what really allowed ordinary people to seek shelter from the nobles were the magical beasts roaming in the wilderness.
The origin of Warcraft is unknown, and the more widely accepted view is that Warcraft's power comes from the fallen gods.
The extraordinary power in the world of Miria comes from the gods, and so do the monsters that control the extraordinary power.
They are believed to be monsters born from the corpses of fallen gods. They reproduce from generation to generation and their footprints are spread all over the continent of Miria. They are also a force that cannot be ignored and threatens civilization.
Precisely because of the existence of magical beasts, nobles who control extraordinary powers become the main force in protecting ordinary people and become lords of all sizes.
Compared to bandits and robbers, magical beasts are the creatures that passing caravans fear encountering the most.
Robbers and robbers often just seek money, but once they encounter magical beasts, even the lowest-level ones, caravans without extraordinary powers will face the risk of annihilation.
Charlotte's team encountered a monster not long after leaving Boulder.
In her opinion, it was not very strong, just a low-level magic wolf. Sebastian called it Wind Wolf Beast, a magic beast that could use wind blades and light body techniques.
But the problem is that it is a pack of more than thirty wind wolves.
An entry-level extraordinary person might be able to easily wipe them out, but for an ordinary caravan that cannot afford to hire an entry-level extraordinary person and does not encounter any passing mercenary adventurers, it would be difficult to survive if they encounter them.
Of course, Charlotte didn't let them go.
She led the knights to take action personally, and more than thirty wind wolf beasts were quickly turned into more than thirty pieces of high-quality wolf skins.
According to the merchants in the caravan, this wolf skin can be sold for ten gold coins on the market!
“It’s so expensive?”
Charlotte clicked her tongue.
"Hey, Master, things related to supernatural powers are expensive. The wolf skin of the wind wolf beast is also a good magical material. It is one of the best materials for making wizard robes."
Sebastian Cope said.
Then he said:
"By the way, although Castel's income is quite high, that is based on the premise that we don't cultivate supernatural powers on a large scale. If you want to cultivate supernatural powers on a large scale... the income of the territory will not seem to be that much."
Charlotte thought.
The Earldom of Castel is a vassal of the Duchy of Bolder, and most of the time the pressure from the extraordinary side is borne by the Duchy.
Take the Bold Mage Corps that once followed the Count and Countess Castel for example. Although the Castel family shared most of the salaries, many extraordinary materials were provided by the Duchy.
Perhaps the income of the Duchy of Bolder is not much higher than that of the Earldom of Castel, but thanks to its vast land, the extraordinary materials earned by the Duchy of Bolder are far more than those of the Earldom of Castel.
As for extraordinary materials... they often cannot be measured by money, are priceless and are considered important strategic materials.
Even if you have money you may not be able to buy it, and even if you can buy it you may not be able to buy enough.
It is very likely that Castel and Bold will become estranged from each other in the future. In this case, Charlotte will definitely have to develop her own extraordinary powers.
She was not yet so extravagant as to consume the power of blood to cultivate extraordinary powers. Using money to buy extraordinary materials was far less practical than controlling the origin of extraordinary materials.
Charlotte thought of her own silver mine again.
The silver mine with associated mithril mine is considered to be the most important source of strategic materials for Castel. Mithril is not only valuable, but also a hard currency for trading extraordinary materials.
"It seems that the first thing we have to do when we return to the territory is to investigate the depletion of the mithril mine."
Charlotte thought to herself.
She has not been idle for the past six months. After comparing the bills of the territory, she found that the time when the mithril mine's production decreased and dried up was exactly when Countess Castel sent all the accompanying extraordinary people back to the territory.
This is such a coincidence.
Charlotte always felt that there might be some connection between the two, and the depletion of the mithril mine might not be as simple as she imagined.
The convoy continued to move forward, heading north.
Such a huge team naturally attracts attention.
In the Second Star-Moon War, the Castel family, with its two blazing suns, stole the limelight, especially the Roman Campaign that stopped the Falling Star Kingdom from invading Castel, which almost made them famous in one battle. Most of the nobles in the entire kingdom knew the Castel family emblem, the black eagle.
Although the Castel couple are gone, the Castel family's territory is still there and it is still wealthy. Even in the kingdom, it is not considered a small noble family.
That is why Charlotte was warmly welcomed and entertained by local nobles wherever she went.
From some viscounts and even barons to earls and even marquis, they would send envoys to invite her to dinner or even a social dance when the caravan stopped to rest.
That's what nobles are like.
Unless there is an irreconcilable feud, in most cases the atmosphere after meeting is warm and the attitudes are friendly.
Even if they meet on the battlefield, in many cases they will spare the other party's life, unless the sword is blind, otherwise they will capture the person alive and then demand a ransom.
This can be regarded as the unanimous rule of the Miriah nobles.
It is better to have one more friend than one more enemy. The nobles care a lot about expanding their own circles, especially the aristocratic circle. A great noble like Castel, who has a long history and is quite wealthy, is naturally the object of friendship for many nobles.
Not to mention that Castel has a lot of businesses in the heart of the kingdom.
Although more and more nobles have started to engage in business in recent years, the vast majority of them still rely on estates and taxes to make a living. There are not many nobles like Castel who have done a successful business and have dealings with many families.
Therefore, no matter they were trying to establish friendships or discuss business, the nobles along the way were extremely enthusiastic about the Castel family's convoy. Charlotte, who already had a "travel mentality", did not refuse, and there were banquets almost every day.
The only thing that made her feel uncomfortable was that there were too many nobles who wanted to invite her to dance at the banquet, and the eyes of those young nobles were too passionate when they looked at her.
Even after traveling through time for a year, Charlotte still couldn't get used to this sight.
But she is no longer the same person she was before.
Among the vampires' innate magic, whether it is the memory control of the spiritual path, mental shock or the words of charm, they can all teach those excessive guys a lesson.
Charlotte only needs to give a glance, and the guy who was looking at her with a wanton look just now will immediately fall at her feet.
It feels really good to use mental magic to control others, but Sebastian couldn't stand it anymore and warned him carefully in a low voice:
"Master, you have a special status. When you are out in public, we should keep a low profile."
"Don't worry, I know my limits."
Charlotte replied.
The people we met along the way were all small and medium-sized nobles, and their strength was no more than the second level of Silver Moon.
As long as you pay attention, it is relatively safe.
In this way, Charlotte's tourist-style journey was full of stops and starts.
And the result is... the convoy moves even slower.
It was a month's journey, but almost half a month had passed and we hadn't left Yuehu Principality yet.
But Charlotte felt pretty good.
I was warmly received wherever I went. While making friends, I also broadened my horizons and learned a lot of information about the nobles of the Crescent Kingdom.
What's more, she also learned a lot of information about the vampires from these nobles, or more precisely, information about the Blood Demon Cult.
The Blood Demon Cult is rampant in the Crescent Kingdom. Although the power of Bolder has been eradicated, their presence can still be seen in other places.
As a passionate person who loves peace and justice, Charlotte will naturally not let these rampant cultists go.
Those uncertain news would be fine, but if there was accurate local intelligence, Charlotte would act without hesitation to help the local nobles deal with these active cultists.
Unexpectedly, I got two more fragments of the holy book. I can only say that the Blood Demon Cult is really a hoarding hamster. They love to collect cursed book pages and nothing else.
Charlotte really loves these cultists.
The response was obvious. After Charlotte eliminated several Blood Demon Cult strongholds along the way, her name spread through passing caravans and wandering bards.
Especially after the vision at her coming-of-age ceremony somehow spread, things became more and more outrageous.
What about the Lord of Gods, the natural saint, the blood demon purifier and so on... Charlotte scratched her head and even felt a little guilty.
Being so high-profile would certainly make it easier to hide her vampire identity, but if it continued like this, would it really attract the attention of the top brass of the Holy Royal Court one day
Charlotte couldn't help but grumble.
Half a month after setting off, Charlotte finally saw a second big city that was as big as Boulder City, or more accurately, much more prosperous than Boulder City.
Anluo City, the capital of the principality located in the north of Yuehu Principality, is a large city with a population exceeding 500,000.
Duke Yuehu, who had received the news long ago, sent an envoy before the convoy entered the city to invite Charlotte to attend a dinner at the Duke's Mansion.
At the same time, Charlotte also learned another piece of news from other caravans entering and leaving Anluo City.
Tonight, there is another distinguished guest in the Duke's Mansion in Anluo City.
Philippe de Valva, the third prince of the Crescent Kingdom, traveled south with his wife Eleanor to the Duchy of Bold.